ZIK, MBADIWE AND ROOSEVELT IN HOWARD UNIVERSITY 1960: Dr.AZIKIWE AND DR.OKPARA ACHIEVEMEN​TS NUTURED GREAT LEADERSHIP​S FOR IGBOS AND NIGERIA:. Re: DID AZIKIWE AND CO LEAVE A LEADERSHIP VACUUM IN IGBO LAND?

[Ugo Harris Ukandu]

THROWBACK THURSDAY: NNAMDI AZIKIWE

http://culturecustodian.com/throwback-thursday-nnamdi-azikiwe/

Aedan Asika

April 3, 2014

Feature, Photography

Alain Locke far left with Judge James S-Watson, Nnamdi Azikiwe, K.O. Mbadiwe, Eleanor Roosevelt & Clarence Holt at Howard University, Washingotn D.C. Circa 1960.

Nwanna

Inno Chima,

We have to give honor to all Igbos,  Igbo leaders, our community leaders, our parents, brothers and sisters for what they have gone through, despite the difficult Nigeria environment. These efforts have all done so much for Igbos to still keeping hope alive till today. Igbos are still picking the pieces and doing and fixing it slowly under the myopic retardation of Nigerian leadership for almost 50 years now. Igbo land will be well  because truth and  God is on our side by all fronts whether by diaspora efforts or local efforts

You know the facts about Igbo leadership too well. Despite the misfortune that Nigeria Military coups, 4 years of Civil war that killed and injured (physically and psychologically) about 6 million Igbos , 6 years of occupation of Igboland, too many military coups under despotic Military power of  tribalism and religious zealots control  for almost 4o years;  which destroyed the foundation for Igbos laid by pioneers like Dr. Azikiwe, Dr. Okpara, Dr. Akanu Ibiam, Mbonu Ojike, K.O Mbadiwe, Nwafor Orazu, Mbazuluike Amaechi, JaJa Nwachukwu, Ikemba Ojukwu etc. on  education, politics, business and Governance etc.. We still have long ways to go.

 Also because of these reasons listed above it set back all the efforts and foundation laid by pioneers Igbo leaders in business sector like Chief Louis Ojukwu, Chief Obioha,Chief NNana Kalu, Chief Anyiehie, Chief Ego Ukandu, Chief Illodibe Ekene Dilichukwu, Chief Okam, Chief Onwuka Kalu, Chief Ifesinachi, etc. These Igbo leaders left legacies that helps Igbos to be dominant in many sectors of the Nigerian economy like in Education, Governance, Transportation, Pharmaceuticals, Textile, leather, clothings, small scale industries, technology, building materials, electronics and electrical etc. and helped Igbos in their resourcesfullness in education, business and commerce  in Nigeria and West Africa and we still have a long ways to go.

Lets just look at 29 examples of Igbo leadership success that Dr. Azikiwe, Okpara, Mbadiwe,etc. recorded for Igbos.

(1) That Igbos today lead in education in Nigeria from primary to University level in enrollment and graduation is their vision..

(2) Igbos have the best girls and women education in Nigeria is their vision.

(3) in Nigeria/Africa Igbos produces one of the highest number of Doctors, Lawyers, Pharmacists, Engineers and all Profession.

(4) Igbo business towns Plan of Onitsha, Aba, Nnewi, Enugu is the foundation of Igbo leaders

(5) Look at Igbo Towns of Enugu, Owerri, Awka, Umuhia, Aba, Onitsha, Abakilliki, Portharcourt etc. their vibrancy

(6) in 1980-1983 Chief Sam Mbakwe of Old Imo State and Chief Jim Nwobodo of Old Anambra State were the first two States in Nigeria that started the State University Plan. Both Chief Ambakwe and Chief Jim Nwobodo built Imo State University that today has expanded to Abia State University and Imo State University. Chief Jim Nwobodo built Anambra State University that today has expanded to Anambra State University and Enugu State University. These expanded four (4) Universities all have different departments and schools of law, Medicine and many faculties to the benefit of Igbos.

(7) In the last 12 years in Nigeria since 1999 return to civilian rule. Ebonyi State is the only State that has built a full fledged accredited  State university of Ebonyi with complete and accredited Schools of Medicine, laws and many other faculties/school within the University. One of the best State University in Nigeria. Any wonder that the last two Governors of Ebonyi state were University lecturers.

(8) You have for example been to Enugu the former capital of Eastern Nigeria. This is were almost all Igbos leaders lived and thrived during their time. If you notice among all the regional capitals of Ibadan, Kaduna, Benin and Enugu. Enugu has the best infrastructure in  urban planning, best recreation plan, best corporate and residential buildings, best GRA,  Modern and best road networks, many public libraries,best schools,  the best Estate layouts like Independent layouts, Achara Laypout, New heaven layout, Aukwunanaw layout, Ekulu layouts, best public water works system, and the cleanest city in Nigeria. This is were Igbo leaders lived their lives and what an example did they set that cleanness is Godliness and they lived it and practiced it..

(9)Enugu Airport - Still alive and functioning as International Airport

(10)African Continental Bank,

(11) Cooporative Bank of Eastern Nigeria
(12) Eastern Nigerian Development Corporation,
(13) Universityof Nigeria was established in 1960 with campuses at Nsukka and Calabar-Alive and well

(14) Obudu Tourism and Entertainment Ranch - still alive and funtioning
(15) Nigercem,
(16) Nigergas,
(17) Nigersteel,
(18) glass industries at Aba,
(19) hotels, ---- Presidential Hotels in Enugu and Portharcourt Still functioning
(20) farm settlements,  - Still alive and functioning
(21) Aba Textile company, - under rehabilitation
(22) Golden Guinea Breweries in Umuahia, - under rehabilitation
(23) tandard Shoe Factory in Owerri,

(24) Portharcourt sea Port Expansion

(25) Onitsha Main Market Plan - Still functioning

(26) Aba main modern Market plan - Still functioning

(27) Emene industrial Layout Enugu - Still expanding and functioning

(28) Trans Amadi Industrial Layout Portharcourt. - Still Functioning

and many more

(29) https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/usaafricadialogue/M5zbergg9u8

Quote"By 1935 when Azikiwe returned to Africa and settled in the Gold Coast, Francis Kwame Nkrumah was still in a Catholic Seminary studying to be a priest. It was through Azikiwe's activist journalism and his address to the Ghana Teachers Union that Nkrumah first met Zik, who began to mentor him, and in fact convinced him to seek further education in the US. He gave him introductory and recommendation letters to his old school in Lincoln into which Nkrumah was enrolled in 1938 with other men who had been inspired by Zik - Ebenezer Ako Adjei, from Ghana, K.O. Mbadiwe, Mbonu Ojike, Nwafor Orizu, Okechukwu Ikejiani, Nwankwo Chukwuemeka, Abdulkareem. K Disu, K.A.B Quartey-Jones also from Ghana, and Okongwu. These men arrived Lincoln U between 1938 and 1939. These were all acolytes of the great Zik, and te footsoldiers of his Liberation movdement in West Africa. Nkrumah's contemporaries in Lincoln in fact were Ojike, Orizu, Ikejiani, Okongwu, A.K. Disu and Mbadiwe from Nigeria. In fact Nkrumah, Mbadiwe, Okongwu, Disu, took the Lincoln-Columbia route in the footseteps of Zik. Of all this group of Zikists, the Ghanaian K.A.B. Quartey-Jones became Azikiwe's first biographer ( Cambridge UP, 1961), A.K. Disu (Kings college, Lagos, Lincoln, Columbia and Harvard Law), became  first, associate Editor of the West African Pilot, Zik's private secretary as Premier of the East, General Manager Eastern Nigerian Information Services and later Permanent Secretary to the President of the federation. To put it blandly, in other words, if Nkrumah had been a Nigerian, he would have been part of the NCNC. To put it another way, Zik paved the way for Nkrumah and the nationalist movement in Ghana which was in a doldrum in 1935 until Azikiwe arrived the scene and with the likes of I.T.A. Wallace Johnson awakened the defiance movement and the anti-colonial movement in Ghana from 1935-1937. Following the sedition charges, and his arrival in Nigeria in 1937, Azikiwe ignited the anti-colonial liberation movement which hitherto had been colorless, streile, elitist and accommodationist. The men Azikiwe recruited from 1938 pushed the debate anti-colonial debate, fanning out, to give colonialism a bloody mouth. That is the story of Zik. To be clear, Nkrumah was not Azikiwe's contemporary at Lincoln. He was with Mbonu Ojike, Mbadiwe, Ikejiani etc." unquote https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/usaafricadialogue/M5zbergg9u8
Obi Nwakanma

 A LOOK AT ACHIEVEMENTS OF DR. AZIKIWE FOR NIGERIA IN GENERAL

(1) A Force in Library Development in Nigeria and education developments.

http://www.worlib.org/vol07no2/aguolu_v07n2.shtml

C.C. Aguolu and L.E. Aguolu

 Abstract

This is the first attempt to coherently document the immense contributions of one of Africa’s foremost nationalists and pan–Africanists to the development of libraries in Nigeria. Although he is best known for his achievements in politics, journalism, and sports, Dr. Azikiwe saw the library as a vehicle for the intellectual emancipation of Nigerians from colonial rule.

As President of Eastern Nigeria in the 1950s, the first and only indigenous Governor–General, and first President of Nigeria in the 1960s, he was able to wield sufficient political influence to ensure a legal basis for public library development in Nigeria, the establishment of the University of Nigeria Library – named after himself – and the eventual creation of the National Library of Nigeria.

(2) - The first International Trade Fair was opened by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe at Victoria Island on October 27, 1962.

(3) - Launching of the National Savings Scheme (Premium Bond) by Mrs. Flora Azikiwe at General Post Office, Marina on 8th December, 1962.

(4) - Opening of the 2 million pound Guinness Breweries at Ikeja on 6th March, 1963 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

-(5)  Opening of the New Engineering Base and Hangar at Lagos Airport Ikeja by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe on December 13, 1963.

(7) - Opening of the Royal Mint at Victoria Island on April 10, 1965 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the subsequent issuance and circulation of New Currency notes in the denomination of £5; £10s and 5s on July 1, 1965.

(8) Opening of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka on October 7, 1960.

We have to honor them more.

Thank you

Ugo Harris Ukandu

On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 5:21 PM, inno chima chim...@yahoo.com [NIgerianWorldForum] <NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Ugo Ukandu and Fred Onwubiko,

From the tangibles and take away from your Igbo Analysis, hope still exist that we have the man power and brain power for enviable heights again in our generation. Shouldn't the main concern be that we have rather chosen America as our foremost place of abode and Nigeria for occasional visits? Who then will develop Igbo Land and for who? Mazi Inno Chimah.(Author. Soldiers of Democracy: Our June 12,1993 Struggle in USA. Triatlantic Publishers New York, available online order too.

On Tuesday, June 24, 2014 4:32 PM, "Ugo Harris Ukandu abuj...@gmail.com [NIgerianWorldForum]" <NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

 Mr. Fredrick Onwumbiko,

Please after all said and done take a serious look at Dr. Azikiwi and Dr. Okpara achievements, and you will see that they laid good foundation for Igbos, Eastern Region and Nigeria, but everything they did was destroyed by the Military coup, civil war, Igboland occupation,  tribalism, Military taking civilian functions, religious zealots, corruption, nepotism, favoritism etc.

On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 8:57 AM, FREDRICK ONWUMBIKO <fonwu...@gmail.com> wrote Quote: It is mindful to note that despite this atmosphere of reasonable freedom that these leaders for Nigerian independence (Zik, Balewa, Awo etc) operated in that they still failed the nation in all their politicking, their jostling, alliances, manipulations to arrive at any tangible national consensus which eventually dumped the country into chaos.

The question then is why was Zik and co able to operate reasonable well before the war and not after the war. The simply answer was because there was a drastic change of order; the new order was antithetical to everything that existed in the old order. The new order comprised of young military northerners who were hardly educated, ignorant, naïve, lacking in inspiration, in western idealism and freedom and to make matters worse, Awo, one of Zik’s achieve ravels who was a jail bird in the old order when Zik was running the show so to say was now running the show in the new order. " unquote

"When Nnamdi Azikiwe came to Port Harcourt, I remember, we carried him high for his achievements for Eastern Region and for Kalabari people" Professor Tam David-West disclosed this Friday when he led a delegation of Kings, Chiefs, Elders, youths and representatives of the Occeanic Communities of Akuku-Toru local government area in Rivers State on a solidarity visit on the Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in Port Harcourt."

Press Unit
Government House, PH.
January 17, 2014.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile

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Dr. Azikiwe and Dr. Okpara created and laid foundation for great Leadership for  Igbos, Eastern Region and Nigerian leadership , but the Military coup of 1966, the civil war ( for 4 years and 6 years of occupation of Igboland), and the many military coups after further created polarization of Nigeria along Military, religious and ethnic lines destroyed the listed exemplary foundation Dr. Azikiwe laid for Igbos and Nigeria.

Take a look at the achievements and foundations of Dr. Azikiwe and Dr. Okpara laid for 12 years and compare it with 50 years combine governance of Rivers State, Cross Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State, Bayelsa State, Imo State, Abia State, Enugu State, Anambra State, Ebonyi State  and South East States and see the difference. It is like night and day.

Dr. Azikiwe and Dr. Okpara nurtured great leadership for Igbos, Eastern Region and Nigeria, but the Military coup of 1966, the civil war and subsequent military take over that build up of corruption, nepotism  and letting unqualified and untested persons both in the military and civilian Government set the stage for mediocre, corrupt,  selfish and unqualified tribalist, religious zealots took over Nigeria and all their work and foundation for Nigeria  was messed up till today.

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DR. NNAMDI AZIKIWE ACHIEVEMENTS FOR IGBO, EASTERN REGION AND NIGERIA.

Building his power in the Eastern Region, Azikiwe became its premier in 1954 after a new constitution was put into effect. He instituted a new education program in his region, and had a major role in Nigeria becoming the leading exporter of students for study abroad in Africa. In 1954 Azikiwe visited Europe, England, the United States, and Canada with members of the Eastern region economic commission in order to promote investment for developments in textile, vegetable oil refineries, steel, and chemicals. Azikiwe's  political stance at this time clearly favored his Ibo tribe and the Ibibio-speaking peoples of the Eastern region.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/nnamdi-azikiwe#ixzz2qD628feZ

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 Dr Azikwe was in power as premier of Eastern Nigeria from 1954 to 1960 and Dr. Michael Okpara was in Power from 1960 to 1966 as Premier of Eastern Nigeria. With NO OIL revenue but only  limited resources from palm oil, coal and limstone For 12 years Dr. Azikiwe and Dr, Okpara transformed all areas of Eastern Nigeria (records and lists both below) . Dr. Azikiwe and Dr. Okpara did not even own homes or Private Jets. Today helicopters and Private jets ownership, leasing and renting with Niger Delta Governors, South South Governors and South East Governors is huge. (Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra Governors have a fleets of combined ownership of private jets and helicopters of  more than 20 owned, leased and rented). South East Governors rent and lease private jets for most of their travels and trips. This is a shame and no achievements but looting by all of them.

Compare  12 years of achievements of Dr. Azikiwe and Dr. Okpara with Palm oil to that of these present huge PETROL DOLLARS OIL MONEY LOOTING lost years of present Governors of former Eastern Region of  9 states ( Akwa Ibom, Abia, Bayelsa, Enugu, Anambra, Cross Rivers, Ebonyi and Rivers State. The Eastern  Governance and The  Governors of Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers, Bayelsa and River States since there were separated from Eastern Region since 1968 have been in power  a combination for 50 years or combined terms of their self governance for 50 years, and yet they don't blame their failures of 50 years on themselves but they keep blaming other people. The success of Dr. Azikiwe and Dr. Okpara is hereby well documented with facts and references.

Today what you have in these formers Eastern States is not only lack of performance (only Governor Akpabio and Governor Obi have tried), but they are into too much division and infighting. Akwa Ibom state  seizing and taking away Cross River Oil fields, The Efik, Anangs and Ibibios are so polarized that it has became an armed gangs hate, fighting for power, killing, violence and depriving each other of resources and the political fights has made their relationships  worst. Rivers State, Abia State, Akwa Ibom  and Bayelsa State are all fighting over oil Fields and the hate and   in fighting it has generated between Efiks, Annangs, Ibibios, Ijaws, Ikwerres, Okrika, Igbos  etc. has turned to violence, shooting, killing, blackmailing and the cordial  relationships has been damaged among them. 

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Politics / Re: Zik's Final Resting Place In Ruins by henry101(m): 3:16am On Jul 20, 2011

The collaboration of other parts of Nigeria would be understandable, seeing that by 1964, the Eastern region was already touted as the fastest growing economy in the world by research reports commissioned by the World Bank and by Harvard University in the United States.

The Eastern Nigerian Economic reconstruction plan (1954-1964) - the ten year plan - drawn by the visionary Zik, and the eminently brilliant Mbonu Ojike, the most acute economic mind of that generation of argonauts, and later fully implemented by the inimitable Michael Okpara, had placed the East on a development route, [b]that by the 1960s all the talk of "Igbo domination" was merely a metaphor of the progress in the East.

Two banks at least  African Continental Bank and Cooperative Bank of Eastern Nigeria all once headquartered in the East  were at the centre of Eastern Nigerian post-colonial economic renaissance. Azikiwes banking policy and Mbonu Ojikes protectionist policies (remember boycott the boycottable) instigated the rise of indigenous entrepreneurial initiatives at a massive scale in the East from 1953 to 1983.

"The East  had the first industrial developement plan in Africa. Note that All Eastern
Nigerian "townships" / cities had designed within them, an industrial zone:
Aba (factory Road),Umuahia (Factory Road) Calabar (Factory road), Enugu and
Port-harcourt had Industrial Free zones - the Emene Industrial Lay out and
the Trans-Amadi Industrial lay-out. So did Owerri, which had an industrial
layout,so did Onitsha etc. etc. Owerri,Aba and Port Harcourt were already
designed in what was clalled "A three city nexus" (see works plan of the
Eastern Survey Dept. in Enugu)

 The created thriving institutions, industries and infrastructures like these within 12 years and many of these are still in existence  and functioning till today.

African Continental Bank,

Cooporative Bank of Eastern Nigeria
Eastern Nigerian Development Corporation,
University of Nigeria was established in 1960 with campuses at Nsukka and Calabar

Obudu Tourism and Entertainment Ranch
Nigercem,
Nigergas,
Nigersteel,
Factory,glass industries,
hotels,
farm settlements,
Aba Textile company,
Golden Guinea Breweries in Umuahia,
Standard Shoe Factory in Owerri,

Portharcourt sea Port Expansion

Onitsha Main Market Plan

Aba main modern Market plan

Emene industrial Layout Enugu

Trans Amadi Industrial Layout Portharcourt.

A Force in Library Development in Nigeria

http://www.worlib.org/vol07no2/aguolu_v07n2.shtml

C.C. Aguolu and L.E. Aguolu

 Abstract

This is the first attempt to coherently document the immense contributions of one of Africa’s foremost nationalists and pan–Africanists to the development of libraries in Nigeria. Although he is best known for his achievements in politics, journalism, and sports, Dr. Azikiwe saw the library as a vehicle for the intellectual emancipation of Nigerians from colonial rule.

As President of Eastern Nigeria in the 1950s, the first and only indigenous Governor–General, and first President of Nigeria in the 1960s, he was able to wield sufficient political influence to ensure a legal basis for public library development in Nigeria, the establishment of the University of Nigeria Library – named after himself – and the eventual creation of the National Library of Nigeria.

- The first International Trade Fair was opened by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe at Victoria Island on October 27, 1962.

- Launching of the National Savings Scheme (Premium Bond) by Mrs. Flora Azikiwe at General Post Office, Marina on 8th December, 1962.

- Opening of the ?2 million Guinness Breweries at Ikeja on 6th March, 1963 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

- Opening of the New Engineering Base and Hangar at Lagos Airport Ikeja by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe on December 13, 1963.

- Opening of the Royal Mint at Victoria Island on April 10, 1965 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the subsequent issuance and circulation of New Currency notes in the denomination of £5; £10s and 5s on July 1, 1965.

Opening of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka on October 7, 1960.

Two banks at least  African Continental Bank and Cooperative Bank of Eastern Nigeria all once headquartered in the East  were at the centre of Eastern Nigerian post-colonial economic renaissance. Azikiwes banking policy and Mbonu Ojikes protectionist policies (remember boycott the boycottable) instigated the rise of indigenous entrepreneurial initiatives at a massive scale in the East from 1953 to 1983.

Many Industrial areas which is still in existence and in good use today in Enugu, Aba(factory Road), Portharcourt, Calabar (factory road) Onitsha, Owerri, Umuahia (factory Road).
The products and services of these institutions and businesses were first class. Thus, people had full employment. With the economy growing annually at between 10 and 12%, the Eastern Nigerian economy was one of the fastest growing worldwide.

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DR. MICHAEL OKPARA ACHIEVEMENT FOR IGBOS AND EASTERN REGION.

WELCOME TO THE M. I. OKPARA FOUNDATION

CONTACT:

CHUKS - 08035818836

ASONYE - 08033391702

UZODINMA - 08038424100

DR. MICHAEL IHEONUKARA OKPARA

Premier of Eastern Nigeria (1959 - 1966)

http://drmiokparafoundation.com/index.html

DR. OKPARA’S INDUSTRAL BLUEPRINT AND ACHIEVEMENTS.   

It is unarguably true that DR.M .I. Okpara, laid a solid industrial base for the development of Eastern  Nigeria for the then period and for future generations .It was then that Nigeria’s industrial  pathway was drawn and which could have established Nigeria on a solid foundation of industrial growth had the initiative been sustained by successive administrations. Rather the opportunity was squandered like in most other area that would have catapulted Nigeria to the league of industrialized world. The story of the Nkalagu cement company has always been a striking   reminder because it was a bold, decisive, and courageous and sensible business decision to give fillip to his drive for economic independence, his government intervened and actually bought the federal Government’s shared interests which were to be disposed of.

It was inconceivable to Dr. Okpara that such a strategic industry located in Nkalagu, a few miles from Enugu, would be allowed to be acquired by a
British consortium. The political implications of that move would be catastrophic to the industrial and developmental interest of his government.

Therefore the Federal Government interests were substantially bought over by the Okpara government and sold to the ordinary people of Eastern Nigeria.
It quickly established an industrial Estate at Emene near Enugu and quite close to the Nkalagu Cement factory.

In like manner was the establishment of the Niger-gas plant and Nigersteel industry, all in Emene! There is no doubt that these may have challenged the Federal government to realize the fact that there was an imperative necessity to embark on a bold steel production industrial policy. Many years later, the Federal government caught the fever and established the Ajaokuta, Warn, Oshogbo and Kastina steel plants, which have either remained at various stages of construction or totally abandoned many years after.

Furthermore, to open up the vast opportunities of an International Market, Dr. Okpara’s government planned and executed the completion of the Onitsha International Market which, today, has spread over a sprawling area attracting traders from many cities in Nigeria and the ECOWAS region. Added to this, was the building and inauguration of the Pepsi Cola plant in Onitsha by the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation (ENDC). In addition, there was plan for the establishment of a textile factory which was on the drawing board and actually took off after the Nigeria/Biafra Civil conflict with a combination of government and private interests running the outfit. Also the administration planned the building of a motor manufacturing plant in the region to enable Nigeria to join the league of automobile producers as well as provide employment for Nigerians.

The industrial floodgate was really thrown open with the establishment of the Shoe Industiy at Owerri, the Aba Textile Mill with industrial gas piped from
Port-Harcourt.

In Umuahia, the Golden Guinea Breweries was incorporated in nineteen sixty-one and actually put the sales of its product, Golden Guinea Beer in the
market that same year. Later, the Modem Ceramic Industry came on stream producing primary sanitary wares, bath tubes as well as tiles, while the Metallic Industry was also in the offing for the production of small machine tools.

In Port Harcourt, Dr. Michael Okpara’s visionary acumen blossomed in the establishment and development of a vast Industrial Estate which, to this day, remains the heart beat and bulwark of industrial development in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The Trans-Amadi Layout was, and still remains, an unbeatable venture in vision and business savvy. Also the Alfa pioneer plant was to be built for plywood production in line with the government’s policy of massive industrialization.

As part of the Vision, model warehouses were built and solid roads were laid out with drains. Electricity, water, gas pipe lines, environment-friendly installations were put in place and industries just moved in and commenced production. The result was that the flourishing Michelin Tyre Factory was in full bloom. The Glass Factory, established by the ENDC, was in full production with the Trans-Amadi layout established by the administration not too far away from that area. There was also the Coconut Plantation in Bonny Island owned by the ENDC.

ENDC also took over some of the Bulk Oil Plant premises to establish a flourishing boatyard, manufacturing some power fired engine passenger boats for use between, Igwe-nga, now renamed Ikot Abasi, in Akwa-Ibom State, and the historic and famous king Jaja of Opobo Town. No part of Eastern Nigeria was neglected or excluded from the industrial blitz.

For instance, in addition to the vast Oil Palm, and rubber plantations in the area, the Calabar cement Company (CALCEMCO) was put on stream in 1965 using limestone from contiguous areas for their production.

 

MICHAEL OKPARA’S POLICY AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

As part of tourism Development efforts of the Dr. Okpara Government, apart from building the two exquisite Hotel Presidential in Enugu, and Port Harcourt, run by Hotel management experts from Europe, a network of Old Catering Rest Houses were rehabilitated and rekitted to update their services.
In nineteer sixty four, new catering Rest Houses located in various strategic areas of Eastern Nigeria were built and run in Ogoja, Owerri and Uyo.

 

MICHAEL OKPARA’S HEALTH INSURANCE VISION

Similarly, Dr. Okpara, in his very intuitive character, outlined a road map he would wish to see in place in Nigeria. On fourth April nineteen eighty-one; Dr. Okpara noted that the Medical and Health problems facing Nigeria is how to take the increasing modern services to the rural areas.

