April 30, 2010
“I am here to say any Nigerian be you Igbo, Yorubas, Hausas and other ethnic tribes our problem is a shared one and our success is equally same. I am not supporting anybody who perpetrates crime but it should not be the reason to fallaciously defame our name for the crime of few. If Nigeria and Nigerians must have a superior moral pedestal to talk about our greatness in overseas like here and other places, we better break down the bigger barriers we have erected in Nigeria”.
“I am here to say any Nigerian be you Igbo, Yorubas, Hausas and other ethnic tribes our problem is a shared one and our success is equally same. I am not supporting anybody who perpetrates crime but it should not be the reason to fallaciously defame our name for the crime of few. If Nigeria and Nigerians must have a superior moral pedestal to talk about our greatness in overseas like here and other places, we better break down the bigger barriers we have erected in Nigeria”.
Above quotation is taken from the Sahara Report online publication of Thursday, 29 April 2010 “06:42” written by a pseudonym called “{ga=GINGER}” and captioned, “Nigerian Embassy staff Mr. Mohammed Arzika and others ENOUGH! Of this Defamation of the IGBO Tribe”. The author most probably wrote it as a protest for the Igbo in Malaysia. The write-up may also have been a defense of the Igbo against real/imagined and unpalatable treatments; insinuations and assumptions against Ndigbo. Write-ups like “Dear Leaders of Nigeria” (Sahara Report Wednesday, 14 April 2010 18:45) written by a Nigerian Diaspora Nosarieme Garrick strikes my kind of balance. However, the above quote from GINGER informs this reply.
Ordinarily, issues raised by faceless person/s do not usually generate rejoinders. However, this one seems to be a misplaced attack accordingly undeserving of the named person attacked in the write-up. Again, write-ups that come with non de plumes assume a déjà vu that hangs in the murkiness of non factuality hence the sensationalism. They are mostly intended to fluster and not to unite or sooth rearing problems. I am convinced away from any iota of doubts that the writer (or his/her instigator) does not know the subject of the attack personally. Let me come straight: The Mr. Mohammed Arzika of the Nigerian High Commission, Kuala Lumpur I know has the following antecedents (if that is what to call it), in relation to the Igbo and other Nigerians in Malaysia:
• Mohammed Arzika is the arrow-head for the formation of umbrella organizations for the various states and ethnic divisions that come from Nigeria including OHANEZE NDIGBO NA MALAYSIA. The common objective in these organizations is integration, good neighborliness and cohesive brainstorming on attracting goodies to Nigeria.
To highlight on the roles played by him in helping to foster peace and brotherliness among the various shades of Nigerian communities in Kuala Lumpur is to praise him for performing the jobs for which he was employed and paid with Nigerian tax payers’ money. I will never do that here! But not praising Mr. Arzika is a far distant from rubbishing the efforts he has made. If any Nigerian in Malaysia prides him/herself as having obtained favor and attention from our Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the name that usually suffices is “Arzika” and I assume the mix-up may have originated out of praise overkills made for him. For one who is apt to perform his duties to receive the kind of insinuation or innuendo spread by the writer is rather too unfortunate and appalling. I am privy to the many times of Mr. Arzika’s efforts in tackling reported cases of abuse, attack and side-lining of Nigerians and efforts he made for the recovery of funds and property belonging to our people. The cases I know are conclusive enough to justify my opinions. Though it may be possible to excuse compulsive conclusions based on the statements the writer credited to the said “Mr. Arzika” as irrational (I cannot be so certain since I was not present) yet, it is also very possible to note that many a youth out of sheer exuberance do grow weary of reproof and rapprochements, resulting in uncontrollable fits of insults (as interpreted). Restraint is the hallmark of experience just as the use of abusive language on one’s elders is unacceptable. There appears no justification for the spate shown by the “{ga=GINGER}”. An incidence that ‘shocked’ this Mr. or Madam “GINGER’s “head in disbelief” and led him straight to electronic media for advertised registration of ‘disbelief’ should have merited at least a date of occurrence. It could have been enough for Mr. GINGER to brave information to the superiors of the said Embassy staff of his feelings over the “normal culture” and perceived “pariah sort of colouration” of the Igbos who go to the Embassy. Moreover, we are not told of any efforts he made at constructive remedy. Thus, in my mind I am not convinced that the writer is actually an Igbo groomed in proper Igbo nuances. He/she seems to be part of orchestrated and perfidious moves (now internationalized) to make the Igbo plausibly desperate and bellicose. The use of aliases and such names as ‘BiafranChild’ to pass commentaries is another example. All in all, these are Nigerian Falstaff who may not know the extent of damage they are doing to themselves.
