OPINION: For how long shall we continue to play the ostrich?

Posted by Factnews | 7 years ago | 2,273 times


IPOB

-Nazo Anya

What effort have the Igbo elites made to engage the youths? What efforts have they made to ensure that the youth’s interests are protected within Nigeria? Most abdicated their responsibilities by not speaking up when it mattered, they preferred to protect their personal and political interests, they created a vacuum and Nnamdi Kanu took advantage of that vacuum to speak about the pains and fears of the youth in the Nigerian context (perhaps sometimes undiplomatically or without tact).

These elites do not have the humility to attempt to understand why the youths are taking their destiny in their own hands, rather they wail that “Lunatics have taken over the asylum” They talk about the Igbo youths being undiplomatic in their utterances, however, they kept quite when an “elder statesman” said that baboons and monkeys would be soaked in blood if elections did not go in his favour and also kept quite when a monarch threatened to drown an entire nation in the lagoon if they did not vote for his favored candidate.

Their silence was more pronounced when Nnamdi Kanu was detained despite the courts granting him bail, the silence became louder when they kept quite when unarmed IPOB members were murdered on the Niger Bridge in Onitsha. In fact some of the elites tried to justify the murder on the basis that the IPOB members were hindering the flow of trade by blocking the Niger Bridge and that no serious government would tolerate such action. I remember asking then, when did the punishment for blocking a federal highway become a death sentence by firing squad in Nigeria? What happened to teargas and the good old truncheon?

The IPOB changed tactics and moved to school compounds and church compounds for their protest rallies, but were also attacked and murdered by the security services in Aba and Nkpor as confirmed by the Amnesty International. Yet the elite did not speak up. Rather than trying to engage the IPOB members to understand them, the elite sit in the castles and stereotype IPOB members as “drop outs who are seeking handouts” while others arrogate superior intellect to themselves and declare the IPOB as being daft and ask “ why are they not insisting on better governance in the South East rather than secession?”, yet the influence of IPOB grows by the day as exhibited by the effectiveness of the sit at home order on the 30th of May and the crowds that throng Nnamdi Kanu’s family home in Afara, Umuahia despite inclement weather. It is now clear that Nnamdi Kanu speaks for a multitude. These youths have nothing to lose unlike the elites who fear isolation.

The elite move to Abuja under the umbrella of "leaders of thought" to negotiate with the Federal Government without having the humility to consult the youths under the banner of the IPOB or include elders like Justice Eze Ozobu, Dr. Dozie Ikedife and Col Joe Achuzia RTD who are known to have played a role in bring together the IPOB. It is therefore not surprising that the IPOB released a statement stating that apart from the Ohaneze President and one or two others, the delegation consisted of political jobbers. It was MKO Abiola who stated that "you cannot shave a man's head in his absence". How can you negotiate without the presence of the interested party? It is time to reach out to the IPOB under the leadership of Nnamdi Kanu as it is clear that Nigeria and the elites cannot wish them away. It is time for the elites to come down from their high horses and engage the IPOB on the basis of mutual respect, then regain the trust and respect of these youths. Only then would the elite be in a position to offer strategic advice. Have we forgotten what happened in Ogoni land?

If the Igbo elite decide to sit in their castles and pontificate rather than engaging the youths at their level and attempt to understand their pains and fears, it is a matter of time before the elite become stateless, rejected at home and abroad. Ogwula ka oham n' onu.

 


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