He truly noted that naturally, Doctors prefer the urban towns where it is easier to make a decent living pointing out that the way to attract such personal to the rural communities would be through the provision of rural infrastructure such as roads, water supply, electricity, health centers and rural hospitals.

For him, only government can provide a rural medical service either directly in a free medical and health scheme, as in Britain, or through a Health Insurance Scheme as in West Germany to underpin without many tears a Rural Health Scheme.

Then, Dr. Okpara, undertook a public enlightenment campaign to explain in details the possible forms of the Health Insurance Scheme which he recommended, and other forms of social welfare insurance to include unemployment insurance and old age pensions.

He strongly noted that a beginning should be made in Health Insurance which should be expanded to cover every citizen within a decade. He opined that the first stage will bring in a meaningful national health service that will not burst the national purse. This was in nineteen eighty one!

Then, Dr. Okpara expressed the view and advised that, perhaps the West German model which was based on a Health Insurance Scheme in which the governments, the corporations and individuals, contributed towards the medical care of all the citizens. He then recommended that a presidential commission should be put together and empowered to study the problem in all its ramifications and make appropriate and workable recommendations within six months from April, nineteen eighty one. 

Certainly, the current health insurance scheme being applied in the country mostly among federal civil servants and a few states that have adopted the scheme point to the fact that Dr. Okpara was visionary.

 

DR. OKPARA’S INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

The administration gave priority to infrastructural development as many rural roads were constructed throughout the region to the point that in 1996, Eastern region was acclaimed as having the best network of roads in Africa.

The whole essence was to accelerate commerce and evacuate farm produce from the rural area to make industries to thrive.

Also there was high speed development of social services as many communities enjoyed electricity and water supply because they were readily mobilized to contribute funds to project.

EDUCATIONAL SECTOR

In the area of education, the sector achieved a quantum leap as primary and secondary schools grew in large number with voluntary agencies and churches actively engaged in the establishment of schools leading to an appreciable expansion in knowledge with the government liberalizing local and overseas scholarship. Consequently both voluntary schools and government schools existed side with each working with commitment to put education in the front seat.

 

DR. OKPARA’S UNBEATEN AGRICULTURAL POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES

Under the regime which has been aptly described as the most radical, progressive and result-oriented, agriculture was giving an outstanding position as the period witnessed real agrarian revolution and economic expansion. Indeed, agriculture was the center piece of his development policy, using the Eastern Nigerian Development Corporation ENDC as instrument.

It is indisputable that what is now referred to an agrarian revolution and economic development by succeeding administrations were first started by the Okara administrations in Eastern Nigerian. Dr. Opkara did not only talk of agriculture, he put flesh and blood into it with relentless interest and aggressive policies which culminated into a rapid social, economic and industrial transformation.

These efforts still and will remain a monumental tribute to him and many generations to come, as despite callous neglect and abandonment by successive regimes evidence of his achievements still abound.

As a deliberate approach for success, innovative farm settlements patterned after the famous Israeli Kibutz were set up in five towns, Igborariam in now Anambra state, and the one located in now Ebonyi State, Ulonna North and South in now Abia state, Uzo-Uwani in now Enugu state and Ohaji in now Imo state.

The idea was to ensure that model farms properly managed by experts were established to train young school leavers who worked in the settlement and ran their own farms inside the estates based on the experience they acquired and were supervised by the farm management. The product ranged from rice, oil palm to rubber. 

Sadly, at the end of the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War, some of the farm settlements were remodeled or sold outrightly or privatized, while many were simple abandoned and to allowed to waste. For example Adapalm at Ohaji in Imo state, was remodeled into thriving vast commercial oil palm plantation but which has been mismanaged.

Ulonna North and South farm settlement is virtually wasting and begging for urgent revival. In Anambra state the Igboaraim, palm plantation was brutally cut down and the vast plantation made part of the Anambra state University.

The scheme can, certainly, be massively recreated to provide jobs for thousands of our young school leavers and graduates.

The Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation’s ENDC enormous Estates of oil palm, rubber, cocoa, cashew and rice, with the intercropping of pineapples, banana, plantains and cassava, formed veritable bastions for cash crop and food production. These farms include the expensive rubber plantation located in Amaeke Abam, Ndioji Abam, Arochukwu, Ozuitem, the Ikwu, Imo River waterways, Ubani Ibeku, etc. understandably, the massive oil palm plantations of Kwa falls, Calaro, Ikom and others in Cross River state and Umuekune in Imo state, among many other are now lying waste with little or nothing to show for the huge investment on them.

One incontrovertible fact is that the land is still there, nature has continued to water the ground by giving us abundant rain and good free sunshine. All that is required now is to develop the goodwill, zeal, and commitment to pay more attention to the soil. One feels a sense of shame and disappointment that only three decades ago, Eastern Nigeria was in a strong position to earn reasonable funds from exporting its own population. In fact, then, about three million pounds was earned in one year from this source of export.

In the area of protein production, it was Dr. Okpara’s accepted agricultural policy to massively produce poultry product for which purpose, an expert Afro American, Mr. Davies was recruited to develop poultry productions in Abakaliki. Chicken broilers, day old chicks, old layers, and egg were available on a very massive scale for distribution throughout the Region. The People were mobilized and agriculture made conscious, available on a very massive scale for distribution throughout the Region.

Then public servants were encouraged, and persuaded, to grow their own poultry for family consumption in their back-yard farms. Almost every home produces all the egg and broilers consumed by the family and the surplus made available for sale. It was Dr. Opkara’s passion that the population should be well fed.

In fact, the slogan then was “grow your own chicken and egg”,

To show the extent to which the policy yielded enormous dividend, Egg marketing and Distribution Task Force comprising the Ministry of Agriculture, Local Government, Co=operative Department of ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Education, and Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation, was set up with a Secretary from the premier’s Office given the mandate to organize immediate egg collection centers in all local Government Areas.

Cold rooms were built in convenient centers to receive the egg and organize logistics for distribution of eggs.

For ease of distribution, the Education Ministry was asked to feed every
Student in the secondary schools in the Region that had dormitory accommodation, two eggs a week!

Unfortunately this grand programme, no longer exists with the inception of succeeding administrations.

One striking effect of the farm settlements was that it tackled the problem of food self-sufficiency, economic self reliance and guaranteed employment. This is because following the system which allotted farms and accommodation to the farmers government followed up by setting up the marketing board which bought up the produce by farmers which were later stored in silos either for export or for the industries that sprouted in the region, the farmers were encouraged to stay on since they were sure of instant market for their produce no matter the quantity.

It was from his sound agriculture policy that he was able to generate considerable funds to finance most of his projects. For instance, the University of Nsukka was translated into realizable and concrete form to were built using the five million pounds, generated by the Eastern Nigeria marketing board through propagate Zik’s ideas and dreams to restore the dignity of man. The main structure of the University of Nigeria were built using five million pounds, generated by the Eastern Nigeria marketing Board through the sales of palm produce from  local producers and the Eastern Nigeria Development corporation’s pioneer oil mills.
There were also enormous estates of oil palm, rubber, cocoa, cashew with intercropping of pineapples, banana, plantain and cassava at Amaeke Abam and Ndioji Abam, Arochukwu, ozuitem, with massive palm plantations spread across the entire region to make region economically self sufficient even as the breeding of cattle was intensified at obudu cattle ranch.    

Really, there was no dull moment for the government then.  It is regrettable that agriculture witch formed the bedrock of not only the economy of the   eastern Region, but also a major foreign currency earner for the nation has been utterly neglected and abandoned.

 Ironically, while Nigeria continues to treat her enormous agricultural endowment with abandonment, Malasia   and Ivory Coast that that came to the country in the sixties to obtain their first oil palm seedlings have been making   tremendous impact in the world economy using agriculture as a major platform.

For instance while Nigeria can hardly point at any major leap in the sector, Malaysia’s now popular KIA Motor is produced with proceeds from palm oil.

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On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 8:57 AM, FREDRICK ONWUMBIKO <fonwu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Did Azikiwe and Co leave a leadership vacuum in Igbo land?

By

Fredrick Onwumbiko

Nwanna Nwakanma,

Let me say ab ovo that I consider this conversation a necessary one to have and an important one for the Igbo in general to engage in in order to start understanding what have been happening to them since after the British Biafran war. I have always been amazed when folks express inordinate disappointment about Igbo situation, in most cases out of context, you know what I say to them, hell yes, things are rough, what is so surprising that Igbo found themselves in a tough environment which is not of their choice and are doing their damndest best, at least they have done better than other groups all things considered.  I believe however, that the issue at stake is how to interpret these Igbo symptoms/issues and their associated causes moving forward in a less hypersensitive tone without seeking blame.

Igbo situation is a complex one indeed and that was why I narrowed it down by requesting that you make a case for why you think that Igbo are better off with the status quo but to be quite honest, what you ended up with is the same Igbo this Igbo that, Igbo should do this Igbo must do that and not once and I mean not once did you mention what the SW and the North in this abomination have done, should do or contribute. Some will even get the impress from your piece that Igbo are in majority and are simply trying to run the country that is drifting sideways. As far as you are concerned Nigeria is an Igbo problem and Igbo must fix it. It is understandable why you did not dare mention or invite the SW and the North to do this and that as equal parties to this journey of nationhood because there is nothing there to invite as history is prologue. My understanding was that you would base your case on real and tangible values Igbo share with the SW and the North and on the goodies that the SW and the North in the Nigerian enterprise have brought to the table that Igbo will miss out on or regret if they ventured out on their own, no, your defense of the status quo was entirely abstract and quixotic and back to what Igbo must bring on the table unless the enterprise will collapse. You have told us enough of what Igbo are supposed to, can you take a little time and tell us what the SW and the North must do because they are the missing link in this whole equation. My other expectation was that you would have listed all the commonalities and similarities Igbo have with the SW and the North in the Nigerian enterprise because those similarities form the basis of building a successful nation. Incredibly, you did not mention even one common value Igbo share with SW or the North. Now, you can choose to avoid the stack incompatibility of Igbo and SW and the North but unfortunately Igbo cannot avoid or ignore the incongruities because they are everyday realities for a regular Igbo. I find it very curious that you perceive Igbo as super humans and any sign of weakness in any area regardless of circumstances makes them less of an Igbo. I have always believed that defending the status quo is unattainable and the more the conversation unfold the more obvious that reality becomes clearer.  If your position is that the status quo needs the Igbo to help and drag along everybody else at a cost you did not care to explore, except that it is going to be tough, I wonder why that scenario is such a good idea for the Igbo. If you cannot demonstrate in any concrete terms the centripetal forces in Nigeria that suppose to ensure cohesion, then do the readers a favor and tell us which civilized and prosperous countries that reflect the model you have prescribed for the Igbo and Nigeria. In other words, identify for us one and I mean one industrialized country that shares the same characteristics with Nigeria that its minority has accomplished what you are calling out the Igbo to do so that Igbo can model themselves after them. The reality is that there is no democracy with non performing majority that is prospering. My point is that your prescription for the Igbo is not only grandiose and highfalutin but easier said than done and that is why things are the way they are. I promise you, Igbo will always be the first to grab any good opportunity that comes along because these are people that create opportunities where there is non. My position is that given the circumstances presented that Igbo are doing magnificently relative to where they were after the war and relative to other entities in the union. Obviously, you see Igbo in a vacuum, hence the judgment, if not how come you did not mention once the other entities like the SW and the North as if they did not exist. How can you claim that the status quo is ok when you cannot bring yourself to at least mention those that Igbo have to deal with every day? I find that very ironical.

To say that I was flummoxed will be an understatement when I read you say “that the Igbo cannot abandon Nigeria that they had already won by blood”.  Chinekeee! Another cliché, Won by blood! This is nothing more than intellectual gymnastics. My friends this is extreme hyperbole for anyone to now start claiming that Igbo won the war they lost as much as I understood the reverse psychology here but this is more than a stretch. All Igbo have done and is still doing since after the war is trying to survive in a very unfamiliar territory of dead Enders where everything Igbo believed in is turned upside down. How can anyone say that Igbo won by any intellectual contortion unless one is speaking ironically, when Igbo are starved of federal programs and investment,  that Igbo won and Igbo are poised to pay toll to use the new proposed Niger bridge, Igbo won and they are being killed and murdered daily by their detractors even after the war, Igbo won and they cannot run for election where they are born and raised, Igbo won and their education, their certificate, creativity, innovation, and qualification mean nothing, Igbo won, when the north are making prostitutes out of Igbo women, Igbo won, when Obansanjo can wake up one day and close Ibeto cement factory,  Igbo won when they cannot boast of a full fledged International Airport, Igbo won when they cannot boast of a functional seaport, Igbo won and you have more Igbo scattered all over the world and you call that winning. Give me some breaks. That is not winning, that is called surviving. I think we should stop being cute and unrealistic. Igbo are not super humans.This is a case of confusing the incredible survival skills of the Igbo with winning. Won what, if you want to make the case that Igbo survived the efforts to annihilate them, we can all agree on that but to then misinterpret Igbo survival as having won in the larger scale of things is nothing but fiction and reverse psychology folks. If anything, this is exactly why I wanted to isolate the issues to prevent people from hiding under generalizations that cannot be supported with fact or realities. This is more evidence that the status quo is indefensible if the only way to defend it is to resort to gimmicks and making things up and allowing our imagination to run wild. Now, I cannot pretend to fully understand the phrase nor do I know where this conversation is going at this time when cliches, platitude and phrases are substituted for facts. Most Igbo will make the case that the Igbo have shed enough blood as it is and no more should be permitted, though more are still dying in the hands of Boko Haram. If Igbo won by blood, why then are Igbo still shedding their blood after forty something years? To be clear, Igbo never fought the civil war to conquer Nigeria or win anybody instead Igbo went to war not only to defend themselves but to  stay away from folks they had nothing in common with. For Nwakanma to make the civil war seem like an expansionist war by Igbo to control others and Nigeria is like holding Nigerian history upside down on its head. This cliché is hardly a defense for the status quo because it will not suffice. Where is the defense or case for the status quo because the readers are still waiting.

As if the above cliché was not enough, you went on to say the following that “Nigeria is nonetheless, God's gift to the Igbo. Nations engage in long battles of conquest to expand their spaces; the Igbo did not fire s shot. This churlish question of who "owns the land" ought by now to be a settled question, because if you look, the Igbo people themselves have established a claim on Nigeria, and it would require a humongous act of cleansing to eradicate them from the cranies of Nigeria where they have established themselves”. Another cliché.  I had wished that Rex had not gone down this route of invoking God and figuring what God is thinking or what God revealed to him, though that is the fate of those that try to defend the indefensible, they employ all kinds of ruse and distractions.  I expected a fact and reality based defense from you. I say this because we know how many have misused and abused the name of God and I am afraid that this is a distraction. This type of defense takes everyone down the superstitious lane. Are we now supposed to debate whether Nigeria is a gift to the Igbo or not, this is hardly the kind of conversation we should be having regarding Igbo situation in Nigeria, a conversation that is bereaved of facts and suffused with suppositions and conjectures. I can easily say no, that the land is not a gift to the Igbo and you say no, you see, it is not a sustainable conversation.

In your response you mad the case that since 1970 that Igbo have “mentally withdrawn from Nigeria and have lived in Nigeria, not as part of Nigeria” and on the other hand you made another case that the ownership of the Nigerian land should be a settled question by virtue of the wide reach of the Igbo into the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. I am afraid that the two cases cannot be true simultaneously because mentally withdrawn minds can not accomplish the feat that Igbo have accomplished since 1970 by fanning all over the country and doing great exploits. So, which is which? I will presume that this is not the type of argument you intended in making, though, I do understand the mental split which is the economy on one level and politics and rapprochements on the other, sadly, there is no one from SW or the North ready to engage the Igbo at that intellectual altitude where most of your dissatisfaction lay.

Before I continue, I will like to address the fountainhead of your argument which is Zik and co’s legacy and your assertion that current Igbo is lacking in the kind of leadership of Zik and co. It is quite obvious that you are enamored by Zik’s exploits hence your soft spot and romanticization of the so called the sixty era. It is interesting how forgiving you are when it concerns the leaders of the sixties era and how much you are ready to truncate history in other to make your case. When you think about it, Zik and co did not disappear with the sixties era, they survived the civil war and continued to be Igbo leaders throughout the 1970s. As far as I can recall no one or group contested the Igbo leadership with Zik and co throughout the 70s, so it was assumed and so it stayed. Zik lived till 1996. Is it not a fact that the so called founding leaders of the sixties including Zik were responsible in sowing the seeds of discord that brought the first republic to its knees and the wild wind that we are reaping today? Is it not true that it was the failure of leadership of the so called the pioneers of Nigerian independence that plunged Nigeria in the present nightmares? Is it not a fact that the pioneers were bad examples for the future generation? Is it not true that the legacy they left is more harmful than good and is it not true that whatever little good they did was consumed by their utter failures.  The truth of the matter is that the sixties leaders created so many problems with the attendant mistrust, suspicion and animus intentionally or not back then that Nigerians are suffering from today. You have the election into the Western House of Assembly that resulted in the famous carpet-crossing, the Eyo Ita controversy, the 1956 debate whether the south should proceed with their independence and the north will follow suit when they are ready, the intrigues surrounding the imprisonment of Awolowo for treason in 1963, the rigging of 1962 census, the debacle of the federal parliamentary election of 1964, the politics that Ahmadu-bello and co played with the military and so many other missteps of the sixties leadership. This is the leadership Rex wants us to emulate, seriously! If you think about it, the sixties leaders brought nothing but chaos. A leadership that could not succeed once in the smooth transfer of power from one regime to another is a legacy one has to boast of. Let us call a spade a spade, those leaders sucked.

One thing that needs to be made clear was that the so called pioneers of the country’s independence were very advantaged and privileged and they squandered it and failed in their in responsibility lead. They operated in the most opportune time in the country history and relatively speaking in the freest political and economic environments that Nigerians have ever witnessed before and after independence compared to today. The sixties milieu was made possible because they mainly operated under the British who despite their shortcomings and colonial interests allowed the system to breath by the application of standard and merit. Even after being afforded all these privileges, the pioneers still failed and plunged the country into chaos. And there goes the leadership legacy that Rex was beckoning everyone to. 

For Igbo leadership as much as Nwakanma would like to wish away the fact that these leaders survived the civil war and dropped the ball of leadership thereby creating the leadership vacuum that Rex is bellyaching about. During the sixties under the old order which the British created by applying standard and merit Zik and co were able to operate ad libitum, enabling Zik to negotiate for Igbo their position in the larger polity with some efficacies. The same atmosphere of freedom enabled Zik to conceive and birth the University of Nigeria Nsukka , the same environ gave Dr. Mike Opara the then governor of Eastern region the impetus to make the Eastern region the fastest growing economy in the world. The same atmosphere engendered by standard and merit enabled the Igbo not only to prosper but to over represent themselves in all endeavors in Nigeria. It was the same atmospherics of freedom, not a perfect freedom I might add but enough freedom that allowed Zik and co to represent the Igbo effectively and to earn the trust of the Igbo.  It is mindful to note that despite this atmosphere of reasonable freedom that these leaders for Nigerian independence (Zik, Balewa, Awo etc) operated in that they still failed the nation in all their politicking, their jostling, alliances, manipulations to arrive at any tangible national consensus which eventually dumped the country into chaos.

It is against this background that I juxtapose the events that transpired in Igbo land after the war going forward. I know that it might come as a surprise to some to read that the leadership vacuum that Rex was talking about started after the civil war because Zik and co failed in their responsibility to continue to lead the Igbo and thereby left Igbo leaderless, though it is pertinent to note that their failure to lead the Igbo after the war was not conscious or deliberate but was induced by change of circumstances. The question then is why was Zik and co able to operate reasonable well before the war and not after the war. The simply answer was because there was a drastic change of order; the new order was antithetical to everything that existed in the old order. The new order comprised of young military northerners who were hardly educated, ignorant, naïve, lacking in inspiration, in western idealism and freedom and to make matters worse, Awo, one of Zik’s achieve ravels who was a jail bird in the old order when Zik was running the show so to say was now running the show in the new order. Zik and co were staggered by Awo’s presence and did not know how to react to the new order and even if they reacted the new order did not care what they taught either, so Zik and co retreated and employed the strategy of non action. That inaction in the early 1970s was devastating to the Igbo and became the genesis of the leadership vacuum in Igbo land and since then Igbo have been trying to arrest the situation. As I indicated earlier, that the failure by Zik and co to lead the Igbo after the war was not deliberate but came about because of the willful, calculated and concerted effort to stamp out any vestiges of Igbo anywhere they were found by the new order, by first neutralizing all the known Igbo leaders by rendering them ineffective by all means necessary, destroying all Igbo innovations and technologies, sidetracking all Igbo scientists and elites, forcibly raping and marrying Igbo girls without consequences or repercussions, stationing military barracks all over Igbo land and killing young Igbo men with impunity. These were things that could not happen in the old order because Zik and co were there to defend the Igbo interest as Awo defended the SW interest. When Zik and co were not able to defend the Igbo in the new order as they did in the old order, Igbo had no one to turn to and the situation created a dissonance and disharmony that chipped away on the trust Igbo had on Zik and co. In my opinion, there was nothing Zik and co could do given the circumstances of the new order, so this is not a matter of blaming Zik, it is a matter of putting things in their proper perspective. As far as I can recall from 1970 to 1979 when the ban on political parties was lifted by Obansanjo, there was no contestation of Igbo leadership, by default it fell on the leadership from the old order who were Zik and co. What cannot be contested either was that the leadership of Zik and co were missing in action throughout those 70s either because they were told in uncertain terms to stay clear or that all the vibes they were getting told them they were not wanted or needed by the new order now being run by Awo and the military north.

To further demonstrate how Zik and co were rendered in fecund and ineffective was when the big dog in the house, Awo started throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at the Igbo and Zik and co could not challenge him or do anything about it. When Awo decided in his infinite wisdom after the war to award every Igbo regardless of how much they had in Nigerian banks twenty one pounds, what did Zik and co do? When Awo decided to starve the Igbo by banning stock fish and Okirika ( used clothes), when Awo and his cabal supported the abandoned property regime to sow discord between the minority and Igbo and when Awo and his cabal unleashed the mother of all evil on the Igbo by instigating the indigenization of foreign owned corporations. The single most deadlest policy that wiped out the Igbo from the main stream of Nigerian macro economy couple with the fact that Igbo were still trying to find their way into the federal ministries where they were disproportionately underrepresented. That single policy of indigenization of 1972 packed enough punch to create the shattered anthill or broken dame syndrome in Igbo land that Rex was talking about because it brought Igbo to their economic knees and rendered so many Igbo unemployed and destitute. It created the first phase of fathers and grownups that could not meet their obligations as parents due to either age or limited or non transferable skills and had to depend on their wives or children with the attendant shame and humiliation. The effects of that policy spoke volume to the Igbo because it said to Igbo you are under the control of the new order and you cannot do jack, you can go to hell, where are your so called leaders, we have neutralized your leaders and at this time you do not have leaders and you are on your own? No description can properly caption the hopelessness of the Igbo condition at that time. To boot, Zik and co could not protect or save the Igbo from these onslaughts.  That moment in history altered the Igbo psychic because truly truly Igbo had no effective leaders at that time, leaders are supposed to protect and lead and no one filled that shoe. Yes, it can be said that Igbo lost confidence and trust they had for the Igbo leadership, tucked their tails between their legs and moved on without anyone to complain to and fended for themselves. Is this a case of assigning blame, of course not? It is a case of understanding where we cometh from and quo Vadis. It is not enough to identify the symptoms of Igbo society, it is crucial that we also identify the causes and most importantly that we do not conflate symptoms and disease/causes nor interchange them because it matters greatly when they are confused. So, when you think about it, it becomes obvious that the leadership vacuum that Rex was blaming on the present generation is misplaced. You quipped that “In the past, the Igbo would not run from a good fight. They would confront head-on, for good or ill, the forces that trouble them.” What Rex failed to add was that it depends on the circumstance and regime in place because what Igbo witnessed with the leadership of Zik and co under the new order in the early 70s was far from the above braggadocio rather what we witness was more of silence and inaction, remember though that Awo was running the show then and how could have Zik and co responded effectively more so in a military regime? This is not blaming Zik, if you had subjected the best minds from America to the same treatment and order they would have probably performed worse than the Igbo. 

As the new order/regime after the war was turning everything Igbo believed in like excellence, merit, standard, innovation, creativity and hard work on their heads and dishing out all kinds of bad and deadly policies against the Igbo, their impacts and effects were gradually grinding the Igbo and changing the dynamics within the Igbo system for the worst (akin to slowly boiling a frog in low heat) particularly when there were no voices to speak on behalf of the Igbo. The Igbo situation at that time gave suffering and dying in silence a new meaning, Unfortunately, as far as some were concern because nobody spoke up for the Igbo, the suffering never occurred. Ironically, because Igbo overcame so much so quickly some have difficulty believing that Igbo suffered any atrocities. For that Igbo simmered for years and decades as the new order relentlessly attacked the heart and core of Igbo ethos. The seventies saw the starting of the erosion of Igbo confidence and trust in their leadership. Igbo have done well since then and majority of Igbo complaints are legit and Igbo need not apologize for them.

The hope and aspiration of the Igbo were raised again when 1979 came around and the ban on politic was lifted where Zik and co were supposed to excel. As disappointed as Igbo were about Zik and co leadership of the 1970, though it was unspoken, they still wished for a better future and for that they did not abandon Zik and co because Igbo wanted Igbo leaders to support and support was what they gave Zik and co in 1979. Unfortunately, the election of 1979 was anticlimactic for Igbo in respect to Zik and co, despite all the enthusiasm, hope, confidence and trust that Igbo reposed on them. The result of the election was very revealing to the extent that it demonstrated that Zik and co had lost their broad leadership appeal beyond Igbo land. Recall that Zik’s leadership stretched from the Yoruba heart land to the Midwest and Eastern region in the sixties. After the 1979 election, Zik’s party NPP was only able to win two states, Anambra and Imo. When you couple the fact that Zik and co were hardly able to come to Igbo rescue throughout the 1970s with the fact that Zik’s leadership is now cocooned within the two Igbo states, it is not that difficult to see how disappointed Igbo were and how they started to disengage the confidence and trust they had on the leadership. Zik and co had lost their touch and effectiveness as leaders because leaders are supposed to be efficacious.

