As a Niger Deltan, I sometimes try to reflect on the philosophy of my average Igbo brother, which in my (maybe myopic opinion) is motivated purely by mercantile values and greed. An average Igbo elite would stringently discredit any policy that should benefit the majority, inclusive of his kit and kin, for simply not adding any currency into his private pocket. He would rather cry marginalization to high heavens, when obstructed from sacrificing his mother to the god of lucre. Fake vehicle spare parts, Piracy, Fake Pharmaceuticals, Low quality equipment and some other societal vices are mostly their trademark. God bless Professor Dora Akinyuli of blessed memory.Objectively, most other tribes are in no wise better or exempted from these criminal activities but the average Igbo man adds a lot of fervour and braggado to his as long as it guarantees a stream of Naira inflows. For example, the Yorubas introduced ritual killings and drug trafficking into the Nigerian lexicon, the Igbos extended it far beyond normal limits into the Otokitos and Okija killings as well as the perfection of the global drug mafia etc.
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Right from the administration of Obasanjo to Jonathan, many attempts have been made to develop South Eastern roads and other ecological challenges with Federal contracts awarded to some prominent Sons of the soil, who had hitherto been crying marginalization. These Sons go ahead to misappropriate such funds after corrupting their traditional leaders only for their kins to turn around to accuse the Federal Government for their collapsed road networks and erosion problems. This is somewhat fraudulent as this same group with their hangers on would insist that the same contracts be re-awarded to the likes of Julius Berger while at the same time retaining their loot. Any attempt to prosecute any of the mobilization offenders, will attract another marginalization story. With the Igbos, you just cannot win.Obasanjo virtually gave strategic positions like the CBN Governorship, Minister of Finance, Transport, Aviation, Education, Health, Stock Exchange Director General etc, amongst many other juicy positions and contracts to the Igbos. This led to some people insinuating that OBJ must have been one of the lost sons of the OBI of ONITSHA. Senator Pius Anyim went the whole hog by appropriating many top positions within the Ministries and MDAs to the Igbos in the last administration. Apart from the Presidency of Nigeria, an Igboman has been the Vice President, Senate President, Speaker, Chief of Army Staff, Navy, Airforce, Police, Immigration etc.I am therefore at a loss why the issue of marginalization, Biafra, Kanu and the likes did not reverberate during the administration of GEJ when most of the Igbos cleaned out bigtime. Go to the big cities, the Igbos own most of the landed properties based on their astute skills in property management. Do you think these same Igbo elite will happily migrate to their various over populated Local Government enclaves leaving behind these assets and their businesses? This they will never do after the Port Harcourt abandoned property saga. This logical perspective confirms the fact that the Biafra issue is nothing but a Scam being promoted and sponsored by some Igbo elites who lost out in the power game. Had GEJ won a re-election, Kanu and Radio Biafra would have been unknown elements. Do not be surprised that the Biafra mantra could be a new form of business as someone could be smiling to the banks using the cash contributions from these hapless Igbo traders. The average IGBO MAN wants to eat his cake and keep it at the sametime. This is their own form of Boko Haram and Niger Delta militancy.
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Buhari should just ignore this Biafra issue in its entirety. Do not get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the Igbo folk given their high number of intelligentsia but I do not subscribe to their holding the nation to ransom for pecuniary reasons. The Igbos have a lot of positive character traits (Hardwork, Perseverance, Entrepreneurship, Money wisdom etc) that we all need to learn and emulate to move this nation forward. Have you ever wondered why the Igbos do not shout marginalization over other tribes when over 60% of Igbos constitute membership of the Green Eagles and various under age teams?
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