By Igbonekwu Ogazimora
This question was first revealed to me in the concluding part of Col Gbulie’s book, on the “January 15, 1966 coup. In his words, “the Igbos are a race of extremists…they do not know how to stand on the fence…they are either here or definitively there…there is no diplomatic approach to any issue.
Prof Ibe Diala Nwoga wondered in his 1984 Ahiajoku lecture where the rise for materialism, already at bone cracking stage and speed, came from. “The Igbo were the least materially inclined before colonialism…as there was never such a person of stupendous opulence and power to attempt twarting the social order…but these days, the drive at amassing wealth, even to the detriment of the society, in total disregard for the values and in mindless injuries to others, runs counter to what the Igbo used to hold dear…upturning erstwhile determined steps in the emergence of leadership or social approval.”
Prof Chinua Achebe, speaking at a book launch in the Hotel Presidential in Enugu bemoaned the rise of “e si be gi e je be onye?…. a most crude affront meant to impress self feat and independence from any social restrictions…but quite injurious to our people who have lost all values following the ordered past for the riotous drive and stampede to material affluence.”
Prof Michael Echeruo, in another edition of Ahiajoku had counselled: “…this current trend in the Igbo displaying the worst of desperation and mindless pursuit cannot be seen as the all time Igbo attitude to industry, if only by the deliberate policies of the central government the indices of development were not made inaccessible to them in their areas of Nigeria.”
I agree completely. Majority of the Igbo who are threatened today with death if they do not leave the North went there in the first place because no such jobs, even the carpenter’s trade was available in his region due to skewed Federal resource allocations.
When Ahmed, my friend, who grew up in Port Harcourt and speaks flawless Igbo called me this morning, his question was, “nna, na this leg the nama go take reach Umuahia.” He elaborated even though I knew what he meant. If this could happen in Ozubulu, in Nigeria where we still live by the protection of one another, aren’t you guys going into a survival of the fittest in Biafra?
I kept quiet for sometime before I answered. “Ol’ boy, if na like this, this nama no go even reach Lokpanta o.” He understood and hung up.
Now, something also worries me. The police, so quick in releasing the details of the assumed target of the attack, and who lost his innocent father, has yet to tell us who has been his rival. I do not join in the cry that the police was too fast in releasing the facts. Locals already appear to have the facts and they were too willing to unburden to the police over the activities of the nauseating fellows. Now, there is an Mbaise angle. Even an Nnobi side is coming.
The photograph of where the guy was spraying money in the most annoying manner is also in circulation. Can’t it be safely said that the land is now bereft of elders who command respect and who ought to have told the boy to come off his annoying show of raw cash?
I really pity my people!