Politics
Extract
Health Care
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About The Book Many people within and without Nigeria who believe that Nigeria has got all it takes to emerge an enviable nation but are disappointed that the nation is one of the hottest bed for systemic corruption can now know how we got to this point and how we may get out- THE NIGERIA QUESTION
THE NIGERIA QUESTION The Inevitable Clash with the Cabals
Fore Word
“The world is governed by different Personages from what is imagined By those who are not behind the scenes.’’(2) Benjamin Disraeli
The above was coming from Benjamin Disraeli, one of the most powerful men on earth if not the most powerful man on earth in his own time who was the esteemed imperial Prime Minister of Great Britain at the peak of Britain’s world wide colonization; with, British colonies, reaching across the seven seas. Most probably the people behind the scene he was referring to as the actual people governing the vast British empire include people like Cecil Rhodes and other hard headed British colonialists who were making a lot of money for themselves and at the same time coveting territories for the British empire, These kinds of men would have to say how the new territories were to be governed and these people behind the scenes would include powerful lords and of course the Royalties.
These groups of people are the British Cabals, There is also the hush-hush Bilderberg conference which was a gathering of western money and authority men and women that really do decide what must happen monetarily in the western world to keep the west atop and guard against the ‘evils’ of communist USSR. This conference got its name from the hotel where their first meeting took place in 1954; Bilderberge Hotel at Oosterberk, Holland. It is widely believed by those who knew, that this conference probably brought the colossal giant, USSR, to its knees and gave capitalism almost a world wide umbrella. (2) This is yet another large group of people behind the scenes, comprising of money bags from the United States of America, its continental allies and all European allies. However, you can see that the role this conference has played and may continue to play is to say the least highly beneficial to the West and of course individuals in the conference makes a lot of money for them selves. It is the Western Cabal. So some one might say what the heck, why not a Nigeria Cabal? Here is the why not. The cabals earlier mentioned, apart from the fact they make a lot of money for themselves they, most importantly, keep the overall interests of their country or countries supreme. Let’s have a look at what the cabal that emerged in Nigeria has done and you will be the sole judge where to place them as saints or devious criminals. - Nigerians (the Cabal) starched away $300 billion in several banks across the globe (source one of the leading world magazines) yet the nation was reeling under a loan of $32 billion form IMF and World Bank and others! - When the population of Nigeria was only 55million there were about four refineries. Eventually when the population almost tripled common sense dictate that at least we should be having a minimum of twelve refineries in other to meet the challenge of increasing demand of fuel occasioned by enlarged population to ensure energy security for the nation but what did the cabal do. Not even one new refinery was built and even the existing refineries were rather turned into a pipe hose to siphon the wealth of the nation in the name of turn around maintenances TAM where $2 billion has been ‘spent’ and yet non of the four refineries is even working at up to 30% installed capacity! And for a larger number of times each year are even shot down. This gave the cabal the room to perpetually continue to import refined petroleum and sell at cut throat price to the extent that nearly 85% of the refined crude the nation needs are imported. This means that in case of major international crises that may include effective brocade of sea trade routes the nation would have grinded to a halt before the first salvos flash across the skies! This is all time treason against the father land! You can guess where the refined products come from, of course it is alleged that misappropriated nation’s resources were used to set up refineries in offshore countries. In fact the reason why the cabal is not in any hurry to build new refineries in Nigeria is just for one obvious reason, that the clandestine refineries the cabals set up abroad get perpetual patronage. South Africa has little or no oil and they know that if they were to base the supply of all the energy need of South Africa on imported refined crude they would practically grind their economy to an abrupt stop that is why they are the highest crude refining capacity in Africa because it is far more cheaper to refine than importing refined product. Alas here we are we have crude it would have saved the nation billions of dollars every year refining than importing refined crude but that is not what the cabal is interested in! - With a population of about 55million, Nigeria achieved about 2000 megawatt of electricity. The population eventually tripled instead of power output to have been increased accordingly to meet the nation’s energy security, it even went below the 2000 mega watt to as low as 1500 mega watt at some point! Yet the house committee