EPISTLE TO NDIIGBO
AND BIAFRANS
Greetings.
The recurrent, persistent
questions we are asking are many.
What type of people are Ndiigbo? What would life in Biafra be like? Would Ndiigbo
find Biafra habitable? Is it absolutely
necessary that Ndiigbo must continue to embarrass Ndiigbo wherever
Ndiigbo go by engaging in armed
robberies, becoming the most notorious kidnapper to harassing neighbors in
their communities?
This communiqué is a warning plea to desist from one Onye Igbo (potential Biafran) to the Ndiigbo
(igbo people willing to become Biafrans) and others who care to listen.
What qualifies this writer to pen this epistle to Ndiigbo?
He’s Onye Igbo (Igbo person willing to convert to Biafranism) and who considers Ndiigbo (Ibo people), as his elders, his fathers and his mothers.
What hurts all Ndiigbo also hurts one Onye Igbo. You know that we all know we are doing hurtful
things to each other. We ought to change
direction and turn a new leaf in order to respect ourselves and earn respect of
other Nigerians.
The purpose of this letter is to encourage our youth and provide
us with alternative patterns of thinking as we move together through the challenges we are experiencing in
a democratic governance.
Although we did not lose the Biafran War but are treated as conquered
scapegoats in our own father land, we shall not lose heart.
We shall maintain focused energy and hope and belief that we
shall eventually prevail, knowing that our cause is justified and vindicated.
Our strengths lie in our ability to learn from our common mistakes
in order
to overcome, defeat, conquer, or
rise above future mistakes. That
we had failed at one time does not mean we should forever fail or remain
incapacitated.
A popular Indian proverb says “ A fool is one who trips over
the same stone twice.” We are not going
to fall over the same stone twice as fools do or repeat the same slip and fall over
and over again. It is time we corrected our 13 mistakes. Remember to
correct the blunders when you get to the
Promised Land called Biafra.
Mistake #1: Though we
may be the hardest working and the most ambitious business-minded group in
Nigeria, we are the least satisfied, the unhappiest, the most dissatisfied
group, and the group that derives the
lowest degree of pleasure and contentment from our work.
Mistake #2: We are dissatisfied after we have sweated in the
heat from sunup to sundown and realized we have
made little progress in many areas of our lives as shown in such cities
as Lagos, Kaduna , Abuja, Port Harcourt and obodo ndi ozo (land of others).. They
say the Hausas and Yorubas own more, work less, and derive greater joy from
their labors than Ndiigbo do.
Mistake #3: We do not work cooperatively but prefer working individualistically.
Let’s work more united rather than separately, cooperatively rather than
disjointedly. Let’s pull our energy together more and strategize more.
Let’s mentor the young to take leadership
over from us as our heads gets grayer or more salt and pepper.
Mistake #4 We do not trust
each other as a result of past bitter
experiences with jealousies and dishonesty that have plagued our progress .
Let’s dialogue in town meetings and
village circles to remove the last
vestiges of suspicion that keep us
uneasy and divided.
Mistake #5: With us, it has always been “All work and No
Play.” Let’s play more and relax more with neighbors and families. Play
involves stopping work for awhile, looking around, and finding ways to spread goodwill
and joy around to help the deceased neighbor’s widow, our fatherless children,
and persons less fortunate than we are.
Mistake #6: We are too money-oriented; we turn
everything into money; and we make
everyday life to be a 24-hour-7-day period of very stressful striving for money,
and material things which we do not put
to good use and which we waste on such frivolous activities as 7 mansions at
Lagos each with 7 expansive vehicles parked there , like having 7 mistresses in
every7th town.
Mistake# 7: We are too disrespectful, rude, impolite,
bad-mannered in conversations and actions. We turn against family members and
persons who have helped us along the way. We engage in excessive backbiting.
There are too many unnecessary instances
of anya ufu (jealousy), anya ukwu
((greed), and ikpo asi (hatred) among us. Let’s smile more, be more agreeable,
delightful, pleasing, less confrontational, less contemptuous (disdainful,
sneering, scornful). Let’s be more agreeable, more accommodating, more
egalitarian (classless), and ezigbo madu (good person).
Mistake # 8: We talk folks down rather than up: we are disrespect
to elders, and we exhibit absolute
impatience and impertinence. Look how
theYorubas and Hausas tend to bend and
show respect, and other tribes pay obeisance (bob or curtsy) to get what they
want, while Igbo stand erect as brick walls to challenge others with “beatiem
mele” (I dare you to beat me out and let me see). Let’s know that bending does
not mean breaking or being a servant. There is tremendous power in humility. Money
is not everything. Isn’t money a good servant but a bad master? Therefore,
let’s not worship money.
Mistake# 9: We are too
competitive in all we do such that when a
fellow Igboman imports XYZ merchandise from China, over 1,000,000 others order
the same XYZ stuff in order to spoil the market and reduce prices , or flood the market with cheaper
brands so that and when prices hit rock
bottom as Dollar and Naira fluctuate, the original XYZ importer goes belly up
(bankrupt). Let’s be our brothers’ keeper. Let’s attempt to diversify portfolio, and relax at the end of the day
with a tumbler of sweet palm wine.
Mistake #10: We trade on fake merchandizes,
including counterfeit Tylenol, and fake
penicillin capsules filled with powder. Let’s care for our people’s physical and mental well-being as we do for
our children. .
Mistake # 11: We are extremely arrogant,
disloyal, untrustworthy, unfaithful, and treacherous. There are stories where Igbo Brother A
diverts monies sent to build quality house for Brother B by using the money and
quality materials to build his own (Brother A) house, while using inferior
materials to build a poor house for Brother B. Let’s believe in honesty as the best policy
and keep our hands clean off aruru ala/nso ala (things that corruption the
land).
Mistake # 12: We Igbo are too overreaching
in that we go too far in taking
advantage of situations: we exceed the
limit, bite off more than we can chew, get the better of someone, outwit, or take undue advantage.
Consider the most notorious millionaire kidnapper Evans whose real name is Chukwudi Onwuamadike and how he demands
1.5 million Dollar ransoms from victims while the average Nigerian survives on one
Dollar each day. Let’s set reasonable boundaries, cut our appetites, and
discipline our desires. The Hausas, River’s people and Yorubas know we Ndiigbo
are dishonest and what’s why they drive us away and seize our property. Our
enemies reason this way: If Igbo man can cheat his own brother, he will cheat
anybody, including his Chi ( his own God).
Mistake #13: We Igbos are cruel to each other
and enjoy dishing out harsh treatments to other Igbos. Consider Igbo women
coming to marry Igbo men in America and switching over to other men upon
arrival or upon obtaining the Green Papers and after beginning a successful
nursing career. Consider the Igbo chemistry
professor who stole the sum of $4,500 which
an Igbo family sent for the professor’s friend for the purchase of a used vehicle. The professor refused to
refund the money even after he was taken to U S court and the court awarded a 4,500
dollar judgment against him.