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soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

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THE PROBLEM WITH THE IGBOS: MATTERS ARISING

hen at about 4.30 am GMT last Thursday I was busy in my library (over some cans of Heneiken beer and some sticks of Marlboro lights cigarettes) knocking into shape my last article entitled "The Problem With The Igbos" little did I know that it's publication would generate a horde of positive and negative reactions. I had thought innocuosly that I was about writing the obviously known, what Nigerians and the world at large already know--courtesy of Nollywood, the Nigerian movie magic and pride of Africa. In today's jet-age reason always prevails over primordial inclinations.

The healthy controversy that piece has generated thus far is good enough for a follow-up in robust defense of my humble self in the spirit of true democracy which welcomes fairness, openness and dissent. The freedom of expression as enshrined in the constitution remains one of the infinite beauties of a true democracy. The guiding principles of human relations revolve around understanding of the rights of others and respecting same in order to be respected in return. Arrogance, aloofness and cowardice do not define or edify a gentleman.

My email account was bombarded few hours after the piece was posted by Nigeriaworld.com website by rejoinders and rebuttals some of which disagreed with my considered opinion and some praising it. This article is therefore written in response to the knocks and kudos.

Ever since I started writing articles in Nigeriaworld internet site none of my works has received more attention and reactions than the last one for obvious reasons. To be sure it was never my intention to court controversy for whatever reason. But since cross-fertilisation of ideas is a welcome development in this technologically-advanced age one does not have any choice than to join issues with those who felt somehow offended or irritated and therefore expressed their reservations.Truth-telling ought to be an ethical imperative while handling it when told could be sensationally problematic.

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Before arriving at a conclusive decision to write that piece under question I had subjected myself to some serious cogitation because people (I had thought rightly) could misconstrue or misinterpret what I had to say and read wild meanings into it. I wrote that essay in good faith even if some portion of it tended to portray my people in bad light.

I belong to the school of thought that always says: publish your considered opinion and damn the consequencies. Radicalism has been part of my life even when I was in the college. As far as no one faults my facts based on experience, extensive research and reading of events and religious following of global current affairs from every angle I believe one is on the right track. When facts are sacrosanct the rest is history!

Brutal frankness is my writing style and naming names where necessary and calling a spade a spade without fear or favour remains my guiding principles whose origin in broader analysis could be linked to my strict orientation in school. Or is it a crime or out of place to democratise one's thoughts?

Perhaps it is necessary to quote some of the rebuttals and rejoinders I received word for word. Suffice it to say here that majority of the reactions came from brothers and sisters in the diaspora. Among the lot the angriest and more sarcastic came from one Mr Okenwa Nwosu from the States I suppose. Quoting a critical portion of my piece he began in a rebuttal forwarded to some Igbo organisations in America:

"What's more, it was the love of money that led to the fall of Peter Obi as governor of Anambra state. It was the love of money that provoked the 'Otokoto' horrible tale of murder and rituals involving the high and mighty in Owerri and it's environs. The Okija evil shrine was established to service the growing apetite for money. Orji Uzor Kalu or his mother can explain better here since he allegedly took his commissioners and staff there! The love of money has steadily turned the Igboland into a vast empire where money is the undisputed king. Those who made money approach and heavily pay local and international musicians like 'Morroco', Oliver De Coque or Osita Osadebe for praise-singing songs." - Sunny Chris Okenwa

"Umuibe, It must be made clear that reckless characterization of the Igbo ought not to be tolerated as a pastime intellectual exercise of anyone, particularly one who labels himself to be "a full-blooded Igboman". It is really hard for me to comprehend what exactly the author of the article below is trying to convey to his readers. After a rather verbose and jumbled expose on his perception of all the negative traits that epitomize the Igbo, he ended with only a two-sentence paragraph that prescribes his "prerequisite for rediscovery and recovery" for a people who he spared no effort to denigrate throughout his unbalanced essay.

Based on the above excerpt, it is hard to see any shortcoming or mishap of the Igbo that could not be construed to emanate from insatiable quest for money. This thought process, to say the least, is simplistic, puerile and obviously insulting to the sensibilities of many who nurture a deep sense of pride for our authentic Igbo cultural heritage and indigenous value system. It will be a waste of time and effort for me to delve into the many inconsistent and often contradictory assertions made by the author in his haste to arrive at his rather contorted and confused conclusions on how vile the Igbo can be, especially in matters that have to do with wealth acquisition. Suffice it to say that he has clearly provoked many of his readers, including this writer, with his unfounded insinuations about the contemporary Igbo. The Igbo are no saints; but we are hardly the worst group inhabiting the Nigerian or African geopolitical space as we speak.

