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Thursday, February 24, 2011

If Jonathan were Igbo

By ORI MARTINS - Nigeria

For more than four decades, the Nigerian oligarchy and its subjects have been strutting on, as if the Igbo nation does not exist. Of course, we do not need the powers of a clairvoyant to let us know that Ndigbo are a conquered people. This is not the issue at hand. What I am talking about here presents a pungent and poignant question which borders on fair play, equity, justice and political correctness or lack of it in the Nigerian context.

For good or bad measure, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), sensationally and predictably elected President Goodluck Jonathan as its candidate for the April 2011 presidential election. The PDP would have based its choice of Jonathan rather than former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on two cardinal points namely: There is a military saying that it is not good to drag a commander, a general for that matter, to a battlefront and leave him bare, without back up troops.

This simply means that it would not have been in the best interest of the party and indeed Nigeria, if PDP had abandoned President Jonathan in the middle of the road and left him to his own fate in the primaries which brought him as the presidential candidate. In other words, Jonathan did not cause his predecessor’s death, thus the anger and frustration of his departure cannot be visited on him. Simply put, PDP said it is not good for the party to have disgraced a seating president out of office because of an infinitesimal nomenclature called zoning.

Secondly, since democracy encourages individual aspiration and ambition, and whereupon Jonathan indicated his interest to contest the 2011 presidential election, political loyalty demands that all party faithful should rally round the President or be accused of anti- party activity.

To make my stand clear, I was one of those who had expected President Jonathan to have completed Musa Yar’ adua’s tenure and leave. But Jonathan had other ideas. Supported by almost all the intimidating arrowheads and forces in PDP, he declared his interest to continue in office against the party’s zoning principle which was enshrined in its constitution . This is where I have questions for Nigeria, for I am convinced that the story would have been otherwise if Jonathan had been Igbo.

If he were Igbo, the Nigerian state would have rallied against him, reminding him that he was an ungrateful fellow. He would have been labeled an usurper, a greedy man who wants to destabilize Nigeria because of his personal interests. Nigeria is always at peace whenever the Igbo is disillusioned. This is an incontrovertible fact, if you consider the following factors.

After the January 15, 1966 coup, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi emerged as the Head of State and Commander - in- Chief of the Armed Forces. Ironsi could only last for six months as he was maliciously overthrown in a bloody coup that also consumed about 162 army officers of Igbo stock. The plot to oust Ironsi was gradual but steady. To make his ouster very easy, all sorts of lies were leveled against him, even from those who knew that he was too patriotic to carry out a dastardly act like a coup.

Ironsi was a martyr who died for sins he never committed just because he was Igbo. On the day of the January 15, 1966 coup, all accounts from the principal actors indicate that he had no hand in the mutiny that ended the First Republic abruptly. Rather, he did his best to foil the coup and that accounted for why the coup was largely inconclusive. Instead of commending him, the army turned against Ironsi, sabotaged, abducted and eventually assassinated him in a most wicked way. Sadly, the unitary system of government which Ironsi adopted to govern via the much vilified Decree 34 was the same means successive military rulers in Nigeria adopted in another name.

Yet Ironsi died for it and is almost forgotten. Since 1966 till date, Nigeria has seen so many coups but none was as cruel as that which swept Ironsi under. Look at this account from Chuks Iloegbunam’s IRONSIDE ‘ The Supreme Commander General Ironsi, asked Major Danjuma, ‘ ‘ what do you want’’. Major Danjuma replied: ‘You are under arrest. You organized the killing of our brother officers in January and you have nothing to bring the so-called dissident elements to justice because you were part and parcel of the whole thing’. You see, Igbo is always unwanted as you can glean from this account.

Although, Ironsi was the first and so far the only head of government with executive power the Igbo has produced, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe ( Zik) was a ceremonial president and he got the same treatment that was meted out on Ironsi in another fashion. In 1951, Zik, in his bid to prove his true nationalism and to confirm he was a shrewd politician, worked hard with his NCNC to win most of the seats in the Western House of Assembly. It was an unprecedented feat and a victory never expected. But before anybody could say Jack Robinson, the Western NCNC members who were elected to the House cross carpeted and declared for AG, just to deny Zik victory. Zik was furious and felt betrayed.

We all know that between 1979 and 1983, Zik contested the presidency on the platform of the now defunct NPP. That he lost the election is not our concern here. Our interest is that the then South –South states of Rivers (which had Bayelsa State where Jonathan comes from) and Cross River (today’s Akwa Ibom State was a part of Cross River then) rejected Zik and whatever he represented. Don’t forget that both Melford Okilo of Rivers and Clement Isong of Cross River led their people to Shagari’s NPN rather than Zik’s NPP. You can see the frustration of the Igbo.

