Showing posts with label Alhaji Umaru Altine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alhaji Umaru Altine. Show all posts

Friday, July 15, 2016

Ndigbo: Why Joe Igbokwe’s Self-Enslavement Worries Me

By Jude Ndukwe
In his well published diatribe against the Igbo people of Nigeria, Joe Igbokwe, the Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Lagos State chapter, who is also a son of Igbo, poured invectives on the Igbo nation while making spurious allegations against them. For those who know Igbokwe’s leanings and past stance on national issues, his latest scurrilous attack on the great people of the South Eastern part of Nigeria did not come as a surprise, the only surprising thing is that this latest attack seem to come somehow awkwardly late and too far apart given the man’s relentless and unrepentant penchant for always attempting to ridicule Nigeria’s most resilient and enterprising people in an essay full of contradictions, lame postulations and outright insults.
*Tinubu and Buhari 
His grouse is that, according to him, the Igbo have refused to move on since after former president Jonathan lost the last presidential election to the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari. In one fell swoop, he accused the Igbo of ethnic bigotry and still went ahead to wonder why it is that the people of the South South region have since moved on while their South Eastern brothers have refused to move on from that election. If the Igbo were ethnic bigots, how would they be so concerned about the loss of a Bayelsa man in an election to the extent that a certain Joe Igbokwe is riled by their stoic and unwavering support to such a man even more than a year after his loss?

Rather than paint the Igbo in such uncomplimentary, yet, false light, Joe should turn his focus on his principals and paymasters who are working tirelessly to continually divide Nigeria along ethnic and religious lines. When the president of a country has officially divided his nation into two political, ethnic and religious lines by the virtue of the “97% vs 5%” declaration of no person less than the president himself, the Igbo view him as one who does not mean well for the nation.

 In this light, the Igbo view Jonathan as a hero because, even though he is not Igbo, he would never have made such a divisive and unpresidential statement not to talk of acting it out. And as if to prove that declaration as an official policy of his, President Buhari’s appointments have not been federal either in character or in intent. To this extent, the Igbo view themselves as endangered species in a nation that easily preaches one Nigeria but state actors do the exact opposite. The president’s continued seclusion of certain parts of the country from State offices and projects, if there is anyone at all, is what is crippling Nigeria. The cry of the Igbo, which the likes of Igbokwe have misinterpreted to serve their own selfish purpose, is that Buhari should not crash the nation with his own hands.

 If anyone sees this as ethnic bigotry, the person has urgent need for an optician and a psychiatrist! With the level of poverty visited on us in Nigeria by the Buhari administration, it is enough to make people like Igbokwe spew nonsense in the name of criticism, and also makes it imperative for regular brain checks to be part of such people’s daily menu. When armless and harmless Igbo embark on peaceful rallies and the military shoot at them without provocation, killing many in the process, not once, not twice, and hurriedly bury them in mass shallow graves in military barracks and elsewhere in order to cover their evil, Joe Igbokwe expects Ndigbo to applaud rather than criticize state actors for their wickedness and insensitivity. Enough is enough!