I am Igbo and I do know that one of the unsurpassed worth of the Igbo in today’s Africa is that the Igbo do not remain complacent in the face of error or terror. They can always be counted to at least wink correspondently at incitement. They also abhor mediocre especially where ignorance posits to trumpet values. In Igboland, a lad’s bravado at hauling insults on his elders is greeted as NKWUWA-ONU (vituperations). This is much the reason why it is nearly impossible to sustain perpetual hegemony on the Igbo or foist one. But this seemingly positive strand can sometimes be misapplied (and thus vituperative). This is why I decry the attack on Mr. Arzika as unwarranted and mislaid. It is a definite case of impatience and lack of proper grievance channeling. It points at a crisis meriting eco-psychological evaluation. Call it frustration and you’ll never be wrong.
Nigerians in Kuala Lumpur are a people now schooled in the notorious fact that their country was once ahead of the country of their sojourn economically and that it was because of corruption and inept leadership that made their fatherland to slide so much backward that Malaysia seems like a paradise when compared with Nigeria. The over 90% Nigerian students in Malaysia since their sojourn here can hardly recall a night they slept without electricity or a day their attending lectures were delayed because “there was no water”. Vehicle Fuel & Oil is just part of daily petty expenses analysis for those of us who have cars, not any major financial distress as in our home country. Nigerians like me are always mulled to wonder at the developmental gap between Nigeria (Independence at 1960) and Malaysia (Independence at 1957). Can three years account for the large margin of infrastructural difference other than corruption and misplaced priority? Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria with Ethnic Malays, Chinese and Tamil Indians as dominant groups. At independence, Malaysia like Nigeria inherited deficient and manipulative neo-colonial politico-economic system prone to self-destruction and atrophy. But the Malaysian leadership unlike her Nigerian counterpart recognized this chasm after the May 13 1969 riots. Officially, the riots claimed about ‘196’ lives, with 439 other wounded casualties. About ‘6000’ persons were rendered homeless (Source: May 13 Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969 by Kua Kia Soong, SUARAM Publication Kuala Lumpur, 2007). These figures are a minion compared to the extreme callousness of the Nigeria-Biafran debacle in which over three million people died in the former Biafra alone. It is often waxed that “things that hurt instruct”. Malaysia is not deterred by the civil or “ethnic” disturbances within her landscape to record impressive industrial achievements.
Many years after the Civil War, Nigeria have refused to learn and Nigerians are still gaffe at the festering contradictions in the “Association Formula” of imperialism, with ugly tactics like shadow-chasing employed to amuse or confuse ourselves. Opposed to this partly, the power of Malaysian mechanism rests with her ability to reckon a mirror-like approach that sifts expertise in self analysis. This they call ‘Consociational democracy’ (Shamsul A.B. and Sity Daud, “Nation, Ethnicity and Contending Discourse in The Malaysian State” in Richard Boyd and Tak-Wing NGO, pg 150-161 (eds.) State Making in Asia, Routledge, London, 2006). The main ingredient of Consociation is political compromise in difference to confrontation. It stimulates mutual recognition of the various shades of social cum political opinions and ensures non suppression of the handicapped minority. Singapore (independence from Malaysia in 1965), an Asian Tiger by standard adopts a similar culturally formulated system. Today, she is reckoned among the countries with right fundamentals and robust economic pursuit based on meritocracy and corruption-free state administration.
Structurally and functionally, Nigeria is a toddler to Malaysia. Resources-wise, Malaysia cannot be compared with Nigeria. Our problem is the managerial lack of resurgence in the administrative competence that characterized the three Regions in Nigeria’s 1st Republic. The fixation of name-calling and shadow-chasing is being replicated in anything recognized as Nigeria and one wonders “WHEN WILL REDEMPTION COME?” I will want to affirm here that no community can ever be renewed without its component units becoming renewed to be able recognize its shortcomings and make efforts to simulate the advantages it has over others –absolute or comparative. To continue nursing ill feelings is to foster disappearance and capacity of recall. This is why assault on any socio-political group within Nigeria based on any universal or shared subject is condemnable.
