Ala Igbo (Igbo Land) and thinking outside the Box

Image: President Franklin D. Roosevelt

“President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a big supporter of toll superhighways, which he saw as a way to create jobs for the unemployed during the Depression. During World War II, he saw the concept as vital to having projects on the shelf ready for construction by returning veterans in the post-war period. Less well know is his pet idea: to build the superhighways on excess right-of-way, well beyond what was needed for highway operations and expansion, so the extra land could be sold or rented to generate revenue to help pay for construction and upkeep. This article describes the President’s interest and what happened to it.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Excess Condemnation, by Richard F. Weingroff

As the oppressive foot around the neck of Igbo continue to intensify especially with the enthronement of an unrepentant Islamic Jihadist, the war criminal Buhari, as the president of the ‘British Birthed Abomination’ and failed state Nigeria; as the deliberate abominable policies of the hate filled British government and the Nigerian born-to-rule task masters put in place to strangulate and force the Igbo to capitulation and submission to Islam, continue at an unprecedented rate in order to produce their intended results in Igbo land, unemployment of over 50%; grinding poverty, young girls breeding children for sell to maintain their families, parents selling their children to prevent their slow death from hunger; non-existent infrastructure leading to hospitals as places of death; total breakdown and nonexistent highway system; total unavailability of electricity leading to the thinning out of the industrial base, and prostitution, armed robbery and 419 as the only industries of note, that or undertake the hazardous long walk to Europe; is now the order of the day!

Things have never been this bad in Igbo land. The Igbo has a choice, either die in silence (an abominably selfish treacherous strategy slavishly espoused by the Igbo intelligentsia and leadership and has been in effect since 1970 or so-called end of the Biafra/Nigeria war) or re-embrace its ancient way of life left the Igbo by its forebears; a way of life based on the greatest philosophical equation of life, ‘Eziokwu bu ndu or Truth = Life’.

An unemotional review of the summary of the state of Igbo land in the hell hole, failed state and ‘British Birthed Abomination’ Nigeria presents an unpleasant undeniable attempt to eradicate or enslave the Igbo as a people; no different from the colonization of the Hausa by the Fulani!

PMO (Present Mode of Operation)

•         Igboland remains part of Nigeria;

•         The occupation and strangulation of Igbo land continue unabated;

•         There is no federal presence in Igboland;

•         Imposition and enthronement of Igbo traitors and sellouts as governors and leaders over Igbo;

•         Refusal by the federal government to implement the 3Rs (Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction) agreed to in 1970 at the end of the Biafra/Nigeria war;

•         The infrastructure in Igbo land is non-existent;

•         Refusal of the federal government to lift a finger to emolliate this abominable situation;

•         Without basic infrastructure in place, development is practically impossible;

•         Etc.

Result of this oppressive policy

The forced thinning out of the Igbo from Igbo land to every part of the world is the only available choice now left the Igbo, that, or remain behind and accept the inevitable. Below is a small listing of the result of the attempt by the British government through its minions, a regressive coalition led by the Fulani leadership (the born-to-rule) to bring about the extermination of the Igbo and its way of life.

•         The Long March to Europe – Igbo corpse litter the routes through the Sahara Desert and the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea;

•         Unemployment of over 60%;

•         Due to grinding poverty, young girls are now breeding children for sell to maintain their families; parents are selling their children to prevent their slow death from hunger;

•         Non-existent infrastructure leading to hospitals as places of death; total unavailability of electricity leading to the thinning out of the industrial base, and prostitution, armed robbery and 419 as the only industries of note, that or undertake the hazardous long walk to Europe.

There is no better presentation of the deplorable state of the Igbo nation than the recent news worthy report by Senator Godswill Akpabio, a non-Igbo, while he was governor.

“As a young man, you definitely will not understand me. But I was a victim of the Civil War. I was one of those who suffered the pains of the war. I was born sometime in 1962; the civil war came really into our area in 1967. So, I was probably five or six years old during the war; and if I had been around nine years, I would probably have been conscripted.