What I have set out to do was to demonstrate that Dr. Nwakanma premise truncated history, hence was biased against what he called new Igbo. First of all, I do not buy into this old and new Igbo, Igbo is Igbo period. The only difference is the circumstances that Igbo find themselves. If the case I have made above has any import, it simply demonstrated that Zik and co probably did worse in the early seventies than the Igbo they left behind. Zik and co did not lead in the seventies therefore they did not leave any model for the future Igbo to emulate in the new order and regime. My point is that it is totally unfair to lash out at the current Igbo for failure of leadership in the manner Nwakanma has phrase his botheration in the new order when Zik and co did not demonstrate any better leadership within the same new order. Again, this is not a blame game; it is a game of proper perspective and context. It is my contention that no one could have done any better given the circumstances that Igbo were confronted with but today Igbo have done great by surpassing not only their own expectations but their traducer’s expectations as well within the Nigerian context. 

I will complete my response in my next piece.

Good luck folks,

Fredrick.

Why Nigeria is not viable for the Igbo

By

Fredrick Onwumbiko

 

Nwanna  Nwakanma,

 

Nice to hear from you, hope all is well. In my response to your earlier piece, I expressed my concern that when it comes to the Igbo situation in Nigeria that some folks tend to see it as one dimensional instead of as a multifaceted subject that it is. In other words, some people see all the aspects that make up the Igbo situation in Nigeria as separate and desperate and thereby fail to appreciate the interconnectedness of all the aspect and how they impact on each other. The reality is that if one person has a mono perspective and another has a more multifaceted perspective, the likelihood that they will end up talking pass each other becomes highly possible.  In your initial piece you left the reader with the impression that you were somewhat satisfied with the other aspects of Igbo survival and performance and only wished that Igbo could retrieve some of their sixties cultural ethos when it comes to respecting the elders, community control, effective Town  unions that you will be untroubled. Just like I suspected, things are not always what they seem like, in your follow up response your grouse about the Igbo moved and shifted its emphasis from Igbo ethos to Igbo economics and business practices not that both are completely divorced but the emphasis matters. In other to avoid making the crux of the conversation a moving target, I believe that if we chose one issue at a time and addressed it thoroughly it might advance us some clarity and as well as shed some lights on other related subject.

Having read about your position in the past regarding Igbo in Nigeria, I have waited for the most opportune time to ask you to properly defend your position that Igbo are better off remaining part of Nigeria than being independent, all things considered. I guess there is no better time than now. It will be appreciated if you could make a robust case for your position that Igbo are better off with how Nigeria is presently constituted beyond the tedious facts that Igbo have been part of the country for more than fifty years, that Igbo need the Nigerian population to succeed, that the country is still a young country and the current defense that Igbo have investments all over the country. As a matter of fact, protecting Igbo investment in the north was one of the rational that Zik proffered in his reluctance to part with the north in 1956 there off. Igbo ended up losing them anyway, so it is important to have that in mind. Because I believe that none of the above is a cogent apologia, what we expect is for anyone who is inclined to your position to identify all the things and attributes that the Igbo have in common with not only the north but with the south west that will ensure a better future for all participates. I will give the counter argument below with the hope that by the time we are done, we will be in a position to delve into other specific aspect of Igbo situation like marginalization.

Nigeria is not viable for Igbo

My counter argument to your position is that Nigeria is not a viable enterprise when all things concerning Nigeria are considered. The artificiality of how Nigeria was constituted is most glaring, the south west has nothing in common with the south east neither do the south west and south east have anything in common with the north and the uniqueness of the incompatibility of the constituting entities has bedeviled the country and have made any kind of national conversation impossible. These entities have dissimilar cultures, languages, outlook in life and geography. Mainly because these entities have nothing in common and I mean nothing in common, they have no common basis for any reasonable dialogue. As much as some have assumed, since the country was constituted Nigerians have never had a national conversation that addressed their collective desires and fate because their aspirations and dreams are desperate and do not intersect. The Nigerian enterprise has been a pretence all along, consequently, Nigeria as a country has been mired in controversy after controversy with no end in sight. The recent concluding national conference is evidence of the impasse that attend any attempt in having a national dialogue, again this is due to the parallel interests of the constituting entities. To further make the point, in other to have a productive conversation even between friends not to speak of national conversation, each participant must bring something to the table, something in this case refers to what each participant has contributed to the building of the relationship, in this case the Nigerian enterprise and what have they done to ensure the progress and prosperity of the enterprise. To a greater degree the north have nothing to offer in that regard and to lesser degree the south west. Until the day that the north and the south west can proudly say to Nigerians in concrete terms that these are the things they are bringing to the table, these are the things they have done and these are the things they intend to do in the future for the well being of the country, there will not be a productive national conversation. The failure of the north and the south west to answer to these questions renders the country enviable because more hands are tearing down and obstructing the system than are building.  To that end, I do not think that Igbo should be part of a group whose actions are devoid of patriotism for the country.

 

Nigerian ethos and who determines it?

 The reality is that there is no country that is constituted like Nigeria that is prospering. There are no countries that have as many separate and desperate peoples like Nigeria that are thriving societies. Why some folks believe that the fate of the country Nigeria will be different from those other countries that are constituted the same way beats the imagination. I know that a lot of people believe in miracles but not in this case given the antecedence of the desperate entities that constitute Nigeria. Some want Nigeria to be the exception but Nigeria is worse than the ordinary.  All you need to do is look at the thriving societies like America, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Italy and you will find a common thread running through them. That common thread is the imposition of the ethos of the dominant race or ethnic population on the minority populations except in military detector-ships. The other common thread is the obvious competence and effective leadership of the dominant population.  Also there is no society where the ruling majority group is incompetent, does not add value to the country or provide ineffective leadership that their system is prospering.  In Nigeria, the dominate north has failed repeatedly to add any kind of value to the Nigerian enterprise and worse have demonstrated nothing but incompetence and ineffective leadership. Unfortunately, their failure of leadership has not stopped them from imposing their ethos that is opposed to all the believe system of the industrial and progressive societies on the Nigerian minorities. The ethos of the north is the greatest obstacle to the progress of the country toward a better future.

It is interesting that some are all upset with the Igbo because the Nigerian system has forced them to water down some of their cultural ethos but one thing that must be understood is that the cultural ethos of any country is dictated and imposed by the dominant group in that society and I invite anyone to proffer a case where the minority ethos is imposed on the majority leadership, an aberration may be. In other words, the variant ethos impregnating the Igbo land is a reflection of the ethos of the dominant north and their leadership where excellence, professionalism, rationality, prudence, merit, standard, creativity, skills and performance are shunned and ridiculed and rather criminality, overnight millionaires, fraud, ineptitude, disrespect for the law, incompetency, underachievers, derelicts, reprobates and the morally bankrupt are celebrated. In cases where the minority ethos is in alignment with the majority then there is no imposition on the minority. As long as Igbo persist under the shadow of the north, they will suffer under the weight of northern ethos. That is the realities of life in almost every society, that the majority gets to determined the ethos of the country. If Igbo want to restore the integrity of their ethos they must find their way out of under the domination of the north. Simply hoping for time to ameliorate the situation is a fool’s errand.  The northern syndrome is insufferable and unfortunately not time sensitive and neither is it responsive or amenable to any human remedy. Once again, the Igbo ethos which embodies excellence, professionalism, rationality, prudence, merit, standard, creativity, skills and performance is diametrically opposed and irreconcilable to the northern ethos. That is why the status quo is bad for Igbo.  Igbo cannot build a viable nation with a people whose culture and believes are parallel to theirs.

 

Northern culture antithetical to progress

The Nigerian reality is not only that the ethos of the ruling northern majority is antipodal to the ethos of the Igbo,  it is hostile to everything that the civilized world cherish like democracy, rules, merit, standard, skills, qualifications, industry, integrity, patriotism, innovation, creativity, management, perseverance, risk taking, technology, proficiency, accomplishment, expertise, talent  and  economic progress.  The list of the attributes above constitute the Igbo ethos and none do Igbo have in common with the north. The reason why the status quo is bad for the Igbo is due to the fact that Igbo will never be able to realize their full potential and achieve their goals because the north do not care about achievements.  The people that wallow in Panglossian will like to down play the fact that Igbo hardly have anything in common with the majority north or the south west and given the way that Nigeria is structured that the majority north will continue to impose their culture which is totally contrary to Igbo ethos. The majority north and the Igbo are like two straight lines that will never meet and time and patience will not minimize their incompatibility. The advocates of the status quo knowing what they know now should never complain when the imposition of the ethos of the majority north continues to irreparably strangulate the Igbo ethos in other to manifest itself just like majority in other nations do.

 

The majority north are not suited for leadership

The reason the status quo is bad for the Igbo is because either the majority north are innately not suited for leadership or because they deliberately rejected all the necessary attributes requisite for effective leadership, for that, they are left without the imperative tools for leadership and for that reason they failed to lead and worse still they will not do the dutiful by allowing those that can lead to lead. For more than thirty years the northern leadership squandered the resources of the country without a single achievement to show for it. Despite the fact that they moved a lot of the nation’s resources to the north, the common northerner is still worse off than the rest of the country in education, health and standard of living. If the northern leadership cannot lead the north to a better future, how can they lead the whole country to anywhere? In other words, the north cannot give to others what they cannot give to their people. The northern leadership has continued to fail their people as they have continued to fail Nigeria as a whole without any sign of changing course. Anyone thinking that the north will be part of the bunch that will help lead Nigeria out of its doldrums is whistling past the graveyard because the north simply do not know how even if their lives depended on it. It is then utopian to believe that further partnering with the north will be beneficial and produce a better result than it has done so far. There is no evidence to support such speculation except self delusion. The best the northern and south west leaderships have done for the Igbo is to deny them every conceivable federal investment due the Igbo like an international airport that befits the itinerant nature of the Igbo, sea port that reflects the business activities of the Igbo, most importantly road and rail infrastructure projects and worse throw all kinds of impediments to thwart Igbo independent efforts. The north and south west do not have the stuff for leadership and cannot lead period and Igbo should have nothing to do with them.

 

The mirage of Igbo presidency

One of the delusions that many status quo advocates and those that are fixated on the election of an Igbo president is that they believe that time will mitigate the Igbo situation and most hopefully that an Igbo presidency will serve as a panacea to the condition and suffering of the Igbo. Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Igbo presidency in the present dispensation will constitute nothing but a temporary bandage that is if the strictures embedded in the present system by the majority allow him to be effective. Igbo do not need temporal solutions, they need long time stability. It has always been my contention that the day the fate of the south west depends on a south west presidency, the south east on a south east presidency and likewise the north, then that that is the clearest evidence that there was never a country Nigeria to start with and that this is a deadly game no one knows how to terminate. In a more viable environ, Igbo or any tribe for that matter do not necessarily need an Igbo president, what Igbo and Nigerians need is a competent and effective president that will serve the interest of all Nigerians regardless of where he/she comes from. It is obvious that such expectation is pan-glossian given Nigerian history that continues to repeat itself. The fate of every Nigerian should never be solely dependent on his tribe’s man being the president, it should and must depend on any president of the country. Now, this is the folly in simply clamoring for Igbo presidency without thinking long term, So, if an Igbo is elected president for eight years, what happens to Igbo interest when he leaves office, I guess they will return back to square one and wait for the next time an Igbo will be elected before their interests will be addressed again. What a dizzying thought?  Until people contemplate the resultant vicious circle of instability which is exactly what the country is reaping now, well meaning Nigerians would have no choice but to rethink the mistake called Nigerian marriage. It then can be said that if Igbo cannot look beyond Igbo presidency with a sense of hope, stability and anticipation of continued progress and prosperity, then Igbo have no business being part of the Nigerian charade. Regrettably, that is the Nigerian reality and that is why the present system is not sustainable

 

Northern educational disparity an impediment to democracy.

The exercise of democracy requires a literate citizenry, the northern leadership, however, had done everything possible to deny its people that tool that democracy needs which is education.  Even before Nigerian independence, the educational disparity between the north and the south has been a subject of serious debate. Some have contended like Zik did that with time the educational gap will narrow, fifty years after independence, there is no available data to support that prediction. The north from immemorial have always rejected the agents of progress like education and that is why despite the fact that the north started their interface with the British in the late eighteen hundreds up till date only about 23 percent of its pupils are enrolling into elementary and secondary institutions and it is noteworthy that the 23 percent enrolment into secondary schools is made possible by the application of the lowest standard. As a matter of fact, if the same standard that students in the south are subjected to is applied to the northern students the educational system in the north could literally be shutdown. As much as the lowest standard available is applied to the northern students to enable them attend secondary and university education, the same northern students are expected to compete with the southern students in the work environ. Ironically, the northern students have fewer problems bagging a job than their southern more educated colleagues who are left to fend for themselves. The fact that this fraud and unfairness have no end in sight, where the least qualified are preferred over the most qualified makes the Nigerian enterprise unsustainable. The corollary is that as long as the country’s majority embraces kakistocracy where the least qualified and most unprincipled citizens are empowered, failure of leadership will continue to be the nation’s allotment. This is not only antithetical to Igbo it is bad for the Igbo and Igbo should find a way not to help perpetuate the practice. The survival of democracy requires an educated populace and the level of illiteracy of 60% to 70% in the north cannot sustain the dictates of a robust democracy which also means that the quota system is not going away any sooner. Unless the country wants to run one type of democracy in the north and a different type in the south, that is obviously not feasible and bad for the country and bad for Igbo. Another reason why the status quo is not good for the Igbo and the Boko Haram exploits are not making the bleak situation any better.

 

Sharia as a wage in Nigerian unity

As we speak about 12 states in the north have adopted the Sharia law which is antithetical to the Igbo. The country cannot run to two constitutions simultaneously, one the federal constitution for the south and the other the Sharia for the north.  It is against everything Igbo believe in, it is against the ethos of the Igbo. Igbo have suffered incalculable loses of lives and properties in the hand of the north for more than eighty years and continues to suffer it to the present. How can Igbo continue with a people that murder them at the slightest of excuse? How can Igbo build a country with people who will murder them because of their religion? The status quo is bad for the Igbo and an alternative must be sort.

 

The northern state exclusion of southerners from state employment

Since and after Nigerian independence the north have always seen themselves as a separate country. They insisted on having a northern civil service commission separate and apart from the federal civil service in the south. Ironsi might have collapsed the northern civil service commission into the general federal civil service commission but the north is still holding on to their state civil service commissions.  The northern states have an unspoken policy that was designed to protect the northerners from the southerners from state employment. The policy bares the employment of any southerners within the state controlled apparatus because they believe that their northern employees will not be able to compete. The southerners can do their youth service in the northern states for the required one year and are let go even at the expense of the northern citizens, particularly when southern doctors are let go but the northern leadership does not care. The north are not making any apologies for the policy and according to them hell will freeze over first before they change the policy. This does not sound like people that are enthusiastic to co-exist with the rest of the country except for what they can exploit from the south to the north. The question is why some Igbo feel it necessary that co-existing with the north that does not want anything to do with the Igbo is the best thing for Igbo. To continue the marriage is like allowing the north to eat their cake and have it back. This is bad for the Igbo and the country.

 

Northern corruption undermines the stability of the country

Bearing in mind that the majority always imposes its culture on the rest of the country, it is mainly in the north that majority of their millionaires and billionaires have no source of income to explain their riches. It is then no wonder that the only thing the north can afford is to export their type of life style to the rest of the country. A life style that is not accountable to their people or the nation, the life style that celebrates fraud, criminality, corruption, mediocrity and ineptitude. Some have ranted that corruption must be checked, how, when the majority is corrupt? The fact that the majority is corrupt explains why the country has been crippled by pervasive decadence. As long as the northern leadership fails to add value to the progress of the country, the country is bound to squalor and hopelessness.  The possibility of the north reversing course is not foreseeable and that is bad for the Igbo and their progress.

  

Institutionalizing mediocrity by quota system

Probably most do not know that the 1999 constitution contains a provision to share all the federal employments based on population rather than on standard, skills, merit, qualification and performance. Based on this provision the north stands to gain disproportionally in employment notwithstanding that they come into the job market with the lowest skills and qualification. Because the north claim to have majority population, using the quota system, the north will occupy more than half of the federal work force. Is it then surprising that Nigerian system is stagnant when the least qualified northerners make up probably more than half of the federal working force. The quota system was enshrined in the constitution to blunt the south from dominating the employment market in Nigeria. The enforcement of the quota system forever shunned the use of qualification, merit, skills, creativity, hard work and performance as a yardstick for employment. The possibility of reversing or expunging the provision from the constitution is not likely therefore the status quo persists.

 

The above is not exhaustive of the reasons why the status quo is bad for the Igbo because there are more. To reiterate, it is important to understand that for Igbo to continue in the present union with the north that that will ensure the continued subjugation of the Igbo by the north. Historically and presently Igbo had never had anything in common with the dominant north. Igbo do not have the same culture, language and outlook on life in common with the north. The north and the east are like two parallel lines that will never meet. The Igbo and the Hausa have nothing in common, need one shout this from a roof top. So, anyone that keeps thinking that there is a bright future in this union is day dreaming.

 

Good luck,

Nwanne Ezeji nwann...@yahoo.com [IgboWorldForum] <IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com>	Jun 14 (10 days ago)
to IgboWorldForum

 

Mazi Onwubiko

If I may crave your indulgence, did you really forget to title your thought- provoking piece as: IGBO MANISFESTO - A COROLLARY TO ABURI ACCORD? It should have been apropos in my humble. Nobody in our recent memory has succinctly articulated the truth of the matter as headlined in your exquisite thesis below. I wish this could be turned into little Redbook ala China’s Mao Tse-tung Communist Manifesto of the years gone by and made a mandatory reading in all Igbo schools starting from "ota akara" level if you get my drift. Just a wish! Most importantly, I hope yours will serve as an eye opener, an object lesson to certain of our young Turks, the ‘Jonny come lately’ in Igbo historical political road-rolling who seem for quite some time to be in an untenable ‘talking-more and thinking-less’ mode.

 

The Igboland we grew up in was and is still a land where innovation meets determination. Who does not know that the north’s (as represented by the sadist Hausa/Fulani clique) ontological mission is to neuter Igbo aspiration. Since the 50s, our people have been subjected to three harrowing waves of remorless pogrom 1945, 1953, and topped by the 1966 genocide. As you aptly chronicled, the north’s induced opportunism and shortsightedness has almost succeeded in killing the renowned Spartan spirit that once propelled Igbo to highest heights in pre-war Nigerian socio-economic cum political life

 

Given the facts as you laid out and with all due respect, it behooves a personality like Mazi Nwakanma  with some decency still left in his frame to come out without further prompting and apologize to Igbo nation with the same vigor he employed denigrating them in his last outing. It hurts not a little reading such cants from him.

 

Without doubt you must have been frustrated by Nwakanma’s latest gratuitous insult. General Emeka Ojukwu himself had had occasion during his sojourn with us to bare his fangs frustrated as he claimed by “people parading themselves as intellectuals …who present analysis without proffering solutions and who present clichés as solutions for originality.”

 

Make no mistake about it, Mazi Nwakanma is an intellectual renowned for his meta-analytical skill and prowess; but this time around floundered big time.  Hopefully you have articulated for us all some of the solutions that seem to have eluded him all this while. I guess you are as much echoing the General: “No more ‘clichés" folks. We need to put a stop to such false narrative as propagated if we are to survive as a tribal nation in this Nigeria Boko haram political milieu.    

      

Ya Gazie

 

Nwamazi  

Rex Marinus rexma...@hotmail.com [IgboWorldForum] <IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com>	Jun 14 (10 days ago)
to igboevents

 

Mazi Onwumbiko:
 
I will start with a caveat: as an individual I DO NOT HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS to the Igbo question. I therefore think that whatever I say about the Igbo must be subject, naturally, to interrogation, and for that, I acknowledge your right to doubt and question aspects of my submission on the Igbo. I think that the far greater issue that has stirred you currently is my assertion that the current generation of the Igbo are "inferior Igbo." Well, here are my basic reasons for making that assertion: the reason why the last generation of the Igbo trusted Azikiwe, and rallied around him was because he understood that "Anaghi Achi Igbo achi, anyi anwughi anu! Igbo nwere Ndi Ndu" ( No one leads the Igbo because Igbo are no sheep, the Igbo have guardians). There is a difference between "leading" and "guarding." Guardianship is a more diffuse responsibility and based on consultation and consensus. "Leadership" is more presumptuous - it claims a superiority of purpose. Sometimes, a great leader emerges from adversity, but as soon as the danger is resolved, society returns to the balance of what the Igbo always stood upon - concillar authority. To ignore this deep rooted authority system of the Igbo is to not only endanger Igbo capacity for consensus building, but in doing that, create inexorable alienation of the Igbo. This has happened over the years, and the Igbo seem today to find it more difficult in arriving at strategic solutions to their own problems.
 
Todays Igbo have forgotten these attributes of our fathers because they have moved away from what it means to be Igbo. They now hanker after "a leader" who will lead them to some mythical Canaan, even though they probably have forgotten from whence they are coming. The current Igbo have magnified their problems beyond any simple solution. Now, to me, that is the greatest trouble with the Igbo. The older Igbo would not succumb to lachrymal impulses. Each man who arrives at the sacred state of manhood would be summoned by the "Uhie/Ufie" of the land, and they will arrive by the depth of the night to the sacred Groves of their lands, take the oath of the earth (Ala) and constitute the "Egwugwu" of the land. The Egwuwgu would be sent abroad, and that is the difference today of the Igbo. They are like a long line of ants scattered from their purpose, or put it simply: the Igbo world today is like a shattered anthill, and it is all ants to headless distances and improbable destinations.  In the past, the Igbo would not run from a good fight. They would confront head-on, for good or ill, the forces that trouble them. A people whose code of the warrior is "Anaghi aso Mgbagbu eje Ogu" are now withered roots of the Iroko.
 
So, you wish to abandon Nigeria, which the Igbo already won by blood because (a) Nigeria  is not viable for the Igbo (b) the ambiguity of who controls Nigeria's ethos (c) the problem of the North: (1) Northern Culture is antithetical to progress, (2) the Majority North are not suited to leadership (3) Northern Educational disparity (4) the Sharia disease (4) the institutionalization of Mediocrity through the Quota system, and finally (D) The mirage of Igbo presidency, or the current difficulty of aspiration to equal political leadership of Nigeria. These in sum are your estimation of the Igbo troubles in Nigeria. In my estimation, these are very minor, indeed, transitory existential difficulties, if you're like me, given to a longer view of history. The greater trouble in my mind for the Igbo is that since 1970, the Igbo have mentally withdrawn from Nigeria, and have lived in Nigeria, not as part of Nigeria,  but as ersatz or protem citizens of Nigeria, for whom Nigeria is a temporary or transitional abode. The result is that the Igbo have thus viewed the Nigerian crisis not as part of their own problems, and therefore have not engaged themselves in the fullest solution to the crisis of that nation. The Igbo have lived in mental exile from Nigeria bidding a time when they would leave and build an Eldorado of their own. They basically wasted the 20th century and are in danger of exhausting themselves in the 21st century. The Igbo can no longer afford to live in that limbo of affiliation. The true Igbo was always taught to be pragmatic, and to shun absolutes - what the ancients call "pam-bem!" The current generation of the Igbo have acquired the habits of absolutism. The contradiction of Igbo withdrawal from the Nigerian state is that they suffer more than any group, the consequences of their alienation. While others have taken charge, and shaped Nigeria into their image, the Igbo dream of creating a powerful nation state is suspended in animation.
 
Nigeria is nonetheless, God's gift to the Igbo. Nations engage in long battles of conquest to expand their spaces; the Igbo did not fire s shot. This churlish question of who "owns the land" ought by now to be a settled question, because if you look, the Igbo people themselves have established a claim on Nigeria, and it would require a humongous act of cleansing to eradicate them from the cranies of Nigeria where they have established themselves. We must always take note of this. But, let me come to your concerns, and I will make only very short answers because these do not require elaboration in this forum. I will start by adducing the old Igbo wisdom: "onye na arachaghi onu, Uguru ara chara ya." If the Igbo continue to disengage from Nigeria, others will define and determine the fundamental terms and protocols on which the Igbo will exist in Nigeria. The simple reason is that Nigeria is not going anywhere soon. Indeed, the conquest of Nigeria is already afoot: those who circulate their values will govern the Nigerian ethos. The Igbo ethos is freedom, merit, and equal justice. The Igbo do not believe in the rule of an oligarchy or a select lineage born to rule in perpetuity; the Igbo believe that all men are born free and equal, and that all humans must be accorded the dignity of life, and the fulfillment of the meaning of that life as authored by the individual CHI. The Igbo were modern and enlightened before the European modernists and enlightenment philosophers. It is thus incumbent on the Igbo to circulate these values as the guiding principles of the modern nation they have inherited. Failure to do so will mean that they will live on the codes of the oligarchy. The conquering idea that shapes Nigeria will encode the Igbo. The Igbo cannot afford to withdraw from Nigeria because we have tried that, and it was disastrous. Even if the Igbo withdrew, there is nothing that suggests that an independent Igbo nation will not engage in perpetual and futile battles with aggressive neighbors to defend an isolate nation or homeland. To establish a separate Igbo nation today is the military equivalent of withdrawal; a ceding of grounds already gained in battle.  It amounts to suicide. It was the tragic mistake made by Hannibal. The Igbo were overwhelmed in Biafra because they entered a closed door with no points of escape. Those who came after them simply set fire on the bushes around them and forced the Igbo to a suicidal firefight, having secured all points of exit. The clearest alternative for the Igbo today is to secure the homeland and expand the frontiers, and that is what Nigeria offers the Igbo.
 