probe on power alleged that the DO-or-die man alone ‘spent’ $16billion on power! Yet according to reputable world experts on power you only require just $1 billion to generate 1000 mega watt of power and you may even still have some change! So the $16 billion the do-or-die man ‘spent’ should have given us 16,000 mega watts if all the money was spent on generation! But alas the cabals can’t even use that whopping amount to maintain even the 2000 mega watt! The implication of this is that nearly 80% of all the industries had closed down and several hundreds of thousands of workers out of job. At homes if you are lucky that you are getting up to an average of 3 hours per day of electricity you should be singing praises. Many places in Nigeria remain without electricity for some times six weeks at a stretch! This ensures that even those who must operate here at all for any kind of business must buy generator and this means continuous demand for imported diesel and other products which the cabal is also in firm control! It is a complete vice grip on the system. - Somebody joked just recently somewhere, that if James Robertson the last British Governor general were to sight the Nigeria Rail Way as it is now, he would go into spasmodic vomiting and coughing! Yet close to $10 billion has been spent on Nigeria rail way within the last 20 years and what of the workers nearly 80% of the workers had been laid off! - All the huge pipes supplied in form of grants from EU, AU, USA , China, World Bank and who else that Care for descent living are all buried and buried they remain! If not for lack of adequate breathing space, criminals would have long turned those pipes into a formidable hiding place that would be undisturbed for years. Some one joked some time, ‘Pipes every where, when will water run through it?’ Yet, hear what the figure the cabals claimed they have ‘spent’ on water in the last 15 years; close to $8 billion! No single city in Nigeria has a comprehensive water system that no matter where you live when ever you turn the tab there the water goes. Rather in an all important city of Lagos nearly 80% of water is from bore holes and wells. - You won’t be surprised to hear that$2 billion was spent in repairing 400 Km of road and the first rain would break it into many parts that a journey through the road would take you nearly a days to complete that is if you are lucky or most likely you may sleep on the road and continue the next day! I do not want to spend time on the position of health care, environment, agriculture, and particularly education. All these mean that the whole country is in an advanced state of decay because of the activities of the Nigerian cabal contrary to what other cabals in other areas are doing for their own country.
Here the cabal is simply striping the nation.
‘The greater the number of Statutes, the greater the number of Thieves and brigands’ (30) Lau- Tzu
What is really the difference between, a racist white minority government in pre-independent South Africa that made ‘laws’ to ensure the complete and continued economic and political advantages to the minority whites or the white British colonialist in pre independent Zimbabwe that made similar ‘laws’ though quite unlike the racist South Africa but nevertheless have the same purpose, continued economic and political advantages for the minority colonialists; and a handful of individuals called the cabals or the godfathers in an independent African countries and elsewhere that make ‘laws’ or subvert existing laws and institutions to ensure continued and complete economic and political advantages for the minority cabals to the detriment of the entire citizens in that country? The creation of kangaroo laws by the racists and colonialists and the subversion of laws and institutions by a click of cabals in an independent state are one and the same crime against the citizens! There is no difference between the South African racist government mowing down school children in Sweto simply because the children protested the apartheid system and the cabals moving in its armed wing to erase villages in oil producing Niger Delta simply because the people are asking for immediate stoppage of 90% short payment of their resource allocation and an improvement of their environment the cabals had virtually destroyed which has spanned for a period of over forty years! What is the difference between a racist south African government thief that coveted the riches of South Africa only for the minority whites alone and the cabals in Nigeria for instance that coverts the wealth of the nation in various guises just for the favor of the infinitesimally minority cabals alone; living vital infrastructures in complete state of shambles!? Similar ailment always does get the same prescription at all times if the patient hopes to survive. An entrenched and institutionalized system of criminal, Fraudulent and treasonable exploitation of a people’s economic And political means by a cartel kind of cabal in an‘independent’ State in its best is as criminal as crime of imperialist exploitation of The people by colonialist pre-independence; and its worst even More sinister than the colonial exploitation! The colonialists only Use force of superior weaponry in order to exploit and may not Corrupt the entire system and the people. In many cases they even built an honest system! But the cabals’ exploitation is only possible only and only by corrupting the system and the people! In fact the first thing the cabals do to start its process of exploitation is corrupting the system and the people; so that its disciples may justify their crime and treachery by stating thereafter that ‘apeople deserve the kind of government they have!’ Circle of Hopelessness Each new leader that comes in to ‘manage’ the country is greeted by almost a pathetic expectation and hope for him to salvage the country by the teaming masses of ignorant and regrettably amnesiac Nigeria citizens. These expectations and hopes are often fraudulently reinforced by some deceitful and worthless tokenistic moves or announcements like ‘removal’ of a particular offensive minister or some deceitful announcement like; ‘There would be electric light to every home and factory for 24/7 within the next 180 days!’ The peoples’ fraudster may even announce he or she is in direct charge of a particular strategic sector and you can imagine hope rise to an all time high in the minds of the ignorant citizens but of course it is a pipe dream because the actual thing the so called leader would do in that strategic sector is to ensure that the cabals who spun him or her; perfect their looting strategy in that sector. Look behind the last thirty years the most looting by the cabals have taken place in those sectors deemed by them as strategic hence the cabal’s front man says he or she is in direct control! Have a look at the sectors it is petroleum, power or infrastructure! It is either a sector that produces the highest revenue or gulps the highest appropriation! In petroleum when the cabals front men finished with it virtually all the refineries are dead or dying to ensure that the cabals import all the refined crude the nation requires! What is more nearly 90% of the nation’s refined crude are Imported and since the cabals claim that the fuel is subsidized it means in some years the cabals go home with a tidy sum of N500 billion to N1 trillion subsidy amount alone! In addition a number of carefully planned prize manipulation, systematic hoarding and artificial scarcities bring in yet an ever increasing amount of ‘revenue’ to the cabals in spite of the alleged subsidy. Finally the importation of the refined crude is to say the least high treason against the father land , in the sense that in case of international crises before the first bombs move across the skies, Nigeria would have been grounded to a halt because international shipping is the first thing that ground to a halt when serious global crises looms. Yet at one point or the other the cabal’s front man has been in charge of this same sector. On power and infrastructure sectors you may recall at one point or the other the cabal’s front men said he or she was in charge of power sector or infrastructure. In power sector, when one of the cabal’s front man finished with that sector according to the one time chairman house committee on power that conducted a kind of probe on power, that several billions of Dollars were pissed into the power sector without any thing to show for it! Just like in petroleum how could the power sector be developed since there are many cabals who now specialize in importation of heavy duty generator sets and others and are making billions out of the deals. What of the cabals that are importing gas that the generators use, should the power sector be fully developed how then are they are going to continue milking the nation through the importation of gas!? Till tomorrow the power sector will not be developed. One of the front man that also at one time took over the power sector made sure that the first thing he achieved for the sector is hike in the electric tariff by over 100%! Do not make any mistake about it in the future any sector the cabal’s front man says he or she is taking over is the sector you should expect the highest amount of looting by the cabal’s! In each regime, if we should call them that. Some one said looting episodes, the ignorant and timid masses would despite their initial high hopes and expectations groan under the weight of the cabal’s lootings spree and would be ‘relived’ when the cabals replace one front man with another. Only for the masses to discover that the story remains the same, they the masses would even find out that the preceding front man is even ‘better’ than the new one! But the real discovery is not that the old front man is better but that with successive front men the cabals become more daring! Why not? When the ignorant masses do seem as if they don’t know what is happening to them and you can be rest assured this process have no end. Front men of the cabals may change a thousand times but the cabals’ plan and strategy to loot remains irrevocable in fact it is being reinforced and perfected with successive front men! This book is not in any way for the countless cowardly multitudes who regrettably say, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them!’ This book is to clarify the thought of those patriots who had wondered what is really wrong with our country or have mull over the question, what is this system? This book is for the action man or woman who would irrevocably deal with the Nigeria question and would do all that is necessary to free the beloved father land from misery, disgrace and ultimate disaster occasioned by the cabal and its support institutions. – The action Man! Finally my joy would know no bound when this book is able to stir up supreme patriotism in a capable Nigerian to carefully identify the cabals that have raked our beloved country and for him or her to irrevocably wield the big stick hard enough to disable completely the cabals and bring to irrevocable tatters the obnoxious, treasonable, fraudulent and internationally embarrassing intricate criminal system (Nigeria System), the cabals have created without bringing down the entire structure! In the other word, the action man, that would smoke out the various rats without burning down the house. Dedication Dedicated to millions of Nigerian peoples that have had to surfer grave poverty deprivation and death as a result of devious greed of the cabals and their selected front men and women. It is also dedicated to my late parents, Mazi Raphael Iheatu Igwegbe and Mrs. Lillian Oriaku Igwegbe (Nee Chukwu) for managing, in spite of all odds to give me a university education. Finally dedicated to the action man or woman where ever you are and when ever it will be that would seize the bull by the horn and save our beloved father land. Content
Page 1
Foreword i 2
Dedications
Chapter 1 Emergence of the cabal and consolidation
Chapter 2 Systematic looting of Nations Wealth Systematic siphon through administrative structures Looting through supposed provision of electric power Looting through apparent provision of roads and rails Looting from apparent provision of water Looting through the so called constituency projects. Looting made possible by frequent foreign loans. Looting through health care Mischievous Monetary policy. Looting through the cabals’ private sector activities. Looting as regard crude oil and component.
Chapter 3 Comprehensive high-jack of the political system
Chapter 4 Destruction of all effective Resistance institutions De-intellectualization of the nation and demobilization of the student unions as an instrument of mass mobilization by the cabals. Fragmentation of the Nigeria Labor congress. Demobilization of, the civil societies and super vocal individuals.
Chapter 5 Futility of all other political agitations, as a solution to the Nigeria question. Agitation by the South- East for a sovereign state of Biafra. Agitation by the South-South for complete resource control. Agitation for true federalism. Probes and confiscations.
Chapter 6 Current General, internal and external pressure on the cabal and the response of the cabals. Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) Pressure For electoral reforms, Uwais’ Committee report. Harriboton, Seimen and other high profile international scandal probes; by foreign countries. G20 meeting ‘snub’
Chapter7 The options available to the man of the people as regard to answer to the Nigeria question and the dangers of each option. Option of probing all looting, prosecute all suspects and jail on conviction Option of violent and bloody peoples’ revolution akin to the French revolution Option of a military revolution akin to Jerry Lawlings revolution in Ghana. The cabals putting a stop to their hold on political power and resources of the nation voluntarily! The option thought up by the man of the people by him or her self.
Chapter 8 Steps to be taken by the man of the people; to lay a new foundation for our beloved father land, after successful confrontation of the Nigeria cabals. Urgent and total reforms and serious reinvestment in agriculture. Urgent provision of adequate, electric power for the country. Educational Emergency. Provision, of sound roads, rail networks and inland water transport for the father land. Development of tourism potentials of each state. Foreign Policy. Political reforms: A National conference B water tight census C credible voters’ register and automatic updating D Electoral reforms
Buy Nigeria Question, The Inevitable Clash with the Cabals
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Book 1
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Book 2
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Book 3
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Book 4
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Book 5
FORE WORD
‘The People who gets on in the world
Are the people who get up and
look for
the circumstances they want, and
if they
Can’t find them, make them.’
George Bernard Shaw
Our march to civilization as a
people was rudely interrupted by the British colonialist with diverse
consequences. Why trying to build new structures after kicking out the British
colonialists, the Igbo nation was hit by an infamous civil war against our
major intra-national competitors and once again we were back to a more serious
intra-national imperialism; that employed among other tools of coercions a
de-intellectualization of the Igbo intelligencers in order to cut the Igbo man
to size; with the aim of ensuring a perpetual subjugation.
Though the de-intellectualization
of the Igbos worked considerably but over all the Igbo man despite overwhelming
odds marched on. What is more is to trample under foot the vestiges of
intra-national imperialism from our major competitors and march on to stardom.
That is our destiny!
DEDICATIONS
Dedicated to the Almighty GOD for
his very special favor of the Jewish people and by implication the Igbo
people because all available evidence
pitch us with the Jewish people and we claim irrevocably Jewish ancestry!
