GOT THESE ON NAIRALAND, YOUR OPINION PLEASE. rudedough: [center]WHY IGBOS ARE EASILY ATTRACTED TO CRIME[/center] An average Igbo man is brought up to be aware of his responsibilities. He is expected to adopt a ‘take charge’ attitude to life and so from childhood he learns as a boy to go out and take risks, get in fights, know his territories, protect it and every other person on it. Every Igbo man needs no foreign interpretation to know that money is a must have to be recognized in your kindred. The more reason why at a very tender age, some unfortunate parents send their child out to their brother in-law in Lagos to learn trade. Reason not because they dont like their child, but because they want him to have a better life and be respected/recognized in his society. Our culture does not tolerate poverty. In the eyes of our elders, poverty is seen as a sign of weakness or laziness. This misconception has driven our men to become extremists. Our elders/fathers also do not help matters at all, they like to compete among themselves, not in their child’s intellectual or academic qualifications but over whose child is the richest or drive the most expensive car or built the most luxurious house in the village.These classification based on how much wealth you have acquired has successfully driven gullible youths into undertaking extreme crimes like this one. Every December, during annual village meeting, when Igbo youths gather in the village from various parts of the world, the talk of who brought back the best cars and who has built the most luxurious house in the village becomes the order of the day. Even some not-yet-wealthy youths travel all the way to the village just to see for themselves what their peers have achieved. This experience psychologically further drive their extremism to greater height. In this village meeting, poor men (no matter what your academic qualifications are) are made to sit at the back, while real men (educated or not) give speech. And when an educated man tries to convey a message, they hurl all kinds of insult at him like Sit down there, are we discussing grammar here? Is certificate the name of a currency. grin grin My Igbo brothers can testify to this. Now comes when an Igbo man needs to take a wife, the process and money involved can cripple a multi-national company if care is not taken to recuperate the losses within a certain period of time. Most of my tribesmen never made it back to their feet after their marriage. The truth is, the brides parents (Most of them) do not care about how their daughter lives with her husband after their marriage. And when they start having kids, the problem escalates and it cripples the business totally, leaving most men to start all over again. Most of our men blame their predicament on some mysterious witchcraft or wizard in the village and the pressure is passed unto one child to another, so the virtuous circle continues. I dont want to get start-ish on the burial rights. These old men dont care if you are financially stable or not, their brother is dead and he must be buried ASAP. The burial is not the problem here, but having to deal with all sorts of committee telling you their individual rights. One group may demand for 1 cow, 10 tubers of yam, drinks and all sorts of items, another group may ask for something else, believe me, these groups are almost endless. Most Igbo men become indebted after losing their parent, and they sometimes never recover from that financial crisis. If only my tribesmen could be educated on the danger our tradition possess, we would work to abolish those wrecking customs of ours. I can go on and on and on but maybe my tribesmen could shed some light to what i just said. I am only a youth in my early 20s, maybe i dont know anything, or maybe I’m being too emotional. Ill appreciate if someone old enough would enlighten me on our core customs and traditional values. Igbos are good people, I won’t blame our youths for the crimes they choose to undertake; I’ll blame our elders for putting those stipe traditions upon their children.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 09:13:06 +0000
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