For those who think I am a wailer because I write about the
unwritten rule to systematically destroy the South East by starving it of
social and developmental infrastructure by the current regime, let me make it
clear that I do not scream and kick because I can stop the ongoing abuses of
power, injustices and prejudices against us. I understand my helplessness.
I don’t protest so that the architects of the prejudices against
us will have a change of heart as they lack capacity to change, but that those
who mouth One Nigeria and those in position to build a new One Nigeria may
understand the challenges they must overcome, assuming truly they desire, like
I do, one nation united in peace and freedom.
Like Paul the apostle, I write so that the world would be aware
of what is happening and factor it into their response to those who disagree
with the prevailing vindictive and sectarian policies.
Despite what is said and unsaid about the Igbo by people who
have no clue about nation building, I know in my heart that we are people who
love Nigeria. We have made more sacrifices and bore the burden of peace in
silence like the donkey.
In
giving our best, all that we ask is peace or freedom. We desire a nation that
is at peace with itself. Like fair-minded people, we desire a nation that is
democratically fair to all. But whereby a peaceful Nigeria where all citizens
can co-exist in peace and harmony is not provided, then we the Igbo have the
ultimate desire to live in freedom in the land given to our fathers, the land
of the rising sun.
I don’t know the best way to ask President Buhari to restructure
Nigeria now. I don’t know how to convince him to see himself as the president
of every Nigerian. Recently he was reported to have told a BBC Hausa Service
that the Igbo hate him because he killed them during the civil war, that he
will not apologize to them and that if need be, he will do all he did again to
keep Nigeria one.
I believe he was misquoted or the statement is one of those
internet misleads. But if it is true, then we must be prepared to pay the
inevitable price of freedom, for so long as there’s breath in us from our
breast; so long as our hope are not lost and so long as our God is on His
throne, we must cherish and live our freedom in the land of the rising sun.
But,
over and above, I have chosen to work for peace and the freedom of our people.
I want all those who desire peace and freedom to know they do
not come free. We must understand that the road to freedom is not an easy road.
It will get tough and it will get rough; there will be sabotage, frustration
and death, but if we don’t give up, even if it takes 2,000 years, that day will
come! And the tears will be the tears of fulfilled rejoicing!
Dr.
Eke Eke, who is one of the most cerebral and logical minds I have come across,
summarized my worries. Hence, I share his thought here, so that we can all be
inspired and know that peace and freedom have a price. The price of freedom is
what Nnamdi Kanu is paying. We may condemn him now, but posterity will not
condemn him for standing for his people.
The cost of what one believes in or intends to do have been the
determinant factor in whether he succeeds or fails. Only those determined to
pay the price succeeds.
“For
which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth
the cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it?” Luke 14:28. The Igbos say
that “Those who go to war, do not fear death.” Again, says the Holy Book, “For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it.” Matt. 15:25
Both peace and freedom are invaluable and at the same time
costly. Often, the love one has for his people is shown in their preparedness
to pay the ultimate price if need be.
Yahweh
yeshua recognized this and summed it as the ultimate demonstration of love.
“Greater love that no man than this that a man lay down his life for his
friends.” John 15:23
During
the Second World War, many people willingly paid the ultimate price to secure
the freedom we enjoy today. The words of John Maxwell Edmunds immortalized at
the Kohima epitaph sums up the price of freedom and show of ultimate love.
“When you go home, tell them of us and say, For your Tomorrow, we gave our
Today.” John Maxwell Edmunds 1916.
According to Dr. Eke, the single litmus test for true and honest
leadership, which has no deceit, is the preparedness to pay the ultimate price.
It is called the Mandela Test. “My freedom is inseparable from the freedom of
my people.” A leadership that sees its welfare and happiness as inseparable
from the welfare and happiness of the people is what yahweh yeshua meant, when
he talked about the good Shepherd. For several years, ANC, behaved towards
Apartheid the way Igbo are behaving today towards their exclusion from
Nigeria’s politics by the rest of Nigeria.
Who will deny that thirty years of my life have been spent
knocking in vain, patiently, moderately, and modestly at a closed and barred
door? The past thirty years have seen the greatest number of laws restricting
our rights and progress, until today we have reached a stage where we have
almost no rights at all” – Chief Luthuli, President of ANC 1953 and winner of
Nobel Price for Peace.
Things changed, when Mandela took over and realized that there
is a place for ‘just violence’ in response to subjugation, injustice, terror
and discrimination of the type apartheid imposed on his people. He made a clear
distinction between terror and use of violence in the fight against tyranny and
demonstrated that while terror is evil and targets innocent people to instill
fear and subjugate, violent response is used to incapacitate the oppressor and
force him to see the evil of his way.
Could this analogy of great Mandela be the difference between
criminality of Boko Haram, the Fulani herdsmen and the Niger Delta Avengers?
Why then is the Buhari administration desperate to deal with the Niger Delta
Avengers the same way he is dealing with Boko Haram terrorist organisation?
Mind you Niger Deltan Avengers are freedom fighters; not same like Boko Haram.
Mandela demonstrated for all time the right and justifiable way
to use one of the languages oppressors respond to in achieving freedom. In
essence, he said, one cannot be docile in the face of tyranny.
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