DEPORTATION OF DESTITUTES IGBOS FROM LAG: JUSTIFIABLE? I wonder why Igbos should vilify Governor Raji Fashola for the deportation of some Igbo destitute from the shores of Lagos. Instead ofdemonizing him, Igbos should roll out their Atilogun and famous Abiriba war dancers incelebration of this great son of Oduduwa for behaving true to type. Let Ohaneze Ndigbo, Njiko Ndigbo and other Igbo Cultural Associations based in Lagos come up with a programme for honouring Governor Fashola for achieving this feat. How about the South East Council of Traditional Rulers led by their ebullient and charismatic Chairman, His Royal Majesty, Eze C.I Ilomuanya (CON). Is it not yet auspicious for them to honour this man with the title of Nwannedinamba 1 of Igboland. Enter Aka Ikenga. Does your Association need further prompting? Here is a governor that has so benevolently honoured your association before now by appointing two of your own into his cabinet. In case you have forgotten too soon, I am referring to the appointments of Mr. Ben Akabueze and his brother Joe Igbokwe. Doesn’t Governor Fashola merit a red carpet reception and honour? I am very sure that left to the governor alone, Lagos State is big enough to attract entry visafrom all Nigerians coming into the territory, constitution or no constitution. If South East governors (both serving and retired) are angry over this exercise, why didn’t they promote policies that will develop Igboland beyond the present lack luster performances?Still they can go extra mile of applying the Hawaii solution. Yes the Hawaii solution, which provided the opportunity for some Americans going into Hawaii recently to locate and recover their lost tribes of destitute from that land. Today, many of these so called destitute have been resettled by their relations and other charitable organizations all over USA. South East governors can do the same. But beyond all these, the governor should consider not restricting this deportation order to only those Igbo destitute you found so irritating along Lagos Streets. There are other categories of Igbo groups that His Excellency should quickly discuss with members of his executive council and put his magisterial stamp of authority for their immediate deportation. These are people and group I would refer to as the lost tribe of the Igbo Nation. The first categories are the Igbo traders. How come they prefer to pollute the Lagos landscape with wares, when they could develop their markets in Onitsha, Aba and other cities in Igbo land? Is the name Ladipo or Alaba market Igbo names? They prefer to operate in Lagos rather than going home to develop similar markets in Igbo land. Why has the proposed electronic market in Owerri not yet taken off over 20 years since it was conceived? How about the Aba and Nnewi markets? Are there no more rooms for expansion? Does it matter to Fashola whether Igbo traders have spent billions of their hard earned money, developing new markets at the Lagos Trade Fair complex, Tejuoso or Ladipo? Yes Governor Fashola should please also consider deporting some of our Igbo sons and daughters who call themselves journalists or public affairs experts and commentators. This is because many of them have lost focus and do not know where they come from any longer. I am sure that the period of deportation will enable them to refocus their minds and begin to help them think like Igbo men and women. Many of them, like the destitute you deported recentlycan no longer discover their homesteads in Igboland because of the ambivalence of livingin Lagos for years and getting disoriented about their origins. As for our dear country Nigeria, the situation will provide us with an opportunity to think about our nationhood and its inherent contradictions. So many issues will come to the fore, such as what type of country we want. Is the present structure capable of solving our present and future problems? Why do we have so much inequalities in the distribution of amenities in our land? How about the issue of equalization of states, access to our common patrimony? We will begin to think of real development and transformation of Nigeria, the type that will make the country more competitive amongst the nations of the world. The federal government will probably change her position on the demand for a national dialogue/conference or whatever name that will be acceptable to the majority of the people. Igbos in particular will become careful about how to choose their friends in the Nigeria Union. Even their type of politics will be re-examined and probably assume better perspective and result oriented. •NNAJI, FORMER DEPUTY SPEAKER, IMO STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, WRITES FROM OWERRI
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 01:03:46 +0000
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