It is a heart-wrenching scenario to see the orchestrated marginalization of the South East of Nigeria by the Government of Nigeria; any possible thing to strangulate the region is being thrown at it. However, I am extremely miffed by the simple fact that Igbos appear to be part of the grand design to self-destruct this once vibrant Zone.
Our politicians at the top level of the scheme of things in Nigeria are continuously failing to fight for the people that elected them out of poverty into opulence. We have been abandoned by our Governors and Abuja politicians who collect huge sums of our money as salaries, security votes and perks while lying openly about representing us. We have politicians who tend to decieve us into towing their self serving agendas.
I find it particularly immoral for Igbo politicians who climbed on the shoulder of Ndi Igbo to scale the fence of hunger into opulence to now abandon the people to their wretched fate. It is true that Igbo politicians represent the worst pack of capricious leeches and liars, it is true that they are notorious for pocketing obscene sums of money meant for societal development; what is however very true is that the politicians from the South East are men and women who see politics as a means to an end-the end being a break away from want and hunger.
Although it would be wrong and insensitive of me to address all the big-politicians of Igbo extraction as belonging to this class of selfish clowns, the disturbing fact remains that collectively, they are not getting it right and are unrepentantly assaulting our sensibilities daily.
Our roads are completely treacherous and lives are lost daily on them while both motor vehicles and the human minds are shattered. There is no denying the fact that the Federal Government of Nigeria remains sinfully aloof to the plight of the Igbo nation; what with the lies and outright pettiness that is employed in handling every calamity that befalls Ndi Igbo? Yet our top politicians continually decieve us into remaining in a country where we are clearly marginalised.
The collapse of the South East of Nigeria is complete; the glaring lack of any form of infrastructural development makes the place a horrible place to live in. The average Igbo folk is comfortable with a thick sense of apathy and total disregard to anything that reeks of government; this is borne out of the fact that Nigeria as a nation continues to close its nose at the stench wafting from the sore wounds of Ndi Igbo. This could well explain the Igbo man’s shallow pride at being egalitarian and republican in nature; I have everything against this mind-frame because it nurtures a situation where we fail to hold our governments accountable.
By surrendering our rights to our government, we have accepted to expect that government will cater for our needs and provide an enabling environment to help us achieve our dreams. We have thus chosen representatives to help us tell this government what our needs are but alas, one continues to see a case of total betrayal, deceit and abandonment.
It is not yet late in the day for our elected representatives to rise up to the occasion and bring development to Igbo land, it will be really uplifting for any Igbo member of the National Assembly to point to one completed project financed by him/her using the millions collected in our name as “Constituency Development Funds”. I chose the word “uplifting” carefully here because, it is no secret that these men and women pocket hundreds of millions of Naira which they collect in our name without bothering to give something back to the society.
Everywhere in Igbo land, I continue to see men and women who went to Abuja as either “Distinguished Senators” or members of the House of Representatives as honest individuals only to come back physically bloated with the attendant now macho financial muscle. I continue to marvel at this rapid growth, I continue to wonder at the speed with which they build giant mansions, estates and acquire expensive motor vehicles and tastes, and I continue to cringe and tear at my head at the apparent misplacement of values and priorities. And then I ask is this what politics is all about?
A politics that celebrates lying to your own people and using them as a means to an end is pathetic and sad. Because of the obscene money accruable to elected politicians in Nigeria, it continues to be an enterprise that promotes the worst set of local champions, charlatan values and mediocre characters. For the purpose of this essay, I pray the politicians from the South East and Nigeria as a whole to see their trade as instrument to be directed towards a service to humanity.
The evil that continues to thrive in Nigeria will not be wished away by the prayers offered daily by us and our religious men and women, the hunger, the diseases, the crimes, the total lack of trust, the hopelessness that stalk our nation will not grow wings and fly away. They won’t; but I genuinely believe that much difference will be made if our politicians who so claim to fight for the people come out to do so and stop pursuing their own personal and self serving agendas. God will not come down from the sky to better our lot. We must do it ourselves.
We must learn how to ignore politicians who seek to deceive us, and concentrate on the main objective of our forum, which is to achieve igbo unity as a means to achieving the end of becoming a formidable negotiating bloc to serve our interests.
We must shun attempts to align us with existing unprofitable political associations that have time and time again evidently not favoured our cause.
The game plan should be simply to insist on restructuring the federation to reflect equity fairness and justice which should entail allowing Ndigbo a shot at the presidency and not the vice presidency or we go our separate ways peacefully.
I am Chimazuru “Oblong” Nnadi-Oforgu
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
Leave a comment