Igbos have done it, again!

With the choice that Buhari made regarding his vice president (Buhari, Hausa-Fulani; Ideagbo, Yoruba; it is 1983 all over, again) the party henceforth could be considered a Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba party. It is now the party of those who prosecuted the Nigerian civil war.

Igbos probably would see it as a party arrayed against them.

From population calculus, the Hausa, Fulani and Yoruba are the majority (the Yoruba is probably the largest ethnic group in Africa). This guarantees that the largest combination of ethnic groups would vote for Buhari.

As I see it, perhaps, only South Eastern states, the Igbos would not vote for Buhari. But that is being foolish. If I know anything about the Igbo it is that he is unprincipled and can always be bought with money. In that light, I have no doubt that if the APC greased the hands of prominent Igbo politicians they could even deliver Igbo states to it.

Igbos are so politically naïve that their political behaviors often make me cry. Consider that since the nomination of Buhari they have been at the forefront writing rubbish about him. It has not occurred to them that Nigerians are sick and tired of the PDP, the party of looters and are looking for a way out from them.

If properly marketed, the APC will win by a landslide in the February elections not because they are clean but because Nigerians are looking for an alternative to the PDP.

Sixteen years of PDP misrule is enough for folks and any Nigerian who expects Jonathan and his PDP to do differently than they have done in sixteen years is smoking something.

Jonathan is a weak character; all he is going to do is sit there and allow the thieves of Abuja to make away with Nigeria’s oil revenue. He is the captain of pirates and that does not bother him; he did not make any kind of effort to fight corruption.

(A person who knows him rather well told me that the man is a drunk and is drunk most days, even before coming to cabinet meetings or FEC meetings.)

If Igbos are politically savvy they would support an alternative to Jonathan, support Buhari but they would go for PDP and Jonathan, the party of thieves (the party’s association with thievery does not bother them for they are no longer a moral people).

I want Buhari to win. But that is not the point I want to make here. The point that I want to make is about what Igbos have done to themselves to the point that no one takes them seriously anymore.

I understand that Buhari did not even consider an Igbo a possible vice presidential candidate! Would that have happened in the past when Igbos were perceived as serious political actors in Nigeria?

Now, it is Hausas and Yorubas who are perceived as the serious political actors in Nigeria.

Igbos are now political spectators in Nigeria! How the mighty has fallen!

Since the civil war ended, many Igbos, apparently, decided that it does not matter to have morality, to have principles and to do anything because it is right to do so. They decided that any behavior goes as long as they can gain a little money from it. Thus, they went in for self-centered, unprincipled pragmatism.

If you engaged in any business venture with Igbos you can bet your ass that they would rip you off and laugh as if they are baboons without conscience.

Consider Ngozi Okonjo Iweala. The woman knows that the presidents she worked for are corrupt but that did not bother her; she looked the other way as Nigeria’s money is stolen by the governors and the presidents. In her mind she probably fancies that she is innocent. Really?

You hand out monthly checks that are stolen and you know that they are stolen and you are innocent? You are not innocent; you are a thief, at the very least by association.

Actually Ngozi whatever is her last name is not as naïve as I am making her out to be. She is a political operator, a jobber and knows what she is into. She parleyed her clerical job at the World Bank, area coordinator for Nigeria, to making Obasanjo see her as a mighty person in the world of finance (she has done nothing in finance, certainly she has not written any significant material on the subject). The fraudster convinced folks that she is a wizard that she is not. Having hoodwinked poorly educated Obasanjo and Jonathan she thought that she could also hoodwink the Directors of the World Bank into making her its president. But they knew better. The calculating lady knows what she is doing; as such, she is one of the thieves of Abuja, perhaps, the chief thief of them all.

I have read up on the fate of Jews in Europe. Jews in pre-Second World War Germany were like today’s Igbos. Jews decided that principles were not relevant and went for unprincipled behaviors. They made tons of money in Germany.

The German folks knew that Jews would do anything for money. Heck, Jews were responsible for prostituting German girls (they were the kingpins of pornography…they are still so in today’s Europe and the Americas).

The German people associated Jews with unprincipled behaviors, as folk who loved money and would do anything to get it. In their minds Jews became vermin, rats, not human beings. They actually believed that Jews sold Germany out, and made it possible for the French and English to win the First World War.