The battle for Nigeria is a battle for the hearts and minds of its population: the Igbo must be strategic. Stay and defend every spot on which the Igbo threads in Nigeria. Create a protocol of inclusion. Expand Igbo enterprise; its distributive network; its rhizome of power: intelligence gathering; modernization of the Egwugwu; expansion of the culture war through the building and maintenance of Igbo schools, hospitals, and other institutions that would serve the Igbo and provide access to other people who would see the value of Igbo culture of freedom and equality. The greatest threat the Igbo presented in the North was that they were modeling freedom. They built schools and recruited young Talakawa and made them free to question the oligarchs, who saw the danger in the expansion of Igbo ideas in the north and struck. Those to whom you give the gift of freedom are your greatest allies in the formation of a new Nigeria: those who begin to see and value their own autonomy will fight alongside you. The Igbo today have a potential army of partners only if you treat them as partners and work with them. They are the mass behind the purdah of inequity themselves. Run, and they'll run after you. Free them, and the Igbo will have partners for progress. They will no longer have to fear an ignorant horde. The Igbo must therefore dig-in, rebuild and rehabilitate these capacities rather than dust their heels hurriedly, as I fear that you're proposing. The solution cannot be easy. But it is a historical task for the new generation of the Igbo, and the first task towards these is for the Igbo themselves to heal, and to return spiritually and fully to the grounds they abandoned, and once again, take Nigeria as their modern project. Ya gazie.
Obi Nwakanma
 

 

To: IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com
From: IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 01:22:39 -0700
Subject: Re: [IgboWorldForum] WHY NIGERIA IS ENVIABLE AND BAD FOR IGBO CULTURE AND PROSPERITY

Douglas Ahamefula <daham...@hotmail.com>	Jun 16 (8 days ago)
to Alex

 
The way I see it.
 
 
Since the end of the Biafran Nigeria Civil war, the pride of being an Igbo has drastically gone done from the way I see it. The desire of an average Igbo person wanting to support and help another Igbo person in need has diminished. Trust among the Igbos has also diminished. The rise of crime in the areas occupied by the Igbos has gone up in alarming rate. Originally, an Igbo man sees another Igbo man as brother but now to many, another Igbo man is viewed as a target to defrauded money from. Kidnapping, highway robbery defrauding people of their hard earned money called 419, is at its worst in Igbo land. Old men and women who are supposed to retire and enjoy their old age in their villages are now forced to l iv e in big towns because of the fear of being kidnapped in their villages. To a greater extent, the Igbo people probably brought these problems to themselves. Even when a man is openly known to be a criminal, some Igbo rulers would go ahead to
award him a chieftaincy title, and would even make him the chairman of many of their major events.

The Igbo elites, who should be in the forefront to encourage the Igbo culture, are the ones that often forbid their children from speaking Igbo language in their homes for fear that their children may not do well in the English language in their schools or probably as a class statue. The resultant effect is that an Igbo child, born in Igbo land, who has grown up in Igbo land would end up speaking only the English language and not knowing much about the Igbo culture and tradition.

The law enforcement people seem not to be helping matters, they probably even make matters worse. It is said that the head ranking officers would sometimes even tell their junior officers how much (‘returns’) to bring to them at the end of the day from bribes. Rumor also has it that some of them even make guns available for criminals to operate with, with the hope that they would have a share of the loots.

If a group of people are like that, what would motivate a man to fight and die for them? Only a divine personality like Jesus Christ, can do such a thing.
 
Since the end of the Biafran Nigeria Civil war, the pride of being an Igbo has drastically gone done from the way I see it. The desire of an average Igbo person wanting to support and help another Igbo person in need has diminished. Trust among the Igbos has also diminished. The rise of crime in the areas occupied by the Igbos has gone up in alarming rate. Originally, an Igbo man sees another Igbo man as brother but now to many, another Igbo man is viewed as a target to defrauded money from. Kidnapping, highway robbery defrauding people of their hard earned money called 419, is at its worst in Igbo land. Old men and women who are supposed to retire and enjoy their old age in their villages are now forced to l iv e in big towns because of the fear of being kidnapped in their villages. To a greater extent, the Igbo people probably brought these problems to themselves. Even when a man is openly known to be a criminal, some Igbo rulers would go ahead to
award him a chieftaincy title, and would even make him the chairman of many of their major events.

The Igbo elites, who should be in the forefront to encourage the Igbo culture, are the ones that often forbid their children from speaking Igbo language in their homes for fear that their children may not do well in the English language in their schools or probably as a class statue. The resultant effect is that an Igbo child, born in Igbo land, who has grown up in Igbo land would end up speaking only the English language and not knowing much about the Igbo culture and tradition.

The law enforcement people seem not to be helping matters, they probably even make matters worse. It is said that the head ranking officers would sometimes even tell their junior officers how much (‘returns’) to bring to them at the end of the day from bribes. Rumor also has it that some of them even make guns available for criminals to operate with, with the hope that they would have a share of the loots.

If a group of people are like that, what would motivate a man to fight and die for them? Only a divine personality like Jesus Christ, can do such a thing.
 
Douglas

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[Wharf Snake]

KO Mbadiwe was the original Aghadagbachiri Orlu. In the 1980s I was at the JFK airport to pick up a friend when Aghada came out from the same plane as my friend. Let me just say the arrival lounge was never that lively. Aghadagbachiri Orlu was in his best as an elder statesman and a delight to see.

WS

An acclaimed Prince of Mushin, Lagos. 

Ìkọ́ kì í kọ́ ejò lẹ́sẹ̀.

Sent from my iPad

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[Rex Marinus]

That picture was not taken in 1960. It was taken in 1947 at a reception for Zik during his visit to the US. I think this particular pix was taken in New York at a dinner in his honor by Dr. Daly. The records of that Visit are in fact preserved in the African National Congress (ANC) Archival papers at the University of Witts in South Africa. One quick clue, Alain Locke, Zik's professor at Howard, died in 1956. He could not have been in a picture in 1960. I salute you Ugo Harris.
Obi Nwakanma

 

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CC: naijap...@yahoogroups.com; Niger...@yahoogroups.com; nigeriaw...@yahoogroups.com; Afri...@yahoogroups.com; africanw...@googlegroups.com; IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com; NaijaO...@yahoogroups.com
To: NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com
From: NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 21:16:34 -0400
Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] ZIK, MBADIWE AND ROOSEVELT IN HOWARD UNIVERSITY 1960: Dr.AZIKIWE AND DR.OKPARA ACHIEVEMEN​TS NUTURED GREAT LEADERSHIP​S FOR IGBOS AND NIGERIA:. Re: DID AZIKIWE AND CO LEAVE A LEADERSHIP VACUUM IN IGBO LAND?

 

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Posted by: Wharf Snake <wharf...@yahoo.com>

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[Afis]

This is Hillary Hilarious!

Azikwe in Borrowed Agbada and Kembe, in 1940s.

Probably the Oyinbo man warned Azikwe, and Oyinbo man insisted the two Igbos should put on decent clothings, like normal Humans do.

They must have been warned that wearing wrapper with no shirts may constitute an offense in USA.  

Imagine if Azikwe and Mbadiwe had shown up in Igbo's Efulefu wrappers, and as they tried to take their seats, the "unspeakables" flung out to take a breather, disrupting the friendly meeting!

Azikwe may end up been arrested and charged for "indecent exposure".

Igbos have no agbada cultural wear, so me asked MeSelf: "Who dash Monkey Banana?"

SHIKENA,

Afis

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 25, 2014, at 5:18 PM, Ugo Harris Ukandu <abuj...@gmail.com> wrote:

THROWBACK THURSDAY: NNAMDI AZIKIWE

http://culturecustodian.com/throwback-thursday-nnamdi-azikiwe/

Aedan Asika

April 3, 2014

Feature, Photography

Alain Locke far left with Judge James S-Watson, Nnamdi Azikiwe, K.O. Mbadiwe, Eleanor Roosevelt & Clarence Holt at Howard University, Washingotn D.C. Circa 1960.

Nwanna

Inno Chima,,

We have to give honor to all Igbos,  Igbo leaders, our community leaders, our parents, brothers and sisters for what they have gone through, despite the difficult Nigeria environment. These efforts have all done so much for Igbos to still keeping hope alive till today. Igbos are still picking the pieces and doing and fixing it slowly under the myopic retardation of Nigerian leadership for almost 50 years now. Igbo land will be well  because truth and  God is on our side by all fronts whether by diaspora efforts or local efforts.

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[Ezeana Igirigi Achusim]

Afis:

You can tell a lot about a people by what they wear 24/7.  Agbada is the only wear the Yoruba have, right? Can you associate productivity with anyone dressed in agbada? The hands are not free, for starters. How can you go to the farm in agbada? How can you go to an office in agbada? What else is needed to turn an agbada into a masquerade costume? Very little. 

Two of the important necessities of life are food and housing. Tell me, can you imagine a sucker dressed in agbada in a farm planting or harvesting crops? I don't. Can you imagine some one dressed in agbada in building construction? No. Climbing the palm tree to harvest or tap for wine in agbada? No. 

Have you seen me in the attire that yells that Ezeana is Igbo? Be it in the farm or in the office, productivity is all you can imagine. Productivity is the name of the game. While you are floating around in your agbada in Lagos, ouch, I own the very ground of Lagos you step on. Agbada does not a man make. Productivity does. 

Did you know that ventilation is very important for your brain? Suffocating in all that tropical sun heat in agbada spells trouble for the brains of those wearing agbada. 

What was it you said about the Igbo and their attires? 

And I am

Ezeana Igirigi Achusim

Odi-Isaa

Nwa Dim Orioha 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 26, 2014, at 6:46 AM, "Afis odide...@yahoo.com [nigeria360]" <niger...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

[Attachment(s) from Afis included below]

This is Hillary Hilarious!

This is the first attempt to coherently document the immense contributions of one of Africa’s foremost nationalists and pan–Africanists to the development of libraries in Nigeria. Although he is best known for his achievements in politics, journalism, and sports, Dr. Azikiwe saw the library as a vehicle for the intellectual emancipation of Nigerians from colonial rule.

As President of Eastern Nigeria in the 1950s, the first and only indigenous Governor–General, and first President of Nigeria in the 1960s, he was able to wield sufficient political influence to ensure a legal basis for public library development in Nigeria, the establishment of the University of Nigeria Library – named after himself – and the eventual creation of the National Library of Nigeria.

(2) - The first International Trade Fair was opened by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe at Victoria Island on October 27, 1962.

(3) - Launching of the National Savings Scheme (Premium Bond) by Mrs. Flora Azikiwe at General Post Office, Marina on 8th December, 1962.

(4) - Opening of the 2 million pound Guinness Breweries at Ikeja on 6th March, 1963 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

-(5)  Opening of the New Engineering Base and Hangar at Lagos Airport Ikeja by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe on December 13, 1963.

(7) - Opening of the Royal Mint at Victoria Island on April 10, 1965 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the subsequent issuance and circulation of New Currency notes in the denomination of £5; £10s and 5s on July 1, 1965.

(8) Opening of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka on October 7, 1960.

We have to honor them more.

Thank you

Ugo Harris Ukandu

On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 5:21 PM, inno chima chim...@yahoo.com [NIgerianWorldForum] <NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Ugo Ukandu and Fred Onwubiko,

From the tangibles and take away from your Igbo Analysis, hope still exist that we have the man power and brain power for enviable heights again in our generation. Shouldn't the main concern be that we have rather chosen America as our foremost place of abode and Nigeria for occasional visits? Who then will develop Igbo Land and for who? Mazi Inno Chimah.(Author. Soldiers of Democracy: Our June 12,1993 Struggle in USA. Triatlantic Publishers New York, available online order too.

On Tuesday, June 24, 2014 4:32 PM, "Ugo Harris Ukandu abuj...@gmail.com [NIgerianWorldForum]" <NIgerianW...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 Mr. Fredrick Onwumbiko,

Please after all said and done take a serious look at Dr. Azikiwi and Dr. Okpara achievements, and you will see that they laid good foundation for Igbos, Eastern Region and Nigeria, but everything they did was destroyed by the Military coup, civil war, Igboland occupation,  tribalism, Military taking civilian functions, religious zealots, corruption, nepotism, favoritism etc.

On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 8:57 AM, FREDRICK ONWUMBIKO <fonwu...@gmail.com> wrote Quote: It is mindful to note that despite this atmosphere of reasonable freedom that these leaders for Nigerian independence (Zik, Balewa, Awo etc) operated in that they still failed the nation in all their politicking, their jostling, alliances, manipulations to arrive at any tangible national consensus which eventually dumped the country into chaos.

The question then is why was Zik and co able to operate reasonable well before the war and not after the war. The simply answer was because there was a drastic change of order; the new order was antithetical to everything that existed in the old order. The new order comprised of young military northerners who were hardly educated, ignorant, naïve, lacking in inspiration, in western idealism and freedom and to make matters worse, Awo, one of Zik’s achieve ravels who was a jail bird in the old order when Zik was running the show so to say was now running the show in the new order. " unquote

"When Nnamdi Azikiwe came to Port Harcourt, I remember, we carried him high for his achievements for Eastern Region and for Kalabari people" Professor Tam David-West disclosed this Friday when he led a delegation of Kings, Chiefs, Elders, youths and representatives of the Occeanic Communities of Akuku-Toru local government area in Rivers State on a solidarity visit on the Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in Port Harcourt."

Press Unit
Government House, PH.
January 17, 2014.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile

This is the first attempt to coherently document the immense contributions of one of Africa’s foremost nationalists and pan–Africanists to the development of libraries in Nigeria. Although he is best known for his achievements in politics, journalism, and sports, Dr. Azikiwe saw the library as a vehicle for the intellectual emancipation of Nigerians from colonial rule.

As President of Eastern Nigeria in the 1950s, the first and only indigenous Governor–General, and first President of Nigeria in the 1960s, he was able to wield sufficient political influence to ensure a legal basis for public library development in Nigeria, the establishment of the University of Nigeria Library – named after himself – and the eventual creation of the National Library of Nigeria.

- The first International Trade Fair was opened by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe at Victoria Island on October 27, 1962.

- Launching of the National Savings Scheme (Premium Bond) by Mrs. Flora Azikiwe at General Post Office, Marina on 8th December, 1962.

- Opening of the ?2 million Guinness Breweries at Ikeja on 6th March, 1963 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

- Opening of the New Engineering Base and Hangar at Lagos Airport Ikeja by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe on December 13, 1963.

- Opening of the Royal Mint at Victoria Island on April 10, 1965 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the subsequent issuance and circulation of New Currency notes in the denomination of £5; £10s and 5s on July 1, 1965.

Opening of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka on October 7, 1960.

Two banks at least  African Continental Bank and Cooperative Bank of Eastern Nigeria all once headquartered in the East  were at the centre of Eastern Nigerian post-colonial economic renaissance. Azikiwes banking policy and Mbonu Ojikes protectionist policies (remember boycott the boycottable) instigated the rise of indigenous entrepreneurial initiatives at a massive scale in the East from 1953 to 1983.

Many Industrial areas which is still in existence and in good use today in Enugu, Aba(factory Road), Portharcourt, Calabar (factory road) Onitsha, Owerri, Umuahia (factory Road).
The products and services of these institutions and businesses were first class. Thus, people had full employment. With the economy growing annually at between 10 and 12%, the Eastern Nigerian economy was one of the fastest growing worldwide.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

DR. MICHAEL OKPARA ACHIEVEMENT FOR IGBOS AND EASTERN REGION.

WELCOME TO THE M. I. OKPARA FOUNDATION

CONTACT:

CHUKS - 08035818836

ASONYE - 08033391702

UZODINMA - 08038424100

DR. MICHAEL IHEONUKARA OKPARA

Premier of Eastern Nigeria (1959 - 1966)

http://drmiokparafoundation.com/index.html

DR. OKPARA’S INDUSTRAL BLUEPRINT AND ACHIEVEMENTS.   

It is unarguably true that DR.M .I. Okpara, laid a solid industrial base for the development of Eastern  Nigeria for the then period and for future generations .It was then that Nigeria’s industrial  pathway was drawn and which could have established Nigeria on a solid foundation of industrial growth had the initiative been sustained by successive administrations. Rather the opportunity was squandered like in most other area that would have catapulted Nigeria to the league of industrialized world. The story of the Nkalagu cement company has always been a striking   reminder because it was a bold, decisive, and courageous and sensible business decision to give fillip to his drive for economic independence, his government intervened and actually bought the federal Government’s shared interests which were to be disposed of.

It was inconceivable to Dr. Okpara that such a strategic industry located in Nkalagu, a few miles from Enugu, would be allowed to be acquired by a
British consortium. The political implications of that move would be catastrophic to the industrial and developmental interest of his government.

Therefore the Federal Government interests were substantially bought over by the Okpara government and sold to the ordinary people of Eastern Nigeria.
It quickly established an industrial Estate at Emene near Enugu and quite close to the Nkalagu Cement factory.

In like manner was the establishment of the Niger-gas plant and Nigersteel industry, all in Emene! There is no doubt that these may have challenged the Federal government to realize the fact that there was an imperative necessity to embark on a bold steel production industrial policy. Many years later, the Federal government caught the fever and established the Ajaokuta, Warn, Oshogbo and Kastina steel plants, which have either remained at various stages of construction or totally abandoned many years after.

Furthermore, to open up the vast opportunities of an International Market, Dr. Okpara’s government planned and executed the completion of the Onitsha International Market which, today, has spread over a sprawling area attracting traders from many cities in Nigeria and the ECOWAS region. Added to this, was the building and inauguration of the Pepsi Cola plant in Onitsha by the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation (ENDC). In addition, there was plan for the establishment of a textile factory which was on the drawing board and actually took off after the Nigeria/Biafra Civil conflict with a combination of government and private interests running the outfit. Also the administration planned the building of a motor manufacturing plant in the region to enable Nigeria to join the league of automobile producers as well as provide employment for Nigerians.

The industrial floodgate was really thrown open with the establishment of the Shoe Industiy at Owerri, the Aba Textile Mill with industrial gas piped from
Port-Harcourt.

In Umuahia, the Golden Guinea Breweries was incorporated in nineteen sixty-one and actually put the sales of its product, Golden Guinea Beer in the
market that same year. Later, the Modem Ceramic Industry came on stream producing primary sanitary wares, bath tubes as well as tiles, while the Metallic Industry was also in the offing for the production of small machine tools.

In Port Harcourt, Dr. Michael Okpara’s visionary acumen blossomed in the establishment and development of a vast Industrial Estate which, to this day, remains the heart beat and bulwark of industrial development in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The Trans-Amadi Layout was, and still remains, an unbeatable venture in vision and business savvy. Also the Alfa pioneer plant was to be built for plywood production in line with the government’s policy of massive industrialization.

As part of the Vision, model warehouses were built and solid roads were laid out with drains. Electricity, water, gas pipe lines, environment-friendly installations were put in place and industries just moved in and commenced production. The result was that the flourishing Michelin Tyre Factory was in full bloom. The Glass Factory, established by the ENDC, was in full production with the Trans-Amadi layout established by the administration not too far away from that area. There was also the Coconut Plantation in Bonny Island owned by the ENDC.

ENDC also took over some of the Bulk Oil Plant premises to establish a flourishing boatyard, manufacturing some power fired engine passenger boats for use between, Igwe-nga, now renamed Ikot Abasi, in Akwa-Ibom State, and the historic and famous king Jaja of Opobo Town. No part of Eastern Nigeria was neglected or excluded from the industrial blitz.

For instance, in addition to the vast Oil Palm, and rubber plantations in the area, the Calabar cement Company (CALCEMCO) was put on stream in 1965 using limestone from contiguous areas for their production.

 

MICHAEL OKPARA’S POLICY AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

As part of tourism Development efforts of the Dr. Okpara Government, apart from building the two exquisite Hotel Presidential in Enugu, and Port Harcourt, run by Hotel management experts from Europe, a network of Old Catering Rest Houses were rehabilitated and rekitted to update their services.
In nineteer sixty four, new catering Rest Houses located in various strategic areas of Eastern Nigeria were built and run in Ogoja, Owerri and Uyo.

 

MICHAEL OKPARA’S HEALTH INSURANCE VISION

Similarly, Dr. Okpara, in his very intuitive character, outlined a road map he would wish to see in place in Nigeria. On fourth April nineteen eighty-one; Dr. Okpara noted that the Medical and Health problems facing Nigeria is how to take the increasing modern services to the rural areas.

He truly noted that naturally, Doctors prefer the urban towns where it is easier to make a decent living pointing out that the way to attract such personal to the rural communities would be through the provision of rural infrastructure such as roads, water supply, electricity, health centers and rural hospitals.

For him, only government can provide a rural medical service either directly in a free medical and health scheme, as in Britain, or through a Health Insurance Scheme as in West Germany to underpin without many tears a Rural Health Scheme.

Then, Dr. Okpara, undertook a public enlightenment campaign to explain in details the possible forms of the Health Insurance Scheme which he recommended, and other forms of social welfare insurance to include unemployment insurance and old age pensions.

He strongly noted that a beginning should be made in Health Insurance which should be expanded to cover every citizen within a decade. He opined that the first stage will bring in a meaningful national health service that will not burst the national purse. This was in nineteen eighty one!

Then, Dr. Okpara expressed the view and advised that, perhaps the West German model which was based on a Health Insurance Scheme in which the governments, the corporations and individuals, contributed towards the medical care of all the citizens. He then recommended that a presidential commission should be put together and empowered to study the problem in all its ramifications and make appropriate and workable recommendations within six months from April, nineteen eighty one. 

Certainly, the current health insurance scheme being applied in the country mostly among federal civil servants and a few states that have adopted the scheme point to the fact that Dr. Okpara was visionary.

 

DR. OKPARA’S INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

The administration gave priority to infrastructural development as many rural roads were constructed throughout the region to the point that in 1996, Eastern region was acclaimed as having the best network of roads in Africa.

The whole essence was to accelerate commerce and evacuate farm produce from the rural area to make industries to thrive.

Also there was high speed development of social services as many communities enjoyed electricity and water supply because they were readily mobilized to contribute funds to project.

EDUCATIONAL SECTOR

In the area of education, the sector achieved a quantum leap as primary and secondary schools grew in large number with voluntary agencies and churches actively engaged in the establishment of schools leading to an appreciable expansion in knowledge with the government liberalizing local and overseas scholarship. Consequently both voluntary schools and government schools existed side with each working with commitment to put education in the front seat.

 

DR. OKPARA’S UNBEATEN AGRICULTURAL POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES

Under the regime which has been aptly described as the most radical, progressive and result-oriented, agriculture was giving an outstanding position as the period witnessed real agrarian revolution and economic expansion. Indeed, agriculture was the center piece of his development policy, using the Eastern Nigerian Development Corporation ENDC as instrument.

It is indisputable that what is now referred to an agrarian revolution and economic development by succeeding administrations were first started by the Okara administrations in Eastern Nigerian. Dr. Opkara did not only talk of agriculture, he put flesh and blood into it with relentless interest and aggressive policies which culminated into a rapid social, economic and industrial transformation.

These efforts still and will remain a monumental tribute to him and many generations to come, as despite callous neglect and abandonment by successive regimes evidence of his achievements still abound.

As a deliberate approach for success, innovative farm settlements patterned after the famous Israeli Kibutz were set up in five towns, Igborariam in now Anambra state, and the one located in now Ebonyi State, Ulonna North and South in now Abia state, Uzo-Uwani in now Enugu state and Ohaji in now Imo state.

The idea was to ensure that model farms properly managed by experts were established to train young school leavers who worked in the settlement and ran their own farms inside the estates based on the experience they acquired and were supervised by the farm management. The product ranged from rice, oil palm to rubber. 

Sadly, at the end of the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War, some of the farm settlements were remodeled or sold outrightly or privatized, while many were simple abandoned and to allowed to waste. For example Adapalm at Ohaji in Imo state, was remodeled into thriving vast commercial oil palm plantation but which has been mismanaged.

Ulonna North and South farm settlement is virtually wasting and begging for urgent revival. In Anambra state the Igboaraim, palm plantation was brutally cut down and the vast plantation made part of the Anambra state University.

The scheme can, certainly, be massively recreated to provide jobs for thousands of our young school leavers and graduates.

The Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation’s ENDC enormous Estates of oil palm, rubber, cocoa, cashew and rice, with the intercropping of pineapples, banana, plantains and cassava, formed veritable bastions for cash crop and food production. These farms include the expensive rubber plantation located in Amaeke Abam, Ndioji Abam, Arochukwu, Ozuitem, the Ikwu, Imo River waterways, Ubani Ibeku, etc. understandably, the massive oil palm plantations of Kwa falls, Calaro, Ikom and others in Cross River state and Umuekune in Imo state, among many other are now lying waste with little or nothing to show for the huge investment on them.

One incontrovertible fact is that the land is still there, nature has continued to water the ground by giving us abundant rain and good free sunshine. All that is required now is to develop the goodwill, zeal, and commitment to pay more attention to the soil. One feels a sense of shame and disappointment that only three decades ago, Eastern Nigeria was in a strong position to earn reasonable funds from exporting its own population. In fact, then, about three million pounds was earned in one year from this source of export.

In the area of protein production, it was Dr. Okpara’s accepted agricultural policy to massively produce poultry product for which purpose, an expert Afro American, Mr. Davies was recruited to develop poultry productions in Abakaliki. Chicken broilers, day old chicks, old layers, and egg were available on a very massive scale for distribution throughout the Region. The People were mobilized and agriculture made conscious, available on a very massive scale for distribution throughout the Region.

Then public servants were encouraged, and persuaded, to grow their own poultry for family consumption in their back-yard farms. Almost every home produces all the egg and broilers consumed by the family and the surplus made available for sale. It was Dr. Opkara’s passion that the population should be well fed.

In fact, the slogan then was “grow your own chicken and egg†,

To show the extent to which the policy yielded enormous dividend, Egg marketing and Distribution Task Force comprising the Ministry of Agriculture, Local Government, Co=operative Department of ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Education, and Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation, was set up with a Secretary from the premier’s Office given the mandate to organize immediate egg collection centers in all local Government Areas.

Cold rooms were built in convenient centers to receive the egg and organize logistics for distribution of eggs.

