By Martin-Hassan EZE
If one thinks of Armageddon, there is only one picture that comes to mind. The famed land of the rising sun. Should I tell? The dot nation is no longer a sloping slope, it is now an abyss. Thomas Hobbes, the immortal author of the Leviathan was a prophet. The ink, most often than not is prophetic. When Hobbes, talked of a jungle where life is solitary, poor, nasty, and brutish, he had Iboland in mind. But if you don’t like Hobbes’s portrait, no wahala. Olagunju Lasisi, the cerebral weaver of words has better imagery:” shore of shark” But again sharks are aquatic Irokos that find a home in seas and oceans. And Iboland doesn’t have what it takes to have sharks. We can now agree that Iboland is a river. Not Imo. Omambala. Ota Mmiri. Njaba. Oguta. Urashi. Azumiri or the almighty Niger. No. Never! The land of Zik and his ancestors is crocodile-infested water. If you dare swim, take a walk on its banks, throw your hook, do laundry, or bend to scoop a handful to slake your thirst, you do that at your peril. Put succinctly, the South-East is a hell strutting about with swagger. It is a smoking ruin; a land decorated with blood because everything sits at home, even common sense. It is a republic of two extremes. It is either you sit at home or you sleep inside a coffin or your grave.
To ask Ndibo to take a look at the mirror is to invite the wrath of Amadioha, the ruthless messenger of the Ala goddess on you and your family. No business is lucrative in Iboland like playing the Ostrich. Those who danced, clapped, and cheered Mazi, monsieur le Agemo and his coterie of blood-sucking monsters orchestrating the oddities, absurdities, and barbaric inhumanities in Iboland have perfected the skill of blaming Ndi-Fulani, the Jibril from Sudan, or any other fitting enemy existing in their imagination. It is like a childless man who blames everybody but his impotent Gbola for his misfortunes.
From Agbor to Obollo-Afor, tap an average Ibo man on the shoulder, he will yell like a child stung by a bee about marginalization or the absence of Federal government. It is profitable to roar and point accusing fingers at Abuja. It makes you a Diala. The thirteenth tribe of Israel; the Nigerian Jews must find a fat goat for the Yom Kippur ritual. Poor Ndi- Fulani! I pity anyone who looks like his ancestors came from Futa Jallon to conquer and pillage “our land”. In Iboland, the Fulanis are pharma koi, the priced choice of Athenian-Ancient Greece- for the festival of Thurgelia. If the Romans like the Jews of Palestine had a scapegoat for the feast of Lupercial, why can’t Ndibo have a man, a creed, or a tribe to blame for the rot and decay in Iboland?
The six years that the Ibonized Ebele Azikiwe, the kai-kai-drinking shoeless fisherman can be said to be an “Ibo regime”.Ibo Sons and Daughters had either one lucrative post or that juicy office. Ibo elites and politicos were calling the shot and parading around Abuja like gods. We even had an all-powerful goddess: The minister of finance and the co-ordinating minister of the economy. The first of its kind in the history of Nigeria. What did Ibos do with that opportunity? Did any of them lift a finger to transform Iboland? Not even the Ministry of Aviation which became like a birthright of Ibos under Azikiwe could fix Akanu Ibiam, the only international Airport in Iboland. It took a Fulani to wipe away the spectacle of shame that Akanu Ibiam was. It is as if Ibos have taken a vow not to take responsibility for the mess that is Iboland today. The finger must be pointed at Abuja.
Marginalization. Lack of Federal Presence. Stricto sense, are Ibos marginalized? No. I have lost it, right? Perhaps a look at the bigger picture will put things into perspective. Nigeria is divided into two tribes; The Ajebutters; the minority tribe and the Ajekpakos. The particularities of creed, tongue, gender, or education do not give you a place at the table if you are not from the anointed Ajebutter tribe or connected by “divine grace” such that you have access to the fabled corridor of power where you can pick up the crumbs falling from the table, smiling and thanking God for the gift of slavery. Such is the case of many Ajekpakos who came to Abuja by night bus and are Oga patapata today or something that looks like it. The truth is that the majority of Nigerians and all geo-political zones of the country are under the yoke of marginalization. If it is about an Ibo President, should we agree that the Nupes, Alagos, Isokos, Igbiras, Kalabaris, or Kamberis should go and raze down Aso Rock? Or, are they lesser mortals; slaves to the “big three” who must never smell a Villa meant for the owners of Nigeria?