This article cannot be a self-criticism of sort because it is grossly unbalanced and is completely devoid of any coherent suggestions on how his kith and kin can redeem or extricate themselves from the vices he went to a great extent to expatiate upon. Furthermore, the author has failed to let his readers know if he, as a person, epitomizes the Igbo that he is attempting to characterize or whether he is simply shooting the breeze as a detached indifferent commentator.

Let it be clear that incoherent rant like this about the Igbo shall never be tolerated in our midst without a firm rebuttal. A balanced self-critique, however, is salutary, especially if accompanied by well reasoned suggestions on how we can mend our ways going forward. Shooting the Igbo from the hip by our very own makes little sense and no one should be allowed to get away with this callous act as one of his "hobbies". --Okenwa."

After perusing the above I wrote Mr Nwosu and the caption of my response was "The Best Option":

"Mr Nwosu, Thank you for the rebuttal. But if you feel strongly about the opinion of mine under question I believe the best thing for you to do is to send a rebuttal or rejoinder to Nigeriaworld website. That way you would have sought to correct certain impressions you felt aggrieved about.

Beyond empty rhetorics and sarcasm why not establish the facts you think are missing or misrepresented in my treatise?

The reality on the ground speaks in my favour, so why the muscled response fraught with invectives and fury signifying nothing important?

Goodbye. And do the right thing now as recommended above in the interest of cross-fertilisation of ideas. That is about the best option. See you soon in the public parliament.

Best Regards, Mr SOC Okenwa."

Following the above another uncharitable rebuttal came from one Lawrence Nwobu who wrote:

"When will you guys leave Ndigbo alone? Is Igbo the only tribe in Nigeria? What is wrong with loving money and working hard for it? Do the Americans not love Money? Does the Japanese, Germans etc not love money? If there are few Igbo's who collected money to betray June I2, or other Igbo's who Engage in rituals or 419 to make money, so what? All Igbo's cannot be good or perfect. No society is perfect. Even very rich advanced nations still have their fair share of criminals. These whole obsessions with Ndigbo, by people like you who adopt Igbo names and pretend to Be Igbo while writing junk articles about the Igbo smacks of jealousy, ignorance and tribal hatred. If indeed you are Igbo what interest will your manifestation of self hate serve. Nigeria has a lot of Problems, yet you found no convenient article to write to move Nigeria forward.

On one hand you said Igbo's are hardworking, on the other hand you are saying they love money, What exactly is wrong with working hard for your money? How about those other lazy Nigerians from the North and elsewhere who prefer to reap where They did not sow? Have they not robbed Nigeria to the grave? Would you honestly prefer those thieving Northern rulers to the ordinary Igbo man who is working hard to survive?

Nigeria is today a failed state, thank God since 1970 no Igbo has ruled Nigeria, infact Igbo's have been excluded From governance. But yet Nigeria is wracked by monumental corruption. The biggest thieves, Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Tafa Balogun, Mike Adenuga, Lamidi Adedibu, Umaru Dikko, Fayose, Alameyeisigha, Akinloye, Atiku, Obasanjo etc none of them is Igbo. Most of the Policemen collecting and killing people for 20Naira on the roads are not Igbo.

Most of the Customs men diverting money in the ports and borders are not Igbo, so how can you really In all honesty justify your claim that Igbo's love money just because they work hard and are determined to Succeed? What would you prefer Igbo's to do, become beggars? Even if they became beggars would you leave them alone? Wouldn't you still be one of those who will go to town with the story that Igbo's are lazy beggars? Of all the problems bedevilling Nigeria at this time, 2007 elections, Niger Delta militancy, looting of treasury by state governors Ethnic and religious strife, absence of electricity, pipe borne water, human corpses on the streets, absence of Medicare, absence of quality education, persistent strikes by lecturers, armed robbery, bad roads etc it is really puzzling that you singled out the Igbo To malign.

My brother it is pretty obvious that you are a deeply biased fellow, doing a hatchet job for your fellow travellers. While I detest wasting My time reacting to junk publications from charlatans like you, I would not hesitate to take your lies head-on in a public rejoinder.

