JAW-JAW IS BETTER THAN WAR- WAR: AN OPEN LETTER TO IGBO YOUTH!
JAW-JAW IS BETTER THAN WAR- WAR: AN OPEN LETTER TO IGBO YOUTH!
BY:
Nurudeen Dauda
May 6, 2016.
nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com
You must say No to the instigation by your selfish political elite! You need united Nigeria more than the North! Please come with me I will explain how! I call on you to have a rethink and retrace your steps! Stop issuing quit notice to Northerners! It is true that President Jonathan gave about 50% of appointments to the “Indigbos”. However, my question to you is how did that make the “ordinary Igbo” people richer than the rest of Nigerians? Did giving 50% appointments to the “Igbo elite” during President Jonathan lead to more electricity, Water supply, Good roads, hospitals, bridges to the Igbo land? The answer is NO!
Were the Igbos better than the rest of Nigerians during that period in terms of Poverty and unemployment reduction? The answer is also NO! Political appointments benefit political elite only! What the general masses need is “Divined of Democracy” in terms of provisions of electricity, Portable Water supply, Good roads, hospitals and schools etc. In my humble opinion, you could only be marginalized if the government of President Buhari provides electricity, Portable Water supply, Good roads, hospitals and schools etc., to the rest of Nigerians and neglect the Igbos.
I call on the “Northern youth” to resist the temptation of reprisal attacks in view of the ugly reports from the South East; in my view, the renewed agitation for “Biafra” is triggered by some “selfish political elite” from that region whom might have participated in the unprecedented looting that took place during the previous government of which investigation is still ongoing. These people feared that if the present government gets stable the ongoing probes by the EFCC might cut up with them and as such they resort to instigating “youth” to cause unrest which might consume all of us if caution is not applied. We must resist this temptation!
THE IGBOS NEED UNITED NIGERIA MORE THAN THE NORTH! Igbos are more in other parts of the country than in the Igbo land! The Investments of Igbos in the North is more their Investments in the East! If you don’t know these facts better find out! The Indigos do their business freely in the North!
We have Igbos in the North who are University lecturers; Polytechnic, Colleges of educations, and School of Health technology lecturers, Students, Private Secondary/Primary Schools proprietors, Medical Practitioners, Architectural firms, Accounting firms, Quantity surveying firms, legal firms, Insurance companies, Stock Brokers firms, Banks, Bankers etc., carrying out their activities peacefully.
Also, 80% of Building Materials, Electronic/Electrical Appliances, Spare Parts and Pharmaceutical Equipment sellers, are Igbos. The major Markets in the North are populated by Igbos as traders. If you go to Sabon Gari Market, Kano; Monday Market, Maiduguri; Terminus Market, Jos; Sheik Abubakar Gumi Market, Kaduna and all major markets in the north are populated by Igbos doing their business without any harassment.
For the six (6) years of Insurgency in Borno state “none” of the Igbo traders in Monday market and other markets relocated to the East. However, if the North asks the Igbos in the “North” to go back to the “East” you don’t have the land to accommodate them neither the business to give them.
Most of the people from northern extraction staying in the southern part of the country or Igbo land are artisans or those who are doing “Menial Jobs”, such as: Manicuring, Pedicuring, Water Vendors, Butchers, Cobbler (shoe shiners), Tomatoes sellers, and others Menial Jobs. We are aware that you do not admit our students in your schools; you do not even sale shops to us to do business as petty traders, but you only give rent to Northerners. You do not sale a plot of land for us to build residential Houses, but you only give us as rent.We have never complaint! We sale Houses, and Shops etc to Igbos in the North. If everybody is to be asked to go back to his region the North has little to lose.
Some people believe that because of our “ethnic” and “religious” diversities” we cannot co-exist peacefully. India has over 1,000 ethnic groups and India is the most multi-religious nation in the world but the country is progressing rapidly.
Prof. Farooq Kperogi said, “Many Nigerians think our country is unworkable because it was “forced” into being by the British colonialists. This view frankly amazes me, “he added,Is there any nation in history whose formation was the consequence of a democratic consensus?”Also, “Historically, most nations were formed by conquests, expansionist wars, and forceful cooperation, not by consensus.”Furthermore, “many Nigerians also cherish the illusion that they inhabit the most diverse country on planet earth”.
Jideofor Adibe in his Thursday column (back page) Daily Trust of October 10, 2013 states that: “Ethnic Homogeneity is no guarantee that any nation will work as the experiences of Somalia, Burundi and Rwanda show. Similarly we have had countries break up after co-existing for nearly a century .We have also seen countries that started as agglomeration of different ethnic nationalities such as Germany, France and China succeeds as nation-state.”On the same note he added, “Being endowed with abundant national resources is no guarantee that a country will thrive as the cases of Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia illustrate.”
However, It is on record that, we witnessed centuries of civil wars among the Yorubas (Ife and Mudakeke) who share ethnic ties with dialectical differences; we are also aware of civil wars among the Hausa states in the pre-colonial era. The case of Omulari and Ogulari struggle in the Igbo land is also not left out. Nevertheless, the pre-colonial era in the South-South witnessed a series of civil and communal wars.
May God Bless Nigeria!