Okenyi Kenechi
When the CCT clown described those who booed him for molesting a plaza security officer as ‘Biafran Boys’, this generation of Igbo Youths owned it.
When Malami used his ‘Spare Parts’ analogy as a derogatory put down on Igbo businessmen, this generation owned it.
When Buhari described our region as a ‘Dot in a Circle’, Onye Dot began trending everywhere.
What am I trying to say? There is a Renaissance sweeping through the heart of Igbo Land and it’s championed by Young People who are tired of the put down because of the civil war.
I can bet that the three descriptions above would have been greeted with shame and an attempt to show that we are still loyal if they were said 20 to 30 years ago. The present Igbo Youths won’t take the things their parents swallowed sitting down.
That Renaissance is very visible in entertainment. It is why super producers like Mastercraft relocated to the East from Lagos to champion the recreation of musical identity with Flavour, Phyno, Ụmụ Obiligbo, Larry Gaga etc. For a fact, they don’t struggle for Lagos space any more because they have a huge market in the East that is untapped.
To understand this Renaissance, go and watch Duncan Mighty’s interview on BBC Igbo and what he said he wants to do with his TV station still under construction. For Duncan Mighty to publicly call for Igbo Unity at a time that Governor Nyesom Wike told the world he wasn’t Igbo does the telling.
The second aspect of that Renaissance is visible in the agitation by IPOB. It is a class war championed by Igbo Youths living outside Nigeria with the sole aim of getting the regional political leadership to bend to the reality that being treated like 3rd class citizens won’t be accepted anymore or be dethroned. In this war, the regional political leadership, outnumbered, rely only on the kinetic force of Abuja.
This is why they don’t know what to do to end the sit-at-home because they detached themselves from the people a long time ago. Ever wondered why people don’t bother voting in the East? This resentment has been going on for a long time, IPOB only voiced it out. The political leadership of the South East did not anticipate the coming of a mass movement like IPOB that enjoys the support of more than 70 percent of the residents of Igbo land. As the people voted less, they didn’t bother because it helped them to write results and declare elections. The true test of the Igbo Politicos is in ending the Sit-at-home. Unfortunately, they can’t.
At an event in Lagos some months back, someone said that the rate at which Anioma youths embraced IPOB was troubling. She is from Asaba. Someone added that they long for Anioma state and know that the support will only come from across River Niger.
If South East gets it right in the area of leadership, and economy, the Igbos in the South South and North will tag along and identify. The Egedes and Igaras in Benue and Kogi will equally tag along. Everyone follows the dollar and power.
When I wrote that there has been no major Federal government project in the South East in the last 50 years that will encourage businesses to thrive and stem the tide of forced migration, people said that I should name where federal government is building major projects in the entire country.
Just because you love your darkness shouldn’t stop me from seeking the light. Igbo land was the last to be conquered by the British colonialists. Those who fought Ekumeku war for 30 years, those who fought the Aro wars against the British will never bow to internal colonisers.
As we beg IPOB to have pity on us, let it be restated that IPOB is a symptom of a disease called Nigeria and not the cause. In other to extinguish the symptoms, you have to remove the causative agent. People, however fixate on the symptoms and thumb the cause up.
Because we lived so many years under the military jackboot and understand only how to kill a fly with a sledge hammer, we don’t want to see that the only way to deal with these issue is at the roundtable and not with guns.
While guns killed so many during the Biafran war, it didn’t stop it. It was rather postponed. The fact is that the war is still on. When it will end, I don’t know.
