It was Calvin Coolidge who once said: ‘A nation that forgets it’s own defenders will itself be forgotten…’
God forbid that this should be the fate of the Igbo Nation. This is why today, on yet another Monday, we sit at home. Not that we are unaware of the devastating effects on our own economy, but it is unconscionable that armed bandits, self declared terrorist leaders and murderous herdsmen are allowed to roam free while our own son remains in captivity, and our own leaders appear powerless and afraid to intervene. It is downright dehumanizing and provocative.
I came across this article by Nnamdi Kanu, and found it quite touching. I thought it appropriate to share on this sit at home Monday. Kindly spare the time and effort to read to the very end.
May it Never be said of us, the Igbo Race, that ‘ There once lived a thankless and ungrateful people…’
NNAMDI KANU, Leader Of IPOB wrote…
‘Last night I kept pondering what our eternal leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, must have gone through in his young brilliant mind when over 50 years ago he had to confront not only the might of a British Government intent on the extermination of the Igbo race but also a global conspiracy against the emergence of Biafra led by turncoat, weak minded Igbo, Ijaw and Ibibio men.
These traitors were to all intent and purposes recruited and groomed as agents of British neo-colonialism to subdue, oppress and subjugate their own people. Something that still obtains till this very day, only this time, via the mindset of a developmentally regressive Fulani hegemonic tendency.
As if confronting the very formidable British neo-colonial machinery and global diplomatic clout wasn’t enough trouble for the Biafran leader, he also had to contend with enemies within his own ranks. Local backstabbers, envious traitors, sell-outs and Efulefus .
Dr Azikiwe (Zik), Ukpabi Asika, Ifeajuna et al, ganged up against him for no reason. Ojukwu’s only crime was trying to free them and the rest of the Easterners from the doom Nigeria had unleashed on them having witnessed over 300,000 men, women and children of Igbo extraction slaughtered in cold blood in Fulani controlled territories of Northern Nigeria.
Do you know some Igbo Efulefus then and their children now still blame Ojukwu for the 1966 Hausa‐Fulani slaughter of 300,000 Igbos in the north that precipitated the Biafran War? Instead of blaming those that carried out the mass slaughter of their own people, they were busy blaming the only man who was courageous enough to try and save them. Incredible isn’t it?
Zik called his own people fighting for survival rebels. He went as far encouraging the world to starve his children to death by denying them aid.
When you sit down to consider, as I have done, what Ojukwu endured, your love for him will increase a million fold and only then will you understand that trying to lead an ungrateful set of people is the most difficult job on this earth. If in doubt ask Moses and Ojukwu what they endured at the hands of Isrealites and Biafrans respectively.’
UMUIGBO, We must never forget that our son still remains in captivity today. His incarceration remains an invisible chain on the wrist of every Igbo man. Our Igbo leaders must come together and deliberate on how to secure his freedom. It is not enough merely to harp on the devastating effects of the sit at home on the Igbo economy or dish out instructions to our people normalize Monday day to day activities . They must come up with alternative constructive solutions that keep Kanu’s captivity and incarceration on the National front burner otherwise he perish in captivity, abandoned and forgotten . Failing this, Umuigbo will continue to demonstrate our revulsion to this oppression using the only options available to us.
May we never be known as an ungrateful people.
#Echezona.
• Bianca is Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s widow.