The Igbos and secession: Another excuse for inactions.

Recently, it has become very difficult for one to think about the Igbos without thinking about secession. The reason is not far-fetched given the unprecented barage of write-ups in the print media on marginalizations and, consequently, secession. Not been totaly immune to these write-ups, I had begun to see a new map of Nigeria, one that is frightening in its simplicity, suffocating in its implications.I am an Igbo and grew up in an area in Enugu where the principle then was that one can address the ills of another without calling names and yet achieved the desired result.

In lieu of these, I will not call names here but the pro-secession "crusaders" and those who sympathize with them know themselves. Whenever I come across the advocates of secession, I see them as nothing but players - playing the familiar blame game invented by Adam long ago when he blamed his wife and said to God, "The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." They blame Nigeria for their "woes." They share a common belief that the solution to all their travails lie somewhere in the future when so and so conditions are met. Looking at the trajectory of this dream of theirs, I have found out that it is nothing but an illussion.For brotherly love, we need to wake those who are seeking to divide us before their dream turns into a nightmare. Failing to embrace this present moment to contribute meaningfully but rather hoping for a time in the future to perform, is a fundamental error and an illusion in itself. They believe that all will be well when we get to the promised land - Biafra.

However, I dare them to show us a blue print of the Biafran State they have in mind. Without mincing words, their struggle has a distinctive ingredients of mediocrity. We do not need a soothsayer to find out how hollow their conception is. All right thinking individuals know that any idea without a congent plan will leave us exposed, naked if you like, against the harsh realities of secession and afterwards, nation building. These are the realities that the advocates of secession have refused to accept. They are unconscious; unconscious of the fact that what they are exhibiting is weakness disguised as strength; unconscious of the teeming number of youth they are discouraging to perform; unconscious of bravity gradually slipping into cowardice.We have taken enough of this secession garbage and if we do not act fast, we stand the risk of constipation - politically, economically and socially.For them to attract more followers, they capitalize on peolple's ignorance by using rhetorics to make their points exciting and plausible.And because this generation is hooked on excitement, confusing it with power, people are easily swayed and won over. The advocates of secession want us to continue in the vicious cycle of going about believing that the Hausas, Yorubas and other ethnic groups do not like the Igbos. It is such thinking that continues to hold us back.They want us to believe that there is a deliberate and calculated plan to exclude the Igbos from the scheme of things in Nigeria. And worst of all, they want us to believe that we(Igbos) are not who we are!Let me tell them who we are. We are the Igbos; a people that astonishingly rose above the odds that the civil war left behind. It is a well known fact that the Igbos have not performed badly in relation to our take off point and circumstances.The doggedness and rebound of the Igbos of the post-civil war era in the Nigerian landscape speaks volume of our resilience. A people that unimaginable adversities confronted in the face and they dared - surmounting the adversities. The success stories are found in all spheres of human endeavour - politics, science, business, art and so on. Instead of putting a barrier - masked in the ugly paints of secession - to the limit the Igbos can go as a race, we should learn to echo the success stories of our(Igbos) men and women who have distinguished themselves in all walks of life. Most of them from the scratch. This attitude will, and by no small means, serve as a form of inspiration to all our hardworking people.

In as much as these secession "crusaders" are a threat to our development, they are not the real threat. The real threat are our government official of the Igbo extract who have refused to perform under the pretext that the Igbos are being maginalized. And because they do not have the courage to accept their laxities, they blame it on marginalization; engaging in the manipulation of tribal hatred. Most often than not, we buy these hate doctrines without bargaining on the price. And these hate doctrines ignore the boundaries of gender, age and even religion.We need to understand how fundamental the need to re-orient our struggle is.I believe - and I do know that all well meaning Nigerians do - that the aspirations of of the average Nigerian are not many and are the same. From the Igbos of the east to the Yorubas of the west; the ijaws, itshekiris of the south to the Hausas of the north and among all other wonderful ethnic groups, the aspirations are the same. All of us want steady power supply, affordable shelter, food on our tables, portable drinking water and security. These issues far out-weigh any issue based on ethnic or primordial interests. Thus, there is a struggle going on now. This is not a struggle based on tribe, gender, age, nor religion. It is a struggle between inspiration and discouragement; between reason and sentiment; between responsibility and irresponsibilty; between performance and inactivity;between morality and immorality; between the deep waters of nationalism and the shallow waters of ethnic gingoism; and ultimately between good and evil.This is the struggle that I am talking about, an epochal choice of wisdom over stupidity, energy over apathy, grimly serious business over shiny trivialities.We do not need to look too far to see where the struggle can start from. It starts with you and I, and once we start, the result will take a resonance effect. We will then emanate the light of performance that will expose all forms of mediocrity masked in ethnic struggles.Thus, positively affecting those who are bent on dividing us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers - always seeing the cup of development as half-empty rather than half-full - who embrace the politics of anything goes.Like I mentioned earlier, the Igbos as a race are hugely endowed. We can beat our chest and proudly announce that we have performed. We are a group that came from the depths of the aftermath of a bitter civil war to the heights of achievement in different strata of our lives. However, there is more room for improvement.

Sequel to this, we do not need to lend ears to the distracting tendencies of the secessionists. We stand on the threshold of momentous change and thus, can not afford to fail as the consequences will be too grim to contemplate(consider). Because there is no excuse for failure, let us then consciously strive to bring out the best in us for the advancement of the Igbo race, Nigeria and humanity at large. In other words, let us expunge all forms mental barriers from our lives. Barriers disguised as the struggle against marginalization; barriers of waiting for the messiah in the form of secession. We should do away with all the veils that are obsurring our vision and thus, reposition ourselves in order to tackle the challenges of our comtemporary society. No other time is apt for us to start but now. Finally, when we learn to move forward, we will arrive at the inevitable conclusion that the issue of the Igbos and secession is nothing - but another excuse for inactions.
Ani Chudi***
ani.chukwudi9@gmail.com