Wednesday, 8 July 2015

BOKO HARAM PRISONERS, SALT IN OUR INJURIES by Hon. Chinedu Nkwonta

 
Nigeria and the entire world know that the highest victims of the insurgency in the Northern part of this country has been the South East, Ndigbo. There is no State in Igbo land that has not gotten reasonable shares of the consequences of the bombings and killings perpetrated by this callous and deadly sect.

It clearly amounts to insensitivity from the part of the decision makers on security matters in this country to lumber us with the same people that have killed most of us, maimed some of us, displaced some of us, made some of us refugees in our country, chased so many of us away from the locations we have lived and invested our efforts and sweat over the years. These internally displaced brothers and sisters of ours, instead of getting compensated by the Government, instead of being rehabilitated emotionally, psychologically and financially for irreparable and irreplaceable losses that they have suffered, are now being pursued into the villages by dumping the same people that have been dealing with us ruthlessly at our door steps.



Nigeria needs to understand that this insult is the peak of insensitivity, abuse and ridiculing of a people that have not committed any offense except being decent and hard working than most. This abuse amounts to pushing the people of the South East to the wall and saying blatantly without any atom of consideration that the Igbo man shall do nothing, after all, who is or who are their leaders, who will speak for them, what will they do?

It will be a mistake and distraction for anyone to suggest in any way or manner that this heinous insensitive act was approved by any son or daughter of Igbo land. This of course is not to defend anyone but a position to state categorically that even in our internal political sand throwing, every Igbo man knows that such a matter is not a joke for any of us, reason is that we all have felt the pains at one time or the other. There is no governor in the South East that has not attended one burial or the other of Boko Haram victims.

It will be clearly unfair and irresponsible for anyone to suggest that anyone of us can directly or indirectly support the relocation of such deadly prisoners to any part of the South East even if we have the most secure prisons in the country.

The Igbo nation must be careful to read in between the lines and know when the seed of division is being sown among us, a seed that purely removes any bit of cover of our collective nakedness still left.

It will be wicked of any Igbo person to blame the present government of Chief Dr. Willie Obiano for this terrible slip.

In the quest to get redress as quickly as possible, we must be reminded that it is a collective battle that must be carefully, intelligently and persistently fought. All hands of all well placed Igbo persons and well meaning Nigerians must come on deck. I added all well meaning Nigerians with great sense of responsibility recognising that if all well meaning Nigerians from all parts of this nation do not put pressure on the senses of the insensitive security decision makers as it concerns this matter, it may be their turn for one issue or the other tomorrow.

These prisoners may be in a prison in Anambra State, it is not the exclusive responsibility of the government of Anambra and our governor to fight this, the challenge is directly on the shoulders of the entire South East governments., it is on the shoulders of all well meaning Nigerians.

It is important to state that for the oneness of this great nation to be sustained on a long haul, it is very important that the sensitivities of all regions in this nation are dully considered in all decisions that governments make be it in the Federal, State or the Local Governments.

The truth of the matter is that the government of Anambra State jumped into action immediately she got the hint of the plan. The markets in Anambra State that were shut down in peaceful protest was not organised by ghosts.

Governor Willie Obiano immediately moved into actions, while making the right political noises by contacting and talking to the right quarters concerned, he mobilised our people in peaceful demonstration to tell the decision makers that it will be too much for us to bear if this decision is allowed to stand. Nigeria, being a truly inconsiderate nation, went ahead to execute the plan.
Anambra people are hurting and complaining, yet we are still peaceful, it is simply due to the trust the citizens have built on our Chief Security Officer in the State, Governor Willie Obiano, a man that has always dealt with us with truth and respect.

Without a governor with the temperament and coordination that we have in Governor Obiano, the South East would have been on fire today, the secret agenda of the perpetrators of this iniquity on Ndigbo would have been accomplished.

The effects of Boko Haram is very real to Ndigbo, it is not a political matter.

Our dear Governor is doing his best to reverse the decision, we believe that he will conquer. Governor Obiano knows the effect of such act in a State that he is passionately modelling and packaging, a State he has wisely graphed with clear visions of attaining certain levels and standards at given times, it will amount to destroying his personal dreams.

In this his effort, Ndigbo must be told the blunt truth, the people at the centre must be collectively pressured to reverse this decision. We must bear in mind that the wickedness being perpetrated so far is by design therefore there must be some unreasonable resistance from the imposers. We must collectively under the circumstance keep pressuring within peaceful and reasonable means till we get result.

We must equally be told that a slip like this does not diminish the laudable successes and sincere governance that has been continually dished out by our dear governor.

At this time, our support to him need to be reaffirmed as to encourage him to fight better.
Akpokuodike is not a coward, God is with him, he will always do his best for Ndi Anambra, more importantly, he will always tell us the truth, like he has done in this case.

Ndi Anambra, thank you for your understanding, endurance and patience, we must keep trusting God and believing in our Governor.

This is my personal opinion.

I salute you all.

   


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