I will leave it for now, with an advice to you to be more circumspect and objective in your future publications. Nigeria is for us all, if you cant stand the heat Pack your bags out of the kitchen. Cheers --Lawrence."

You can see that Lawrence has not been following my write-ups of late, so his ignorance is pardonable. For it takes a warped mind to write the foregoing.

Another interrogative one came from one Ikechukwu Awgu:

"Question: When was the last time you saw an article on Nigeriaworld.com titled: The "Problem with Hausa/Fulani"? Or, the "Problem with the Yoruba" ? I wonder why those articles are absent... You are well intentioned, but the thesis of your piece; that the "love for money" is the Igbo mans downfall, is ridiculous. Our REAL downfall was losing the Biafran war and being trapped in a fraudulent, fake, pretend, backwards, barbaric, terrorist state called Nizeria. Everything else is just the after effect of that failure. Do Jew's write articles in newspapers about how too many of them have a "love for money"? No, of course not. Neither should we. "-Ikechukwu Awgu

And Mr Christian Dimkpa who wrote in from Germany declared parochially:

"Hello, I refer to the above article on the Nigeriaworld website. Like you, I am Igbo from Umuahia Abia State. I do not agree with you the way you lumped all those negativities you listed on the entire Igbo. I will have you know that with the exception of Arthur Nweribe from Imo State, almost all the negativities you listed are perpetrated by Anambra people. You can check the names you yourself mentioned to see how many of them are non-Anambra. Every single Nigerian tribe has contributed to the mess that Nigeria is currently. However, among the Igbo, Anambrarians are the main fake drug dealers, profit-by-all-means traders, 419ners, and illicit drug peddlers everywhere,in and out of Nigeria, including here in Germany. Whereas every living soul has an element of greed in them, Anambrarians are the seemingly overly greedy Igbos.

So please next time you want to advise the Igbo, do so in particular to your people. Anambra has consistently painted the entire Igbo in bad light and they should accept their failures.

Regards Christian Dimkpa PhD fellow"

Now enough of the knocks, let's read the kudos. "Hi, That was a great article. Well written! Keep it up. I hope your message will go down well with your fellow Igbos.

Expect rebuttal soon, No, not from me though but from your fellow Igbo people. I trust your people. They will react, I know they don't like criticism like you have rightly done. Just my opinion.

Keep on writing! You are good!

Patrick Alabi, Canada."

"My Brother,

Firstly, thank you for a well written and thought provoking prose. More grease to you erudite elbow.

I have, as someone who is not of the Igbo extraction often wondered, on my numerous visits to Nigeria, why this religious zeal for money among our Ibo brethrens.

Thanks for enlightening me.

Take Care and God bless.

Afolabi Ade"

"Well done nwa nnem for your excellent article. I am from Nnewi but each time I travel home, I feel like crying.In the mad rush for money values have been turned on there heads. Keep it up and don't be discouraged by possible negative reaction to your article.Ibos are the worst enemies of Ibos. Regards.

Gozie Anekwe"

"Sunny, I saw your article on Nigeriaworld.com. Well written and on the money. Where you ever a student of FSAS Aba or UNN? Thanks Chikere Ezeh"

"Brother Sunny, you've unwittingly stirred the hornet's nest but believe you me it was a balanced article. It takes only the bold and the brave to put such out but I'm afraid our brothers and sisters might not see reason with you based on the biological/cultural affinity. Be strong and courageous in the Lord and above all be yourself. Bravo! Nonye Rose (miss), Milan Italy"

It is preposterous for 'phd fellow' Christian Dimkpa to want to compare Anambra State to Abia State because the former is the heartbeat of Igboland from where the best has always come. Someone should remind him that Ojukwu, Achebe, Ekwueme, Anyaoku, Chike Obi, late Zik are not from Umuahia or Abia State where majority are Okada riders and butchers; these 'positivities' in sharp contrast to the 'negativities' he outlined are about the best brains Igboland has produced so far in terms of achievement, greatness and global relevance. Mr Dimkpa must accept our leadership position and dominance rather than wanting us to accept his 'failures'.

In conclusion let me say that in as much as I welcome and appreciate objective criticisms or appraisal of my articles I owe no one any apology for any stand taken on any issue. And on that score I wish to say in all humility that I have no regrets whatsoever writing what I wrote. If anyone feels aggrieved by my views I think there are avenues for opposing views, that is open rebuttals; such avenues should therefore be exploited by those concerned to satisfy their consciences, grievances and concerns.