In the wake of the 1966 disturbances, it is on record that three principal Igbo army officers played heroic roles to quench the January 15 coup and they succeeded 80 per cent. They were, Ironsi, Alexander Madiebo and Odumegwu Ojukwu. Ironsi foiled the coup in Lagos; Madiebo stopped it in Kaduna while Ojukwu put it off in Kano. Yet the coup was regarded as Igbo oriented, no matter. Six months later, in July 1966, the rampaging Northern forces attempted to take over the government by force. And they got their desire.

They succeeded in the North, Lagos and West, but Ojukwu not only opposed it but he also stopped it in the East. In the process, Ironsi had fallen and became a victim alongside his host, Col, Adekunle Fajuyi. As a disciplined and professional soldier, Ojukwu demanded that due process should be followed and insisted that the army should not name any Head of State until the whereabouts of the Supreme Commander had been ascertained, maintaining that Yakubu Gowon was the most qualified to rule even if Ironsi was missing. For his insistence on due process, Ojukwu was labeled ‘ a rebel, warlord and a troublemaker’. Overnight all the coup plotters became national heroes that ended up ruling the country at different occasions, allocating oil blocs to themselves while Ojukwu was demonized, castigated and battled to stand still.

One of the brightest brains the Igbo nation has produced was the late Dr M.I. Opkara, the former Premier of what used to be Eastern Nigeria, present day South-East and the former Eastern minorities.

The lies the then Eastern minorities now South -South have always told against Okpara was that he built Igbo land without bringing any development to their own region. The insinuation here is that Okpara never minded the present day South- south in the discharge of his duties. But it is not true. It is all lies. It is an extension of the discrimination against Igbo elite. The truth is that Opkara was quite fair in his duty post as the Premier. According to Chris Offodile, Okpara’s biographer, the late Premier was one of the most detribalized administrators Nigeria has ever produced given how he touched all spheres of the former Eastern Region during his reign . Offodile wrote: ‘ Okpara was responsible for setting up many farm estates such as the COLARO Estate and the QUA FALLS Estate both in the former Cross River State.

The Trans Amadi Layout was one of the biggest projects that Okpara built in Port Harcourt at the cost of three million pounds. He also set up the Michelin Factory and the Glass Factory also in Port Harcourt as well as the five million pound cement factory located in Calabar. In regard to hotel industry, his government built the Hotels Presidential in Port Harcourt (and Enugu). Okpara also built the Obudu Cattle Ranch and Hotel Complex in Cross River State. He had started the Ahoda\ Mbiama Road (in present day Rivers and Bayelsa states) project before the civil war broke out. He worked closely with Chief I.U. Apkabio (from present day Akwa Ibom) and Dr S.E. Imoke (from present day Cross River) both today have their sons as governors of their respective states.’ Despite these well documented feats, Okpara is not even remembered but maligned and dismissed as a failure and tribalist because he is of Igbo extraction.

What of Dr Alex Ekwueme? He was victim of grand conspiracy. In the Second Republic, Ekwueme was the deputy to President Shehu Shagari. This was in 1979, and both men ran the government of the day in the first tenure on the platform of NPN. When NPN was returned to power in 1983, expectation was rife that at the expiration of their tenure in 1987, the NPN would then give the presidential ticket to Ekwueme. This was a perfect plan and would have worked wonders for Nigeria, but it was not to be. Ekwueme must not rule. To stop this from happening, the military struck and overthrew the Shagari administration with Ekwueme as the heaviest casualty. Really, the 1983 coup was meant to stop Ekwueme from ruling Nigeria because he is from the South-East. Again in 1998\99, despite leading the G34 that fought dictator Gen Sani Abacha to submission, and later transformed into PDP, Ekwueme was dragged to Jos in the PDP convention and disgraced as he lost to Olusegun Obasanjo in the primaries for the presidential elections. Of course, he lost again in 2003 in Abuja.

The case of Ebutu Ukiwe was even more pathetic. A published report put it this way: ‘ Commodore Okoh Ebitu Ukiwe became the first Chief of General Staff in General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime. It was a tragic mistake. In months, Ukiwe was sacked and retired. But he had done no violent action. He had not plundered the treasury. His hands did not drip of human blood. A reporter had asked about Nigeria’s membership of the Organisation of Islamic countries (OIC) which was contrived by Babangida, and Ukiwe replied that the matter had never come up in the deliberations of the Armed Force Ruling Council(AFRC). And for this he was fired!’

