By Fr Evaristus Offor
The devil is always the father of all lies, perfidy and insidious promptings for offhand actions. He doesn’t keep to his words, but mesmerizes, selfishly greedy, oppressively hurting scruffily. He doesn’t respect common agreemens, but slogs for tangled and claptrap mendacity. He is always opposed to veracity, synchronization, fairness and reasonable innuendo. That is the devil, the driver of ethnic and political slither. His angels have been on the political décolletage of the wheezing Igbo of the South Eastern Nigeria who lived mutually as a united people before the glum synthesis of 1914. They were peacefully and autonomously organized, crammed by common cultural and traditional routines.
They lived in suppleness, had sense of the sacred, but all these have became buckled through a concave marriage with other disquieting ethnic groups. In short, the Igbo have been marked to be hushed forever. For example, in 1966, they were slaughtered in the
North through inflexible pogrom and ensuing but hardnosed coup designed to constrict them. From 1967 to 1970, they were brashly slammed by allied forces, during the chirpy civil war; and affianced a hodgepodge of economic strategies to eradicate the Igbo. They slogged for the extensive mass murder of Biafrans who lost both property and billions of currencies in today’s Rivers State after the war.
They declared “no victor, no vanquished” policy to continue the marginalization of the Igbo, whereas the post-war declaration of 3Rs policy to integrate the Igbo was an only optical illusion. The famous rotational presidency that was already practiced by the PDP is about being truncated by the same party, because now it’s the time for the Southeast to rise to the political pyramid. For the 2023 saga, the party seems to be eye-catching and reneging on the policy, in order to continue the Igbo marginalization.
As an Igbo man created this project, they must not rebuff the fruits of his effort. Therefore, any opposition to the 2023 power shift to the Southeast amounts to a continuation of Northern and South Western impiety, voraciousness, parochial fanaticism and nasty ruse. Will history ever forgive those that might oppose the Igbo ascendency? Do they still want the region to continue to be a patch and a cracked political pariah? Giving them 2023 presidential tickets will end years of the Igbo marginalization by both the North and Southwest. It will end the piety of politics being thrown into the chasm of repugnance and selective opportunism. It will inter the gorge of personal enhancement and tribalistic endorsement.
Nigerians must traverse the flecked zone of satanic enclaves and droning schemes to make it work. Our politics must be fixed on good ideologies and practicable strategies based on justice and equity, respect to the originality, the grittiness and political tact of the Igbo man, to make progress as a country. Only evil goaded minds will try to prevent Igbo ascendency. Christians must now work for justice and equity which is only proper in God’s eyes. How many times have both the North and Southwest failed Nigeria in leadership? Nigeria is fading because of their misdemeanors. The Igbo person can be of help in revitalizing our fortune with his dexterous character. We need Nigerians with the fear and respect of God to vouch for political balancing? The North has colonized our vital security and economic apparatuses. They only use and dump the Igbo. They mindfully shunned the celebrated 2014 CONFAB or the Justice Oputa Panel recommendations, lest the Igbo getfreedom. MusttheIgbopersonbeblustery in eternity because of soulless tang? We need the Igbo person to succeed in Nigeria because, he is not a coward, but has a subtle character, self-confidence and animated in defiance to pressure. He independently possesses a dignity and self-esteem that make things happen. He doesn’t desecrate mutual agreements. He is gutsy, pushy, feasible, sphinx-like and always committed to every good cause he has assumed. He is pretty religious, irreplaceably imperative and astutely utilitarian. Therefore, any opposition to the 2023 Igbo ascendancy is of the impish sprit, since the refutation of justice is of mistiness and kismet. The Igbo must collectively agree not to serve any other region again because the Igbo are born to lead. We must say no to any other region in 2023 presidential election. Honourable Nigerians, we need a geopolitical balancing in the leadership of Nigeria. This is even the time for the Church to fight for justice and equity as the Vatican document, (Gaudium et Spes no 1) rightly opined: ‘the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joys and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well”. The Igbo of Southeast have been in anguish and affliction for many years now. They have endured countless injustices and inequities since the civil war. The Igbo race is grieving over continued political exclusion in Nigeria. The Church in Nigeria must now add her voice in the needed geopolitical and ethnic equalization. It must strongly campaign for equality and justice, as the late Jomo Kenyetta said: “That is why we need the church in our midst to tell us when we are making a mistake. The church is the conscience of society, and today society needs a conscience. Do not be afraid to speak. If we go wrong and you keep quiet, one day you may have to answer for our mistake”. Is the fusion of Nigeria not the first asinine mistake and now the scheming for the jettisoning of rotational presidency another? Whether there was any mutual agreement among the political parties on such a pliant project or not, it is Igbo’s turn. So now, we need to hear the Church’s collective voice, because to leave our politicians in their eccentric mistakes and gobbledygook will only mash this great country into the cavernous chasm of silhouette?
•Fr Offor writes from Enugu.