“SOUTHEAST IS QUIET: UNCHARACTERISTICALLY QUIET: I HONESTLY DON’T KNOW WHY” SAYS PROF. YUSUF

By Nkem Ossai

“The Pharisees paid a great deal of attention to outward ordinances and actions that would make them appear righteous, but they were not as concerned with actually being righteous in their hearts. For this, Jesus referred to them as hypocrites.”

Can you hear the hypocrite? He doesn’t know why the East is quiet. How can a well educated man like Prof. Yusuf be so unthinking and pretentious. They looked away while the greatest electoral and judicial fraud in the history of Nigeria was perpetrated to make sure Igbo man never becomes the president of Nigeria. They enjoyed the macabre dance while it lasted. Most probably they expected President Tinubu to tow Buhari’s line of endless clannishness. Who is ready for this crab? Men who speak only when they fall out of favour with the power that be?

As they say, life is one big road with lots of signs. Tinubu has just displayed the first signboard. More are coming. This early restlessness of the North is a big surprise indeed. For eight years they tumbled the entire space like Colossus. Need I remind them that the restless grasshopper usually ends in the stomach of a hungry bird?

When Bubu was mindlessly planting his people everywhere, abandoning the much bandied around ‘Federal Character Policy” did any Fulani person offer a word of caution? Tinubu will be there for eight years and no one needs to be told that Igbos are going to give him their maximum support.

As the philosopher says, “Iet no man belittle my soul by making me hate him.”

Nevertheless, we cannot deny that there is deep rooted hatred against the Igbos by the other two larger tribes in Nigeria. They have flown the kite of tribe as a means to a political end since independence. Igbo properties are destroyed without blinking an eyelid in a country they invested more than 60 percent of their had-earned money in building.

The other day I heard one Fulani man shouting on top of his voice that he is Fulani man and thinks about Fulani before Nigeria. We have known this a long time ago. Fulani people are incurable tribalists. Chinua Achebe defines tribalism as “discrimination against a citizen because of his/her place of birth.”

I sincerely believe in the saying that how people treat you is their karma and how you react is yours. Vera Nazarian puts it this way: “A boomerang returns back to the person that throws it.”

Ndigbo must begin to forget Nigeria by instalment. As a matter of fact, they must invest their energy in Igbo land because these other Nigerians are never ever going to accept them. They have taken advantage of the Igbo eternal belief in “live and let live” existential nature which defines everything they do. This has placed the Igbos in a danger of being trampled upon and has become their albatross over the years. But again, this is why they succeed,

Who are the South East Nigeria? “The South East is the one of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria representing both a geographic and political region of the country’s inland southeast. It comprises five states – Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo”. ..Wikipedia. It is also the zone abandoned by Nigerian nation since the end of the civil war in 1970 by fiat and by social arrangements.

Why does South East have only five states while others have six and seven respectively? I leave the answer to the other Nigerians.

Protest against Tinubu government, why? Any Igbo person joining any protest against Tinubu Government must be examined for a case of psychiatry. Tinubu is doing very well and should be given time to complete his eight years mandatory tenure.

It is high time Igbos learned a lesson about the mind of other Nigerians about them. It is time we understood the age old conspiracy against the Igbos. Like the Jews, we turned something good, but they hated us. Let us draw our ears had and try to understand these ever crusading tribes around and about us.

“Chọọ ewu ojii ka chi ka di. Meaning, make hay while the sun shines.”

“Ihe ehi hụrụ gbaa ọsọ ka okuku hụrụ na-atụ ọnụ. Meaning, fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

Igbos, from now on, learn to mind your business. You are not good enough to be in Aso Rock so, it will not be your business what Tinubu does in Aso Villa. We have jumped into another people’s grave enough. A word should be enough for the wise.