What of the misfortune that befell Rear Admiral Alison Amechina Madueke ? ‘He was the first Chief of Naval Staff in Gen Sani Abacha’s regime and the first Igbo to be a service chief since Ironsi in 1965. Another terrible mistake had been made. In months, Madueke was sacked and retired. His offence was that he had advocated during Provisional Ruling Council (PRC) meeting that MKO Abiola, Yoruba, should be released from detention and engaged in dialogue.’

Unarguably, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the immediate past Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, brought so many gainful changes to the apex bank and he got both national and international awards to that effect. Almost all the Nigerian newspapers celebrated him and gave him awards upon awards. But today, he is out of favour with nearly all the same media that celebrated him to the high heavens. The answer is very simple: Soludo is Igbo. He is now the most vilified public servant in Nigeria and that is what we are complaining about.

Remember also that the Savannah Bank, owned by former governor, Jim Nwobodo was closed down and its license revoked when it was glaring that the bank was healthy for operations. In the same vein, Orji Uzor Kalu’s Slok Air was axed and booted out of operations for no just cause, just as Sir Victor Ikwuemesi’s Sosoliso Airlines was closed down and ordered out of the skies. Ditto Mr C.M. Ibeto’s Cement Group which was embargoed out of production and circulation. We can go on and on.

With the above examples, it is clear that Jonathan would not have got the PDP ticket, given the same circumstances that played itself out in recent memory, if he were Igbo. Do not tell me that we are the cause because it is a matter for another day.

Martins is a staff of The Sun Publishing Limited 08060205494

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

SEE, NO NEED TO ASK FOR GOD BLESSINGS FOR GOD HAS BLESSED YOU FOR VOMITING WHAT IS BAD AND CREATING THE TRUTH AND FACT FOR ALL WORLD TO STAND ON. OH, MY GOOD BROTHER MY THANKS IS NOT ENOUGH.

FROM BONIFACE EMMANUEL NNALUE.
+22998631733

THE IGBO RANT

I am an Igbo, I was born an Igbo, I live the life of an Igbo, I come from Igbo, I speak Igbo, I like to be Igbo, I like to dress in Igbo, I eat Igbo food, my heritage, culture and tradition is Igbo, my parents are Igbo.

Am sorry I cannot help it if you hate my lineage. Am sorry I cannot help it if you detest Igbo, am sorry I cannot help it if you hate me because am Igbo. Igbo is who I am, my name is Igbo and I must die an Igbo.

You see Igbo as a threat, why? You call Igbo rapist, criminals, ritualist, prostitutes, kidnappers. You attribute all negative vices to represent Igbo? Why do you do that? You do because you feel threatened that Igbo might outrun the rest of the tribes. Why do you hate Igbo and despise us? You do that because we are creative, enlightened, hardworking, industrious, genius, intelligent, smart, rich, beautiful and amazing. But its difficult for you to admit it because you feel jealous of my race.

Igbo do not own politics, Igbo do not control the economy neither do we control the natural resources and the common wealth of the nation. You do, we don't and yet, despite the fact that you own everything, we still remain one indispensable race that has outshined the other race in all ramifications.

You fear us because you want to exterminate and annihilate our race, you deny us many things and yet we are stronger, richer and mightier. You fear us because we are everywhere. You fear us because no matter how rural a place might be, when Igbo steps in, they turn it into a Paradise. We have our own resources, which lies in resourcefulness, we do not bother you and your control over the polity, but yet when we cough you and the other race begin to shiver.

Am proud being an Igbo, am proud of my heritage and culture. Igbo means high class, Igbo means independence, Igbo means hard work and strength, Igbo means riches, Igbo means resourcefulness, Igbo means self belonging, Igbo means self esteem, Igbo means pride, Igbo means swag.

Udo diri unu umunnem.
# IgboAmaka
# AnyiBuNdiMmeri

Michael Ezeaka
------------------------------

This is beautiful poetry ...

In response to Alaba Ajibola, the Babcock Lecturer Hate Speech against Igbos.

BIBLICAL TRADITIONS OF NDI IGBO BEFORE THE MISSIONARIES CAME TO AFRICA* IGBO 101.

1. NSÓ NWANYĮ
In Igboland women live apart from their husbands and neither cook for them nor enter their husband's quarters when they are in their period. They are seen as unclean. Even up till today such practice is still applicable in some parts of Igboland especially by the traditionalists. Before a woman can enter the palace of Obi of Onitsha, she will be asked if she is in her period, if yes, she will be asked to stay out.