The book is also dedicated to my
parents: Late Mazi Raphael Iheatu Igwegbe and Late Mrs. Lillian Oriaku Igwegbe
(Nee Chukwu). Your memories remain eternally with me.
The book is dedicated also to: My
grand parents
His Majesty, Late Eze Igwegbe
Odum (Omenukoaku) - Regent
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Administrator
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Judge
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And business man
And his beloved wife, Late Chief
Mrs. Mgborie Igwegbe (Nee Abazu)
Finally the book is dedicated to
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All Igbos who died in the pogrom
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All Igbos who died in the civil war
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All Igbos who had died since 1980 to date on countless
senseless and irresponsible ethnic and religious attacks in the North of
Nigeria and other places.
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And finally to a wonderful friend, that mean so much to
me, Capt. and Engr. Mrs. Obioha Nwana.
Our promise to you all is that we
must, at the very least achieve a place of pride in the Nigeria State
no matter what it takes!
Content
Page
Fore Word i
Dedications
ii
Chapter 1
Pre-colonial Igbo man
Brief on the origin of the Igbo
man
Igbo people, government and
justice system
Social security
Trade and commerce
Science and technology
War and conquests
Health care
Sports and recreation (egwuonwa)
Religion
Language.
Chapter 2
Igbo Man in Colonial Time and in
Independent Nigeria
Early contact with the British
colonialists
Effects of colonialism on: - Igbo Language
- Igbo
Transport
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Religion
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Igbo Culture
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Igbo education
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Relationship and authority
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Social values
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Health care
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Trade and commerce
Chapter 3
Civil War and Its Consequences
Pre-civil war achievements
Economic consequences of the
civil war loss to the Igbos
Political consequences of the
loss of the civil war
Effect of the civil war on the
intellectual prowess of the Igbos
Psychological consequences of the
loss of the civil war.
Chapter 4
Sustained,
Systematic and deliberate Destruction Of
Igbos and their properties within and without
Nigeria
Litany of destruction of Igbo
lives and properties by other ethnic groups and even governments:
1966- 1970
1971 – 1975
1976 – 1980
1980 – 1984
1985 – 1989
1990 – 1994
1995 – 1999
2000 – 2004
2005 – 2010
Destruction of lives by internal
enemy, village terminators!
Chapter 5
Appropriate
and vigorous Igbo response to the destruction of lives and properties; by
fellow citizens from the other ethnic groups and deliberate government
injustices on the Igbo people within and Without Nigeria.
Response of the five home land
governors
Response of Ohanaeze Ndigbo,
world wide
Response of every Igbo man in Diasporas
especially the traders
Response of Igbo town unions
Response of the yet to be formed
world wide league of Igbo traders
Chapter 6
Strategic Re positioning of the Igbo man in a one
Nigeria
Repositioning through solid
education
Repositioning through agriculture
Repositioning through development
of tourism
Repositioning through development
of solid minerals.
Repositioning through the
provision of super structures
Chapter 7
What the Igbo man must do to fair
well in Nigeria
politics
‘It is
difficult to make a man miserable while
He feels he is worthy of himself
and claims
Kindred to the great
God who made him’
Abraham Lincoln
Chapter 1
Pre-colonial Igbo man
I do not intend to treat the entire
pre-colonial Igbo man in this mere one chapter. Treatment of pre-colonial Igbo
would take volume or even volumes when real historians handle it. However since
no comprehensive records were kept because of late codification of Igbo spoken
word, most facts on pre-colonial Igbo are mostly substantiated by archeological
facts and legendry stories handed down through generations. So when the desirable
is not available the available would become desirable. Consequently I am going
to rely on the materials I have read here and there and the stories I have
heard on ancient times that survived through the centuries to date.
It is widely believed that the
Igbos started their lives around Igbo Ukwu Nri area all are in the present day
Anambra state. All archeological inferences so far suggest that indeed that
area was where the Igbos originated or put more precisely earliest settlement
before expanding into other Igbo areas. Why we say earliest settlement; is that
it is widely believed that, the Igbos, since they have no other affiliations
with any other group in Africa, unlike the
Yorubas and the Hausas that they must have been migrating Jews or Hebrews.
