MUST READ: Another Outrage Against Igbo Leadership 

Who is Reuben Abati please? Of What relevance or important is he to the people of the South East & in what capacity did he assess our leaders to pick who he considers to be his “greatest”? The man is a consummate ignoramus who should have no place in a decent environment or whatever he says matter to people with honour. I do not know him & cannot join issues with him, but l am angry at our people who even listened or read what he wrote & are spreading it.

It’s so unfortunate that a few exposed & supposedly enlightened, but naive lgbos, in their lack of wisdom, ignorance, highest display of insensitivity to the plight of our people & completely out of tune with reality, will listen to & spread the stupid rantings of an Abati. A man that has no stake in our region or known by anyone, to listen & hail such outrageous concoction of unjustified & unfounded lies from a seemingly distressed & frustrated attention seeker.

Quite contrary to what some ignorant lgbos still think & outsiders are made to believe sometimes, igbos have very credible & effective leaders we know, cherish & respect today.

In both the socio cultural & political palances, we have leaders who stand their ground in the scheme of things in this country & among their peers. No gathering is complete without them, at both levels.

We have leaders who think before they act, very careful with their utterances in the public space & in their relationship with their counterparts from other regions, in both asserting themselves & protecting the rights of their people while exercising great care not to put the lives of their people, ndi lgbo, outside the shores of Southeast region in any danger.

How can you know these facts if you have no interest in the affairs of your own people?

While Chief John Nnia Nwodo, lke Ukehe, as Ohaneze President, leads us on the socio cultural front, His Excellency, Engr Dave Nweze Umahi, Akubaroha, the Governor of Ebonyi state, in his capacity as the chairman of the South East Governors Forum, SEGF, is the authentic political leader of the lgbos.

They are both functioning very effectively in their respective capacities & we have neither found them wanting nor lacking in every sense or meaning. The cordiality, mutual respect, confidence, maturity & co-operation between the two leaders, have been supper, adorable, encouraging, exemplary & unprecedented in our history.

In fact, since Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe & Dr M. I. Okpara in the ’60s, there’s not been a time we, ndi lgbo, had leaders we believed & trusted so much than at the present time. Though cynics & pathological critics may disagree with these facts, but sincerely, they are inconsequential in such matters.

Going back in history, the culture of disrespect to leadership or constituted authority, by some so called “money bags” & self acclaimed “elder statesmen” of lgbo extraction today, is as old as time itself. It has always been there & really hurt the race so much in the past. This attitude was, in fact, what robbed ndi lgbo of the political leadership of this country when the colonial masters were about leaving Nigeria, after independence. Despite lgbo population & so many educated leaders around them then, the white men found the docile, backward, less educated & timid north to be more respectful to their leaders, stronger in working together as a people, less antagonistic or quarrelsome among themselves & felt they could be trusted with political leadership. They taught the north that political power was everything & even helped them to tilt the population in their favour etc, the rest is history.

That we did not learn from there & still struggle to overcome it today, says it all about our people & leadership. “Igbo enwe Eze” is indeed, a stigma.

It is a fact that Igbos will prefer to be known, to invest & take titles in Abuja, Lagos, the west & northern Nigeria than they will in their native south east. We fly in the best private jets, drive the best cars money can buy & live in palatial mansions, across the country, including the volatile areas, but with no industry to employ our teeming youths, mostly university graduates, back home. Majority of those who donated to the federal government to fight covid 19, were lgbos who could not do so to their various state governments. The hundreds of billions so donated, was used for palliatives in the north while lgbo leaders battled to contain the virus down east to save lives. That’s ndi lgbo for you.

When an lgbo elder, over 70 years of age, with so much money, could publicly say that lgbos are not qualified to be President of Nigeria, what more can we expect from an alien called Reuben Abatii? He is neither the first nor will he be the last to insult us to our face while we helplessly watched. Afterall someone, a serving minister, had once scolded us, on lgbo soil, & requested us to apologize for voting the way we did in a past election. He implied or according to him, we even did not have the right to exercise our democratic right of choice in an election. Amazing indeed.

The recent attacks by notable lgbos & unprintable words used to describe the person of Prince Arthur Eze, at his age & level in the society, by some lgbo patriots who felt outraged at what he uttered in the public space about lgbos & Presidency, was very unfortunate. He, Arthur, should hold himself entirely responsible for bringing such to himself. Maybe that experience will serve to warn other lgbos, in his class, that times have changed, the peoples’ eyes are red & they may no longer be able to get away with denigrating the lgbo race because they are “rich” & for very selfish reasons.

It’s shocking that the same Arthur Eze, who some years back, during a public reception for President Buhari at Awka, Anambra state, told the listening crowd that he was sure only Buhari could give power to the lgbos & even mentioned the current Ebonyi state Gov, turning around to say we have no one, speaks volume of both the quality of elders we have in the south east & why other regions, believe we could be used in their dirty games.

If Arthur Eze thinks we are not qualified to be President, he has equally failed as an lgbo man who spent so much money & his adult life training his children to just serve or play second fiddle. Please l am very mindful not to join issues here or escalate the matter, especially after the SEGF had waded into it, calling on both parties to hold fire for peace to reign & asked Ohaneze to reconcile them. But at the same time & as an lgbo man, l have the right to be angry as well.

Notably, there’s no place in Nigeria, outside lgboland, that a Reuben Abati, in whatever circumstance, could say that he finds Nnamdi kanu of IPOB, the “greatest & more influential leader from SEast”, (in his own words), with people not believing that he is insane or him getting away with it.
That was sacrilegious, a most outrageous insult to our race & a very stupid act by any assessment or standard that can never be.

Who is actually a leader & who they lead, are questions for Abati & those paying attention or even further-in or hailing him for his stupidity.

Igbos are just fine & good with the leadership they have at this time. We must be united in condemning Abati, warming him stay away from lgbo affair & face the problem that’s Nigeria.

Yes, lgbos have more than enough materials, in all fields of human endevour, who had distinguished or proven themselves, more than ever & can make, probably, the best President Nigeria ever had. This is especially when we look back at the people who had occupied that office in this country.

We just need to be careful, as a people, not to let some distressed & frustrated attention seeker like Reuben Abati, prey on our…..?????

My take.
Dave Agwalla.

Note: This is the view and opinion of the writer, it does not represent the view or opinion of AFNEWS.