I saw parents throw their children into pit toilets because they did not want their positions to be made known to the enemy. I saw devastation; I saw kwashiorkor; I saw hunger; I saw thousands of people and bodies littered everywhere and smelling while vultures had a field day every day. I saw houses destroyed; I saw families scattered such that till the end of the world, they can never gather themselves together again. There were children who were shipped away to Gabon, and they can never come back to Nigeria again because they were small. How would two-year-olds and three-year-olds ever know where they came from? They are now proud Gabonese and I don’t think Nigerians are even asking questions.

So, during the Silverbird Man of the Year Award, there were pictures that were shown of the Civil War. Somebody, sitting by me, who is from the West, was asking if those things were acted: the Kwashiorkor-ridden children with their swollen tummies, ugly shapes and bony structures because of hunger and starvation.

The then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon attempted to explain that he tried everything to avoid the scenes that were being shown on the screen, that he did not want the war. The other person who could have answered him, unfortunately, that is Emeka Ojukwu, is dead. He said he tried everything to stop the war from breaking out but it’s only Ojukwu who could have answered whether he equally did his part in avoiding the war.

But something struck me: it was said that Gowon should be commended for initiating the three Rs: reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction. And I asked a very simple question, that I came with a written text but I wasn’t going to read it. I thanked Silverbird for the award; and I said I did not want to criticise my leaders because I am also now a leader. But I asked to be allowed to ask a question: how come reconstruction started in the West when the war was actually fought in the East? 

They started the Third Mainland Bridge, the National Theatre, the international airport, and so on, in the West, while the war was fought in the eastern region. And if we really wanted to ensure total reconciliation, how come every account holder in the eastern region was given only £20? It did not matter whether your father had £10,000,000 or £50,000,000 before the war; you were given just £20. It was a take it or leave it situation. If your family survived and there was an account holder alive, he/she went to the bank, and collected just £20.

Could £20 pounds solve the Kwashiorkor that we were seeing? Could it reconstruct the houses that were burnt? Could it produce food? A lot of other things happened that I did not mention on that occasion. Don’t forget that it was shortly after the war in 1971 that the policy of indigenisation started, where most of the foreign industries and companies were sold to Nigerians, and the war-ravaged eastern regions, which include the entire South-South and the rest of them, could not buy, because no one who did not have money to even feed or clothe himself would have had money to buy any industry. So, I was just wondering, as a young man, if that was true reconciliation, because one would have thought that the government would have gone to any extent to give them more money so that they could truly rehabilitate themselves.

They needed money from reconstruction, and I would have thought that reconstruction would have also started from the East. I just asked because we were lucky to have the persona dramatis of the war right in front of us: General T. Y. Danjuma, General Yakubu Gowon, General Buhari and others. It is very rare to see three former heads of state in just one place, so I had to ask.

I said also that it is important, even for the current-day leaders, that we continue to take actions that will unite Nigeria. And we should purge ourselves of actions that tend to cause pains to Nigerians. For me, I believe that because of certain policies of the federal government after the war, the war did not cease in the eastern region until about 30 years after the war.”

Onye ajuru aju onaghi aju onwe ya – “The rejected must not reject himself/herself.”

That the Igbo, a nation of problem solvers has become immobilized, clueless and unable to tackle this challenge put in place by the victors of the Biafra/Nigeria war is unimaginable. This is precisely what happens when a nation walks away from its way of life.

How is it that a nation that was able to absorb over 2 million refugees in 1960 from all parts of Nigeria, without the help of the world, is now completely helpless in the face of this small challenge? How is it that a nation that came together to build the only an airport without a penny from the federal government become so helpless to the point that they have given up? What happened to that can do Igbo spirit?