Historians have tried to substantiate and affirm this belief by the following
facts: Most archeological findings at Igbo Ukwu Nri and even Okigwe areas after
carbon dating all show ages from 950 years to about 1050 years. Except new
artifacts are found later dating above the ages it means that the Igbo people
have had a thousand years stay on our ancestral home. If, you can recall, from
the Bible, that these 1000 years corresponded with the last dispersal of the
Jews by the Almighty God. It is believed that those Hebrews that managed to
reach our present ancestral home particularly at Igbo Ukwu Nri area established
the Igbo nation. The name Igbo and Hebrew operated upon by a thousand years
could have sounded or mean the same thing. The most supporting fact to this
Hebrew ancestry is male circumcision. If there is any single practice or
culture of the Igbo man that have survived for the 1000 years it is this circumcision
of the males. This has been with the Igbo man since the beginning of time and
the skill was not thought to them by anybody. The colonialist came and met us
with it. This male circumcision has been and is still an important Hebrew
culture or practice and for us to have been doing it since the beginning of
time it means that our Hebrew ancestry which we claim is simply not far from
being correct. People also believe that the tremendous success the Igbo man
generally achieves in the world of commerce and business is also one common
characteristic of the Jews world over.
Having done with a brief, on ancient
history of the Igbo nation; I will deal with pre-colonial Igbos under the
following headings: The people and the government, social security, trade and
commerce, science and technology, war and conquests, Health care, Sports and
recreation (egwu onwa), entertainment, Religion and language.
People and Government
The Igbo man is an independent
minded person right from time. Nobody lords it over him. He lives his life
basically as a free man and capable of taking care of his affairs, unlike in
most places where the king or the queen is the center of every community
activities and aspirations. Such is not what the Igbo man is accustomed with.
Never! Though there was a kind of community authority, it was kind of weak
authority with the village head with a kind of presiding power but the real authorities
reside with council of elders so the community head is presiding over a
committee of equals, almost. These committees in most cases are just titled men
and some time women and elders. The community
leader on his own cannot issue
orders or laws; the order and laws there were the ones made collectively
by council of elders and titled men and some time women but not most of the
time. The community leader cannot single handedly handle major disputes and
settlements, it is always the assembly of elders and titled men and of course
the presiding community head that settle all disputes and in fact handle all
that concern the justice system. What the council of elders and title men say
is law or a taboo becomes the law or a taboo. At no time in the whole pre-
colonial era was it recorded that the Igbo man has a king of any kind and even
in the subsets of the communities apart from the community leaders and his
councils (Igbo enwe eze). Though this cannot be exactly described as democracy
but if democracy has a close cousin then it must be this type of government.
All you need to be in the council is either get old or win a title for your
self and there you are. You are automatically in government. Because each rule
or law or what was agreed as a taboo was a collective agreement by all the
members of the council and the community head, its application was applied
across board. There was no sovereign, no sacred cow. What the smallest pauper
does and was termed an abomination or taboo, should the community leader does
so, the punishment the two receives is the same both in severity and purpose.