Size and diversity of cultures ought to be Nigeria’s advantage in development. Face-to-face with truth, one is compelled to lament the loss of Nigeria in the Igboman and the fact that the Igbo achieved technological fits (in a war situation) which he could no longer do in our united Nigeria (in peace time). It is time Nigerians addressed our clumsiness in clear lettered terms, the fact of which lay in our proclivity to throw the baby with the bathe water. To drive my feelings home let me share here the expressions of a former Nigerian Head of State, former Federal Commissioner for Petroleum, former Governor of North Eastern state and lastly a former super head of the inter-ministerial PTF, Gen. Muhammad Buhari. The retired General was a guest at the convention forum of the 2004 World Igbo Congress (WIC) at Newark America on Thursday 2, September and he reminded the Igbo and other guests at the forum that “things worked in Nigeria when the Igbos were in charge of things and everything fell apart as soon as the Igbos were pushed off the scene after the 1967-1970 Nigeria-Biafra 'civil' war.” This is a statement enough for Nigerians to accept the Igbo as having a responsibility of taking Nigeria out of the drifts. Related war stories validate Buhari’s expressions. Indeed, Biafra as technological and splendid potentialities will continue to hunt the entire sub Sahara Africa (not just Nigeria) until they wake up. It is insensate to suggest comfort in the face of dearth and death! Perhaps, Nkrumah’s Ghana has taken the gauntlet.
Back to the cursory: The Nigerian population in Malaysia is grappling with quite a number of problems, ranging from institutionalized to self-inflicted. For the later, I invite readers to browse through one Mr. Emmanuel Eze’s complaints: http://www.tribune. com.ng/index. php/letters/ 2632-image- denting-activiti es-of-nigerians- in-kuala- lumpur. For the former, I have to quote a recent doctorial work of a friend Hon. Dr. Magnus E. Madu, PhD. “It was believed that Nigeria’s population density, so particularly conspicuous in the eastern region, was of consequence for foreign relations. However, hardship, unemployment and lack of developmental infrastructures and disillusionment have forced out a large population of Nigerians to migrate to various parts of the world in search of means of livelihood. Those that still lacked opportunities were most times forced by circumstances to deviate and their treatment most times begged for official concern.” (See pg. 83-84 of NIGERIA’S ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY: CURRENT PERCEPTION, STRATEGIES AND FUTURE DIRECTION, published by Akitiara Corp. Puchong, 2009). I cannot simply jump into the scary wild of 419 jabbing of the Igbo by anybody. It is beyond my brief. Whoever wants to know the truth about such gibberish, should seek knowledge from a superior televised November 2006 BBC interview with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on “advance-fee” frauds (sic). My postscript on further stupid and blanket accusation of ‘419’ on the Igbo or Nigerians is much like the great financial guru herself: “IT TAKES TWO” –the bidder and extorter. Both are equally culpable. River Niger cannot draw the sit-at-home swimmers. Those who wish to continue sapping Africa should look up to God and see His questions on mankind: What did Africa do??!
But is it not easy to fan the frustration felt by Nigerians on anybody associated with leadership in Nigeria? Could it be the reason “Mr. Arzika” seems just a little an unlucky name for unassailable and gratuitous attacks? Many people are wont to overdo the assertion that “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government, governments should be afraid of their people” It is also said that the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. This blunder blurred too far into a man’s integrity and self his respect. Discipline to me is the recognition of one’s limitations. Mr. Mohammed Arzika of the Nigerian High Commission KL is a man qualified of good honor. He is earns the respect of many Igbos in Malaysia (including my humble self). Nigeria is full of non Igbo lovers of Ndigbo (living and dead). Top echelon includes Herbert Macaulay, Raja Abdulah, Prof Wole Soyinka, Gani Fawehinmi, Alh. Bagudu BCC, Adegoke Adelabu, Festus Okotie-Ebo, Col Fajuyi, Adeniran Ogunsanya, Murtala Mohammed, Solomon Lar, Dr. Christopher Kolade, Paul Unongo, Shehu Shagari, Dele Giwa, Prof Pat Utomi, Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, Prof Angus Abdulahi, Alh. Badakoshi, Dr. Shetima Mustapha, Rev. Fr. Mathew Hassan Kukah, Oba Akenzua, Ibrahim Babangida, Prof Jerry Gana, Dabor Adzuana, Sony Okosun, Gov Fashianu to mention just a few of great minds that have one way or another expressed love for the resilience Igbo spirit as a need of modern Nigeria. Ray Goforth it was who said, “There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: Those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed”. If somebody makes mistakes (as may be the case of an irritated few), the best way out is correction. Attack is the worst form of defense, lawyers say. There are morbid misconceptions about the Igbo or Nigeria that were created by Nigerians themselves and the internationally acknowledged notion that “Nigerians suffer and smile” is one pointer. Crime commission is all over the world for the asking. In Kuala Lumpur for instance, Nigerians count for a negligible percentage compared to Asians from mainland China, and India; Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, etc. So, what percentage of the crimes is by the Igbo, after all?
