“We slaughter one another in our words and attitudes. We slaughter one another in the stereotypes and mistrust that linger in our heads, and the words of hare we spew from our lips.” – Nelson Mandela
When one says there’s cookery against the Igbo, all hell breaks lose in Nigeria, but; this Poae below which speaks on protests across the country, actually has more than the proverbial 1000 words. If the message in the Post doesn’t strike a cord within you, then I am sorry, you’re a bigot and an envious entity. Please don’t go into my comment section with claims of the Igbo being this or that. We have the good, the bad and the utterly ugly in every tribe and religion.
If the Igbo were reliant on government, we would have seen them making all sorts of noise. The Nigerian innovators are silently doing their thing, not minding whatever the government is doing even though, the highest users of FOREX for international in Nigeria, is the Igbo businessman or woman. All they do is adjust their ways of life and recalibrate their businesses to make sure they profit without wringing the necks of their customers through high costs. Could we say the same about people from the north? The answer is an uncomfortable NO! Ramadhaan is approaching and as usual, Muslim traders are wickedly hoarding their stuff so as to sell them skyhigh. I am also not stereotyping regarding the northern Muslims, just as we have good and evil in all religions and ethnicities. The menace of high cost of food stuff is prevalent in the north. This is a statistical fact. I want to use this medium to appeal to my Igbo brethren all over the globe, you are loved and appreciated for your resilience, innovative nature and steadfastness especially in the area of manufacturing, trade and social economics. Yes, I have a traditional title in Akokwa, Imo state, the Obi made me the “Omeremba of Akokwa”! I am not speaking from such angle, I have been that for more than 13 years now, rather it’s because of facts. I watched a video in which a European was throwing encomiums on the Igbo for training kids and legally raising amounts in excess of $1 billion annually. This is a business idea outside the normal impossible and wicked tricks shoved down our throats by IMF and the World Bank. These are facts which are verifiable.
This goes to show how much Nigeria needs the Igbo as local consultants to teach other Nigerians in areas of industrial fabrications, manufacturing and trade. The government may recruit experienced hands among these people to train our youths who are getting restive by the day. At the same time use other capabilities of other parts of the country to train the Igbos in areas where they don’t know it all, such as dry season farming, animal husbandry etc.
The Federal Governmwnt can establish a commission that will make this exchange of ideas and ideals possible. It’s one of the easiest ways to unite this impossible country. Luckily social vices such as ethno-religious crises are a thing of the past especially in the north. So, that which is Caesar’s, must be given to Caesar, simple and clear.
While I appreciate Nigerians from all works of life, I dedicate my birthday; which ia today; to the entire Ndigbo all over the world. Let me hear it for my Igbo brethren. You guys will forever be the live wire of Nigeria. Ndibgo Kwenu, Kwenu, Kwezuenueeee. Thank you my folks.
Bello Mukhtar
Writes from Abuja.