For ease of distribution, the Education Ministry was asked to feed every
Student in the secondary schools in the Region that had dormitory accommodation, two eggs a week!

Unfortunately this grand programme, no longer exists with the inception of succeeding administrations.

One striking effect of the farm settlements was that it tackled the problem of food self-sufficiency, economic self reliance and guaranteed employment. This is because following the system which allotted farms and accommodation to the farmers government followed up by setting up the marketing board which bought up the produce by farmers which were later stored in silos either for export or for the industries that sprouted in the region, the farmers were encouraged to stay on since they were sure of instant market for their produce no matter the quantity.

It was from his sound agriculture policy that he was able to generate considerable funds to finance most of his projects. For instance, the University of Nsukka was translated into realizable and concrete form to were built using the five million pounds, generated by the Eastern Nigeria marketing board through propagate Zik’s ideas and dreams to restore the dignity of man. The main structure of the University of Nigeria were built using five million pounds, generated by the Eastern Nigeria marketing Board through the sales of palm produce from  local producers and the Eastern Nigeria Development corporation’s pioneer oil mills.

There were also enormous estates of oil palm, rubber, cocoa, cashew with intercropping of pineapples, banana, plantain and cassava at Amaeke Abam and Ndioji Abam, Arochukwu, ozuitem, with massive palm plantations spread across the entire region to make region economically self sufficient even as the breeding of cattle was intensified at obudu cattle ranch.    

Really, there was no dull moment for the government then.  It is regrettable that agriculture witch formed the bedrock of not only the economy of the   eastern Region, but also a major foreign currency earner for the nation has been utterly neglected and abandoned.

 Ironically, while Nigeria continues to treat her enormous agricultural endowment with abandonment, Malasia   and Ivory Coast that that came to the country in the sixties to obtain their first oil palm seedlings have been making   tremendous impact in the world economy using agriculture as a major platform.

For instance while Nigeria can hardly point at any major leap in the sector, Malaysia’s now popular KIA Motor is produced with proceeds from palm oil.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 8:57 AM, FREDRICK ONWUMBIKO <fonwu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Did Azikiwe and Co leave a leadership vacuum in Igbo land?

By

Fredrick Onwumbiko

Nwanna Nwakanma,

Let me say ab ovo that I consider this conversation a necessary one to have and an important one for the Igbo in general to engage in in order to start understanding what have been happening to them since after the British Biafran war. I have always been amazed when folks express inordinate disappointment about Igbo situation, in most cases out of context, you know what I say to them, hell yes, things are rough, what is so surprising that Igbo found themselves in a tough environment which is not of their choice and are doing their damndest best, at least they have done better than other groups all things considered.  I believe however, that the issue at stake is how to interpret these Igbo symptoms/issues and their associated causes moving forward in a less hypersensitive tone without seeking blame.

Igbo situation is a complex one indeed and that was why I narrowed it down by requesting that you make a case for why you think that Igbo are better off with the status quo but to be quite honest, what you ended up with is the same Igbo this Igbo that, Igbo should do this Igbo must do that and not once and I mean not once did you mention what the SW and the North in this abomination have done, should do or contribute. Some will even get the impress from your piece that Igbo are in majority and are simply trying to run the country that is drifting sideways. As far as you are concerned Nigeria is an Igbo problem and Igbo must fix it. It is understandable why you did not dare mention or invite the SW and the North to do this and that as equal parties to this journey of nationhood because there is nothing there to invite as history is prologue. My understanding was that you would base your case on real and tangible values Igbo share with the SW and the North and on the goodies that the SW and the North in the Nigerian enterprise have brought to the table that Igbo will miss out on or regret if they ventured out on their own, no, your defense of the status quo was entirely abstract and quixotic and back to what Igbo must bring on the table unless the enterprise will collapse. You have told us enough of what Igbo are supposed to, can you take a little time and tell us what the SW and the North must do because they are the missing link in this whole equation. My other expectation was that you would have listed all the commonalities and similarities Igbo have with the SW and the North in the Nigerian enterprise because those similarities form the basis of building a successful nation. Incredibly, you did not mention even one common value Igbo share with SW or the North. Now, you can choose to avoid the stack incompatibility of Igbo and SW and the North but unfortunately Igbo cannot avoid or ignore the incongruities because they are everyday realities for a regular Igbo. I find it very curious that you perceive Igbo as super humans and any sign of weakness in any area regardless of circumstances makes them less of an Igbo. I have always believed that defending the status quo is unattainable and the more the conversation unfold the more obvious that reality becomes clearer.  If your position is that the status quo needs the Igbo to help and drag along everybody else at a cost you did not care to explore, except that it is going to be tough, I wonder why that scenario is such a good idea for the Igbo. If you cannot demonstrate in any concrete terms the centripetal forces in Nigeria that suppose to ensure cohesion, then do the readers a favor and tell us which civilized and prosperous countries that reflect the model you have prescribed for the Igbo and Nigeria. In other words, identify for us one and I mean one industrialized country that shares the same characteristics with Nigeria that its minority has accomplished what you are calling out the Igbo to do so that Igbo can model themselves after them. The reality is that there is no democracy with non performing majority that is prospering. My point is that your prescription for the Igbo is not only grandiose and highfalutin but easier said than done and that is why things are the way they are. I promise you, Igbo will always be the first to grab any good opportunity that comes along because these are people that create opportunities where there is non. My position is that given the circumstances presented that Igbo are doing magnificently relative to where they were after the war and relative to other entities in the union. Obviously, you see Igbo in a vacuum, hence the judgment, if not how come you did not mention once the other entities like the SW and the North as if they did not exist. How can you claim that the status quo is ok when you cannot bring yourself to at least mention those that Igbo have to deal with every day? I find that very ironical.

To say that I was flummoxed will be an understatement when I read you say “that the Igbo cannot abandon Nigeria that they had already won by blood†.  Chinekeee! Another cliché, Won by blood! This is nothing more than intellectual gymnastics. My friends this is extreme hyperbole for anyone to now start claiming that Igbo won the war they lost as much as I understood the reverse psychology here but this is more than a stretch. All Igbo have done and is still doing since after the war is trying to survive in a very unfamiliar territory of dead Enders where everything Igbo believed in is turned upside down. How can anyone say that Igbo won by any intellectual contortion unless one is speaking ironically, when Igbo are starved of federal programs and investment,  that Igbo won and Igbo are poised to pay toll to use the new proposed Niger bridge, Igbo won and they are being killed and murdered daily by their detractors even after the war, Igbo won and they cannot run for election where they are born and raised, Igbo won and their education, their certificate, creativity, innovation, and qualification mean nothing, Igbo won, when the north are making prostitutes out of Igbo women, Igbo won, when Obansanjo can wake up one day and close Ibeto cement factory,  Igbo won when they cannot boast of a full fledged International Airport, Igbo won when they cannot boast of a functional seaport, Igbo won and you have more Igbo scattered all over the world and you call that winning. Give me some breaks. That is not winning, that is called surviving. I think we should stop being cute and unrealistic. Igbo are not super humans.This is a case of confusing the incredible survival skills of the Igbo with winning. Won what, if you want to make the case that Igbo survived the efforts to annihilate them, we can all agree on that but to then misinterpret Igbo survival as having won in the larger scale of things is nothing but fiction and reverse psychology folks. If anything, this is exactly why I wanted to isolate the issues to prevent people from hiding under generalizations that cannot be supported with fact or realities. This is more evidence that the status quo is indefensible if the only way to defend it is to resort to gimmicks and making things up and allowing our imagination to run wild. Now, I cannot pretend to fully understand the phrase nor do I know where this conversation is going at this time when cliches, platitude and phrases are substituted for facts. Most Igbo will make the case that the Igbo have shed enough blood as it is and no more should be permitted, though more are still dying in the hands of Boko Haram. If Igbo won by blood, why then are Igbo still shedding their blood after forty something years? To be clear, Igbo never fought the civil war to conquer Nigeria or win anybody instead Igbo went to war not only to defend themselves but to  stay away from folks they had nothing in common with. For Nwakanma to make the civil war seem like an expansionist war by Igbo to control others and Nigeria is like holding Nigerian history upside down on its head. This cliché is hardly a defense for the status quo because it will not suffice. Where is the defense or case for the status quo because the readers are still waiting.

As if the above cliché was not enough, you went on to say the following that “Nigeria is nonetheless, God's gift to the Igbo. Nations engage in long battles of conquest to expand their spaces; the Igbo did not fire s shot. This churlish question of who "owns the land" ought by now to be a settled question, because if you look, the Igbo people themselves have established a claim on Nigeria, and it would require a humongous act of cleansing to eradicate them from the cranies of Nigeria where they have established themselves†. Another cliché.  I had wished that Rex had not gone down this route of invoking God and figuring what God is thinking or what God revealed to him, though that is the fate of those that try to defend the indefensible, they employ all kinds of ruse and distractions.  I expected a fact and reality based defense from you. I say this because we know how many have misused and abused the name of God and I am afraid that this is a distraction. This type of defense takes everyone down the superstitious lane. Are we now supposed to debate whether Nigeria is a gift to the Igbo or not, this is hardly the kind of conversation we should be having regarding Igbo situation in Nigeria, a conversation that is bereaved of facts and suffused with suppositions and conjectures. I can easily say no, that the land is not a gift to the Igbo and you say no, you see, it is not a sustainable conversation.

In your response you mad the case that since 1970 that Igbo have “mentally withdrawn from Nigeria and have lived in Nigeria, not as part of Nigeria†and on the other hand you made another case that the ownership of the Nigerian land should be a settled question by virtue of the wide reach of the Igbo into the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. I am afraid that the two cases cannot be true simultaneously because mentally withdrawn minds can not accomplish the feat that Igbo have accomplished since 1970 by fanning all over the country and doing great exploits. So, which is which? I will presume that this is not the type of argument you intended in making, though, I do understand the mental split which is the economy on one level and politics and rapprochements on the other, sadly, there is no one from SW or the North ready to engage the Igbo at that intellectual altitude where most of your dissatisfaction lay.

Before I continue, I will like to address the fountainhead of your argument which is Zik and co’s legacy and your assertion that current Igbo is lacking in the kind of leadership of Zik and co. It is quite obvious that you are enamored by Zik’s exploits hence your soft spot and romanticization of the so called the sixty era. It is interesting how forgiving you are when it concerns the leaders of the sixties era and how much you are ready to truncate history in other to make your case. When you think about it, Zik and co did not disappear with the sixties era, they survived the civil war and continued to be Igbo leaders throughout the 1970s. As far as I can recall no one or group contested the Igbo leadership with Zik and co throughout the 70s, so it was assumed and so it stayed. Zik lived till 1996. Is it not a fact that the so called founding leaders of the sixties including Zik were responsible in sowing the seeds of discord that brought the first republic to its knees and the wild wind that we are reaping today? Is it not true that it was the failure of leadership of the so called the pioneers of Nigerian independence that plunged Nigeria in the present nightmares? Is it not a fact that the pioneers were bad examples for the future generation? Is it not true that the legacy they left is more harmful than good and is it not true that whatever little good they did was consumed by their utter failures.  The truth of the matter is that the sixties leaders created so many problems with the attendant mistrust, suspicion and animus intentionally or not back then that Nigerians are suffering from today. You have the election into the Western House of Assembly that resulted in the famous carpet-crossing, the Eyo Ita controversy, the 1956 debate whether the south should proceed with their independence and the north will follow suit when they are ready, the intrigues surrounding the imprisonment of Awolowo for treason in 1963, the rigging of 1962 census, the debacle of the federal parliamentary election of 1964, the politics that Ahmadu-bello and co played with the military and so many other missteps of the sixties leadership. This is the leadership Rex wants us to emulate, seriously! If you think about it, the sixties leaders brought nothing but chaos. A leadership that could not succeed once in the smooth transfer of power from one regime to another is a legacy one has to boast of. Let us call a spade a spade, those leaders sucked.

One thing that needs to be made clear was that the so called pioneers of the country’s independence were very advantaged and privileged and they squandered it and failed in their in responsibility lead. They operated in the most opportune time in the country history and relatively speaking in the freest political and economic environments that Nigerians have ever witnessed before and after independence compared to today. The sixties milieu was made possible because they mainly operated under the British who despite their shortcomings and colonial interests allowed the system to breath by the application of standard and merit. Even after being afforded all these privileges, the pioneers still failed and plunged the country into chaos. And there goes the leadership legacy that Rex was beckoning everyone to. 

For Igbo leadership as much as Nwakanma would like to wish away the fact that these leaders survived the civil war and dropped the ball of leadership thereby creating the leadership vacuum that Rex is bellyaching about. During the sixties under the old order which the British created by applying standard and merit Zik and co were able to operate ad libitum, enabling Zik to negotiate for Igbo their position in the larger polity with some efficacies. The same atmosphere of freedom enabled Zik to conceive and birth the University of Nigeria Nsukka , the same environ gave Dr. Mike Opara the then governor of Eastern region the impetus to make the Eastern region the fastest growing economy in the world. The same atmosphere engendered by standard and merit enabled the Igbo not only to prosper but to over represent themselves in all endeavors in Nigeria. It was the same atmospherics of freedom, not a perfect freedom I might add but enough freedom that allowed Zik and co to represent the Igbo effectively and to earn the trust of the Igbo.  It is mindful to note that despite this atmosphere of reasonable freedom that these leaders for Nigerian independence (Zik, Balewa, Awo etc) operated in that they still failed the nation in all their politicking, their jostling, alliances, manipulations to arrive at any tangible national consensus which eventually dumped the country into chaos.

It is against this background that I juxtapose the events that transpired in Igbo land after the war going forward. I know that it might come as a surprise to some to read that the leadership vacuum that Rex was talking about started after the civil war because Zik and co failed in their responsibility to continue to lead the Igbo and thereby left Igbo leaderless, though it is pertinent to note that their failure to lead the Igbo after the war was not conscious or deliberate but was induced by change of circumstances. The question then is why was Zik and co able to operate reasonable well before the war and not after the war. The simply answer was because there was a drastic change of order; the new order was antithetical to everything that existed in the old order. The new order comprised of young military northerners who were hardly educated, ignorant, naïve, lacking in inspiration, in western idealism and freedom and to make matters worse, Awo, one of Zik’s achieve ravels who was a jail bird in the old order when Zik was running the show so to say was now running the show in the new order. Zik and co were staggered by Awo’s presence and did not know how to react to the new order and even if they reacted the new order did not care what they taught either, so Zik and co retreated and employed the strategy of non action. That inaction in the early 1970s was devastating to the Igbo and became the genesis of the leadership vacuum in Igbo land and since then Igbo have been trying to arrest the situation. As I indicated earlier, that the failure by Zik and co to lead the Igbo after the war was not deliberate but came about because of the willful, calculated and concerted effort to stamp out any vestiges of Igbo anywhere they were found by the new order, by first neutralizing all the known Igbo leaders by rendering them ineffective by all means necessary, destroying all Igbo innovations and technologies, sidetracking all Igbo scientists and elites, forcibly raping and marrying Igbo girls without consequences or repercussions, stationing military barracks all over Igbo land and killing young Igbo men with impunity. These were things that could not happen in the old order because Zik and co were there to defend the Igbo interest as Awo defended the SW interest. When Zik and co were not able to defend the Igbo in the new order as they did in the old order, Igbo had no one to turn to and the situation created a dissonance and disharmony that chipped away on the trust Igbo had on Zik and co. In my opinion, there was nothing Zik and co could do given the circumstances of the new order, so this is not a matter of blaming Zik, it is a matter of putting things in their proper perspective. As far as I can recall from 1970 to 1979 when the ban on political parties was lifted by Obansanjo, there was no contestation of Igbo leadership, by default it fell on the leadership from the old order who were Zik and co. What cannot be contested either was that the leadership of Zik and co were missing in action throughout those 70s either because they were told in uncertain terms to stay clear or that all the vibes they were getting told them they were not wanted or needed by the new order now being run by Awo and the military north.

To further demonstrate how Zik and co were rendered in fecund and ineffective was when the big dog in the house, Awo started throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at the Igbo and Zik and co could not challenge him or do anything about it. When Awo decided in his infinite wisdom after the war to award every Igbo regardless of how much they had in Nigerian banks twenty one pounds, what did Zik and co do? When Awo decided to starve the Igbo by banning stock fish and Okirika ( used clothes), when Awo and his cabal supported the abandoned property regime to sow discord between the minority and Igbo and when Awo and his cabal unleashed the mother of all evil on the Igbo by instigating the indigenization of foreign owned corporations. The single most deadlest policy that wiped out the Igbo from the main stream of Nigerian macro economy couple with the fact that Igbo were still trying to find their way into the federal ministries where they were disproportionately underrepresented. That single policy of indigenization of 1972 packed enough punch to create the shattered anthill or broken dame syndrome in Igbo land that Rex was talking about because it brought Igbo to their economic knees and rendered so many Igbo unemployed and destitute. It created the first phase of fathers and grownups that could not meet their obligations as parents due to either age or limited or non transferable skills and had to depend on their wives or children with the attendant shame and humiliation. The effects of that policy spoke volume to the Igbo because it said to Igbo you are under the control of the new order and you cannot do jack, you can go to hell, where are your so called leaders, we have neutralized your leaders and at this time you do not have leaders and you are on your own? No description can properly caption the hopelessness of the Igbo condition at that time. To boot, Zik and co could not protect or save the Igbo from these onslaughts.  That moment in history altered the Igbo psychic because truly truly Igbo had no effective leaders at that time, leaders are supposed to protect and lead and no one filled that shoe. Yes, it can be said that Igbo lost confidence and trust they had for the Igbo leadership, tucked their tails between their legs and moved on without anyone to complain to and fended for themselves. Is this a case of assigning blame, of course not? It is a case of understanding where we cometh from and quo Vadis. It is not enough to identify the symptoms of Igbo society, it is crucial that we also identify the causes and most importantly that we do not conflate symptoms and disease/causes nor interchange them because it matters greatly when they are confused. So, when you think about it, it becomes obvious that the leadership vacuum that Rex was blaming on the present generation is misplaced. You quipped that “In the past, the Igbo would not run from a good fight. They would confront head-on, for good or ill, the forces that trouble them.†What Rex failed to add was that it depends on the circumstance and regime in place because what Igbo witnessed with the leadership of Zik and co under the new order in the early 70s was far from the above braggadocio rather what we witness was more of silence and inaction, remember though that Awo was running the show then and how could have Zik and co responded effectively more so in a military regime? This is not blaming Zik, if you had subjected the best minds from America to the same treatment and order they would have probably performed worse than the Igbo. 

As the new order/regime after the war was turning everything Igbo believed in like excellence, merit, standard, innovation, creativity and hard work on their heads and dishing out all kinds of bad and deadly policies against the Igbo, their impacts and effects were gradually grinding the Igbo and changing the dynamics within the Igbo system for the worst (akin to slowly boiling a frog in low heat) particularly when there were no voices to speak on behalf of the Igbo. The Igbo situation at that time gave suffering and dying in silence a new meaning, Unfortunately, as far as some were concern because nobody spoke up for the Igbo, the suffering never occurred. Ironically, because Igbo overcame so much so quickly some have difficulty believing that Igbo suffered any atrocities. For that Igbo simmered for years and decades as the new order relentlessly attacked the heart and core of Igbo ethos. The seventies saw the starting of the erosion of Igbo confidence and trust in their leadership. Igbo have done well since then and majority of Igbo complaints are legit and Igbo need not apologize for them.

The hope and aspiration of the Igbo were raised again when 1979 came around and the ban on politic was lifted where Zik and co were supposed to excel. As disappointed as Igbo were about Zik and co leadership of the 1970, though it was unspoken, they still wished for a better future and for that they did not abandon Zik and co because Igbo wanted Igbo leaders to support and support was what they gave Zik and co in 1979. Unfortunately, the election of 1979 was anticlimactic for Igbo in respect to Zik and co, despite all the enthusiasm, hope, confidence and trust that Igbo reposed on them. The result of the election was very revealing to the extent that it demonstrated that Zik and co had lost their broad leadership appeal beyond Igbo land. Recall that Zik’s leadership stretched from the Yoruba heart land to the Midwest and Eastern region in the sixties. After the 1979 election, Zik’s party NPP was only able to win two states, Anambra and Imo. When you couple the fact that Zik and co were hardly able to come to Igbo rescue throughout the 1970s with the fact that Zik’s leadership is now cocooned within the two Igbo states, it is not that difficult to see how disappointed Igbo were and how they started to disengage the confidence and trust they had on the leadership. Zik and co had lost their touch and effectiveness as leaders because leaders are supposed to be efficacious.

What I have set out to do was to demonstrate that Dr. Nwakanma premise truncated history, hence was biased against what he called new Igbo. First of all, I do not buy into this old and new Igbo, Igbo is Igbo period. The only difference is the circumstances that Igbo find themselves. If the case I have made above has any import, it simply demonstrated that Zik and co probably did worse in the early seventies than the Igbo they left behind. Zik and co did not lead in the seventies therefore they did not leave any model for the future Igbo to emulate in the new order and regime. My point is that it is totally unfair to lash out at the current Igbo for failure of leadership in the manner Nwakanma has phrase his botheration in the new order when Zik and co did not demonstrate any better leadership within the same new order. Again, this is not a blame game; it is a game of proper perspective and context. It is my contention that no one could have done any better given the circumstances that Igbo were confronted with but today Igbo have done great by surpassing not only their own expectations but their traducer’s expectations as well within the Nigerian context. 

I will complete my response in my next piece.

Good luck folks,

Fredrick.

Why Nigeria is not viable for the Igbo

By

Fredrick Onwumbiko

 

Nwanna  Nwakanma,

 

Nice to hear from you, hope all is well. In my response to your earlier piece, I expressed my concern that when it comes to the Igbo situation in Nigeria that some folks tend to see it as one dimensional instead of as a multifaceted subject that it is. In other words, some people see all the aspects that make up the Igbo situation in Nigeria as separate and desperate and thereby fail to appreciate the interconnectedness of all the aspect and how they impact on each other. The reality is that if one person has a mono perspective and another has a more multifaceted perspective, the likelihood that they will end up talking pass each other becomes highly possible.  In your initial piece you left the reader with the impression that you were somewhat satisfied with the other aspects of Igbo survival and performance and only wished that Igbo could retrieve some of their sixties cultural ethos when it comes to respecting the elders, community control, effective Town  unions that you will be untroubled. Just like I suspected, things are not always what they seem like, in your follow up response your grouse about the Igbo moved and shifted its emphasis from Igbo ethos to Igbo economics and business practices not that both are completely divorced but the emphasis matters. In other to avoid making the crux of the conversation a moving target, I believe that if we chose one issue at a time and addressed it thoroughly it might advance us some clarity and as well as shed some lights on other related subject.

Having read about your position in the past regarding Igbo in Nigeria, I have waited for the most opportune time to ask you to properly defend your position that Igbo are better off remaining part of Nigeria than being independent, all things considered. I guess there is no better time than now. It will be appreciated if you could make a robust case for your position that Igbo are better off with how Nigeria is presently constituted beyond the tedious facts that Igbo have been part of the country for more than fifty years, that Igbo need the Nigerian population to succeed, that the country is still a young country and the current defense that Igbo have investments all over the country. As a matter of fact, protecting Igbo investment in the north was one of the rational that Zik proffered in his reluctance to part with the north in 1956 there off. Igbo ended up losing them anyway, so it is important to have that in mind. Because I believe that none of the above is a cogent apologia, what we expect is for anyone who is inclined to your position to identify all the things and attributes that the Igbo have in common with not only the north but with the south west that will ensure a better future for all participates. I will give the counter argument below with the hope that by the time we are done, we will be in a position to delve into other specific aspect of Igbo situation like marginalization.

Nigeria is not viable for Igbo

My counter argument to your position is that Nigeria is not a viable enterprise when all things concerning Nigeria are considered. The artificiality of how Nigeria was constituted is most glaring, the south west has nothing in common with the south east neither do the south west and south east have anything in common with the north and the uniqueness of the incompatibility of the constituting entities has bedeviled the country and have made any kind of national conversation impossible. These entities have dissimilar cultures, languages, outlook in life and geography. Mainly because these entities have nothing in common and I mean nothing in common, they have no common basis for any reasonable dialogue. As much as some have assumed, since the country was constituted Nigerians have never had a national conversation that addressed their collective desires and fate because their aspirations and dreams are desperate and do not intersect. The Nigerian enterprise has been a pretence all along, consequently, Nigeria as a country has been mired in controversy after controversy with no end in sight. The recent concluding national conference is evidence of the impasse that attend any attempt in having a national dialogue, again this is due to the parallel interests of the constituting entities. To further make the point, in other to have a productive conversation even between friends not to speak of national conversation, each participant must bring something to the table, something in this case refers to what each participant has contributed to the building of the relationship, in this case the Nigerian enterprise and what have they done to ensure the progress and prosperity of the enterprise. To a greater degree the north have nothing to offer in that regard and to lesser degree the south west. Until the day that the north and the south west can proudly say to Nigerians in concrete terms that these are the things they are bringing to the table, these are the things they have done and these are the things they intend to do in the future for the well being of the country, there will not be a productive national conversation. The failure of the north and the south west to answer to these questions renders the country enviable because more hands are tearing down and obstructing the system than are building.  To that end, I do not think that Igbo should be part of a group whose actions are devoid of patriotism for the country.

 

Nigerian ethos and who determines it?

 The reality is that there is no country that is constituted like Nigeria that is prospering. There are no countries that have as many separate and desperate peoples like Nigeria that are thriving societies. Why some folks believe that the fate of the country Nigeria will be different from those other countries that are constituted the same way beats the imagination. I know that a lot of people believe in miracles but not in this case given the antecedence of the desperate entities that constitute Nigeria. Some want Nigeria to be the exception but Nigeria is worse than the ordinary.  All you need to do is look at the thriving societies like America, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Italy and you will find a common thread running through them. That common thread is the imposition of the ethos of the dominant race or ethnic population on the minority populations except in military detector-ships. The other common thread is the obvious competence and effective leadership of the dominant population.  Also there is no society where the ruling majority group is incompetent, does not add value to the country or provide ineffective leadership that their system is prospering.  In Nigeria, the dominate north has failed repeatedly to add any kind of value to the Nigerian enterprise and worse have demonstrated nothing but incompetence and ineffective leadership. Unfortunately, their failure of leadership has not stopped them from imposing their ethos that is opposed to all the believe system of the industrial and progressive societies on the Nigerian minorities. The ethos of the north is the greatest obstacle to the progress of the country toward a better future.