Leviticus 15: 19-20
When a woman has her monthly period, she remains unclean, anyone who touches her or anything she has sat on becomes unclean.

2. ANA OBI
An Igbo man's ancestral heritage, called “Ana Obi” is not sellable, elders will not permit this. If this is somehow done due to the influence of the West the person is considered a fool and is ostracized by the community.

1 Kings 21:3
I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors, and the Lord forbid that I should sell it, said Naboth.

3. IKUCHI NWANYĮ
Igbos have practiced the taking of a late brother's wife into marriage after she had been widowed until the white men came. Now it is rarely done but except in very rural villages.

Deuteronomy 25:5
A widow of a dead man is not to be married outside the family; it is the duty of the dead man's brother to marry her.

4. ĮGBA ODIBO
In Igboland, there is a unique form of apprenticeship in which either a male family member or a community member will spend six (6) years (usually in their teens to their adulthood) working for another family. And on the seventh year, the head of the host household, who is usually the older man who brought the apprentice into his household, will establish (Igbo: idu uno) the apprentice
by either setting up a business for him or giving money or tools by which to make a living.

Exodus 21:2
If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve you for six years. In the seventh year he is to be set free without having to pay you anything.

5. IRI JI OFŲŲ
In Igboland , the yam is very important as it is their staple crop. There are celebrations such as the New yam festival (Igbo: Iri Ji) which are held for the harvesting of the yam. New Yam festival (Igbo: Iri ji) is celebrated annually to secure a good harvest of the staple crop. In the olden days it is an abomination for one to eat a new harvest before the festival. It's a tradition that you give the gods of the land first as a thanksgiving.

Deuteronomy 16:9
Count 7 weeks from the time that you begin to harvest the crops, and celebrate the harvest festival to honor the lord your God, by bringing him a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing he has given you. Celebrate in the Lord's presence together with your children, servants, foreigners. Be sure that you obey my command, said the Lord.

6. IBE UGWU
In Igboland it's a tradition that the male children are circumcised on the 8th day. This tradition is still practiced till date.

Leviticus 12:3
On the eighth day, the child shall be circumcised.

7. ÓMŲGWÓ
In Igboland, there is a practice known as "ile omugwo ". After a woman has given birth to a child, a very close and experienced relative of hers, in most cases her mother is required by tradition to come spend time with her and her husband. During which she is to do all the work of the wife, while the new mom's only assignment to the baby will be to breastfeed. This goes on for a month or more. In the Igbo old tradition, at this time, the new mom lives apart from her husband, would not cook or enter his quarters.

Leviticus 12:1-4
For seven days after a woman gives birth, she is ritually unclean as she is during her monthly period. It will be 33 days until she is ritually clean from the loss of blood; she is not to touch anything that is holy.

THE IGBO TRIBE AND ITS FEAR OF EXTINCTION

The Igbo tribe is in a serious problem and danger of extinction for the following reasons:

50% of Igbos are born outside Igbo land. Meaning that those children are not likely to live and work in Igbo land and cannot speak Igbo language but foreign language (Yoruba, Hausa, French, English).

40% of Igbos girls between the age of 25 & 45 are single with no hope of marriage because 35% of Igbo boys live overseas and they have all married white ladies.

75% of Igbo youths leave Igbo land every year in search of opportunities in Yoruba, Hausa land or overseas.

85 % of Igbos have family houses and own investments outside Igbo land. They strongly believe in one Nigeria but failed to know that NO Yoruba or Hausa man has a family house or investment in Igbo land.

Igbos are the only people who believe that living outside their land is an achievement.

Igbos are the only tribe that celebrate their tradition outside their land e.g. Eze Ndi Igbo, Igbo Village in America and this is because they have family homes in foreign lands.

Igbos have failed to know that the children you have outside Igbo land especially overseas will never think of living in Igbo land. So what happens to the properties you are building for them when you are gone?

Igbos are the only tribe who see their land as a place to visit or a tourist site than a place to work and live.

Igbos are the only tribe who instead of promoting and appreciating their culture through movies and documentaries they have sought to ridicule it by portraying rituals, killings, wickedness, love for money and other social vices which were not originally inherent in our culture thereby cursing more harm than actually promoting their culture.

Igbos are the only people who without hesitation believe their history and description when it is told or written by an enemy or a foreigner. E.g. that you do not love yourselves or that you love money.

Igbos are the ONLY largest tribe on earth who fought for their independence and failed to achieve their freedom after 40 years.

