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By Iwuchukwu Ezenwafor
Before Her Majesty, Victoria, the Queen of England, considered finally annexing today’s Nigeria as a colony, the monarch, as was the norm, constituted a team of experts to survey the territory and bring back a situation report. Consequently, one of the remarkable highlights in the official report stated that a certain people located close to the coast have a custom of circumcision on the 8th day.
The coded statement became the basis for the colonial masters’ attitude, sentiments, policies and general approach to governance throughout Igbo land from the onset till the day of independence. It is on record that the colonists encountered complexities and certain peculiar challenges in a bid to institute the machinery for colonial administration across Igbo land. Unlike what was obtainable in other parts of the then Southern Protectorate, the people identified and confirmed to be Hebrew settlers are in all respects more sophisticated and traditionally republican.
The routine report back to the home government invariably created the age-long impression that the Igbo subjects are in all ramifications, as envisaged, more difficult to handle. In other words, among all the ethnic nationalities, the Igbos were the most indocile or unfriendly. The general attitude of the colonial masters toward the Igbo as a people has therefore been ruffled and cloudy from the earliest time, and may not just change.
One cannot quickly forget the administrative bottlenecks faced by the colonial establishment when the Eastern region proved dexterous and faster in every area of human endeavour, including the aspiration to self-rule. Of course, we as a people are never in the good book of the disenchanted gold-diggers. For any reason any time, every other tribe was observed to be more flexible and friendly than the ubiquitous, domineering, dynamic and self-assertive Igbos. They did not in fact bargain to meet such stressful challenges as posed by these black Hebrews!
Subsequently an uncouth prejudice was fomented and unleashed upon a people as the saying goes: a dog is usually given a bad name to justify its execution. A people mischievously painted black, and yet very pacific by tradition and value, who actually as a cultural principle cherish, love and accommodate strangers. A people psychologically secured, absolutely confident and never felt threatened in any form or style. In all known fields of human endeavour, they potentially thrive in every environment and atmosphere of fair and positive competition as well as under persecution in life pursuits. A people universal both in philosophy and attitude, enabling their proverbial spread over the face of the habitable globe. It is unequivocally arguable that no race has equalled the record of the presence of the Igbo in all the nooks and crannies of the earth. A people beautified with physical strength, intellect, wisdom and particularly an uncommon survival instinct laced with exceptional business sense and unbridled acumen.
The official conspiracy
Before the British officially left the shores of this country, they were able to unrepentantly leave behind the ominous impression that the Igbo are liable to dominate and therefore remain a potential threat to other weaker tribes that constitute Nigeria. From the way they conducted the census and the subsequent handover election to the handover proper, it was very visible that Nigeria is ever mischievously framed to sit on a powder keg. Simply put: Nigeria is founded upon rot!
The independence granted us is a mere hoax hence things immediately started falling apart as the centre could not hold. Nigeria’s independence is indeed a terrible set-up! Our neighbours and indeed our fellow Nigerians were deceived into believing that their Igbo compatriots will devour them if not checked. Down the decades, they invariably stuck to their guns to live up to the deceit. Of course, they are not to blame since there are certain evidential proofs to justify their seeming irrevocable apprehension craftily planted by the respected colonial juggernauts. Till date, the palpable dread tinged with hatred can be felt as strong as it was right from the very beginning!
Now, one would loudly wonder why the same British went ahead to scuttle the eventual parting of the very vilified Igbos to become a true independent nation state consequently. Their weird diplomacy betrayed their true interest in this project called Nigeria. One can understand by their body language that they are not in any way comfortable with the true emancipation altogether of the Igbos, Yorubas and even the Hausa-Fulani. They purposefully planned and succeeded in yoking all to sink together and remain in doldrums. Hence Nigeria from cradle till date is originally bonded to dysfunction!
The conspiracy is all about gagging the known brightest Africans and thereby seal the fate of the entire black continent. It is such determined that in the international arena, world politics and the art of diplomacy leave much to be desired when it comes to British interest in post-colonial Nigeria.
Judgement in disguise
It is literally inexplicable why the age-long conspiracy against the Igbo is still in place and freshly effective till date. One may not truly appreciate the reality of this unfortunate situation without properly viewing it from the perspective of the spiritual. It is an undeniable fact that the spiritual is precedential to the physical, hence it is absolutely inevitable at this point in time to delve into the perspective of the spiritual to solve the hydra-headed and perennial Igbo riddle once and for all. It is naturally true that if we do not know where we are coming from, we will definitely not know where we are heading to. Until we critically reconsider our historical background and make out who we are and what actually went wrong, all we might be doing will be like chasing a shadow. There is a certain principal disconnect and existing missing link!