• Nze Okee Igboegbunam is the Secretary, Constitution Drafting Committee of OHANEZE NDIGBO NA MALAYSIA.
Above quotation is taken from the Sahara Report online publication of Thursday, 29 April 2010 “06:42” written by a pseudonym called “{ga=GINGER}” and captioned, “Nigerian Embassy staff Mr. Mohammed Arzika and others ENOUGH! Of this Defamation of the IGBO Tribe”. The author most probably wrote it as a protest for the Igbo in Malaysia. The write-up may also have been a defense of the Igbo against real/imagined and unpalatable treatments; insinuations and assumptions against Ndigbo. Write-ups like “Dear Leaders of Nigeria” (Sahara Report Wednesday, 14 April 2010 18:45) written by a Nigerian Diaspora Nosarieme Garrick strikes my kind of balance. However, the above quote from GINGER informs this reply.
Ordinarily, issues raised by faceless person/s do not usually generate rejoinders. However, this one seems to be a misplaced attack accordingly undeserving of the named person attacked in the write-up. Again, write-ups that come with non de plumes assume a déjà vu that hangs in the murkiness of non factuality hence the sensationalism. They are mostly intended to fluster and not to unite or sooth rearing problems. I am convinced away from any iota of doubts that the writer (or his/her instigator) does not know the subject of the attack personally. Let me come straight: The Mr. Mohammed Arzika of the Nigerian High Commission, Kuala Lumpur I know has the following antecedents (if that is what to call it), in relation to the Igbo and other Nigerians in Malaysia:
• Mohammed Arzika is the arrow-head for the formation of umbrella organizations for the various states and ethnic divisions that come from Nigeria including OHANEZE NDIGBO NA MALAYSIA. The common objective in these organizations is integration, good neighborliness and cohesive brainstorming on attracting goodies to Nigeria.
To highlight on the roles played by him in helping to foster peace and brotherliness among the various shades of Nigerian communities in Kuala Lumpur is to praise him for performing the jobs for which he was employed and paid with Nigerian tax payers’ money. I will never do that here! But not praising Mr. Arzika is a far distant from rubbishing the efforts he has made. If any Nigerian in Malaysia prides him/herself as having obtained favor and attention from our Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the name that usually suffices is “Arzika” and I assume the mix-up may have originated out of praise overkills made for him. For one who is apt to perform his duties to receive the kind of insinuation or innuendo spread by the writer is rather too unfortunate and appalling. I am privy to the many times of Mr. Arzika’s efforts in tackling reported cases of abuse, attack and side-lining of Nigerians and efforts he made for the recovery of funds and property belonging to our people. The cases I know are conclusive enough to justify my opinions. Though it may be possible to excuse compulsive conclusions based on the statements the writer credited to the said “Mr. Arzika” as irrational (I cannot be so certain since I was not present) yet, it is also very possible to note that many a youth out of sheer exuberance do grow weary of reproof and rapprochements, resulting in uncontrollable fits of insults (as interpreted). Restraint is the hallmark of experience just as the use of abusive language on one’s elders is unacceptable. There appears no justification for the spate shown by the “{ga=GINGER}”. An incidence that ‘shocked’ this Mr. or Madam “GINGER’s “head in disbelief” and led him straight to electronic media for advertised registration of ‘disbelief’ should have merited at least a date of occurrence. It could have been enough for Mr. GINGER to brave information to the superiors of the said Embassy staff of his feelings over the “normal culture” and perceived “pariah sort of colouration” of the Igbos who go to the Embassy. Moreover, we are not told of any efforts he made at constructive remedy. Thus, in my mind I am not convinced that the writer is actually an Igbo groomed in proper Igbo nuances. He/she seems to be part of orchestrated and perfidious moves (now internationalized) to make the Igbo plausibly desperate and bellicose. The use of aliases and such names as ‘BiafranChild’ to pass commentaries is another example. All in all, these are Nigerian Falstaff who may not know the extent of damage they are doing to themselves.