Igbos are the only tribe who fails to honour their brave heroes and heroines especially the innocent children starved to death during the Biafran war.

Igbos are the only tribe who embraced their enemy after a bloody civil war and subsequently become slaves.

Igbos do not find it necessary to teach their own version of history to their children.

Igbos fight for marginalisation in Nigeria but has no collective strength or teeth to bite.

Igbos how long are you going to fight for your relevance in Nigeria?

How long are you going to fight for a functional airport, rail networks and other structural establishments that underpin sustainable development?

How long are you prepared to wait for your enemy to guide you to your destiny?

Oh Igbos!
Where are your leaders?

Unfortunately, none of them live and work in Igbo land. If you wish to save the future of your children, your identity, your generation and your race then you need freedom and that freedom is Biafra.

Ukpana Okpoko gburu bu nti chiri ya!

By Chime Eze
#COPIED

The Igbo: We die for causes, not for personalities

Written by Emeka Maduewesi

~on fb. 28th September, 2016.


The Igbo will never die for anyone. We will not even riot for anyone. But the Igbo will die for any cause they believe in because the Igbo have a true sense of justice and a determination to obtain it.


The Igbo will not riot because one of their own lost an election. Operation Wetie was the Western response to a massively rigged 1965 election. The Yoruba doused fellow Yorubas in petrol and burnt them alife. Properties were burnt with occupants. The Igbo will never do this.


In 1983, the Yoruba went on a rampage again over the massive rigging by NPN. Lifes were lost and properties destroyed. The riots were over personalities.


Contrast that with Anambra State where Chief Emeka Ojukwu was rigged out by his own NPN, who also rigged out Chief Jim Nwobodo. The Igbo did not protest because the goat's head is still in the goat's bag.


In the North, ba muso was the battle cry when Sultan Dasuki was imposed on the Sokoto Caliphate. The riot and protest lasted for days and crippled economic activities.


The Igbo will riot over issues and causes. The Aba Women Riot was over Tax. The Enugu coal mine riot was about conditions of service. The Ekumeku Uprising was over British colonialization.


Those of "Ekumeku" ancestry - Umu Eze Chima and Umu Nri - were at the forefront of the struggles for Nigerian independence, with people like Dr. A A Nwafor Orizu and Chief Osita Agwuna serving prison terms. Any struggles the parents could not conclude is continued by the children by other means.


The Biafran war was a response to the genocide. The war in fact was brought upon us. The battlefield was Eastern Region. The war ended in 1970 but the issues and causes were not resolved. That is where we are today.


The Igbo will also jointly rise to fight evil in their midst. They did it in Onitsha in the 1980's, Owerri in the 90's, and with Bakkassi in the 2000.


The Igbo will not die for any man. But the Igbo will stand by any man who symbolizes their cause and their pursuit of justice. Even if the man dies, the struggle continues, and like the Ekumeku warriors, the children will pick up the baton from their parents.


This is the Igbo I know, the Igbo I am, and the Igbo we are. This is my story. Feel free to tell yours.

RT. HON. DR. NNAMDI AZIKIWE TO DR. CHUBA OKADIGBO (1981)

"My boy, may you live to your full potential, ascend to a dizzy height as is possible for anyone of your political description in your era to rise. May you be acknowledged world-wide as you rise as an eagle atop trees, float among the clouds, preside over the affairs of fellow men.... as leaders of all countries pour into Nigeria to breathe into her ear.

But then, Chuba, if it is not the tradition of our people that elders are roundly insulted by young men of the world, as you have unjustly done to me, may your reign come to an abrupt and shattering close. As you look ahead, Chuba, as you see the horizon, dedicating a great marble palace that is the envy of the world, toasted by the most powerful men in the land, may the great big hand snatch it away from you. Just as you look forward to hosting the world’s most powerful leader and shaking his hands, as you begin to smell the recognition and leadership of the Igbo people, may the crown fall off your head and your political head fall off your shoulders.

None of my words will come to pass, Chuba, until you have risen to the very height of your power and glory and health, but then you will be hounded and humiliated and disgraced out of office, your credibility and your name in tatters forever...”
THE REST IS HISTORY AS EVERY WORD OF THE CURSE ON CHUBA CAME TO PASS.

LET'S BE AS PASSIONATE AS WE WANT TO AND BE MODERATE IN OUR CONTRIBUTIONS IN PUBLIC DISCUSSION TO ISSUES AS WORDS OF OUR ELDERS ARE WORDS OF WISDOM

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