My people, it is high time we sat back, searched ourselves out critically and consciously put our house in order. If we are truly convinced that we have our descent in Jacob through Gad by three siblings namely: Eri, Arodi and Areli, why are we still floating in the air as a people? Who actually sold to us this evil of a poison: Igbo enwe eze? I will go on to demystify this singular crux of Igbo challenges by giving a critical interpretation outside the literary application of the notorious undoing of a saying: Igbo enwe eze. I will start by revealing that the statement was originally fabricated in the pit of hell and projected to unleash a debilitating curse on us as a people. It is a saying with a dangerous undertone meant to:
1. Attack our credibility, integrity, worth and value as a people.
2. Humiliate, harass, ridicule and vilify us.
3. Sow seed of discord, hatred and disunity among us.
4. Bring universal shame, failure, frustration and poverty.
5. Above all, disconnect us from our Divine covenant, heritage and collective destiny.
The ever curious question remains: why and how did we buy into such a cheap blackmail in the first place? The satanic expression as it is to this day (begging for redress) remains an accursed and abominable metaphor that bred the notorious Igboid attitude to loyalty and oneness culminating in a complex psychological and spiritual somersault of the Igbo race. The degenerative toll the make-believe has taken on us as a people is immensely colossal!
Meanwhile, the godly ancestral heritage/inheritance and hereditary disconnect down the ages has landed us in a terrible mire of irrational and questionable idolatry. Corruption of once a sound covenant, wholesome custom and tradition that originated from the Holy Writ is too bad to the extent that when an average Igbo person would want to do a serious business transaction and particularly politics, he or she will lay the foundation by romancing with strange and dirty gods/altars. Worshipping of humiliating idols/beggarly elements and indulging in diverse occultic heathen practices became the common way of life of not few, regrettably including many so-called “religious leaders”.
Our legitimate and covenant jealous God abandoned us (who originally inherited the election/grace of the house of Jacob) in the hands of our “adversaries” who are supposed to be our peaceful neighbours and compatriots, if not our subordinates. Meanwhile, whatever conspiracy against us as a people has mysteriously prospered beyond measure till date! And we are helplessly subjugated/humiliated to playing the second fiddle in virtually everything even in the obvious areas of our innate strength and superiority or comparative advantage. How are the mighty fallen!
In a nutshell, we lost everything in the contest including our last line of defence divine covenant with (Chukwu Abiama) God! That is summarily why our bandwagon ran into a ditch and halted! In sober fact, the entire Igbo race is collectively suffering the prevailing nemesis of self-inflicted spiritual quagmire. Absolutely our true enemies per se are never our neighbours but our capital sin of rebellion cum idolatry. This is the whole truth and nothing but the bitter truth!
The ordained solution
The way forward my people is self-explanatory seeking the face of our legitimate God and stop fighting/contending with any Tom, Dick or Harry and/or heaping blame on whoever. Every of our heart-cry and legitimate desire is embedded in the cordial relationship with that same God who in the first place brought us all the way to this part of the world to be a light to the entire sub-Saharan Africa and not just Nigeria. The ever compassionate God of Abraham (Chukwu Abiama), Isaac and Jacob; the God of Gad, Eri, Arodi and Areli indeed, the jealous God of the Igbo, He shall definitely arise!
If other peoples, tongues, tribes, races, nations and countries can do without God Almighty, it is not the Igbo (maka oke soro ngweri maa mmiri okochaa ngweri o gaghi ako oke). There is therefore no feasible option before us other than retracing our steps as a people back to our Covenant God as quick as possible. For when our ways should please Him again, He will certainly as promised make even our sworn enemies to be at peace with us, including the British!
All Israel shall be saved including the Igbo! As revelation of divine purpose and plan is given, the divine direction is thereby provided. The full restoration of the Igbo and the entire Israel in extension back to our Jealous God is a priority project. The Igbo nation happens to be the highest concentration of the aboriginal Israelites on the face of the earth today. We are talking of a collective destiny of about 70 million souls at home and in the Diaspora. The divine choice of Igbo land to kick-start a new wave of God consciousness cum revival within the house of Jacob that would eventually impact the rest of the world is not far-fetched!
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Evang. Dr Iwuchukwu Ezenwafor is of the Igbo Re-Invention Movement (IRM)