Thus, when Adolf Hitler told them to kill Jews they had no qualms doing so, for it was like killing rats. (See Hitler’s autobiography, My Kampf; also see his Table-Talks edited by the racist Oxford don, Trevor Roper.)

Igbos have allowed themselves to be seen as unprincipled, as thieves, as rats. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala symbolized Igbos unprincipled behaviors.

Most Nigerians know that just about every Igbo wants to be seen as a very important person, a VIP. His motivation for entering politics is to go become a big man in his neck of the woods. He scarcely bothers thinking about what he is going to do with the political office he seeks. Just make him a minister and he feels important but he would not do anything for any one.

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is a ‘super minister’; she fancies herself important but please tell me what she did for Igbos?

The fat cow (cant someone tell her to hit the gym and lose that ugly fat of hers) could not even get the government she supposedly served to repair Onitsha Bridge, talk more build another one! Just been in office gratified her vanity, as is the case with many Igbos.

Give them office and a few dollars and that is good enough for them and they would not do anything for their people.

Are any of the Igbo governors doing anything for their people; do people even expect them to do anything? I certainly do not expect the governor of Imo state to do anything for the people. I expect him to run around presenting his foppish self as a big man. If you doubt me, please tell me what Okorocha has done for Imo folk.

Other Nigerians see Ngozi Iweala and Igbos as responsible for the looting of Nigeria (and the fool wanted to work for the World Bank presumably to go enable some people loot it).

When there is economic collapse in Nigeria folks would want to explain how a country that made so much money from oil did nothing with-it. Scapegoats would be sought.

Igbos, contributed to by Ngozi Okonjo Iweala the unprincipled minister of Finance, would be seen as the thieves who helped squander Nigeria’s money.

If a country identifies a scapegoat they want to sacrifice that goat to the gods to make sure that they are not punished for their sins.

Igbos would be sacrificed. And those killing them would not feel guilty for it is like killing thieves (do you feel guilty from killing criminals, I don’t).

Igbos, like Jews have set themselves up to be sacrificed by other Nigerians. Their idiot belief that selling drugs and engaging in every conceivable criminal activity, as long as they made money, is permissible has made them perceived as sub human beings and, as such, are easily disposed of.

In the world of politics no one now takes Igbo politicians seriously. I certainly do not take any of them seriously. Do you want me to take an Igbo governor seriously? Why? What has he done?

Is Orji at Abia not allowing Aba streets to become cesspools of water and refuse? Do the governors of Anambra set up functional city councils at Onitsha, Awka, Nnewi etc. and make them make their cities work and in the least remove garbage from the streets. No, there are no leaders in Alaigbo and we all know it. What we have in Alaigbo are thieves in government.

As we have seen, neither political party even bothered thinking whether an Igbo vice president is necessary!

Buhari will win. I just hope that he does not cavalierly dismiss Igbos as folks not to be taken seriously.

For my present purposes, Igbos have really done it to their selves; they have marginalized their selves in politics.

Of course they are busy pointing fingers at those they believe did this to them while refusing to take responsibility for building and maintaining their Igbo house.

Those who blame other people for their problems, even if there is a germ of truth in their blame, go nowhere in politics.

Real leaders take responsibility for their situation and embark on improving it; they do not waste their time blaming putative others who caused their problems.

Instead of dealing with their myriad problems many Igbos wait and if anyone is perceived to have said something negative about Igbos they go to work tearing that person down but in the meantime do nothing to solve their identified problems.

Igbos have become Njakiri people but not a problem solving people. Just tearing folks reputations down is enough for them but doing something to solve their problems is none of their concern. Igbos have made themselves politically irrelevant in Nigeria.

This is a pity.

Someone once told me that I have a penchant for blaming the victim, blaming those screwed by other people. To him Igbos are victims screwed by other Nigerians. In my world no one is a victim for we all sleep on beds we made. If it were possible for what one does not want to experience to happen to one the world would be an unjust place; in an unjust world God cannot exist. I believe that there is justice in the universe and, as such, each of us, working with all of us is responsible for what happens to him and what he experiences. Of course, other Nigerians do not take Igbos seriously but the question is: what did Igbos do to merit been shut out of Nigerian politics? That is what I want to know, not what other people did to them.

Ozodi Osuji Ph.D
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(907) 538-1086