Igbo still in second-guessing mode?

KWENU! Our culture, our future

Igbo still in second-guessing mode?

Acho Orabuchi

Dallas, Texas

Friday, May 6, 2005

Sadly, in today’s Nigerian socio-political environment, the condition of the Igbo is grimmer than ever, especially with every passing day regardless of gleam of hope some people may have. Despite this unfortunate and dismal condition of the Igbo in Nigeria, a condition predicated on systematic and institutionalized marginalization coupled with hatred of the ethnic group, there are some people, particularly from the Igbo race, who either do not have a deep understanding of the plight of the Igbo race or are blindfolded by their venal behavior. In either case, it is troubling, especially when those thought to be precocious demonstrate profound inability to discern concealed dreadful treatment of the Igbo.

Additionally, and depressing of course, the uncanny tendency to react instead of being proactive has held the Igbo back. In some cases, the Igbo are frozen to inaction because their second-guessing mode that has characterized their modus operandi is always activated. Fortunately, some people are working diligently to transform our inertia and lethargy into constructive action. Many of us are delighted that our toiling for equity, justice, security, and fairness may one day yield the desired results.

As a result, Ndi-Igbo are summoned for a common purpose. It is fulfilling that many are answering the clarion call.

CHARLES U. MADUKA, a freelance writer, and CHARLES C. CHIKEZIE, a member of World Igbo Congress (WIC) board, have the rest of the story.

NdiIgbo cannot afford any distraction about our plight anymore. It is high time we became serious and ignore people whose antics are all in one, self. We continue to allow the few self centered to dictate what we do and, they get away with it because we continue the old pattern of see and hear no evil. We want to be seen as good by being silent. Have you ever wondered why progressive black people all over the world scream a lot? May be if our oppressors had listened the first time we would not be screaming. May be if we had been let out of lock down conditions we wouldn't be screaming. African Americans screamed and screamed and got some relief. Women screamed and hollered until they got heard. What do you think Martin Luther King Jr. was doing in all those speeches? He was screaming his loudest. While he was doing that, do you think that there were not some blacks who were against him? The oppressors couldn't stand him and, they cowardly killed him. In his death came relief. Have African-Americans made progress? Go back to pre 1963 and see the history for yourselves. Some of you that did not take American History as fundamental courses may never understand.

So it is my brothers and sister, this journey will be opposed even though we have not even started. They will question the motives in many ways. Some that understand what it takes to carry on a political and morally right fight will whither the storm and continue to fight amid the obstacles. Who are we to question what people decide to do on a Holy day? Did people not carry on with their business the day Christ was crucified, the act that saved us from our sins?

As we prepare to conclave, many are inventing ways to undermine. Would they succeed? Surely, they are not our God and, have no power to undermine God. What is written is written and no man or woman can be in His way.

Call me a fool in my face than outside. It takes a true being to cough. PNF USA has called on NdiIgbo to join hands in 2005 and make a political statement, that enough is enough. A mother has three children and two of them have been eating eggs and salad while the third child salivates. For how long shall that throat continue to hurt? Do you continually tell the third child, "you are still a baby and you can't chew." You have been crying for long and when you are provided with a towel to wipe your eyes you deny ever crying and question why you should cry. If the Nigerian President of Igbo Extraction were a product, can NdiIgbo not sell it? Are we not the best marketers in the whole of Africa? Have the Yorubas, the Hausas and the rest of Nigeria not bought ever-single product we bring into Nigeria. Why are we timid about this product? Have we really given it our best shot, seriously?

Invitations have been extended to NdiIgbo that support IBB, Marwa and Atiku to come and explain to us why these people are better than onye Igbo for the plum job. If they don't show up, it is not because they are afraid but because they are selfish against the collective Igbo interest. They are ashamed to show up and face the sharpest and brightest minds NdiIgbo have who care for the plight of the grassroots. If they are real what stops them from flying in in their private jets and sitting down with us? Mind you, no one ever said that we are going to succeed in our endeavor but give up before we even give it our best shot? That is the height of cowardice. And one still has the audacity to question whether we have been marginalized? Folks, scrapping the Igbo language is the least of the atrocities that have befallen NdiIgbo. Do we not know that NdiIgbo have been shut out of importation of what keeps humans alive and that one man imports 80% of all foods into Nigeria? Tell me there is nothing to discuss! And tell me that we don't need a platform to talk!! Tell me that it is idiotic to say we are hungry, give us food!!!

NdiIgbo, while I join in the cry for our survival, let it not be in vain. Nothing is impossible in this world because we did not create the world. We could start this fight right here in Dallas, Texas on May 6, 7, & 8, 2005. Washington could hear our cries if we cry loud enough. What is the cost to you and me? Missing a day or two from work and spending $100.00? Have you ever played lotto in the excited hopes of winning? How much did you spend? How many times did you win?

You are invited to the first real political Conference for NdiIgbo to actualize 2007, this May 6, 7, & 8, 2005. You owe your people this much by attending. It is for you too, young and old, man and woman. If by attending we succeed or fail, we would have done and part and would hold our heads high. If we fail by not attending, shame on us.

Charles My Namesake: Not only can this Igbo Product be sold, not only have not tried to sell it as Igbos, but as you rightly pointed out, and sadly so, our brothers and sisters, in pursuit of greed and avarice, are bent on ensuring that this product does not leave the assembly line of our Igbo psyche. But I say to you my brother, if the Nigerian project is a collectively owned paradigm, then this "Igbo Product Will and Must Be sold for the paradigm to endure. It is for us to say "here we are" with this bid if we expect our neighbors to concur with a "there you are."

My fellow Igbo brothers and sisters in PNF-USA, I had every intention of honoring your invitation and brushing minds with you in search of answers to the Igbo albatross during the weekend of May 7, 2005, but due to the sudden death of my fellow Ngwa brother, Sunday Eze, whose vigil has been scheduled in New York on May 7, 2005, I will not be able to be with you. I will miss you guys.

Acho, Maduka, Omenihu and other PNFites, keep keeping on. The struggle for the reclamation of the pride of place of the Igbo person calls for eternal vigilance. No matter the criticism, do not blink. You blink; you blow, as they say. Remain steadfast and stay the course. In 1910, at the Sorbonne, Theodore Roosevelt said it best when he recited that:

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; and who strives valiantly; who sometimes errs and come up short and again and again; Who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

To those who identify with PNF-USA's mission, but harbor reservation as to its organizational form or out rightly sees the organization as a rival organization, I urge you not to. The world is indeed large enough for a million Igbo pressure groups to individually attain their respective Andy Worholian proverbial fifteen minutes of fame, and if they, indeed strive to build a better mouse trap, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, the Igbo Nation and world at large will still make a bidding path at their doors.

PNFites, you, in my book, have joined our MOSSOB brothers and sisters in the arena. As you convene, may our forebears guide and bless your deliberations as we all continue to seek solution to the ominous riddle of our contemporary Igbo dilemma.

Kaput!