It is interesting that some are all upset with the Igbo because the Nigerian system has forced them to water down some of their cultural ethos but one thing that must be understood is that the cultural ethos of any country is dictated and imposed by the dominant group in that society and I invite anyone to proffer a case where the minority ethos is imposed on the majority leadership, an aberration may be. In other words, the variant ethos impregnating the Igbo land is a reflection of the ethos of the dominant north and their leadership where excellence, professionalism, rationality, prudence, merit, standard, creativity, skills and performance are shunned and ridiculed and rather criminality, overnight millionaires, fraud, ineptitude, disrespect for the law, incompetency, underachievers, derelicts, reprobates and the morally bankrupt are celebrated. In cases where the minority ethos is in alignment with the majority then there is no imposition on the minority. As long as Igbo persist under the shadow of the north, they will suffer under the weight of northern ethos. That is the realities of life in almost every society, that the majority gets to determined the ethos of the country. If Igbo want to restore the integrity of their ethos they must find their way out of under the domination of the north. Simply hoping for time to ameliorate the situation is a fool’s errand.  The northern syndrome is insufferable and unfortunately not time sensitive and neither is it responsive or amenable to any human remedy. Once again, the Igbo ethos which embodies excellence, professionalism, rationality, prudence, merit, standard, creativity, skills and performance is diametrically opposed and irreconcilable to the northern ethos. That is why the status quo is bad for Igbo.  Igbo cannot build a viable nation with a people whose culture and believes are parallel to theirs.

 

Northern culture antithetical to progress

The Nigerian reality is not only that the ethos of the ruling northern majority is antipodal to the ethos of the Igbo,  it is hostile to everything that the civilized world cherish like democracy, rules, merit, standard, skills, qualifications, industry, integrity, patriotism, innovation, creativity, management, perseverance, risk taking, technology, proficiency, accomplishment, expertise, talent  and  economic progress.  The list of the attributes above constitute the Igbo ethos and none do Igbo have in common with the north. The reason why the status quo is bad for the Igbo is due to the fact that Igbo will never be able to realize their full potential and achieve their goals because the north do not care about achievements.  The people that wallow in Panglossian will like to down play the fact that Igbo hardly have anything in common with the majority north or the south west and given the way that Nigeria is structured that the majority north will continue to impose their culture which is totally contrary to Igbo ethos. The majority north and the Igbo are like two straight lines that will never meet and time and patience will not minimize their incompatibility. The advocates of the status quo knowing what they know now should never complain when the imposition of the ethos of the majority north continues to irreparably strangulate the Igbo ethos in other to manifest itself just like majority in other nations do.

 

The majority north are not suited for leadership

The reason the status quo is bad for the Igbo is because either the majority north are innately not suited for leadership or because they deliberately rejected all the necessary attributes requisite for effective leadership, for that, they are left without the imperative tools for leadership and for that reason they failed to lead and worse still they will not do the dutiful by allowing those that can lead to lead. For more than thirty years the northern leadership squandered the resources of the country without a single achievement to show for it. Despite the fact that they moved a lot of the nation’s resources to the north, the common northerner is still worse off than the rest of the country in education, health and standard of living. If the northern leadership cannot lead the north to a better future, how can they lead the whole country to anywhere? In other words, the north cannot give to others what they cannot give to their people. The northern leadership has continued to fail their people as they have continued to fail Nigeria as a whole without any sign of changing course. Anyone thinking that the north will be part of the bunch that will help lead Nigeria out of its doldrums is whistling past the graveyard because the north simply do not know how even if their lives depended on it. It is then utopian to believe that further partnering with the north will be beneficial and produce a better result than it has done so far. There is no evidence to support such speculation except self delusion. The best the northern and south west leaderships have done for the Igbo is to deny them every conceivable federal investment due the Igbo like an international airport that befits the itinerant nature of the Igbo, sea port that reflects the business activities of the Igbo, most importantly road and rail infrastructure projects and worse throw all kinds of impediments to thwart Igbo independent efforts. The north and south west do not have the stuff for leadership and cannot lead period and Igbo should have nothing to do with them.

 

The mirage of Igbo presidency

One of the delusions that many status quo advocates and those that are fixated on the election of an Igbo president is that they believe that time will mitigate the Igbo situation and most hopefully that an Igbo presidency will serve as a panacea to the condition and suffering of the Igbo. Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Igbo presidency in the present dispensation will constitute nothing but a temporary bandage that is if the strictures embedded in the present system by the majority allow him to be effective. Igbo do not need temporal solutions, they need long time stability. It has always been my contention that the day the fate of the south west depends on a south west presidency, the south east on a south east presidency and likewise the north, then that that is the clearest evidence that there was never a country Nigeria to start with and that this is a deadly game no one knows how to terminate. In a more viable environ, Igbo or any tribe for that matter do not necessarily need an Igbo president, what Igbo and Nigerians need is a competent and effective president that will serve the interest of all Nigerians regardless of where he/she comes from. It is obvious that such expectation is pan-glossian given Nigerian history that continues to repeat itself. The fate of every Nigerian should never be solely dependent on his tribe’s man being the president, it should and must depend on any president of the country. Now, this is the folly in simply clamoring for Igbo presidency without thinking long term, So, if an Igbo is elected president for eight years, what happens to Igbo interest when he leaves office, I guess they will return back to square one and wait for the next time an Igbo will be elected before their interests will be addressed again. What a dizzying thought?  Until people contemplate the resultant vicious circle of instability which is exactly what the country is reaping now, well meaning Nigerians would have no choice but to rethink the mistake called Nigerian marriage. It then can be said that if Igbo cannot look beyond Igbo presidency with a sense of hope, stability and anticipation of continued progress and prosperity, then Igbo have no business being part of the Nigerian charade. Regrettably, that is the Nigerian reality and that is why the present system is not sustainable

 

Northern educational disparity an impediment to democracy.

The exercise of democracy requires a literate citizenry, the northern leadership, however, had done everything possible to deny its people that tool that democracy needs which is education.  Even before Nigerian independence, the educational disparity between the north and the south has been a subject of serious debate. Some have contended like Zik did that with time the educational gap will narrow, fifty years after independence, there is no available data to support that prediction. The north from immemorial have always rejected the agents of progress like education and that is why despite the fact that the north started their interface with the British in the late eighteen hundreds up till date only about 23 percent of its pupils are enrolling into elementary and secondary institutions and it is noteworthy that the 23 percent enrolment into secondary schools is made possible by the application of the lowest standard. As a matter of fact, if the same standard that students in the south are subjected to is applied to the northern students the educational system in the north could literally be shutdown. As much as the lowest standard available is applied to the northern students to enable them attend secondary and university education, the same northern students are expected to compete with the southern students in the work environ. Ironically, the northern students have fewer problems bagging a job than their southern more educated colleagues who are left to fend for themselves. The fact that this fraud and unfairness have no end in sight, where the least qualified are preferred over the most qualified makes the Nigerian enterprise unsustainable. The corollary is that as long as the country’s majority embraces kakistocracy where the least qualified and most unprincipled citizens are empowered, failure of leadership will continue to be the nation’s allotment. This is not only antithetical to Igbo it is bad for the Igbo and Igbo should find a way not to help perpetuate the practice. The survival of democracy requires an educated populace and the level of illiteracy of 60% to 70% in the north cannot sustain the dictates of a robust democracy which also means that the quota system is not going away any sooner. Unless the country wants to run one type of democracy in the north and a different type in the south, that is obviously not feasible and bad for the country and bad for Igbo. Another reason why the status quo is not good for the Igbo and the Boko Haram exploits are not making the bleak situation any better.

 

Sharia as a wage in Nigerian unity

As we speak about 12 states in the north have adopted the Sharia law which is antithetical to the Igbo. The country cannot run to two constitutions simultaneously, one the federal constitution for the south and the other the Sharia for the north.  It is against everything Igbo believe in, it is against the ethos of the Igbo. Igbo have suffered incalculable loses of lives and properties in the hand of the north for more than eighty years and continues to suffer it to the present. How can Igbo continue with a people that murder them at the slightest of excuse? How can Igbo build a country with people who will murder them because of their religion? The status quo is bad for the Igbo and an alternative must be sort.

 

The northern state exclusion of southerners from state employment

Since and after Nigerian independence the north have always seen themselves as a separate country. They insisted on having a northern civil service commission separate and apart from the federal civil service in the south. Ironsi might have collapsed the northern civil service commission into the general federal civil service commission but the north is still holding on to their state civil service commissions.  The northern states have an unspoken policy that was designed to protect the northerners from the southerners from state employment. The policy bares the employment of any southerners within the state controlled apparatus because they believe that their northern employees will not be able to compete. The southerners can do their youth service in the northern states for the required one year and are let go even at the expense of the northern citizens, particularly when southern doctors are let go but the northern leadership does not care. The north are not making any apologies for the policy and according to them hell will freeze over first before they change the policy. This does not sound like people that are enthusiastic to co-exist with the rest of the country except for what they can exploit from the south to the north. The question is why some Igbo feel it necessary that co-existing with the north that does not want anything to do with the Igbo is the best thing for Igbo. To continue the marriage is like allowing the north to eat their cake and have it back. This is bad for the Igbo and the country.

 

Northern corruption undermines the stability of the country

Bearing in mind that the majority always imposes its culture on the rest of the country, it is mainly in the north that majority of their millionaires and billionaires have no source of income to explain their riches. It is then no wonder that the only thing the north can afford is to export their type of life style to the rest of the country. A life style that is not accountable to their people or the nation, the life style that celebrates fraud, criminality, corruption, mediocrity and ineptitude. Some have ranted that corruption must be checked, how, when the majority is corrupt? The fact that the majority is corrupt explains why the country has been crippled by pervasive decadence. As long as the northern leadership fails to add value to the progress of the country, the country is bound to squalor and hopelessness.  The possibility of the north reversing course is not foreseeable and that is bad for the Igbo and their progress.

  

Institutionalizing mediocrity by quota system

Probably most do not know that the 1999 constitution contains a provision to share all the federal employments based on population rather than on standard, skills, merit, qualification and performance. Based on this provision the north stands to gain disproportionally in employment notwithstanding that they come into the job market with the lowest skills and qualification. Because the north claim to have majority population, using the quota system, the north will occupy more than half of the federal work force. Is it then surprising that Nigerian system is stagnant when the least qualified northerners make up probably more than half of the federal working force. The quota system was enshrined in the constitution to blunt the south from dominating the employment market in Nigeria. The enforcement of the quota system forever shunned the use of qualification, merit, skills, creativity, hard work and performance as a yardstick for employment. The possibility of reversing or expunging the provision from the constitution is not likely therefore the status quo persists.

 

The above is not exhaustive of the reasons why the status quo is bad for the Igbo because there are more. To reiterate, it is important to understand that for Igbo to continue in the present union with the north that that will ensure the continued subjugation of the Igbo by the north. Historically and presently Igbo had never had anything in common with the dominant north. Igbo do not have the same culture, language and outlook on life in common with the north. The north and the east are like two parallel lines that will never meet. The Igbo and the Hausa have nothing in common, need one shout this from a roof top. So, anyone that keeps thinking that there is a bright future in this union is day dreaming.

 

Good luck,

Nwanne Ezeji nwann...@yahoo.com [IgboWorldForum] <IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com>	Jun 14 (10 days ago)
to IgboWorldForum

 

Mazi Onwubiko

If I may crave your indulgence, did you really forget to title your thought- provoking piece as: IGBO MANISFESTO - A COROLLARY TO ABURI ACCORD? It should have been apropos in my humble. Nobody in our recent memory has succinctly articulated the truth of the matter as headlined in your exquisite thesis below. I wish this could be turned into little Redbook ala China’s Mao Tse-tung Communist Manifesto of the years gone by and made a mandatory reading in all Igbo schools starting from "ota akara" level if you get my drift. Just a wish! Most importantly, I hope yours will serve as an eye opener, an object lesson to certain of our young Turks, the ‘Jonny come lately’ in Igbo historical political road-rolling who seem for quite some time to be in an untenable ‘talking-more and thinking-less’ mode.

 

The Igboland we grew up in was and is still a land where innovation meets determination. Who does not know that the north’s (as represented by the sadist Hausa/Fulani clique) ontological mission is to neuter Igbo aspiration. Since the 50s, our people have been subjected to three harrowing waves of remorless pogrom 1945, 1953, and topped by the 1966 genocide. As you aptly chronicled, the north’s induced opportunism and shortsightedness has almost succeeded in killing the renowned Spartan spirit that once propelled Igbo to highest heights in pre-war Nigerian socio-economic cum political life

 

Given the facts as you laid out and with all due respect, it behooves a personality like Mazi Nwakanma  with some decency still left in his frame to come out without further prompting and apologize to Igbo nation with the same vigor he employed denigrating them in his last outing. It hurts not a little reading such cants from him.

 

Without doubt you must have been frustrated by Nwakanma’s latest gratuitous insult. General Emeka Ojukwu himself had had occasion during his sojourn with us to bare his fangs frustrated as he claimed by “people parading themselves as intellectuals …who present analysis without proffering solutions and who present clichés as solutions for originality.â€

 

Make no mistake about it, Mazi Nwakanma is an intellectual renowned for his meta-analytical skill and prowess; but this time around floundered big time.  Hopefully you have articulated for us all some of the solutions that seem to have eluded him all this while. I guess you are as much echoing the General: “No more ‘clichés" folks. We need to put a stop to such false narrative as propagated if we are to survive as a tribal nation in this Nigeria Boko haram political milieu.    

      

Ya Gazie

 

Nwamazi  

The law enforcement people seem not to be helping matters, they probably even make matters worse. It is said that the head ranking officers would sometimes even tell their junior officers how much (‘returns’) to bring to them at the end of the day from bribes. Rumor also has it that some of them even make guns available for criminals to operate with, with the hope that they would have a share of the loots.

If a group of people are like that, what would motivate a man to fight and die for them? Only a divine personality like Jesus Christ, can do such a thing.
 
Since the end of the Biafran Nigeria Civil war, the pride of being an Igbo has drastically gone done from the way I see it. The desire of an average Igbo person wanting to support and help another Igbo person in need has diminished. Trust among the Igbos has also diminished. The rise of crime in the areas occupied by the Igbos has gone up in alarming rate. Originally, an Igbo man sees another Igbo man as brother but now to many, another Igbo man is viewed as a target to defrauded money from. Kidnapping, highway robbery defrauding people of their hard earned money called 419, is at its worst in Igbo land. Old men and women who are supposed to retire and enjoy their old age in their villages are now forced to l iv e in big towns because of the fear of being kidnapped in their villages. To a greater extent, the Igbo people probably brought these problems to themselves. Even when a man is openly known to be a criminal, some Igbo rulers would go ahead to
award him a chieftaincy title, and would even make him the chairman of many of their major events.

The Igbo elites, who should be in the forefront to encourage the Igbo culture, are the ones that often forbid their children from speaking Igbo language in their homes for fear that their children may not do well in the English language in their schools or probably as a class statue. The resultant effect is that an Igbo child, born in Igbo land, who has grown up in Igbo land would end up speaking only the English language and not knowing much about the Igbo culture and tradition.

The law enforcement people seem not to be helping matters, they probably even make matters worse. It is said that the head ranking officers would sometimes even tell their junior officers how much (‘returns’) to bring to them at the end of the day from bribes. Rumor also has it that some of them even make guns available for criminals to operate with, with the hope that they would have a share of the loots.

If a group of people are like that, what would motivate a man to fight and die for them? Only a divine personality like Jesus Christ, can do such a thing.

 
Douglas

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[Thomas]

Dr Zik could have done more for Nigeria given his intellectual profile. I think that Awolowo was a better visionary than Zik. Zik should have been instrumental in laying the foundation for a strong, modern Nigeria. He did not; he sat back and watched the unfolding of the political mediocrity that caused the military to step into Nigerian politics.
 

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Subject: [africanworldforum] Re: [Nigeria360::Live] Re: ZIK, MBADIWE AND ROOSEVELT IN HOWARD UNIVERSITY 1960: Dr.AZIKIWE AND DR.OKPARA ACHIEVEMENTS NUTURED GREAT LEADERSHIPS FOR IGBOS AND NIGERIA:. Re: DID AZIKIWE AND CO LEAVE A LEADERSHIP VACUUM IN IGBO LAND? [1 Attachment]
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[ishola williams]

 

It is a well known story that Zik as the first President of the country did ask the then outgoing British Commander of the Nigerian Army to take over the the Government.He told the President that he could not do it as a British officer in a new independent Nigeria apart from being abnormal, but would discuss the matter with senior  Nigerian military officers especially Commodore Wey.He went back to tell the President that it could not be done.

We all know the history of coup--etats in Nigeria thereafter.

iw 

 

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On Thursday, June 26, 2014 10:45 AM, Thomas <thoma...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dr Zik could have done more for Nigeria given his intellectual profile. I think that Awolowo was a better visionary than Zik. Zik should have been instrumental in laying the foundation for a strong, modern Nigeria. He did not; he sat back and watched the unfolding of the political mediocrity that caused the military to step into Nigerian politics.
 

(29) https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21topic/usaafricadialogue/M5zbergg9u8

Quote"By 1935 when Azikiwe returned to Africa and settled in the Gold Coast, Francis Kwame Nkrumah was still in a Catholic Seminary studying to be a priest. It was through Azikiwe's activist journalism and his address to the Ghana Teachers Union that Nkrumah first met Zik, who began to mentor him, and in fact convinced him to seek further education in the US. He gave him introductory and recommendation letters to his old school in Lincoln into which Nkrumah was enrolled in 1938 with other men who had been inspired by Zik - Ebenezer Ako Adjei, from Ghana, K.O. Mbadiwe, Mbonu Ojike, Nwafor Orizu, Okechukwu Ikejiani, Nwankwo Chukwuemeka, Abdulkareem. K Disu, K.A.B Quartey-Jones also from Ghana, and Okongwu. These men arrived Lincoln U between 1938 and 1939. These were all acolytes of the great Zik, and te footsoldiers of his Liberation movdement in West Africa. Nkrumah's contemporaries in Lincoln in fact were Ojike, Orizu, Ikejiani, Okongwu, A.K. Disu and Mbadiwe from Nigeria. In fact Nkrumah, Mbadiwe, Okongwu, Disu, took the Lincoln-Columbia route in the footseteps of Zik. Of all this group of Zikists, the Ghanaian K.A.B. Quartey-Jones became Azikiwe's first biographer ( Cambridge UP, 1961), A.K. Disu (Kings college, Lagos, Lincoln, Columbia and Harvard Law), became  first, associate Editor of the West African Pilot, Zik's private secretary as Premier of the East, General Manager Eastern Nigerian Information Services and later Permanent Secretary to the President of the federation. To put it blandly, in other words, if Nkrumah had been a Nigerian, he would have been part of the NCNC. To put it another way, Zik paved the way for Nkrumah and the nationalist movement in Ghana which was in a doldrum in 1935 until Azikiwe arrived the scene and with the likes of I.T.A. Wallace Johnson awakened the defiance movement and the anti-colonial movement in Ghana from 1935-1937. Following the sedition charges, and his arrival in Nigeria in 1937, Azikiwe ignited the anti-colonial liberation movement which hitherto had been colorless, streile, elitist and accommodationist. The men Azikiwe recruited from 1938 pushed the debate anti-colonial debate, fanning out, to give colonialism a bloody mouth. That is the story of Zik. To be clear, Nkrumah was not Azikiwe's contemporary at Lincoln. He was with Mbonu Ojike, Mbadiwe, Ikejiani etc." unquote https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21topic/usaafricadialogue/M5zbergg9u8
Obi Nwakanma

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Zik was too Americanized and dealing with Nigerian locals was tough. Mazi Obi Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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From: 'ishola williams' via AfricanWorldForum <africanw...@googlegroups.com>;
To: africanw...@googlegroups.com <africanw...@googlegroups.com>; Our Country Nigeria <OurCount...@yahoogroups.ca>;
Subject: Re: [africanworldforum] Re: [Nigeria360::Live] Re: ZIK, MBADIWE AND ROOSEVELT IN HOWARD UNIVERSITY 1960: Dr.AZIKIWE AND DR.OKPARA ACHIEVEMENTS NUTURED GREAT LEADERSHIPS FOR IGBOS AND NIGERIA:. Re: DID AZIKIWE AND CO LEAVE A LEADERSHIP VACUUM IN IGBO LAND
Sent: Thu, Jun 26, 2014 3:07:11 PM

[Ezeana Igirigi Achusim]

Nwanna:

There is nothing else to add. Afis got silenced. 

And I am

Ezeana Igirigi Achusim

Odi-Isaa

Nwa Dim Orioha 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 26, 2014, at 5:06 PM, ozodi osuji <ozodi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Mazi Ezeana:

 

I don’t always know what to do with your write ups primarily because I do not know when you are joking around or serious. Whatever, I sense that at heart you are a good man. Years ago I showed in one of my essays that a country where folks wear agbada cannot be a productive country. I pointed out how working in a science laboratory does not allow wearing agbada for one would drag test tubes down and break them. In factories I do not see how folks can wear agbada and do their jobs well. Agbada is simply not designed for work in an industrial age and as you pointed out certainly not good for an agricultural world.  If you ask me, we must ban agbada today, not tomorrow. See, China and Japan had national attires but had to let them go when they decided to go industrial.  Cheers, Ozodi

[peter opara]

Bottom feeder afis the thief.....what are you saying?...."been this...been that...." Yeye man

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[Afis]

Another Hillary Hilarious moment......I just can't make these things up!

What are these jokers wearing?

These na Arabian attires nah.

They were too ashamed to roll up wrappers while they display pubic hair by their private region. 

Efulefu wrappers should be worn proud peacock-style by Igbos to showcase Igbo pride.

If I were Inyanminrin, I won't let people see this picture. This is a disgrace.

I remember this Igbo guy in Maryland.

He wore his wrapper one Summer Sunny afternoon. He decided to take a stroll to the park opposite his apartment building.

As he approached the park, a greyhound sitting lazily beside its owner jumped at him.

Well, there ensued a "langba langba" race as the dog chased him and pulled at his wrapper. Afraid the dog's teeth were too close for comfort, the guy bolted without his efulefu wrapper.

As he ran west, his "langba langba" ran east. And so it went, east to west, west to east, until the dog owner whistled back the greyhound.

It was hilarious if not scary. 
SHIKENA,

Afis

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 26, 2014, at 7:25 PM, Douglas Ahamefula <daham...@hotmail.com> wrote:

United States former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe and Mazi Mbonu Ojike at the African Dance Festival held at the Carnegie Hall Art Gallery in New York on December 14, 1943

Re: Photo Of Former U.S. First Lady And Two Nigerian Great Politicians by docokwy(m): 7:04pm On May 18, 2012

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe and Mazi Mbonu Ojike at the African Dance Festival held at the Carnegie Hall Art Gallery in New York on December 14, 1943 — with Hugh Okoro, Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Emeka Amanze, emeka smanzze, 'Kanayo Ede, Mbonu Ojike and Nick Nwauda.

---

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 07:23:29 -0700
From: chim...@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: ZIK, MBADIWE AND ROOSEVELT IN HOWARD UNIVERSITY 1960: Dr.AZIKIWE AND DR.OKPARA ACHIEVEMENTS NUTURED GREAT LEADERSHIPS FOR IGBOS AND NIGERIA:. Re: DID AZIKIWE AND CO LEAVE A LEADERSHIP VACUUM IN IGBO LAND?
To: odide...@yahoo.com; gloria...@yahoo.com; orlua...@yahoogroups.com; erica...@aol.co.uk; ige....@yahoo.com; Olaka...@aol.com; wharf...@yahoo.com; awo...@mwebafrica.com; ndiigbo...@yahoogroups.com; telue...@yahoo.com; awof...@aol.com; i...@usa.net; chatafr...@yahoogroups.com; odide...@gmail.com; IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com; e26m...@aol.com; adenibaa...@yahoo.com.au; kcprince...@shaw.ca; seyiolu...@gmail.com; gloriajo...@gmail.com; mat...@msn.com; afric...@sbcglobal.net; Ken.As...@gov.mb.ca; worldigb...@yahoogroups.com; egbe...@yahoogroups.com; igboe...@yahoogroups.com; ogbuo...@yahoo.com; jnia...@yahoo.com; TalkN...@yahoogroups.com; david...@yahoo.com; africanw...@googlegroups.com; anambr...@yahoogroups.com; collye...@hotmail.com; omo...@yahoogroups.com; NaijaP...@yahoogroups.com; topc...@yahoo.com; janetf...@aol.com; alare...@gmail.com; ijebu...@gmail.com; emen...@yahoo.com; Igu...@Hotmail.com; talk...@yahoogroups.com; employ...@aol.com; aded...@yahoo.com; niger...@yahoogroups.com; aade...@mac.com; alare...@yahoo.co.uk; king...@yahoo.com; celeb...@yahoo.com; abraha...@yahoo.com; yana...@yahoogroups.com; petercl...@yahoo.com; Nebuka...@aol.com; muaz...@yahoo.com; naijao...@yahoogroups.com; isum...@yahoo.com; Raay...@yahoogroups.com; nigerianw...@yahoogroups.com; imostate...@yahoogroups.com; pach...@yahoo.com; piusad...@yahoo.com; yodum...@gmail.com; okonkwo...@googlegroups.com; eagley...@gmail.com; agw...@yahoo.com; adung...@yahoo.com; ora...@yahoogroups.com; dodo...@yahoo.com; avatar...@yahoo.com; seyia...@gmail.com; elombahpe...@gmail.com; ozodi...@gmail.com; jnia...@gmail.com; dipoe...@yahoo.com; vin.mo...@yahoo.com; alu...@gmail.com
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Ugo Harris and Obi Nwakanma,

Thanks to you two for the Historical information about our people of the sixties era. It helps to know what these Patriots did for our Community and Nigeria in general. And then poses the header that bugs me daily as we begin the journey to our Sundown.I am bothered that we may still be regarded as that ingratiating sect that left nothing behind just to say thank you for those that paved the way for us and those ready to inherit our legacy. Sad to say that all I/We could contribute was only the Plaque presented to Zik in one of his Honorary Degree in vestures at Lincoln University Pa.

