The security situation in southeast Nigeria today should has become a serious source of concern to every stakeholder, resident and independent observers
The deteriorating state of affairs within the region with it’s attendant multidimensional crippling effect on security, economy, academics and general cohesiveness is indicative of leadership failure.
The demerits of the faux pas strategy and self destructive ideas adopted and enforced by some elements as response to the unlawful kidnap and continued illegal detention of Nnamdi Kanu is now loud enough to the ears of the deaf and clear enough to the eyes of the blind.
Within a space of two to three years, Igbos has turned against themselves. Our economy has been set on a freefall down the bearish slopes of the Nigerian money market. Our customers has rechannelled their resources elsewhere where the security of their lives and properties are not threatened.
The southeast region has become a hub of criminality, Our mothers are now terrorized in the hinterlands not by the Fulani herdsmen but by young men who have Igbo blood flowing in their veins.
Igbo businesses based in the southeast are gradually collapsing and our people are being forced to relocate thier families and businesses away from Igbo land while many now host weddings and burials in foreign lands.
Igbo people are now being kidnapped, dehumanized and executed in the most gruesome manner. Some were shot execution style and others beheaded not by Jubril of Sudan or the “Janjaweeds” but by their own kit and kin.
The Igbo spirit which is synanymous with commercial resourcefulness, hard work and desterity is currently treading the path of laziness as full grown men and women now sit at home on Monday’s drinking, watching TV and idling around.
While the rest of the world is at work promoting productivity, Monday’s in Igbo land has become synanymous with fully booked hotel rooms and chalets while neighborhood beer parlours recieve most patronage. To counteract this, Most churches in Igbo land now fix prayer meetings and fund raising on Mondays.
Sight of Igbo children and young adults playing football on streets every Monday is now common place because these section of our society who are supposed to be leaders of tommorow are now limited to four academic days while their collegues in the South South and Southwest have five uninterrupted days of learning weekly.
As if this tragedy of Monday’s is not enough, our people are also sometimes forced to spend an entire week sitting at home doing nothing, earning nothing and achieving nothing.
The reality is that the Igbo Nation has failed its self and the executive leadership at all level in Igbo land has failed the people and must accept responsibility while shouldering the blame of complicity and outright negligence.*
The reality is that there is more to this tragedy than meets the eye. There are very strong powerful interests at work against Igboland and these interests are driven by very powerful persons from within and outside igboland. Simon Ekpa is a just a front.
Till date, No one has a tangible reason explaining why the Nigerian government failed to collerborate with the government of Finland or the Interpol on modalities to stop Simon Ekpa or repartrate him after his arrest by the Finnish police.
Healing and recovering from this self inflicted damage will only start when we all jettison the conspiracy of silence and begin to tell ourselves the truth.
Some powerful interests somewhere wants igboland to collapse and it is unfortunate that we have allowed ourselves become pawns in this chess game of doom.
The leadership of Igbo Nation must rise up and tell themselves the truth.
General Sani Abacha said in one of his quotes that if terror last longer than 24 hours without adequate counter response then it is highly likely that the government has a hand in it.
Our healing will only start by the admission of complicity by the leadership of the Igbo nation in this madness aided by a collosal and collective failure to think and act accordingly.
Our Governors come out to publicly to ban sit at home yet the markets leadership’s who are mostly appointed by the same governors make sure that major markets are locked up every Monday.
Our Governors urge people to go about their businesses on Mondays yet fail to provide security in strategic places to assure people of their safety.
Our bishops and church leaders preach against Monday sit at home and the criminals enforcing it yet the same churches fix programs and activities on the same Monday.
Without sincerity, a defined purpose, clarity of vision, strategic policy formulation, refined articulation of ideas and commitment to proactive implementation, leadership becomes a problem instead of solution.
General Ibrahim Babangida once said that as a leader, “History will forgive you for making the wrong decision and doing the wrong thing but will never forgive you for doing nothing at all”
The failure of the leadership in Igboland to address properly the marginalization of the Igbo Nation created the vacuum which Nnamdi Kanu occupied.
The failure of the leadership of the Igbo Nation to react accordingly to the kidnapping and unlawful incaceration of Nnamdi Kanu also led to the rise of Simon Ekpa.
Till date, The same leadership failure in Igbo land has gradually encouraged the exercerbation of the madness that has gradually become our reality today.
Like rainfall in a drought, It is reassuring to know that despite the dearth in genuine leadership plaguing Igboland, A fearless and consciencious leader like Ifeanyi Ubah who have the balls, clout, passion, compassion and metal to unite the Igbo Nation still exist in Igboland today.
I am grateful that Ifeanyi Ubah has consistently shown by word and demonstrated through action that he is not a cowardly leader who is capable of sitting back arms akimbo while our region burn.
His impetus has shown that he is not party to this unfolding senseless elite conspiracy to retrogress and drag igboland back to the post civil war era.
Ifeanyi Ubah has made it clear that through him, the Igbo Nation will unrelentingly continue it’s dialogue based drive to facilitate and secure the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu strategically at the highest level without having to resort to terrorizing the poor and destroying the same region which the imprisoned leader of IPOB fought so hard to protect.
Despite his limited constitutional lacuna, Ifeanyi Ubah has absolved himself and his constituents from this sad conspiracy by the powers that be in Igbo land and history will be fair on him while posterity judges him kindly.
He has risen to the occasion to demonstrate that the days of mediocre leadership driven by executive laziness, political correctness and inconsequential rhetorics is over.
A new Igbo leadership driven by purpose as demonstrated by Ifeanyi Ubah will always prioritize people-centrism and implementative decisiveness against this monster that we have unwittingly made, nurtured and institutionalized.
This is not time to sit in the fence, Ifeanyi Ubah’s courageous and audacious drive to confront the sit at home madness head on should serve as a light house for all lost and rudderless leadership entities, opinion makers and captains of industries who are genuinely interested in saving the Igbo Nation from doom.
His impetus should be a motivating yardstick for the hoards of complacent executives in our government houses around Igbo land feeding fat on public resources behind the safety of their bullet proof cars and retinue of armed body guards while abandoning the masses to their gruesome fate in the hands of the rampaging criminals masquerading as sit at home enforcers and freedom fighters.
With the trajectory of Ifeanyi Ubah’s stewardship, It is obviously no longer business as usual. The distinction between politics and leadership has become clearer and the GULF between an ordinary POLITICIAN and a true LEADER is getting deeper.
Leadership is being redefined before our eyes and in real time. The executive status quo defined by rhetorics without action and complacency is no longer enough and such style of politicking has clearly antiquated.
Sitting in the comfort while issuing series of executive orders without any visible drive towards implementation is no longer actionable or adequate especially in a time like this when the collective yearning of a people has been mortgaged and reduced to criminality, brigandage and insecurity which poses an immediate threat to lives and properties of innocent people.
This is time for our leaders to lead from the front. To match words with action and to pair executive orders with implementation.
I therefore call on all Igbo leaders at all cadre, level and strata from the executives to the legislatives, down to the community leadership, the churches, cooperate bodies, market leadership’s and all those who are genuinely committed to restoring sanity to igboland to understudy, adopt and implement the Ifeanyi Ubah model.
We all know what happened to the fabled “Uzo Owerri” when the warriors failed to confront it frontally and decisively.
The monster has risen it’s head and will not back down unless it is confronted and taken down collectively.
This Ifeanyi Ubah model has delivered politically without compromising on the paramount need of the people which is the provision of sterling leadership.
What more can we ask for?
It is not too late to start the recovery process.