I am Igbo and I do know that one of the unsurpassed worth of the Igbo in today’s Africa is that the Igbo do not remain complacent in the face of error or terror. They can always be counted to at least wink correspondently at incitement. They also abhor mediocre especially where ignorance posits to trumpet values. In Igboland, a lad’s bravado at hauling insults on his elders is greeted as NKWUWA-ONU (vituperations). This is much the reason why it is nearly impossible to sustain perpetual hegemony on the Igbo or foist one. But this seemingly positive strand can sometimes be misapplied (and thus vituperative). This is why I decry the attack on Mr. Arzika as unwarranted and mislaid. It is a definite case of impatience and lack of proper grievance channeling. It points at a crisis meriting eco-psychological evaluation. Call it frustration and you’ll never be wrong.
Nigerians in Kuala Lumpur are a people now schooled in the notorious fact that their country was once ahead of the country of their sojourn economically and that it was because of corruption and inept leadership that made their fatherland to slide so much backward that Malaysia seems like a paradise when compared with Nigeria. The over 90% Nigerian students in Malaysia since their sojourn here can hardly recall a night they slept without electricity or a day their attending lectures were delayed because “there was no water”. Vehicle Fuel & Oil is just part of daily petty expenses analysis for those of us who have cars, not any major financial distress as in our home country. Nigerians like me are always mulled to wonder at the developmental gap between Nigeria (Independence at 1960) and Malaysia (Independence at 1957). Can three years account for the large margin of infrastructural difference other than corruption and misplaced priority? Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria with Ethnic Malays, Chinese and Tamil Indians as dominant groups. At independence, Malaysia like Nigeria inherited deficient and manipulative neo-colonial politico-economic system prone to self-destruction and atrophy. But the Malaysian leadership unlike her Nigerian counterpart recognized this chasm after the May 13 1969 riots. Officially, the riots claimed about ‘196’ lives, with 439 other wounded casualties. About ‘6000’ persons were rendered homeless (Source: May 13 Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969 by Kua Kia Soong, SUARAM Publication Kuala Lumpur, 2007). These figures are a minion compared to the extreme callousness of the Nigeria-Biafran debacle in which over three million people died in the former Biafra alone. It is often waxed that “things that hurt instruct”. Malaysia is not deterred by the civil or “ethnic” disturbances within her landscape to record impressive industrial achievements.
Many years after the Civil War, Nigeria have refused to learn and Nigerians are still gaffe at the festering contradictions in the “Association Formula” of imperialism, with ugly tactics like shadow-chasing employed to amuse or confuse ourselves. Opposed to this partly, the power of Malaysian mechanism rests with her ability to reckon a mirror-like approach that sifts expertise in self analysis. This they call ‘Consociational democracy’ (Shamsul A.B. and Sity Daud, “Nation, Ethnicity and Contending Discourse in The Malaysian State” in Richard Boyd and Tak-Wing NGO, pg 150-161 (eds.) State Making in Asia, Routledge, London, 2006). The main ingredient of Consociation is political compromise in difference to confrontation. It stimulates mutual recognition of the various shades of social cum political opinions and ensures non suppression of the handicapped minority. Singapore (independence from Malaysia in 1965), an Asian Tiger by standard adopts a similar culturally formulated system. Today, she is reckoned among the countries with right fundamentals and robust economic pursuit based on meritocracy and corruption-free state administration.
Structurally and functionally, Nigeria is a toddler to Malaysia. Resources-wise, Malaysia cannot be compared with Nigeria. Our problem is the managerial lack of resurgence in the administrative competence that characterized the three Regions in Nigeria’s 1st Republic. The fixation of name-calling and shadow-chasing is being replicated in anything recognized as Nigeria and one wonders “WHEN WILL REDEMPTION COME?” I will want to affirm here that no community can ever be renewed without its component units becoming renewed to be able recognize its shortcomings and make efforts to simulate the advantages it has over others –absolute or comparative. To continue nursing ill feelings is to foster disappearance and capacity of recall. This is why assault on any socio-political group within Nigeria based on any universal or shared subject is condemnable.