I struggled in my upcoming book" Soldiers of Democracy: Our June 12,1993 Struggle in USA that dwelt extensively too on our present contemporary issues; derailments, achievements, implications both immediate and for posterity. But good a thing, lets keep talking as some goods may come out of it. Ndewo Nu Umu Nnaa.

Mazi Dr.Inno Chimah(Ochi Agha Oma,Arondizuogu)Author.Soldiers of Democracy: Our june 12,1993 Struggle in USA.Triatlantic Publishers New York. 

On Thursday, June 26, 2014 7:46 AM, Afis <odide...@yahoo.com> wrote:

This is Hillary Hilarious!

Azikwe in Borrowed Agbada and Kembe, in 1940s.

Probably the Oyinbo man warned Azikwe, and Oyinbo man insisted the two Igbos should put on decent clothings, like normal Humans do.

They must have been warned that wearing wrapper with no shirts may constitute an offense in USA.  

Imagine if Azikwe and Mbadiwe had shown up in Igbo's Efulefu wrappers, and as they tried to take their seats, the "unspeakables" flung out to take a breather, disrupting the friendly meeting!

Azikwe may end up been arrested and charged for "indecent exposure".

Igbos have no agbada cultural wear, so me asked MeSelf: "Who dash Monkey Banana?"

SHIKENA,

Afis

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 25, 2014, at 5:18 PM, Ugo Harris Ukandu <abuj...@gmail.com> wrote:

THROWBACK THURSDAY: NNAMDI AZIKIWE

http://culturecustodian.com/throwback-thursday-nnamdi-azikiwe/

Aedan Asika

April 3, 2014

Feature, Photography

to IgboWorldForum

 

Mazi Onwubiko

If I may crave your indulgence, did you really forget to title your thought- provoking piece as: IGBO MANISFESTO - A COROLLARY TO ABURI ACCORD? It should have been apropos in my humble. Nobody in our recent memory has succinctly articulated the truth of the matter as headlined in your exquisite thesis below. I wish this could be turned into little Redbook ala China’s Mao Tse-tung Communist Manifesto of the years gone by and made a mandatory reading in all Igbo schools starting from "ota akara" level if you get my drift. Just a wish! Most importantly, I hope yours will serve as an eye opener, an object lesson to certain of our young Turks, the ‘Jonny come lately’ in Igbo historical political road-rolling who seem for quite some time to be in an untenable ‘talking-more and thinking-less’ mode.

 

The Igboland we grew up in was and is still a land where innovation meets determination. Who does not know that the north’s (as represented by the sadist Hausa/Fulani clique) ontological mission is to neuter Igbo aspiration. Since the 50s, our people have been subjected to three harrowing waves of remorless pogrom 1945, 1953, and topped by the 1966 genocide. As you aptly chronicled, the north’s induced opportunism and shortsightedness has almost succeeded in killing the renowned Spartan spirit that once propelled Igbo to highest heights in pre-war Nigerian socio-economic cum political life

 

Given the facts as you laid out and with all due respect, it behooves a personality like Mazi Nwakanma  with some decency still left in his frame to come out without further prompting and apologize to Igbo nation with the same vigor he employed denigrating them in his last outing. It hurts not a little reading such cants from him.

 

Without doubt you must have been frustrated by Nwakanma’s latest gratuitous insult. General Emeka Ojukwu himself had had occasion during his sojourn with us to bare his fangs frustrated as he claimed by “people parading themselves as intellectuals …who present analysis without proffering solutions and who present clichés as solutions for originality.”

 

Make no mistake about it, Mazi Nwakanma is an intellectual renowned for his meta-analytical skill and prowess; but this time around floundered big time.  Hopefully you have articulated for us all some of the solutions that seem to have eluded him all this while. I guess you are as much echoing the General: “No more ‘clichés" folks. We need to put a stop to such false narrative as propagated if we are to survive as a tribal nation in this Nigeria Boko haram political milieu.    

      

Ya Gazie

 

Nwamazi  

Rex Marinus rexma...@hotmail.com [IgboWorldForum] <IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com>

Jun 14 (10 days ago)

to igboevents

 

Mazi Onwumbiko:
 
I will start with a caveat: as an individual I DO NOT HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS to the Igbo question. I therefore think that whatever I say about the Igbo must be subject, naturally, to interrogation, and for that, I acknowledge your right to doubt and question aspects of my submission on the Igbo. I think that the far greater issue that has stirred you currently is my assertion that the current generation of the Igbo are "inferior Igbo." Well, here are my basic reasons for making that assertion: the reason why the last generation of the Igbo trusted Azikiwe, and rallied around him was because he understood that "Anaghi Achi Igbo achi, anyi anwughi anu! Igbo nwere Ndi Ndu" ( No one leads the Igbo because Igbo are no sheep, the Igbo have guardians). There is a difference between "leading" and "guarding." Guardianship is a more diffuse responsibility and based on consultation and consensus. "Leadership" is more presumptuous - it claims a superiority of purpose. Sometimes, a great leader emerges from adversity, but as soon as the danger is resolved, society returns to the balance of what the Igbo always stood upon - concillar authority. To ignore this deep rooted authority system of the Igbo is to not only endanger Igbo capacity for consensus building, but in doing that, create inexorable alienation of the Igbo. This has happened over the years, and the Igbo seem today to find it more difficult in arriving at strategic solutions to their own problems.
 
Todays Igbo have forgotten these attributes of our fathers because they have moved away from what it means to be Igbo. They now hanker after "a leader" who will lead them to some mythical Canaan, even though they probably have forgotten from whence they are coming. The current Igbo have magnified their problems beyond any simple solution. Now, to me, that is the greatest trouble with the Igbo. The older Igbo would not succumb to lachrymal impulses. Each man who arrives at the sacred state of manhood would be summoned by the "Uhie/Ufie" of the land, and they will arrive by the depth of the night to the sacred Groves of their lands, take the oath of the earth (Ala) and constitute the "Egwugwu" of the land. The Egwuwgu would be sent abroad, and that is the difference today of the Igbo. They are like a long line of ants scattered from their purpose, or put it simply: the Igbo world today is like a shattered anthill, and it is all ants to headless distances and improbable destinations.  In the past, the Igbo would not run from a good fight. They would confront head-on, for good or ill, the forces that trouble them. A people whose code of the warrior is "Anaghi aso Mgbagbu eje Ogu" are now withered roots of the Iroko.
 
So, you wish to abandon Nigeria, which the Igbo already won by blood because (a) Nigeria  is not viable for the Igbo (b) the ambiguity of who controls Nigeria's ethos (c) the problem of the North: (1) Northern Culture is antithetical to progress, (2) the Majority North are not suited to leadership (3) Northern Educational disparity (4) the Sharia disease (4) the institutionalization of Mediocrity through the Quota system, and finally (D) The mirage of Igbo presidency, or the current difficulty of aspiration to equal political leadership of Nigeria. These in sum are your estimation of the Igbo troubles in Nigeria. In my estimation, these are very minor, indeed, transitory existential difficulties, if you're like me, given to a longer view of history. The greater trouble in my mind for the Igbo is that since 1970, the Igbo have mentally withdrawn from Nigeria, and have lived in Nigeria, not as part of Nigeria,  but as ersatz or protem citizens of Nigeria, for whom Nigeria is a temporary or transitional abode. The result is that the Igbo have thus viewed the Nigerian crisis not as part of their own problems, and therefore have not engaged themselves in the fullest solution to the crisis of that nation. The Igbo have lived in mental exile from Nigeria bidding a time when they would leave and build an Eldorado of their own. They basically wasted the 20th century and are in danger of exhausting themselves in the 21st century. The Igbo can no longer afford to live in that limbo of affiliation. The true Igbo was always taught to be pragmatic, and to shun absolutes - what the ancients call "pam-bem!" The current generation of the Igbo have acquired the habits of absolutism. The contradiction of Igbo withdrawal from the Nigerian state is that they suffer more than any group, the consequences of their alienation. While others have taken charge, and shaped Nigeria into their image, the Igbo dream of creating a powerful nation state is suspended in animation.
 
Nigeria is nonetheless, God's gift to the Igbo. Nations engage in long battles of conquest to expand their spaces; the Igbo did not fire s shot. This churlish question of who "owns the land" ought by now to be a settled question, because if you look, the Igbo people themselves have established a claim on Nigeria, and it would require a humongous act of cleansing to eradicate them from the cranies of Nigeria where they have established themselves. We must always take note of this. But, let me come to your concerns, and I will make only very short answers because these do not require elaboration in this forum. I will start by adducing the old Igbo wisdom: "onye na arachaghi onu, Uguru ara chara ya." If the Igbo continue to disengage from Nigeria, others will define and determine the fundamental terms and protocols on which the Igbo will exist in Nigeria. The simple reason is that Nigeria is not going anywhere soon. Indeed, the conquest of Nigeria is already afoot: those who circulate their values will govern the Nigerian ethos. The Igbo ethos is freedom, merit, and equal justice. The Igbo do not believe in the rule of an oligarchy or a select lineage born to rule in perpetuity; the Igbo believe that all men are born free and equal, and that all humans must be accorded the dignity of life, and the fulfillment of the meaning of that life as authored by the individual CHI. The Igbo were modern and enlightened before the European modernists and enlightenment philosophers. It is thus incumbent on the Igbo to circulate these values as the guiding principles of the modern nation they have inherited. Failure to do so will mean that they will live on the codes of the oligarchy. The conquering idea that shapes Nigeria will encode the Igbo. The Igbo cannot afford to withdraw from Nigeria because we have tried that, and it was disastrous. Even if the Igbo withdrew, there is nothing that suggests that an independent Igbo nation will not engage in perpetual and futile battles with aggressive neighbors to defend an isolate nation or homeland. To establish a separate Igbo nation today is the military equivalent of withdrawal; a ceding of grounds already gained in battle.  It amounts to suicide. It was the tragic mistake made by Hannibal. The Igbo were overwhelmed in Biafra because they entered a closed door with no points of escape. Those who came after them simply set fire on the bushes around them and forced the Igbo to a suicidal firefight, having secured all points of exit. The clearest alternative for the Igbo today is to secure the homeland and expand the frontiers, and that is what Nigeria offers the Igbo.
 
The battle for Nigeria is a battle for the hearts and minds of its population: the Igbo must be strategic. Stay and defend every spot on which the Igbo threads in Nigeria. Create a protocol of inclusion. Expand Igbo enterprise; its distributive network; its rhizome of power: intelligence gathering; modernization of the Egwugwu; expansion of the culture war through the building and maintenance of Igbo schools, hospitals, and other institutions that would serve the Igbo and provide access to other people who would see the value of Igbo culture of freedom and equality. The greatest threat the Igbo presented in the North was that they were modeling freedom. They built schools and recruited young Talakawa and made them free to question the oligarchs, who saw the danger in the expansion of Igbo ideas in the north and struck. Those to whom you give the gift of freedom are your greatest allies in the formation of a new Nigeria: those who begin to see and value their own autonomy will fight alongside you. The Igbo today have a potential army of partners only if you treat them as partners and work with them. They are the mass behind the purdah of inequity themselves. Run, and they'll run after you. Free them, and the Igbo will have partners for progress. They will no longer have to fear an ignorant horde. The Igbo must therefore dig-in, rebuild and rehabilitate these capacities rather than dust their heels hurriedly, as I fear that you're proposing. The solution cannot be easy. But it is a historical task for the new generation of the Igbo, and the first task towards these is for the Igbo themselves to heal, and to return spiritually and fully to the grounds they abandoned, and once again, take Nigeria as their modern project. Ya gazie.
Obi Nwakanma
 

 

To: IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com
From: IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 01:22:39 -0700
Subject: Re: [IgboWorldForum] WHY NIGERIA IS ENVIABLE AND BAD FOR IGBO CULTURE AND PROSPERITY

Douglas Ahamefula <daham...@hotmail.com>

Jun 16 (8 days ago)

to Alex

 
The way I see it.
 
 
Since the end of the Biafran Nigeria Civil war, the pride of being an Igbo has drastically gone done from the way I see it. The desire of an average Igbo person wanting to support and help another Igbo person in need has diminished. Trust among the Igbos has also diminished. The rise of crime in the areas occupied by the Igbos has gone up in alarming rate. Originally, an Igbo man sees another Igbo man as brother but now to many, another Igbo man is viewed as a target to defrauded money from. Kidnapping, highway robbery defrauding people of their hard earned money called 419, is at its worst in Igbo land. Old men and women who are supposed to retire and enjoy their old age in their villages are now forced to l iv e in big towns because of the fear of being kidnapped in their villages. To a greater extent, the Igbo people probably brought these problems to themselves. Even when a man is openly known to be a criminal, some Igbo rulers would go ahead to
award him a chieftaincy title, and would even make him the chairman of many of their major events.

The Igbo elites, who should be in the forefront to encourage the Igbo culture, are the ones that often forbid their children from speaking Igbo language in their homes for fear that their children may not do well in the English language in their schools or probably as a class statue. The resultant effect is that an Igbo child, born in Igbo land, who has grown up in Igbo land would end up speaking only the English language and not knowing much about the Igbo culture and tradition.

The law enforcement people seem not to be helping matters, they probably even make matters worse. It is said that the head ranking officers would sometimes even tell their junior officers how much (‘returns’) to bring to them at the end of the day from bribes. Rumor also has it that some of them even make guns available for criminals to operate with, with the hope that they would have a share of the loots.

If a group of people are like that, what would motivate a man to fight and die for them? Only a divine personality like Jesus Christ, can do such a thing.
 
Since the end of the Biafran Nigeria Civil war, the pride of being an Igbo has drastically gone done from the way I see it. The desire of an average Igbo person wanting to support and help another Igbo person in need has diminished. Trust among the Igbos has also diminished. The rise of crime in the areas occupied by the Igbos has gone up in alarming rate. Originally, an Igbo man sees another Igbo man as brother but now to many, another Igbo man is viewed as a target to defrauded money from. Kidnapping, highway robbery defrauding people of their hard earned money called 419, is at its worst in Igbo land. Old men and women who are supposed to retire and enjoy their old age in their villages are now forced to l iv e in big towns because of the fear of being kidnapped in their villages. To a greater extent, the Igbo people probably brought these problems to themselves. Even when a man is openly known to be a criminal, some Igbo rulers would go ahead to
award him a chieftaincy title, and would even make him the chairman of many of their major events.

The Igbo elites, who should be in the forefront to encourage the Igbo culture, are the ones that often forbid their children from speaking Igbo language in their homes for fear that their children may not do well in the English language in their schools or probably as a class statue. The resultant effect is that an Igbo child, born in Igbo land, who has grown up in Igbo land would end up speaking only the English language and not knowing much about the Igbo culture and tradition.

The law enforcement people seem not to be helping matters, they probably even make matters worse. It is said that the head ranking officers would sometimes even tell their junior officers how much (‘returns’) to bring to them at the end of the day from bribes. Rumor also has it that some of them even make guns available for criminals to operate with, with the hope that they would have a share of the loots.

If a group of people are like that, what would motivate a man to fight and die for them? Only a divine personality like Jesus Christ, can do such a thing.
 
Douglas

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[Nebukadineze Adiele]

• United States former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe and Mazi Mbonu Ojike at the African Dance Festival held at the Carnegie Hall Art Gallery in New York on December 14, 1943

Afis Odidere,

Did you read the descriptor (excerpted above) to the photograph that you lampooned? In case you did not get it, Mbadiwe and Ojike wore dancing attires at a dance festival in 1943 -- 71 years ago. They were struggling students then and could be excused for poor wardrobe. But poor wardrobe was not the case, they were dressed for what the occasion called -- African dancing.

If you were not on an njakiri mission, I would have pitied you for your ignorance over wrapper's unisex status within Africans. Igbo men are not the only Africans who don wrappers. Ijo, Ibibio, Efik, Ashanti, Kikuyu, Zulu, Ndebele, Xhosa, etc are among African great tribes whose men also wear wrappers. I can bet that you know this illustrious African donning wrapper in this picture  

http://www.sahistory.org.za/pietersburg/community-histories-port-elizabeth?page=2

Again, if you were not kidding, you would have made an ass of yourself.

Nebukadineze Adiele
Organized religion sired irrationality.

This is Hillary Hilarious!

[Stevek]

Ah, ah, my friend. I thought the Urhobo and Itshekiri wrote the book on males using wrapper? Isn't it where Okotie Eboh got his nickname of 'Omimi Ejo' from?

 

Stevek.

Washington, DC, USA

A society of supine lambs breeds erect wolves. - Stevek

A wise man proportions his beliefs to the evidence - David Hume

[Nebukadineze Adiele]

Gentleman SteveK,

Forgive me for omitting your Urhobo and Itsekiri folks in that noble club. Indeed they are among the great Africans who do not think that wrapper wearing is in the exclusivity of women. Afis cannot be as ignorant as he projected of himself and that's why i assumed that he was jokingly picking on his most favorites people on earth -- Igbos. 

Cheers.

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[Afis]

Nebe, Nebu, Nebu!

It is Friday, my bro....

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR WEEKEND IS?

I don start my weekend nah nah nah, bro.

Ceelo Green on stage at the PNC Arts center, Holmdel, New Jersey.

This is Ceelo belting it.......stop being uptight my Igbos!

Afis don't hate, he oozes love wantintin!

Lionel Richie is next coming on stage in a few.

My Heineken is just out of freezing jail, I wanna free it. I ain't got no time to hate nobody!!

Afis

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 27, 2014, at 3:53 PM, Nebukadineze Adiele <nebuka...@aol.com> wrote:

• United States former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe and Mazi Mbonu Ojike at the African Dance Festival held at the Carnegie Hall Art Gallery in New York on December 14, 1943

Afis Odidere,

Did you read the descriptor (excerpted above) to the photograph that you lampooned? In case you did not get it, Mbadiwe and Ojike wore dancing attires at a dance festival in 1943 -- 71 years ago. They were struggling students then and could be excused for poor wardrobe. But poor wardrobe was not the case, they were dressed for what the occasion called -- African dancing.

If you were not on an njakiri mission, I would have pitied you for your ignorance over wrapper's unisex status within Africans. Igbo men are not the only Africans who don wrappers. Ijo, Ibibio, Efik, Ashanti, Kikuyu, Zulu, Ndebele, Xhosa, etc are among African great tribes whose men also wear wrappers. I can bet that you know this illustrious African donning wrapper in this picture  

http://www.sahistory.org.za/pietersburg/community-histories-port-elizabeth?page=2

Again, if you were not kidding, you would have made an ass of yourself.

Nebukadineze Adiele
Organized religion sired irrationality.

-----Original Message-----
From: Afis <odide...@yahoo.com>
To: Douglas Ahamefula <daham...@hotmail.com>
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Sent: Fri, Jun 27, 2014 11:36 am
Subject: Re: ZIK, MBADIWE AND ROOSEVELT IN HOWARD UNIVERSITY 1960: Dr.AZIKIWE AND DR.OKPARA ACHIEVEMENTS NUTURED GREAT LEADERSHIPS FOR IGBOS AND NIGERIA:. Re: DID AZIKIWE AND CO LEAVE A LEADERSHIP VACUUM IN IGBO LAND?

Another Hillary Hilarious moment......I just can't make these things up!

[Ezeana Igirigi Achusim]

Alagba Oso Afis:

When you talk about Igbo and their attire, remember that I am around. I wear my Igbo attire to my office and to the farm. Can you say the same of your agbada?

And I am

Ezeana Igirigi Achusim

Odi-Isaa

Nwa Dim Orioha 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 27, 2014, at 7:19 PM, Afis <odide...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Nebe, Nebu, Nebu!

It is Friday, my bro....

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR WEEKEND IS?

I don start my weekend nah nah nah, bro.

Ceelo Green on stage at the PNC Arts center, Holmdel, New Jersey.

This is Ceelo belting it.......stop being uptight my Igbos!

<image.jpeg>

[Afis]

Mazi Ezeana, Nebu........you are making too much noise I can't concentrate on Lionel Richie......he's on stage.

Shhhhhhhsssshhhhhhh!

Mazi Ezeana, I am not home right now, I am on weekend mode......please leave a message.......Beeeeeeep!

Afis

Sent from my iPad

[Ezeana Igirigi Achusim]

Afis:

I see. When was this? In 1980?

And I am

Ezeana Igirigi Achusim

Odi-Isaa

Nwa Dim Orioha 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 27, 2014, at 8:22 PM, "Afis odide...@yahoo.com [NaijaObserver]" <NaijaO...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

[Attachment(s) from Afis included below]

Mazi Ezeana, Nebu........you are making too much noise I can't concentrate on Lionel Richie......he's on stage.

Shhhhhhhsssshhhhhhh!

<image.jpeg>

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[Azubike Okpalaeze]

!980? Nope!!..... its 1977

 

Azubike

to IgboWorldForum

 

Mazi Onwubiko

If I may crave your indulgence, did you really forget to title your thought- provoking piece as: IGBO MANISFESTO - A COROLLARY TO ABURI ACCORD? It should have been apropos in my humble. Nobody in our recent memory has succinctly articulated the truth of the matter as headlined in your exquisite thesis below. I wish this could be turned into little Redbook ala China’s Mao Tse-tung Communist Manifesto of the years gone by and made a mandatory reading in all Igbo schools starting from "ota akara" level if you get my drift. Just a wish! Most importantly, I hope yours will serve as an eye opener, an object lesson to certain of our young Turks, the ‘Jonny come lately’ in Igbo historical political road-rolling who seem for quite some time to be in an untenable ‘talking-more and thinking-less’ mode.

 

The Igboland we grew up in was and is still a land where innovation meets determination. Who does not know that the north’s (as represented by the sadist Hausa/Fulani clique) ontological mission is to neuter Igbo aspiration. Since the 50s, our people have been subjected to three harrowing waves of remorless pogrom 1945, 1953, and topped by the 1966 genocide. As you aptly chronicled, the north’s induced opportunism and shortsightedness has almost succeeded in killing the renowned Spartan spirit that once propelled Igbo to highest heights in pre-war Nigerian socio-economic cum political life

 

Given the facts as you laid out and with all due respect, it behooves a personality like Mazi Nwakanma  with some decency still left in his frame to come out without further prompting and apologize to Igbo nation with the same vigor he employed denigrating them in his last outing. It hurts not a little reading such cants from him.

 

Without doubt you must have been frustrated by Nwakanma’s latest gratuitous insult. General Emeka Ojukwu himself had had occasion during his sojourn with us to bare his fangs frustrated as he claimed by “people parading themselves as intellectuals …who present analysis without proffering solutions and who present clichés as solutions for originality.”

 

Make no mistake about it, Mazi Nwakanma is an intellectual renowned for his meta-analytical skill and prowess; but this time around floundered big time.  Hopefully you have articulated for us all some of the solutions that seem to have eluded him all this while. I guess you are as much echoing the General: “No more ‘clichés" folks. We need to put a stop to such false narrative as propagated if we are to survive as a tribal nation in this Nigeria Boko haram political milieu.    

      

Ya Gazie

 

Nwamazi  

Rex Marinus rexma...@hotmail.com [IgboWorldForum] <IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com>

Jun 14 (10 days ago)

to igboevents

 

Mazi Onwumbiko:
 
I will start with a caveat: as an individual I DO NOT HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS to the Igbo question. I therefore think that whatever I say about the Igbo must be subject, naturally, to interrogation, and for that, I acknowledge your right to doubt and question aspects of my submission on the Igbo. I think that the far greater issue that has stirred you currently is my assertion that the current generation of the Igbo are "inferior Igbo." Well, here are my basic reasons for making that assertion: the reason why the last generation of the Igbo trusted Azikiwe, and rallied around him was because he understood that "Anaghi Achi Igbo achi, anyi anwughi anu! Igbo nwere Ndi Ndu" ( No one leads the Igbo because Igbo are no sheep, the Igbo have guardians). There is a difference between "leading" and "guarding." Guardianship is a more diffuse responsibility and based on consultation and consensus. "Leadership" is more presumptuous - it claims a superiority of purpose. Sometimes, a great leader emerges from adversity, but as soon as the danger is resolved, society returns to the balance of what the Igbo always stood upon - concillar authority. To ignore this deep rooted authority system of the Igbo is to not only endanger Igbo capacity for consensus building, but in doing that, create inexorable alienation of the Igbo. This has happened over the years, and the Igbo seem today to find it more difficult in arriving at strategic solutions to their own problems.
 
Todays Igbo have forgotten these attributes of our fathers because they have moved away from what it means to be Igbo. They now hanker after "a leader" who will lead them to some mythical Canaan, even though they probably have forgotten from whence they are coming. The current Igbo have magnified their problems beyond any simple solution. Now, to me, that is the greatest trouble with the Igbo. The older Igbo would not succumb to lachrymal impulses. Each man who arrives at the sacred state of manhood would be summoned by the "Uhie/Ufie" of the land, and they will arrive by the depth of the night to the sacred Groves of their lands, take the oath of the earth (Ala) and constitute the "Egwugwu" of the land. The Egwuwgu would be sent abroad, and that is the difference today of the Igbo. They are like a long line of ants scattered from their purpose, or put it simply: the Igbo world today is like a shattered anthill, and it is all ants to headless distances and improbable destinations.  In the past, the Igbo would not run from a good fight. They would confront head-on, for good or ill, the forces that trouble them. A people whose code of the warrior is "Anaghi aso Mgbagbu eje Ogu" are now withered roots of the Iroko.
 
