The South East Senate Caucus captured the whole essence of the ongoing sad scenario in the country, which the three-month quit notice the Northern Youths gave to Igbo residing in the region, roused.
It is a scenario which started to play out when a certain young man, called Nnamdi Kanu, strangely emerged from nowhere to start the agitation for the creation of the Republic of Biafra, to be carved out of the present Nigeria. The young man was born in the 70s, just when the Nigeria civil war ended.
He began an agitation for the same Biafran Republic which a thoroughly educated, matured and trained senior military Igbo man, late Ikemba of Nnewi, Dr. Emeka Odumwgwu Ojukwu could not bring to fruition. The battle to ensure the actualization of the same Biafran Republic led to the 30-month needless war that resulted in the killing of millions of Nigerians (those on the Biafran side included).
From the word go, we in Greenbarge Reporters totally agree with, and recommend the South East Senate Caucus position that the Northern Youths should be ignored. So too, the Igbos that have been agitating for an independent country, and doing so by inconveniencing other Nigerians, including the Northerners in their region should be ignored.
Of course, it is too late for anybody to blame the leaders of the South East, including the Senate Caucus, the governors and traditional rulers for not cautioning their young ones, being led by a man who never witnessed the devastating effects of war: a man who was operating from far away safe haven in Britain, against attempt to re-write the history he was not part of.
It is indeed, too late for one to complain about obvious double standards being employed by the nation’s leaders in a matter such as this: where they pretend that it didn’t matter at the time the youths in the South East issued similar quit notice to all Fulani herdsmen and there was not even a whimper on the danger inherent in such matter.
The time to blame the leaders from the South East for not rallying round to educate their uneducated youths about the huge investments the Igbo people have made in the North which they stand to lose if Biafran Republic comes to fruition has been overtaken by event.
As a matter of fact, it is a little bit too late for one to blame the Igbo leaders, including the South East Senate Caucus for not coming out to condemn in loud voice, the arrant insults Nnamdi Kanu had continually heaped on Nigeria as a nation and President Muhammadu Buhari in particular, to the point of saying that “Nigeria is a stupid country.”
However, it is not too late for the South East leaders to insist also that Nnamdi Kanu and his fellow travelers in the dream land, plus their national and international sponsors should be ignored. In a matter such as this, the Northern Youths, who may just be responding to the drum of war being freely and un-disturbingly beating for long by Nnamdi Kanu, are most likely to respond in the same manner to the seizure of the beating of such drum.
Indeed, we concur and appreciate the position of the South East Senate Caucus and others on the same wavelength, that the Northern Youths and their sponsors should be ignored. For, after all, it takes two to tango: the Northern Youths are wrong in the stand they have taken, which of course, arose from the fire ignited by Nnamdi Kanu and his fellow travelers in the dream land, which is also wrong.
We are not unaware of the explosive nature of the North where this type of issue can be hijacked by miscreants hiding under the quit notice to take the law into their hands, far away from what the Northern Youths intend, but, there was certainly no reason for Nnamdi Kanu and his sponsors to visit their ignorance on the entire nation, as if he was told by his story-teller that his elders in the land were ever, and are sill being treated as slaves in this country.
What has Igbos never got in this country except civilian President, which of course, is their own making?
Nnamdi Kanu and his sponsors play out such a huge ignorance that they don’t know that Igbo people have occupied almost all the top positions of this country; from Head of Military, to Secretary to the Government of the Federation, to Senate President, to Chief Judge of the Federation, to most senior Finance minister (defacto Vice President), to Vice President and so on and so forth.
Indeed, the Northern Youths were only too quick to come out with such deadly quit notice, which should in essence, help the Igbo to reflect on what they stand to gain and or lose if Nnamdi Kanu of this world (their new hero), succeeds in carving out Republic of Biafra for them. Would they need the Northern Youths quit notice at all before they relocate to their new country if their new hero gets it for them?
Would the Igbos, who have remained silent over the serious matter they leave in the hands of Nnamdi Kanu and other yoyo guys, young enough to be their grand children, need to be prompted by anyone, least of all, Northern Youths, if the Biafran Republic becomes a reality, to move out of the North, the South West and Middle Belt all of which are in Nigeria? And perhaps, parts of the South South, including Edo State; and in a country where you have such indefatigable elders like Sir Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Emmanuel Iwanyanwu, Chief Ken Nnamani, Chief Jim Nwobodo, Chief John Nwodo, governor Rochas Okorocha and a host of other top ranking, old, wise, educated, enlightened and exposed Igbo leaders?
The point that needs to be made clear is that either we all ignore the Northern Youths for the quit notice they issued, and also, ultimately ignore Nnamdi Kanu’s group for playing up ignorant on the issue of Biafran Republic that was settled in 1970, or the leaders across the nation sit the boys down and educate them that this country belongs to all of us: that Igbo people are fully and legitimately qualified to aspire legitimately and uprightly to any position, just like Hausa or Yoruba, or Nupe or other tribes or ethnic groups. And to do that, every such tribe or ethnic group should understand and abide by the tenet of democracy and that in democracy, the number counts while those with lesser number negotiate and convince others to get along. That hundred other countries carved out of the present Nigeria won’t solve the fundamental challenges of development in all ramifications.
The final point is that, if the respected and tested Igbo leaders find it difficult to call the younger ones to order on matters of international magnitude in Nigeria such as the clamour for another country, pray, what will happen if Nnamdi Kanu of this world fights and gains independent Biafran nation for them? [myad]