Size and diversity of cultures ought to be Nigeria’s advantage in development. Face-to-face with truth, one is compelled to lament the loss of Nigeria in the Igboman and the fact that the Igbo achieved technological fits (in a war situation) which he could no longer do in our united Nigeria (in peace time). It is time Nigerians addressed our clumsiness in clear lettered terms, the fact of which lay in our proclivity to throw the baby with the bathe water. To drive my feelings home let me share here the expressions of a former Nigerian Head of State, former Federal Commissioner for Petroleum, former Governor of North Eastern state and lastly a former super head of the inter-ministerial PTF, Gen. Muhammad Buhari. The retired General was a guest at the convention forum of the 2004 World Igbo Congress (WIC) at Newark America on Thursday 2, September and he reminded the Igbo and other guests at the forum that “things worked in Nigeria when the Igbos were in charge of things and everything fell apart as soon as the Igbos were pushed off the scene after the 1967-1970 Nigeria-Biafra 'civil' war.” This is a statement enough for Nigerians to accept the Igbo as having a responsibility of taking Nigeria out of the drifts. Related war stories validate Buhari’s expressions. Indeed, Biafra as technological and splendid potentialities will continue to hunt the entire sub Sahara Africa (not just Nigeria) until they wake up. It is insensate to suggest comfort in the face of dearth and death! Perhaps, Nkrumah’s Ghana has taken the gauntlet.
Back to the cursory: The Nigerian population in Malaysia is grappling with quite a number of problems, ranging from institutionalized to self-inflicted. For the later, I invite readers to browse through one Mr. Emmanuel Eze’s complaints: http://www.tribune. com.ng/index. php/letters/ 2632-image- denting-activiti es-of-nigerians- in-kuala- lumpur. For the former, I have to quote a recent doctorial work of a friend Hon. Dr. Magnus E. Madu, PhD. “It was believed that Nigeria’s population density, so particularly conspicuous in the eastern region, was of consequence for foreign relations. However, hardship, unemployment and lack of developmental infrastructures and disillusionment have forced out a large population of Nigerians to migrate to various parts of the world in search of means of livelihood. Those that still lacked opportunities were most times forced by circumstances to deviate and their treatment most times begged for official concern.” (See pg. 83-84 of NIGERIA’S ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY: CURRENT PERCEPTION, STRATEGIES AND FUTURE DIRECTION, published by Akitiara Corp. Puchong, 2009). I cannot simply jump into the scary wild of 419 jabbing of the Igbo by anybody. It is beyond my brief. Whoever wants to know the truth about such gibberish, should seek knowledge from a superior televised November 2006 BBC interview with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on “advance-fee” frauds (sic). My postscript on further stupid and blanket accusation of ‘419’ on the Igbo or Nigerians is much like the great financial guru herself: “IT TAKES TWO” –the bidder and extorter. Both are equally culpable. River Niger cannot draw the sit-at-home swimmers. Those who wish to continue sapping Africa should look up to God and see His questions on mankind: What did Africa do??!
But is it not easy to fan the frustration felt by Nigerians on anybody associated with leadership in Nigeria? Could it be the reason “Mr. Arzika” seems just a little an unlucky name for unassailable and gratuitous attacks? Many people are wont to overdo the assertion that “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government, governments should be afraid of their people” It is also said that the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. This blunder blurred too far into a man’s integrity and self his respect. Discipline to me is the recognition of one’s limitations. Mr. Mohammed Arzika of the Nigerian High Commission KL is a man qualified of good honor. He is earns the respect of many Igbos in Malaysia (including my humble self). Nigeria is full of non Igbo lovers of Ndigbo (living and dead). Top echelon includes Herbert Macaulay, Raja Abdulah, Prof Wole Soyinka, Gani Fawehinmi, Alh. Bagudu BCC, Adegoke Adelabu, Festus Okotie-Ebo, Col Fajuyi, Adeniran Ogunsanya, Murtala Mohammed, Solomon Lar, Dr. Christopher Kolade, Paul Unongo, Shehu Shagari, Dele Giwa, Prof Pat Utomi, Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, Prof Angus Abdulahi, Alh. Badakoshi, Dr. Shetima Mustapha, Rev. Fr. Mathew Hassan Kukah, Oba Akenzua, Ibrahim Babangida, Prof Jerry Gana, Dabor Adzuana, Sony Okosun, Gov Fashianu to mention just a few of great minds that have one way or another expressed love for the resilience Igbo spirit as a need of modern Nigeria. Ray Goforth it was who said, “There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: Those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed”. If somebody makes mistakes (as may be the case of an irritated few), the best way out is correction. Attack is the worst form of defense, lawyers say. There are morbid misconceptions about the Igbo or Nigeria that were created by Nigerians themselves and the internationally acknowledged notion that “Nigerians suffer and smile” is one pointer. Crime commission is all over the world for the asking. In Kuala Lumpur for instance, Nigerians count for a negligible percentage compared to Asians from mainland China, and India; Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, etc. So, what percentage of the crimes is by the Igbo, after all?
• Nze Okee Igboegbunam is the Secretary, Constitution Drafting Committee of OHANEZE NDIGBO NA MALAYSIA.
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