So, you wish to abandon Nigeria, which the Igbo already won by blood because (a) Nigeria  is not viable for the Igbo (b) the ambiguity of who controls Nigeria's ethos (c) the problem of the North: (1) Northern Culture is antithetical to progress, (2) the Majority North are not suited to leadership (3) Northern Educational disparity (4) the Sharia disease (4) the institutionalization of Mediocrity through the Quota system, and finally (D) The mirage of Igbo presidency, or the current difficulty of aspiration to equal political leadership of Nigeria. These in sum are your estimation of the Igbo troubles in Nigeria. In my estimation, these are very minor, indeed, transitory existential difficulties, if you're like me, given to a longer view of history. The greater trouble in my mind for the Igbo is that since 1970, the Igbo have mentally withdrawn from Nigeria, and have lived in Nigeria, not as part of Nigeria,  but as ersatz or protem citizens of Nigeria, for whom Nigeria is a temporary or transitional abode. The result is that the Igbo have thus viewed the Nigerian crisis not as part of their own problems, and therefore have not engaged themselves in the fullest solution to the crisis of that nation. The Igbo have lived in mental exile from Nigeria bidding a time when they would leave and build an Eldorado of their own. They basically wasted the 20th century and are in danger of exhausting themselves in the 21st century. The Igbo can no longer afford to live in that limbo of affiliation. The true Igbo was always taught to be pragmatic, and to shun absolutes - what the ancients call "pam-bem!" The current generation of the Igbo have acquired the habits of absolutism. The contradiction of Igbo withdrawal from the Nigerian state is that they suffer more than any group, the consequences of their alienation. While others have taken charge, and shaped Nigeria into their image, the Igbo dream of creating a powerful nation state is suspended in animation.
 
Nigeria is nonetheless, God's gift to the Igbo. Nations engage in long battles of conquest to expand their spaces; the Igbo did not fire s shot. This churlish question of who "owns the land" ought by now to be a settled question, because if you look, the Igbo people themselves have established a claim on Nigeria, and it would require a humongous act of cleansing to eradicate them from the cranies of Nigeria where they have established themselves. We must always take note of this. But, let me come to your concerns, and I will make only very short answers because these do not require elaboration in this forum. I will start by adducing the old Igbo wisdom: "onye na arachaghi onu, Uguru ara chara ya." If the Igbo continue to disengage from Nigeria, others will define and determine the fundamental terms and protocols on which the Igbo will exist in Nigeria. The simple reason is that Nigeria is not going anywhere soon. Indeed, the conquest of Nigeria is already afoot: those who circulate their values will govern the Nigerian ethos. The Igbo ethos is freedom, merit, and equal justice. The Igbo do not believe in the rule of an oligarchy or a select lineage born to rule in perpetuity; the Igbo believe that all men are born free and equal, and that all humans must be accorded the dignity of life, and the fulfillment of the meaning of that life as authored by the individual CHI. The Igbo were modern and enlightened before the European modernists and enlightenment philosophers. It is thus incumbent on the Igbo to circulate these values as the guiding principles of the modern nation they have inherited. Failure to do so will mean that they will live on the codes of the oligarchy. The conquering idea that shapes Nigeria will encode the Igbo. The Igbo cannot afford to withdraw from Nigeria because we have tried that, and it was disastrous. Even if the Igbo withdrew, there is nothing that suggests that an independent Igbo nation will not engage in perpetual and futile battles with aggressive neighbors to defend an isolate nation or homeland. To establish a separate Igbo nation today is the military equivalent of withdrawal; a ceding of grounds already gained in battle.  It amounts to suicide. It was the tragic mistake made by Hannibal. The Igbo were overwhelmed in Biafra because they entered a closed door with no points of escape. Those who came after them simply set fire on the bushes around them and forced the Igbo to a suicidal firefight, having secured all points of exit. The clearest alternative for the Igbo today is to secure the homeland and expand the frontiers, and that is what Nigeria offers the Igbo.
 
The battle for Nigeria is a battle for the hearts and minds of its population: the Igbo must be strategic. Stay and defend every spot on which the Igbo threads in Nigeria. Create a protocol of inclusion. Expand Igbo enterprise; its distributive network; its rhizome of power: intelligence gathering; modernization of the Egwugwu; expansion of the culture war through the building and maintenance of Igbo schools, hospitals, and other institutions that would serve the Igbo and provide access to other people who would see the value of Igbo culture of freedom and equality. The greatest threat the Igbo presented in the North was that they were modeling freedom. They built schools and recruited young Talakawa and made them free to question the oligarchs, who saw the danger in the expansion of Igbo ideas in the north and struck. Those to whom you give the gift of freedom are your greatest allies in the formation of a new Nigeria: those who begin to see and value their own autonomy will fight alongside you. The Igbo today have a potential army of partners only if you treat them as partners and work with them. They are the mass behind the purdah of inequity themselves. Run, and they'll run after you. Free them, and the Igbo will have partners for progress. They will no longer have to fear an ignorant horde. The Igbo must therefore dig-in, rebuild and rehabilitate these capacities rather than dust their heels hurriedly, as I fear that you're proposing. The solution cannot be easy. But it is a historical task for the new generation of the Igbo, and the first task towards these is for the Igbo themselves to heal, and to return spiritually and fully to the grounds they abandoned, and once again, take Nigeria as their modern project. Ya gazie.
Obi Nwakanma
 

 

To: IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com
From: IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 01:22:39 -0700
Subject: Re: [IgboWorldForum] WHY NIGERIA IS ENVIABLE AND BAD FOR IGBO CULTURE AND PROSPERITY

Douglas Ahamefula <daham...@hotmail.com>

Jun 16 (8 days ago)

to Alex

 

The way I see it.
 
 
Since the end of the Biafran Nigeria Civil war, the pride of being an Igbo has drastically gone done from the way I see it. The desire of an average Igbo person wanting to support and help another Igbo person in need has diminished. Trust among the Igbos has also diminished. The rise of crime in the areas occupied by the Igbos has gone up in alarming rate. Originally, an Igbo man sees another Igbo man as brother but now to many, another Igbo man is viewed as a target to defrauded money from. Kidnapping, highway robbery defrauding people of their hard earned money called 419, is at its worst in Igbo land. Old men and women who are supposed to retire and enjoy their old age in their villages are now forced to l iv e in big towns because of the fear of being kidnapped in their villages. To a greater extent, the Igbo people probably brought these problems to themselves. Even when a man is openly known to be a criminal, some Igbo rulers would go ahead to
award him a chieftaincy title, and would even make him the chairman of many of their major events.

The Igbo elites, who should be in the forefront to encourage the Igbo culture, are the ones that often forbid their children from speaking Igbo language in their homes for fear that their children may not do well in the English language in their schools or probably as a class statue. The resultant effect is that an Igbo child, born in Igbo land, who has grown up in Igbo land would end up speaking only the English language and not knowing much about the Igbo culture and tradition.

The law enforcement people seem not to be helping matters, they probably even make matters worse. It is said that the head ranking officers would sometimes even tell their junior officers how much (‘returns’) to bring to them at the end of the day from bribes. Rumor also has it that some of them even make guns available for criminals to operate with, with the hope that they would have a share of the loots.

If a group of people are like that, what would motivate a man to fight and die for them? Only a divine personality like Jesus Christ, can do such a thing.
 
Since the end of the Biafran Nigeria Civil war, the pride of being an Igbo has drastically gone done from the way I see it. The desire of an average Igbo person wanting to support and help another Igbo person in need has diminished. Trust among the Igbos has also diminished. The rise of crime in the areas occupied by the Igbos has gone up in alarming rate. Originally, an Igbo man sees another Igbo man as brother but now to many, another Igbo man is viewed as a target to defrauded money from. Kidnapping, highway robbery defrauding people of their hard earned money called 419, is at its worst in Igbo land. Old men and women who are supposed to retire and enjoy their old age in their villages are now forced to l iv e in big towns because of the fear of being kidnapped in their villages. To a greater extent, the Igbo people probably brought these problems to themselves. Even when a man is openly known to be a criminal, some Igbo rulers would go ahead to
award him a chieftaincy title, and would even make him the chairman of many of their major events.

The Igbo elites, who should be in the forefront to encourage the Igbo culture, are the ones that often forbid their children from speaking Igbo language in their homes for fear that their children may not do well in the English language in their schools or probably as a class statue. The resultant effect is that an Igbo child, born in Igbo land, who has grown up in Igbo land would end up speaking only the English language and not knowing much about the Igbo culture and tradition.

The law enforcement people seem not to be helping matters, they probably even make matters worse. It is said that the head ranking officers would sometimes even tell their junior officers how much (‘returns’) to bring to them at the end of the day from bribes. Rumor also has it that some of them even make guns available for criminals to operate with, with the hope that they would have a share of the loots.

If a group of people are like that, what would motivate a man to fight and die for them? Only a divine personality like Jesus Christ, can do such a thing.
 
Douglas

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[peter opara]

The extreme indolence and lackadaisical that pervade the Nigerian landscape is thanks to agbada. Who ever does anything worthwhile in agbada? Agbada is for miliki...Agabda is for owambe....ojukokoro hedonism is know only to them agbada is culture and tradition. Wrapper, you can wrapper anywhere - farm, office, sports etc., and perform without let....tie the wrapper, fold the wrapper, spread the wrapper even for emergency rest....useless useless agbada, useless Nigeria. You could never see me in agbada. Tufiakwa.

to IgboWorldForum

 

Mazi Onwubiko

If I may crave your indulgence, did you really forget to title your thought- provoking piece as: IGBO MANISFESTO - A COROLLARY TO ABURI ACCORD? It should have been apropos in my humble. Nobody in our recent memory has succinctly articulated the truth of the matter as headlined in your exquisite thesis below. I wish this could be turned into little Redbook ala China’s Mao Tse-tung Communist Manifesto of the years gone by and made a mandatory reading in all Igbo schools starting from "ota akara" level if you get my drift. Just a wish! Most importantly, I hope yours will serve as an eye opener, an object lesson to certain of our young Turks, the ‘Jonny come lately’ in Igbo historical political road-rolling who seem for quite some time to be in an untenable ‘talking-more and thinking-less’ mode.

 

The Igboland we grew up in was and is still a land where innovation meets determination. Who does not know that the north’s (as represented by the sadist Hausa/Fulani clique) ontological mission is to neuter Igbo aspiration. Since the 50s, our people have been subjected to three harrowing waves of remorless pogrom 1945, 1953, and topped by the 1966 genocide. As you aptly chronicled, the north’s induced opportunism and shortsightedness has almost succeeded in killing the renowned Spartan spirit that once propelled Igbo to highest heights in pre-war Nigerian socio-economic cum political life

 

Given the facts as you laid out and with all due respect, it behooves a personality like Mazi Nwakanma  with some decency still left in his frame to come out without further prompting and apologize to Igbo nation with the same vigor he employed denigrating them in his last outing. It hurts not a little reading such cants from him.

 

Without doubt you must have been frustrated by Nwakanma’s latest gratuitous insult. General Emeka Ojukwu himself had had occasion during his sojourn with us to bare his fangs frustrated as he claimed by “people parading themselves as intellectuals …who present analysis without proffering solutions and who present clichés as solutions for originality.”

 

Make no mistake about it, Mazi Nwakanma is an intellectual renowned for his meta-analytical skill and prowess; but this time around floundered big time.  Hopefully you have articulated for us all some of the solutions that seem to have eluded him all this while. I guess you are as much echoing the General: “No more ‘clichés" folks. We need to put a stop to such false narrative as propagated if we are to survive as a tribal nation in this Nigeria Boko haram political milieu.    

      

Ya Gazie

 

Nwamazi  

Rex Marinus rexma...@hotmail.com [IgboWorldForum] <IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com>

Jun 14 (10 days ago)

to igboevents

 

Mazi Onwumbiko:
 
I will start with a caveat: as an individual I DO NOT HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS to the Igbo question. I therefore think that whatever I say about the Igbo must be subject, naturally, to interrogation, and for that, I acknowledge your right to doubt and question aspects of my submission on the Igbo. I think that the far greater issue that has stirred you currently is my assertion that the current generation of the Igbo are "inferior Igbo." Well, here are my basic reasons for making that assertion: the reason why the last generation of the Igbo trusted Azikiwe, and rallied around him was because he understood that "Anaghi Achi Igbo achi, anyi anwughi anu! Igbo nwere Ndi Ndu" ( No one leads the Igbo because Igbo are no sheep, the Igbo have guardians). There is a difference between "leading" and "guarding." Guardianship is a more diffuse responsibility and based on consultation and consensus. "Leadership" is more presumptuous - it claims a superiority of purpose. Sometimes, a great leader emerges from adversity, but as soon as the danger is resolved, society returns to the balance of what the Igbo always stood upon - concillar authority. To ignore this deep rooted authority system of the Igbo is to not only endanger Igbo capacity for consensus building, but in doing that, create inexorable alienation of the Igbo. This has happened over the years, and the Igbo seem today to find it more difficult in arriving at strategic solutions to their own problems.
 
Todays Igbo have forgotten these attributes of our fathers because they have moved away from what it means to be Igbo. They now hanker after "a leader" who will lead them to some mythical Canaan, even though they probably have forgotten from whence they are coming. The current Igbo have magnified their problems beyond any simple solution. Now, to me, that is the greatest trouble with the Igbo. The older Igbo would not succumb to lachrymal impulses. Each man who arrives at the sacred state of manhood would be summoned by the "Uhie/Ufie" of the land, and they will arrive by the depth of the night to the sacred Groves of their lands, take the oath of the earth (Ala) and constitute the "Egwugwu" of the land. The Egwuwgu would be sent abroad, and that is the difference today of the Igbo. They are like a long line of ants scattered from their purpose, or put it simply: the Igbo world today is like a shattered anthill, and it is all ants to headless distances and improbable destinations.  In the past, the Igbo would not run from a good fight. They would confront head-on, for good or ill, the forces that trouble them. A people whose code of the warrior is "Anaghi aso Mgbagbu eje Ogu" are now withered roots of the Iroko.
 
So, you wish to abandon Nigeria, which the Igbo already won by blood because (a) Nigeria  is not viable for the Igbo (b) the ambiguity of who controls Nigeria's ethos (c) the problem of the North: (1) Northern Culture is antithetical to progress, (2) the Majority North are not suited to leadership (3) Northern Educational disparity (4) the Sharia disease (4) the institutionalization of Mediocrity through the Quota system, and finally (D) The mirage of Igbo presidency, or the current difficulty of aspiration to equal political leadership of Nigeria. These in sum are your estimation of the Igbo troubles in Nigeria. In my estimation, these are very minor, indeed, transitory existential difficulties, if you're like me, given to a longer view of history. The greater trouble in my mind for the Igbo is that since 1970, the Igbo have mentally withdrawn from Nigeria, and have lived in Nigeria, not as part of Nigeria,  but as ersatz or protem citizens of Nigeria, for whom Nigeria is a temporary or transitional abode. The result is that the Igbo have thus viewed the Nigerian crisis not as part of their own problems, and therefore have not engaged themselves in the fullest solution to the crisis of that nation. The Igbo have lived in mental exile from Nigeria bidding a time when they would leave and build an Eldorado of their own. They basically wasted the 20th century and are in danger of exhausting themselves in the 21st century. The Igbo can no longer afford to live in that limbo of affiliation. The true Igbo was always taught to be pragmatic, and to shun absolutes - what the ancients call "pam-bem!" The current generation of the Igbo have acquired the habits of absolutism. The contradiction of Igbo withdrawal from the Nigerian state is that they suffer more than any group, the consequences of their alienation. While others have taken charge, and shaped Nigeria into their image, the Igbo dream of creating a powerful nation state is suspended in animation.
 
Nigeria is nonetheless, God's gift to the Igbo. Nations engage in long battles of conquest to expand their spaces; the Igbo did not fire s shot. This churlish question of who "owns the land" ought by now to be a settled question, because if you look, the Igbo people themselves have established a claim on Nigeria, and it would require a humongous act of cleansing to eradicate them from the cranies of Nigeria where they have established themselves. We must always take note of this. But, let me come to your concerns, and I will make only very short answers because these do not require elaboration in this forum. I will start by adducing the old Igbo wisdom: "onye na arachaghi onu, Uguru ara chara ya." If the Igbo continue to disengage from Nigeria, others will define and determine the fundamental terms and protocols on which the Igbo will exist in Nigeria. The simple reason is that Nigeria is not going anywhere soon. Indeed, the conquest of Nigeria is already afoot: those who circulate their values will govern the Nigerian ethos. The Igbo ethos is freedom, merit, and equal justice. The Igbo do not believe in the rule of an oligarchy or a select lineage born to rule in perpetuity; the Igbo believe that all men are born free and equal, and that all humans must be accorded the dignity of life, and the fulfillment of the meaning of that life as authored by the individual CHI. The Igbo were modern and enlightened before the European modernists and enlightenment philosophers. It is thus incumbent on the Igbo to circulate these values as the guiding principles of the modern nation they have inherited. Failure to do so will mean that they will live on the codes of the oligarchy. The conquering idea that shapes Nigeria will encode the Igbo. The Igbo cannot afford to withdraw from Nigeria because we have tried that, and it was disastrous. Even if the Igbo withdrew, there is nothing that suggests that an independent Igbo nation will not engage in perpetual and futile battles with aggressive neighbors to defend an isolate nation or homeland. To establish a separate Igbo nation today is the military equivalent of withdrawal; a ceding of grounds already gained in battle.  It amounts to suicide. It was the tragic mistake made by Hannibal. The Igbo were overwhelmed in Biafra because they entered a closed door with no points of escape. Those who came after them simply set fire on the bushes around them and forced the Igbo to a suicidal firefight, having secured all points of exit. The clearest alternative for the Igbo today is to secure the homeland and expand the frontiers, and that is what Nigeria offers the Igbo.
 
The battle for Nigeria is a battle for the hearts and minds of its population: the Igbo must be strategic. Stay and defend every spot on which the Igbo threads in Nigeria. Create a protocol of inclusion. Expand Igbo enterprise; its distributive network; its rhizome of power: intelligence gathering; modernization of the Egwugwu; expansion of the culture war through the building and maintenance of Igbo schools, hospitals, and other institutions that would serve the Igbo and provide access to other people who would see the value of Igbo culture of freedom and equality. The greatest threat the Igbo presented in the North was that they were modeling freedom. They built schools and recruited young Talakawa and made them free to question the oligarchs, who saw the danger in the expansion of Igbo ideas in the north and struck. Those to whom you give the gift of freedom are your greatest allies in the formation of a new Nigeria: those who begin to see and value their own autonomy will fight alongside you. The Igbo today have a potential army of partners only if you treat them as partners and work with them. They are the mass behind the purdah of inequity themselves. Run, and they'll run after you. Free them, and the Igbo will have partners for progress. They will no longer have to fear an ignorant horde. The Igbo must therefore dig-in, rebuild and rehabilitate these capacities rather than dust their heels hurriedly, as I fear that you're proposing. The solution cannot be easy. But it is a historical task for the new generation of the Igbo, and the first task towards these is for the Igbo themselves to heal, and to return spiritually and fully to the grounds they abandoned, and once again, take Nigeria as their modern project. Ya gazie.
Obi Nwakanma
 

 

To: IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com
From: IgboWor...@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 01:22:39 -0700
Subject: Re: [IgboWorldForum] WHY NIGERIA IS ENVIABLE AND BAD FOR IGBO CULTURE AND PROSPERITY

Douglas Ahamefula <daham...@hotmail.com>

Jun 16 (8 days ago)

to Alex

 

The way I see it.
 
 
Since the end of the Biafran Nigeria Civil war, the pride of being an Igbo has drastically gone done from the way I see it. The desire of an average Igbo person wanting to support and help another Igbo person in need has diminished. Trust among the Igbos has also diminished. The rise of crime in the areas occupied by the Igbos has gone up in alarming rate. Originally, an Igbo man sees another Igbo man as brother but now to many, another Igbo man is viewed as a target to defrauded money from. Kidnapping, highway robbery defrauding people of their hard earned money called 419, is at its worst in Igbo land. Old men and women who are supposed to retire and enjoy their old age in their villages are now forced to l iv e in big towns because of the fear of being kidnapped in their villages. To a greater extent, the Igbo people probably brought these problems to themselves. Even when a man is openly known to be a criminal, some Igbo rulers would go ahead to
award him a chieftaincy title, and would even make him the chairman of many of their major events.

The Igbo elites, who should be in the forefront to encourage the Igbo culture, are the ones that often forbid their children from speaking Igbo language in their homes for fear that their children may not do well in the English language in their schools or probably as a class statue. The resultant effect is that an Igbo child, born in Igbo land, who has grown up in Igbo land would end up speaking only the English language and not knowing much about the Igbo culture and tradition.

The law enforcement people seem not to be helping matters, they probably even make matters worse. It is said that the head ranking officers would sometimes even tell their junior officers how much (‘returns’) to bring to them at the end of the day from bribes. Rumor also has it that some of them even make guns available for criminals to operate with, with the hope that they would have a share of the loots.

If a group of people are like that, what would motivate a man to fight and die for them? Only a divine personality like Jesus Christ, can do such a thing.
 
Since the end of the Biafran Nigeria Civil war, the pride of being an Igbo has drastically gone done from the way I see it. The desire of an average Igbo person wanting to support and help another Igbo person in need has diminished. Trust among the Igbos has also diminished. The rise of crime in the areas occupied by the Igbos has gone up in alarming rate. Originally, an Igbo man sees another Igbo man as brother but now to many, another Igbo man is viewed as a target to defrauded money from. Kidnapping, highway robbery defrauding people of their hard earned money called 419, is at its worst in Igbo land. Old men and women who are supposed to retire and enjoy their old age in their villages are now forced to l iv e in big towns because of the fear of being kidnapped in their villages. To a greater extent, the Igbo people probably brought these problems to themselves. Even when a man is openly known to be a criminal, some Igbo rulers would go ahead to
award him a chieftaincy title, and would even make him the chairman of many of their major events.

The Igbo elites, who should be in the forefront to encourage the Igbo culture, are the ones that often forbid their children from speaking Igbo language in their homes for fear that their children may not do well in the English language in their schools or probably as a class statue. The resultant effect is that an Igbo child, born in Igbo land, who has grown up in Igbo land would end up speaking only the English language and not knowing much about the Igbo culture and tradition.

The law enforcement people seem not to be helping matters, they probably even make matters worse. It is said that the head ranking officers would sometimes even tell their junior officers how much (‘returns’) to bring to them at the end of the day from bribes. Rumor also has it that some of them even make guns available for criminals to operate with, with the hope that they would have a share of the loots.

If a group of people are like that, what would motivate a man to fight and die for them? Only a divine personality like Jesus Christ, can do such a thing.
 
Douglas

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Posted by: Ezeana Igirigi Achusim <pach...@yahoo.com>

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[Afis]

"Do you need a property in the heart of Uyo, centrally located within 400 meters of the city center along the busiest road in Akwa Ibom State? This is a property that is more than 2,400 square meters, and it is very close to the University of Uyo. It has a Certificate of Occupancy."..........By Clifford Thomas.

Afis happy-pappy response:  Yes ooo, this is a dream come true o. Where and when can I sign near the dotted line ooo!

Wait a minute........is this property anywhere near the "Chop am for Humans" area? 

Okay nah, just gba brake for one minute. Can I rewind and renegotiate?

How close to the property, I mean how many miles to the property, is that Igbo River that Dead Bodies dey float the other day?

Please I will need some reassurance, I mean some physical evidence to show that those who were there before before are still alive, around and kicking!

I will need a statistical population data of last ten to twenty years ago, and the current data........Just to be sure there was no dwindling in population that are not "act of God".

Just let me know when I can sign.

SHIKENA,

Afis

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 29, 2014, at 2:54 PM, Clifford Thomas <pivot...@hotmail.com> wrote:

PRIME PROPERTY ALONG IKOT EKPENE ROAD, UYO IN AKWA IBOM STATE

 

Do you need a property in the heart of Uyo, centrally located within 400 meters of the city center along the busiest road in Akwa Ibom State? This is a property that is more than 2,400 square meters, and it is very close to the University of Uyo. It has a Certificate of Occupancy.

The property is suitable for a bank, shopping mall, school, hotel, fast food eatery, luxury home apartment, block of offices, residence or commercial purposes, and other purposes.

Should you be interested, please contact:-

LIBERTAS Solicitors

13, Ndiya Street, off Aka Road

Uyo, Akwa Ibom State

Nigeria.

+234-708-622-4180, pivot...@hotmail.com

 

Note that Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria is fast becoming the hub of commercial activities and the future destination in oil and gas, and natural resources.

Don’t wait; call us today.

 

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To: odide...@yahoo.com
From: talk...@yahoogroups.com
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 19:32:02 -0500
Subject: [talkhard] Re: ZIK, MBADIWE AND ROOSEVELT IN HOWARD UNIVERSITY 1960: Dr.AZIKIWE AND DR.OKPARA ACHIEVEMENTS NUTURED GREAT LEADERSHIPS FOR IGBOS AND NIGERIA:. Re: DID AZIKIWE AND CO LEAVE A LEADERSHIP VACUUM IN IGBO LAND?

 

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Posted by: Ezeana Igirigi Achusim <pach...@yahoo.com>

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[olaka...@aol.com]

 

 

Afis:

 

Please check your geography of Nigeria again

Akwa Ibom in SS.

 

It is quite possible that the 486 passengers on the convoy of buses

that was stopped in Abia state were enroute from northern Nigeria

to check out the same properties in Akwa Ibom state that

you are considering as a possible investment opportunity.

 

If this is true please make your offer--now that you have the advantage.

over you competitors who remain detained in Abia state.

 

Bye,

 

 

Ola--fighting for the free mobility rights of all Nigerians

with the exception of the Boko vermins and other terrorists.

[Ezeana Igirigi Achusim]

Ola:

The advertisement was targeting Afis. Afis needs to see and inspect the property in question before deciding whether to buy or not. I will pay for his one way ticket to Akwa Ibom to inspect the property. Return ticket is not needed. He will love the property so much that he will be heard from no more. And we shall all miss him. 

And I am

Ezeana Igirigi Achusim

Odi-Isaa

Nwa Dim Orioha 

Sent from my iPhone