The socio-political, economic, cultural, and educational decline or decay in Iboland can’t be divorced from the conclave of rogues parading themselves as Ibo political leaders. Take, for instance, Mazi, the messiah forgot that charity begins at home. By the time he was flexing muscles with Jibril of Sudan, his brother, and neighbor in Umuahia, the pot-belle shameless kleptocrat was owing Umu Chineke truckloads of unpaid salaries, pensions, and gratuities. Abia workers and senior citizens were dying of hunger not minding that hater-in-chief of Ibos gave bail out funds to all state Executives. Typical of Political vultures in Iboland who feed fat from the misery of Ibos, nobody was bailed in Abia. Abia state was in the worst form of political, infrastructural, and human decay unknown to Iboland since the end of the fratricidal three years war. The belching and stultifying stench from Abia could raise the dead but Ibos were more concerned with building the tower of babel in Lagos or sabon gari in Kano, poking fingers into the eyes of Tinubu and his gang of Lagos Street demons or informing Lagoon-loving Oba of Lagos the new status of his kingdom as a no-mans-land. The all-knowing Mazi, the savior of the Ibo race who could not clean the heap of mess in Abia made the tumbling out of the closet of all hidden Islamic agenda of Fulani Janjaweed a permanent job. Mazi was not like Janus, the double-headed Roman god known for looking in two directions at once. Mazi was stiff-necked he could not turn to look at Ibo politicos and business mafias. He could not see the rot in Umuahia. Never. He fixed his gaze on Jibril and his sword of “five percent” hidden in his starched and well-iron white flowing bubanriga. The Biafran Rottweiler loved huffing and puffing against Fulani principalities and powers.
Dee Michael Opara must be rumbling in his grave. Today’s Efulefus are shrubs under his canopy. Ibo elites are political vultures and prostitutes fiddling like Nero while Iboland is in flames of poverty and penury. Iboaland is under siege by this clan of godless mafias bonded by criminal camaraderie. The rot in Iboland can only continue because we have a crop of leaders who are everything an Ibo; a Diala should never become. But do Ibo cast stones at them? When I look at Ibo Oligarchs each time they gather at the Lion building to make noise, even with their red cap and Isiagu, nothing is dignifying about them. They are clean-up-crew and inside their pot-belle is the prosperity and progress of Iboland. They are as useless as the sagged breasts of a century-old grandma in the village. The worst of this tribe of buffoons are Ibo federal legislators; Self-serving vultures. Once in Abuja, this volt of vultures enjoys a heraldic pose with other carrion-eating political hyenas and prayer warriors to ensure that no project carrying a federal signature becomes a reality in Iboland. If not for Babatunde Fashola and Jibril…
Where are the ethos, values, culture, and philosophy that defined an Ibo man at home and abroad? Almost all institutions in Iboland- Political. Cultural. Traditional. Commercial. Religious and educational are living in the past glories of the Zik and Opara era. Today, they are diseased and decaying like Ziks, Flat in Nsukka. Who still talks of merit, excellence, and industry among Ibo youths when the atmosphere is conducive for mammonism- Drug trafficking, human trafficking, fraud, and ritual killings? Even the pulpit in Iboland is dirty and stinking. Alaibo now oozes like an abandoned cadaver by the roadside.
Ibos are under siege from the enemies within. Whoever imagined that it will get to a point where the cheapest “thing” to waste in Iboland will be human lives? Doesn’t it beggar the imagination that the foolery of idiots are praised as facades of wisdom, their irrational and senseless diatribes declared as dogma? All it takes to be a revered figure is to become a howling imbecile in social media. The worst tragedy is that dissenters only murmur in hushed tones. To invoke Greek reason and logic, debate and dialogue, propriety, and moderation is to become endangered species that must flee to exile or become food for the mob. To refuse to eat the tasty diet of hate and bigotry or to withhold your support for their sacrilegious feast is to awaken the sword from the scabbard. The sin of oteletualism attracts a bullet in the head. Every Oteletual must shut up or flee Iboland on four legs. These monsters groping about as Biafrans are bloodthirsty criminals. Those killing, raping, pillaging, and inviting economic doom and social darkness in Iboland are not ghosts or Abokis. They are not unknown gunmen. They are Ibos who must be treated like lepers.
Ibos like any patriotic citizen cannot be happy with the sorry state of Nigeria. Anger is a human emotion. It is like fire; creative and destructive. But it seems Ibo youths have chosen to go to bed with the wrong side of anger. Ibos should first direct their ire at Ibo elites and Politicos. Ibo leaders should be held responsible for the festering sores of poverty and underdevelopment in Iboland. The Ibo States get the Federal Allocation alert monthly like any other sub-national.
Ibophobia is real but a sense of victimhood is a demon Ibo youths must exorcise from their heads and hearts. Ibos must stop seeing political enemies everywhere or creating a new one in this emilokan regime. Finger-pointing is a second skin Ibos must peel. The politics of lamentation have proven not to be productive. Every tongue or tribe in Nigeria has an endless list of hot brains. With more than two hundred tribes Nigeria cannot be created according to the whims and caprices of Ibos. Every Nigerian irrespective of creedal or political affiliation is a bona fide stakeholder. Let the narcissistic whinge stop.
Now that the Professor of “technical glitches” have anointed and announced the emilokan wizard as the new tenant in Aso Villa, can Ibos look inward and stop this growling at Abuja? Or, is it more profitable to find a new scapegoat? Perhaps, the hat will sit well on the head of Awo, the Wizard of Eko, or Asari Dokubo since Jibril of Daura, tired and retired is on the train to Maradi in the Niger Republic. After all, Robert Half said that “the search for someone to blame is always successful”.
Martin-Hassan EZE writes from Kontagora, Niger State, Nigeria. ( +2348165148181/ @EzeHassanmartin)
Tuesday, 15th August, 2023.