I had a discussion with someone yesterday. And along the line, we talked about the tensed political atmosphere which has pitched Ndigbo against the Yoruba. We also talked about this chant of “they hate us, everyone hates us.”
We acknowledged the impact of the civil war on us of course.
But then, she rightly observed that such rhetorics and other inflammatory rhetorics died down as at 80s and 90s and were never noticed until recently. She wondered what suddenly happened that brought up such rhetorics.
I gave her a ready answer- Nnamdi Kanu!
He was the one that came with hate messages. He was the one that amplified the “marginalization” against Ndigbo. He was the one that insisted that the whole Nigeria hates us. He was the one that showed enough cause why we should never forgive Britain and Lord Lugard for lumping us together in One Nigeria.
He was the one who showed the cause why we should never forgive Nnamdi Azikiwe for ever mooting One Nigeria.
He was the one that showed cause why we must hate and curse the Yoruba and the Fulani.
Ralph Uwazuruike was the person who started agitation first in 1999. But there is a world of difference between what Uwazuruike did and what Nnamdi did. Uwazuruike courted people from all tribes, solicited their support, and never saw them as our enemies or as responsible for our “misfortunes”.
Yes, like Nnamdi Kanu, Uwazuruike turned the South East into a battle ground, and into a ki*lling field. His MOSSOB army were constantly in battle with the state security forces, and they equally wasted Igbos who didn’t believe in their cause. Many of Uwazuruike boys across Igboland were ki*lled by security forces, and they too ki*lled many Nigerian security forces.
But Uwazuruike, unlike Nnamdi Kanu, never for once made Ndigbo or his boys to see the Hausa man or the Yoruba man as their enemy. The enemy they had was the federal government who refused to let them have their own “dream nation” .
Uwazuruike never told Ndigbo that they are the wisest tribe in Nigeria, nor told us that while we are superhumans, the rest of other tribes in Nigeria are subhumans.
Nnamdi Kanu it was who came with all these, and since then, neither we nor our land has remained the same.
Most of the inflammatory exchanges we have today are orchestrated from abroad by Igbo Diasporeans, whose real intention is to cause major crises that can lead to attacks on Ndigbo so they can collate pictures and videos of victims and present same to “international community” as a proof that the rest of Nigeria do not want Ndigbo, just to make a case for self rule.
Sadly, the gullible ones play into their hands thinking they are fighting for them.
Written By Charles Kaye Ikoye
Published By Sociallogia Team
Social Realities 