WHILE WE ARE BUSY WRITING OPEN LETTERS TO OURSELVES.

Austin Okeke Writes.

24 August 2019

Greetings from South Africa and I hope this message finds you well and happy too.

Our people are being killed and raped daily under our watch, our land is besieged and yet it appears that we are under a spell not to offer any form of resistance.

All we do is to write open letters?

Igboland has police, army, customs and all manner of people in uniforms mount checkpoints a kilometer apart from each, these rogues in official uniforms extort money from poor souls in full view of the Nigerian government, and all they get is a nod of approval from the President of Nigeria.

And all we do is to write open letters?

The many young people that have given their lives in defense of our land were bastardized by their own people, then in collaboration with the national government and the so called igbo political leaders, they were declared terrorists, and are treated as such till date.

Whilst miyetti allah is daily holding press conferences, spitting fire and brimstone and threatening to rain hell on the real natives of Nigeria should they stop them from inflicting mayhem on communities and the people of Nigeria.

Some of those that were arrested during the second infamous python dance in Igboland are still in detention, they all have been stripped of humanity and their dignity. Some have also died and buried in unmarked mass graves, no lasting dignity was accorded their remains before burial and no closure afforded their respective bereaved families.

The ones still in detention are not regarded as human beings by our so called political leaders, this is the reason they have been abandoned and left to rot in detention camps.

Yet we continue to write open letters?

Except the few of them, am yet to see these politicians rise in condemnation of the ongoing atrocities in Igboland like they did when Senator Ike Ekweremadu was reminded in Germany that he and others of his like, occupy a position of service and not a position of status.

Ekweremadu owes them “an account of stewardship”, because they the people have sent him on errand; he is duty bound to report back to his people.

Back to our topic, the real terror group known to the whole world, the miyetti allah now roam our land and marauding with impunity, yet the so called Igbo politicians continue to pay them monthly ransom using our money.

Let’s us go confront the State Governors in the South East region of Nigeria instead of writing open letters.

Benue State demonstrated a solution by the passage and implementation of the Anti Open Grazing law. Today, Benue that was hitherto known as the killing fields of the terrorist herdsmen, no longer experience conflict as before.

Abia State House of Assembly has passed the same Anti Open Grazing Bill in 2018, but Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has bluntly refused to assent the Bill into law.

Before we write more open letters, every Igbo State must pass the same Anti Open Grazing Bill into law forthwith; and should they claim to be the public servants that they really are, all the Governors must be the ones leading the charge.

By so doing, we would have partially solved our common problems in Alaigbo, and you will see that all these agitations would have been curtailed as a result.

Lest I forget, the road blocks from where daylight robbers in police and army uniforms extort money from poor Igbo people must be dismantled.

Chief Nnia Nwodo receny wrote open letters to Ndigbo, which was delivered to the Igbos and non-Igbos alike using social media.

Yet it was titled, “Open letter to Ndigbo”

This begs a question; what has happened to the established channel of communication in Alaigbo, or why not summon Ime-Obi and Executives of Ohaneze Ndigbo in order to disseminate same message through them to Ndigbo.

I wonder whether these Ohaneze Ndigbo structures still exist, because we hardly hear from them these days, as only Nnia Nwodo seems to be the one talking.

Where is the Secretary and the Publicity Secretary of Ohaneze Ndigbo. Is it now a one man show?

Our traditional leaders have been sidelined and rendered redundant, while the Town Union government functionaries have all been reduced to non-entities by these so called political leaders.

Some traditional leaders have elected to be corrupted by the paltry bribe they are paid to remain silent. See no evil, hear no evil, and tell no evil.

An open letter to these corrupt traditional leaders is indeed appropriate and shall gladly be appreciated.

The chicken has finally come home to roost, our people are very angry and are hell bent on venting it on all our so called political leaders.

An open letter to admonish the so called political leaders who have long deviced a mechanism to bribe and compromise voices of reason in Igboland is apt.

In addition to lucrative contracts and political appointments, they now have numerous Special Advisers and Legislative Advisers scattered in and around our communities who serve as their eyes and ears. These people are deployed as either spies or anarchists in our communities, in exchange for peanuts that they are paid irregularly. What a shame.

They simply sit and roam around in the villages causing trouble. Why not go to Abuja and the Cities to advise your principals and bosses.

Again, why not utilize the money wasted on the select few, to establish community based development projects in your constituencies, so to create jobs and employment opportunities for your people?

It is not a sin to empower the same people whose wealth you loot and squander on a daily basis.

Your qualification to be appointed a Special or Legislative Adviser is simply to be frank, honest and truthful about matters that concern our general wellbeing, thus also being forthright about your criticism of the malfeasance in their offices; once their spies spot and identify you as having fulfilled the above criteria, you would be appointed a Special or Legislative Adviser in few days.

They diabolically buying over your conscience and then shut you up in perpetuity.

Please let us watch out for these Special and Legislative Advisers in our communities, they are no good.

Nowadays, these politicians have recruited good literature writers and brown envelope journalists to do the dirty jobs on their behalf.

These people are now paid to be, their attack dogs on the social media platforms, to help them in writing speeches, to launder their images and to do damage control.

Please watch out for them in your WhatsApp groups; by their fruits you shall know them.

What a loss of talent to humanity.

Now the open letter to Ndigbo written by Chief Nnia Nwodo, the serving President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo has attracted responses, replies and rejoinders never before imagined, and that which he didn’t envisage when writing the open letter.

He that fetches ants infested firewoods should be ready to handle the numerous visitations of the lizards.

My people, our homes are on fire, why busy ourselves chasing rodents? Stop writing open letters biko.

Guys, we have work to do at home; let’s get at it, so that someday we shall have something to write home about in our open letters.

I thank you.