“From the colonial government into self-government and independence, Nigerian political leaders have told Ndi Igbo: if you worked hard, acquired good education, technical kills, were honest, enterprising and above all believed in the unity of Nigeria, you will be rewarded and you will be successful and happy. And so Ndiigbo swarmed universities, polytechnics and colleges in Nigeria, Europe and the Americas and acquired Western education and technological skills in ways never before seen in Africa. You joined the civil service in large numbers moving and delivering letters intact and on time, you became railway engine drivers and made the trains run often-on time, technologists kept the water taps running and electricity supply constant, you became teachers and traveled long distances away from your homes to educate children of other ethnic origins. Often you challenged British imperialists who did not want certain parts of the country to be exposed to good education.

You became engineers, technicians and laborers and built roads, bridges that opened up many interior parts of Nigeria. Often you worked under very harsh and difficult conditions. You fanned out to all parts of Nigeria delivering goods and services to people even at the remotest parts of the country. You took your wives and children with you. You built schools, hospitals, and industries and employed indigenes of the communities where you lived to work and earn a living.” – http://magazine.biafranigeriaworld.com/ekwenche/ekwencheleadershipseries.html

If an Igbo is ready to walk on foot across the Sahara Desert, find ways to cross the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe, why is the Igbo unable to convert Igbo land to Paradise despite the shenanigan of the British government and its regressive born-to-rule coalition?

Has the Igbo lost the ability to think out of the box?

Is manpower not what Igbo has in abundance? Why not put them to work with the help of ALL the universities in Igbo land? There is nothing new about this concept.

“President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a big supporter of toll superhighways, which he saw as a way to create jobs for the unemployed during the Depression. During World War II, he saw the concept as vital to having projects on the shelf ready for construction by returning veterans in the post-war period. Less well know is his pet idea: to build the superhighways on excess right-of-way, well beyond what was needed for highway operations and expansion, so the extra land could be sold or rented to generate revenue to help pay for construction and upkeep. This article describes the President’s interest and what happened to it.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Excess Condemnation, by Richard F. Weingroff

If the so-called governors are in the way, kick them out by making life a living hell for them!

•         Ignore them and turn your backs on them when they visit your community;

•         Make sure your children do not go out for them;

•         Make fun of them and rain abuses and insults on them when they visit your community;

•         Harass them using every legal way in the book;

•         Call upon your gods to punish them and theirs;

These fools are there to serve you not the other way. No longer must the Igbo make excuses for those in leadership positions who refuse to serve Igbo.

“In 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s Igbo leaders did a lot to improve the quality of life of every Igbo person. During this period, Igbo leaders like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dr. M. I. Okpara, Dr. Akanu Ibiam, Dr. Dennis Osadebe, Dr. Nwafor Orizu, Maazi Z. C. Obi to name a few did concrete things that propelled Ndiigbo above every other ethnic group in Nigeria. Azikiwe, Orizu, Osadebe and others saw the value of good education as the ladder to economic progress and pursued the provision of educational opportunities for Ndiigbo with such vigor that in a few decades, Ndiigbo leapfrogged over every ethnic group in Nigeria in educational attainment thereby positioning themselves to take over much of the administrative machinery of the state at independence.

“Okpara, Ibiam and some others saw the need for food sufficiency and industrialization and pursued agriculture and food production with such zeal that by 1965, the government of Eastern Nigeria undertook publicity campaign to urge people to eat more meat, chicken and eggs and drink milk. Farm settlements and agricultural extension programs were so successful that Malaysia came to Eastern Nigeria to learn the secret. At the same time major industries were being established at Port Harcourt/Calabar, Enugu/Emene/Nkalagu, Umuahia and Onitsha. These industries were superbly successful and formed the backbone of the industrialization of Eastern Nigeria.” – http://magazine.biafranigeriaworld.com/ekwenche/ekwencheleadershipseries.html

Why wait for the federal government that will never show up to build federal roads, bridges, etc., for you; is there any federal presence currently in Igbo land? Wake up and smell the coffee, your teaming unemployed millions are ready to go to work!

If you are harassed and prevented from shipping goods, build or manufacture them in Igbo land in conjunction with your universities, etc.

Arise Igbo, you have done it before and you are up to the challenge and you must do it now!

Nnaemeka Onumonu-Uzoaru, Oha Ka (The People are Supreme), Member: IgbozaraIgbo