Like other Africans, Igbo people are ingenious when it comes to christening newborn babies. Among the Igbo, children are christened to reference an event surrounding the birth. From Amaechi (who knows tomorrow!) to Zinachidinma (show the world that the Lord is good!), there is no Igbo name that does not signify happenstance in the family. Igbo compendiums even list Yoruba, which means Peace, as a feminine name. Whether the Igbo gives the name, Yoruba, to their daughters is a matter for another day.
No matter. Of the lot, however, one name sticks out. Ozoemena (may another bad event or situation never recur!) is a prayer as well as a cry to God against the recurrence of a misfortune. Little wonder that those who bear the name are expected to be cautious, orderly, disciplined and just; they are also expected to be impatient with those who do not share these attributes! Now, simply sit back to imagine the beauty if contemporary Igbo youth adopt Ozoemena as a middle name or simply live by the tenets of the name!
But, first let us begin with some elementary lessons in contemporary Nigerian history. A little back in time, a prominent Igbo, Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, was elected vice president of Nigeria only nine, short years after the civil war! That singular act, which gave Dr. Ekwueme the Number Two slot, was in the genuine spirit of ‘No victor, No vanquished’! In that same administration, another Igbo, Chief Edwin Ume Ezeoke, was Speaker of the House of Representatives, the effective number four in line of succession.
Now, when Dr. Ekwueme occupied the number two constitutionally-recognised slot, no Yoruba politician from the South West featured in the top four positions in the country! After the June 12, 1993 electoral debacle, the Yoruba never threatened to pull out of Nigeria! Back then, some roughnecks, reminiscent of present-day Sunday Igboho, made noise but, truth is, they enlisted no support from any person of substance in Yorubaland. To butt, Radio Kudirat and NADECO did not stockpile weapons to wage war against the state!
As recent as the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, there was no way any politician from the South West could have constitutionally ascended the throne in the event of a vacancy. Check the facts! With the exception of Osun state, President Goodluck Jonathan literally cleared all the votes in the South West but no Yoruba featured in the top ten in the Goodluck Jonathan government! The Yoruba neither cried over their loss nor threatened secession!
A look at Nigeria’s recent political history of Nigeria reveals that it is the Yoruba that should complain of marginalization. Where then, if one may ask, is this insipid talk of Igbo marginalization coming from? It may sound blunt, but the only way to put it is that Nigeria has to remain one, united and prosperous country! That there was a ‘country’ which expired in January, 1970 is a fact we must learn to live with. We have to move on, and to move on is to build a great, united and prosperous Nigeria. As it is, we all have grouses, valid or otherwise, against the fatherland. Even lecherous Boko Haram terrorists reel out grouses!
To even contemplate the existence of a north- south divide in Nigeria is preposterous. The idea is a harebrained thesis that has been forced down the throat of Nigerians. At best, it is a deliberate distraction from the crass incompetence of successive governments. Today, it is almost needless to attempt to play down the existence of a religious divide because religious and political leaders, social media warriors, yahoo boys and girls and the traditional media have all bought into the misnomer through hyping the existence of “a Christian south and a Muslim north”.
In any case, breaking up a country does not redress perceived injustices. Take South Sudan, for instance! Political leaders of Africa’s youngest sovereign country have been at each other’s jugular for much of the 10 years of the country’s independence while the people have become refugees among former compatriots they were programmed to believe were their mortal enemies! Independence has become a curse of sort and thousands of South Sudan refugees are happier and safer among their northern neighbours they were programmed to hate!
In other words, what the people of South Sudan formerly regarded as a zoo has become a refuge and bastion of hope! And, those that the people of South Sudan were programmed to see as beasts and cannibals are now their protectors! The damage has been done and the long-suffering people of South Sudan have now realised that they were fooled by hate-mongers and gunrunners into believing that a break up will take them to Eldorado! Before he was arrested, Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB were creating problems for the Igbo nation that will turn South Sudan into a tea party.
The arm-chair revolutionaries, the same commissioned agents who pretend to be well-wishers live in affluence in Europe at the expense of gunrunners. It is from their comfort zones in Europe that they pollute the mind of fleeceable Igbo youth with trite and banal campaign of ‘‘the Hausa are on a genocidal mission”, ‘‘the Yoruba are your mortal enemies’’ “the riverine people do not like you”; ‘‘never trust the Tiv’’! It is time for Igbo youths to dissociate themselves from those who invoke the Holy Ghost and thunder to fire and strike imaginary enemies! It is time Igbo youths purge themselves of hate and resist being brainwashed by pretentious protectors.
The task is to make Nigeria one great and united country. Remember! This was the message of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu as it was of Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe. It has been the message of Ohaneze Ndigbo! This is time to prove trouble makers in Igboland wrong. It is time for Igbo youths to free their mind and not allow hate to consume them! After all, there is enough room in the sky for all birds to fly in.
Now, the final word: Never succumb to IPOB and ESN, otherwise targeted killings in Igbo land will boil over and you will be complicit in creating another South Sudan! It’s time to say Ozoemena!
Abdulrazaq Magaji resides in Abuja
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