Biafra Agitation: Politicians are the Ones asking for Our Breakup Instead

OIn Igbo, they say: "Uche onye adi ya njo," meaning that "Every opinion doesn't look bad to its owner."

The issue of Baifra, to me, has two sides. The first is negative, the other somewhat not very negative, at least to all concerned. I will start with the first.

Any agitation that is tainted with sectionalism, becomes suspect and offensive. I do not know how this movement became so bold and violent but I sure know that it is not in our culture to attack others in order to make our case. One can have a peaceful demonstration without attacking places of worship or harassing people who are going about their normal businesses. It is simply not in our characters as Igbos. Unfortunately, some people are hijacking very laudable projects for their own selfish ends thereby making a good thing look bad. Check the Niger-Delta agitation for resource control, it was derailed when kidnappings and destruction of oil installations commenced. The society became so monetized that I am not sure if their son who was president for six years did any lasting project there other than sharing huge amount of money to have peace.

Sharing money has never solved any problem. In fact it aggravates problems because the receiving party gets greedier and splinters into other groups which also want money. And monies realized from this kind of venture often do not go into any meaningful development. They wasted in frivolities and are often times converted into resources for procuring more arms. I wish to state that the blocking of the Niger bridge and disruption of businesses in the commercial cities of Onitsha and Aba is more injurious to the Igbo nation than they are to the non-chalant administrators in Abuja. I will ask these agitators one question: the lack of development in Aba and a Abia State in general, whose fault is it? Hausas? Yorubas? Buhari? Who? A person that will find a permanent solution to his or her problems is one that will clean the house from inside out. If Aba became decrepit in the past eight years, we should be more concerned about getting Theodore Orji to come and answer for his stewardship. Of course, the same thing is happening in Owerri in the present dispensation. A situation where fraudulent Igbos hold our people to ransom. Did I hear somebody say that Rochas Okorocha should emerge as an Igbo president or what? I hope it was in the dream I heard that and it needs to be exorcised.

Believe me, what we need in Nigeria is not an Igbo president. Neither do we need an Hausa or Yoruba President. What we need is a Nigerian leader. The type that Tanzania just got - gosh, that country is so blessed, getting another Mwalima in one life time. What do we get, a born again dictator, whose senator is more interested in gagging freedom of speech on social media, while the people use urine to drive their cars even in the absence of any form of reliable public transportation. Before I get derailed, let us continue.

On the not-so-negative side, agitations such as these are symptomatic of the general malaise of our nation. If we do not sit down and talk about our unity, issues like this will continue to crop up. Very soon, other ethnicities will start theirs and then what becomes of our nation? Why are politicians so averse to holding a sovereign national conference on Nigeria's unity? It is not because Hausas don't want it. It is not because Yorubas or Igbos don't want it. It is simply because politicians and those who are milking our country dry do not want it. The reason why politicians steal is because they don't have any stake in this country at all. What you are seeing IPOB doing in the southeast, is the same thing that politicians do in Abuja when it comes to our common wealth. I cannot be convinced that anyone who has a stake in this country, who wants a better future for his or her children in this country, will steal so much from our coffers and use them to buy houses abroad. Why do they travel abroad when they have headache? Why do they buy posh homes overseas, from the West to even China? The answer is simple, they do not see any future in Nigeria. And yet they are the ones sending soldiers to go and quell the demonstrations in Onitsha and Aba because these IPOB upstarts have dared to say what politicians do in secret in the open!

I do wish that Baba Buhari will forget this Senate and go ahead with empowering institutions to fight corruption. If the demonstrations must stop, the corruption must cease. What is going on in Onitsha, The Niger Delta and the northeast are all products of corruption. Ask me how and I will tell you. How do these people get arms? It is just a matter of time arms would also turn up in the southeast if this is not checked. A simple public servant like me, with a meager salary that APC governors are even angling to reduce further, can hardly afford to foot my bills and eat let alone give out money for insurgency. It is those who have more money than they need that sponsor these uprisings. And those who often have more money than they need in these climes are people who are or have been in government. A choba mma gburu ochu, si choba uzu kpuru mma" - "When looking for the cutlass that murdered someone, let's look for the blacksmith that made the cutlass."