New Telegraph

The future of the Igbo is in God’s hands

I have watched people who said ‘over their dead body’ will an Igbo rule Nigeria by strange coincidence suddenly crossover to the spirit world. If only they realised that ‘our future is in God’s hands’. Only His will, not the will of men will be done.

 

‘Uche Chukwu ga eme’. What I am going to say here is important for the Igbo and I want you to pay attention to every line and every sentence made in this essay for there’s a battle we see and one we don’t and we must face both. There are millions of us who have given up on Nigeria, who justifiably believe this contraption is irredeemable. Yes, we live in an unprecedented time. Nigeria is like a nation under curse and spell of the devil.

 

We may have wept and cried for all the injustice meted on us by our leaders, still yet there is hope for Nigeria, and that hope will come from the East to heal the country.

 

As a people, if we expect to be ignorant and free, then we expect what never was, and never will be. It is our duty to be vigilant and willing to confront in¬justice whenever and wherever we found them. ‘Nothing good comes out of Egypt they say.

 

Like many of you I also do not see anything good coming from our current corrupt political class. I have no faith in leaders that are not interested in nation building, but there is hope because these Egyptians we see now, will be gone by the morning of one new day. Soon after 2015, I had warned on this page that we must be prepared for the best and the worse because our new gate keepers have no interest in developing a common agenda for the common good of all rather it is poised to promote a systematic exclu¬sion of a section of the country and comfortable settlement of their own at the expense of others. At the receiving end are the Igbo.

 

Never before, in the history of Nigeria have we suf¬fered political exclusion than we are now pass¬ing through thus confirming the worst fears of our people who refused to buy into deception of ‘I am for everybody, I am for nobody’. Of course this government is for everybody, but for the Igbo. If previous governments had whipped us with horse whip, this government is whipping us with blades and scorpions.

 

If they can stop the rain from falling on our land, they will stop it, if they can stop the sun rising from the East, they will stop it. They don’t care how much they have destroyed our lives and businesses. Our cries make them gloat, but they are not God. I have heard the repeated argument that we are being flogged with scorpions and blades for massively voting PDP in the last two elections.

 

Voting Jonathan or Atiku wasn’t a mistake. Ndi Igbo do not owe Buhari our votes just like the Kanuri’s never owed former Presi¬dent Jonathan their votes. Jonathan enjoyed our support because he ran an allinclusive government of which all the ethnic nationalities were fairly accommodated. President Buhari can do the same by accommodating Nigerians of all diversity. It’s not too late for him to be a loving father to all Nigerians.

 

As President, he owes every section of the country fairness, equity and social justice irrespective of how they voted or didn’t vote, hence seek-ing to punish the Igbo on account of our voting preference is a violation of his oath of office. Recall that from 1966 to 1970 we fought a bitter civil war to have an independent state of Biafra and Nigeria wasted millions of lives from both sides to keep Nigeria one. The lessons of the war make it imperative for Nigeria to ensure that Igbo are accepted, accommodated and made part of the political process and not excluded. Otherwise let them go. Keeping the Igbo down is holding Nigeria down and shutting the country out of her destiny and prosperity.

 

My task for the Igbo is that we must seize the moment and redefine our destiny within the context of one Nigeria.

 

Nobody will love us more than we love ourselves. We must preserve our cherished values, stick together as one and work together with a single determination to survive and succeed no matter the burden. We must continue to not just improve ourselves but take personal actions to pursue next generation education for our children. We must maintain our leadership in sports, scholarship, craftsmanship, commerce, industry, innovations and creativity.

 

We can build a paradise out of Nigeria. We can become Nigeria’s economic giant. We can export our talents out of the reach of our traducers. We can be the best in good governance and accountable leadership. Rather than fight to pull each other down, we must be our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper. As endangered people we must always see any injury to one as an injury to all ‘Onye Aghala Nwanneya’. We must show strength in solidar¬ity ‘Igwe Bu Ike’. We must ensure our political leaders at the state and local government’s levels are accountable. If we need to knock sense into them, we should.

 

We must be willing to learn from others on what works and what doesn’t work. While we want Nigeria to understand us, we must strive to understand Nigeria too. In 1999, the Yoruba nation rejected former President Obasanjo, they didn’t vote for him, but when they found him the only hope of retaining power in 2003, they rallied round him and voted with their thumbs and toes.

 

In 2003, 2007 and 2011, the Hausa Fulani rejected President Buhari but in 2015 when they realized he was their best possible shot at the presidency, they sacrificed individual ambitions, mobilized resources and opinion to elect him president. Forget the fact that he turned out a colossal failure, the North did what they had to

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