Okenyi Kenechi
If Chinua Achebe happened to be alive, he would give Chimamanda Adichie a big knock for those silly remarks.
Adichie is a smart, intelligent woman, but seems to be a neophyte to Nigeria’s political commentary, and to great extent, the Igbo ways of life.
Those who don’t like themselves should be abducting and killing themselves in droves. Hate breeds insecurity. South East is one of the most secured regions in the country.
Those who hate themselves shouldn’t have devised an apprentice system to lift themselves out of poverty after the war, a system that top scholars in world have taken keen interest in.
Those who hate themselves shouldn’t be seen moving back every December to meet and feast with their kin. She is tapping into the psychological assault that Nigeria’s rulers use in trying to break our spirits, albeit unsuccessfully.
Adichie is probably talking about political love, confirming her lack of knowledge of contemporary Igbo struggles as championed by the Youths. That ignorance is a product of elitism, which has disconnected some of them from reality.
The Igbo, especially the young Igbo people feel alienated from governance in Nigeria. That alienation is a resultant of the Igbo challenging the yolking together of religious and socially distinct people by the British. The Obi Malaysia wants customs to stop seizing his goods which are not contraband. Emeka Main Market is angry that the vessel carrying his goods cannot berth at Onicha or Onne. He has to go to Lagos, pay bribe to customs, police, soldiers, haul his goods to Onicha and sell. Ndubuisi is vexing because to travel for his business, he will either go to Lagos or Abuja for visa issues. These people do not see Nigeria as a country worthy of their time. And they are in the majority.
Ejike who is into tech is angry that there is no electricity for him to work with. He is thinking of relocating, and would only look at Adichie’s degrading remarks with the wildest grin.
The family whose father/mother was removed from PenCom, CAC, Customs, prematurely retired from the army on the account of his ethnicity will definitely have a different understanding of love from what Adichie is preaching.
It is why those who are championing the issue of Igbo presidency are seen as court jesters. The sentiment is that Nigeria is structured to fail, and any attempt at the presidency is only for the benefit of the elites, and not for the ordinary Igbo man and woman. This sentiment is amplified by the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. Virtually every middle-class Igbo and some upper-class share the IPOB sentiment, but many disagree on methodology currently in use. The call is for outright dissolution of the union. Those who are magnanimous enough want restructuring, but they are in the minority.
At last, people like her give non-Igbo the axe with which they try to use to psychologically cut us down.
Wemoof.
