Igbo Exceptionalism, Biafra Albatross & 2023 -By Charles Ogbu

There is one horrible attitude amongst my people – Ndigbo – which I find criminally annoying. And this attitude is so widespread even amongst the most educated of us. Not even elite Igbo group and some Think Tank is spared of this.

I’m talking about this mentality of EXTERNALIZING all our problems as coming from the outside or being sponsored by non Igbos. So many of us seem to believe that we are incapable of doing horrible things and that any Igbo man who engages in deplorable act like terrorism or other serious crime like beh€ading or fratricide or other acts that generally hurt Ndigbo and AlaIgbo, must somehow have been influenced or sponsored by outside enemies of Ndigbo. THIS IS NOT TRUE.

Igbos, like every other people, have the good, the bad and the ugly. And every human, Igbo or not, is capable of the worst kind of evil IF THE OPPORTUNITY AND MOTIVATION PRESENT THEMSELVES and they feel they can get away with it. In a society like ours where the value system is broken and the government is nearly non-existent in the real sense of the word with a CULTURE OF IMPUNITY reigning supreme, even the best amongst us are capable of horrible acts. So we should stop acting as if our people are not capable of k!lling their fellow Igbos including a pregnant woman, unless they are sponsored by non Igbos or other outside interest.

In case we’ve forgotten, in 2006, when there was neither a Buhari presidency nor an APC political party, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, the then leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State Of Biafra (MASSOB), used his MASSOB militia to violently disrupt the 2006 census in the Southeast. Today, the Southeast is regarded as the zone with the smallest population and seeing as almost everything in Nigeria has population size as the major determinant of its sharing formula, we have continued to suffer the consequences of that action. Meanwhile, Uwazurike is currently enjoying a peaceful life in Imo with numerous luxurious houses and exotic cars he acquired with the blood of Igbo youths.

A little DEEP INTROSPECTION with a dose of humility is what we need as a people, not denial of what is staring us in the face. Looking ourselves in the mirror and admitting we may be co-authors of our misfortune and taking steps to do right by us, is actually a sign of strength, not weakness.

The uncomfortable truth is, “BIAFRA” has become our albatross and until we stop being UNNECESSARILY emotional and start being rational whenever that word is mentioned, AlaIgbo will continue to be at the merciless mercy of darrk hearted Igbo Pharoahs masquerading as Igbo Moses who rise at every interval to exploit our emotions with intent to do us harm while lining their pocket with coins and gold. The Finland terr0rist, Simon Ekpa Njoku will eventually be contained by UmuIgbo but make no mistake, another rogue probably worse than him will rise. To solve this problem once and for all, Igbos need to fill the vacuum being exploited by these episodic ‘Ndi Oya Akpa Eli Ozu’ and doing this starts by our people understanding that over 90% of our problems are political and require political solution, not low budget militancy targeted at your own people. Our challenges will be reasonably addressed when we start paying more attention to politics starting from our local levels. If we fill up our Igbo govt houses and national and state assembly plus the local govt elective positions with credible men and women who will USE THE RESOURCES OF NDIGBO TO DEVELOP ALAIGBO and commit to her progress in words and in action, believe me, even the most powerful outside adversary will find it almost impossible to hurt us. The best of us should stop focusing on their personal businesses while allowing integrity-challenged retired 419ners, drug peddlers, rogues and ndi ofu ogoli to control our political life as governors, senators, house of Reps and Assembly members, local govt chairmen and councilors.

We must see the coming election as an EXISTENTIAL ISSUE and all those who seek to vi0lently dissuade us from participating in it must be seen as our worst enemies and treated as such.