At times though because of the peoples believe in the deities, some of the
rules or taboos were believed to have been handed down to the community by the
gods. In certain circumstances, it was the Ezemuo or head of the deity that
enforce the punishment when a particular rule or taboo was breached. The ezemuo
would apply the punishment across board. In some cases some deities were believed
to apply the punishment of breach of the rules or taboos in a spiritual way by
itself especially where the bleach was against the particular deity. In
addition to various deities there were a kind of high court or do I say appeal
courts where difficult cases were often sent to. Though is nothing like what we
have presently where you are talking of jurisdiction. The appeal courts might
not have any jurisdiction and in fact didn’t have any jurisdiction on any other
community outside its domain but it was there and apart from treating cases in
its domain, who ever from else where that brings up his case up there and
somehow the defendants comes along for trial, what ever the decision taken was
binding. Those courts or rather deity courts carried out sentences such as
seizure of properties, imprisonment and even ‘Death sentences’. Perhaps why
people from other communities submit to the jurisdiction of the ‘high courts’
may have been because they were afraid of the deity behind the court or because
the judges were perceived to be wise and may have always settle cases in the
best possible way satisfactory or perhaps it is a combination of these two
reasons. In any case there were two outstanding such ‘high courts’ in the
pre-colonial Igbo land and even into colonial time. They were the long juju of
Arochukwu and Ojukwu Diobu. These two deity courts were most powerful and most
feared courts. Most hard cases were often sent to them for settlement and it
was widely believed that they didn’t disappoint the people that patronized them
considering the staggering amount of cases the two handled even deep into the
colonial time. In colonial time these two deity courts had so much percentage
of all the available cases to the extent that the British authorities had to do
something if they were to have any meaningful grip of the judicial system. In
virtual all the British courts in Igbo land when most cases were called up the
judge or the magistrate would be informed that the case was either at Long Juju
of Arochukwu or Ojukwu Diobu. Eventually in desperate move to regain a kind of
judicial authority in Igbo land and to ensure that there is work for judges,
magistrates and lawyers the British authorities attacked and destroyed the two deity
courts! But despite this destruction driven by jealousy and quest for
authority, it was evident that the Igbo nation had a well developed judicial
structure; though it was not in volumes of law books, but it was well developed
judicial system several centuries before the arrival of the British
colonialists. So the British people cannot claim that they introduced judicial
process to the Igbo nation. What they actually did was to disrupt the evolution
of the Igbo judicial system by forcefully destroying the structures and replacing
it with theirs on gun point! The Igbo man understands the sacredness of life,
the Igbo man rarely do take life for a flimsy reason. Even the Long Juju of
Arochukwu that handed down ‘death sentences’ for certain crimes in pre-colonial
time later was found never really killed any body for any crime. In
pre-colonial time the people perceived to have been eaten up by the long juju deity
were actually taken away underground secretly and were later sold out to wealthy
lords as house hold slaves and that was all. In colonial time with their insatiable
demand for slaves for the farm lands of their new found lands of America, the
authorities of the Long Juju found a new source of income by selling perceived
long- Juju consumed convicts into slavery. This was definitely better than death
and if any thing it helped to rid the home land of certain trouble makers and
criminals to a strange land just like the Castro Cuba unloaded his criminals
and brigands unto America
when America
attempted to swallow that tiny island!
Social Security
The Igbos did realize as early as
possible the effect of untimely death of a father to his family and did
actually design measures to meet the challenges of untimely death of the head
of the family. There were two scenarios; should a man die untimely and non of
the children has come of age to take care of the family’s responsibilities, any
of the brothers of the deceased, though varies from custom to custom would take
charge of the widow and children of the deceased brother. However any children
the widow bears there after belongs to the new husband, but all the children
including the children of his deceased broth are jointly his responsibility and
not just that the whole community would hold him accountable for the well being
of all the children. This is called ‘Ikuchi Madu or Ikuchi Nwanyi”. This
ensures the continuity of the family of the deceased with less stress. On the
other hand, especially in a case where the deceased has one under aged male
issue but desired large family, the widow in most cases is allowed by custom to
raise a family on behalf of his dead husband by having a relationship with whom
ever she chooses and should he succeed in having more children they are
recognized by the whole community as the rightful hair to the deceased
properties. There are other complex arrangements, a man with great properties
but with only a male child may want the family to glow large in number but the wife
is beyond child bearing age may live instruction for the wife and the trusted
brother or friend to ensure that his aim of enlarging the family is realized. A
young woman may be ‘married’ for the under aged male child but of course some
body either chosen by his widow or brother would raise children in the name of
the under aged male child and when the male child come of age, it would be
under stood that the young woman the mother arranged previously is his wife. In
fact she is his first wife and in some occasions his only wife however he could
still marry other women if he so desire but the children raised before he
assumed his role as a husband for the arranged wife are all recognized by every
body in the community as his children! In fact some of this customs and
traditions did survive to the present time. Though the advent of Christianity
and modern civilization have put an undeniable question mark on some of the
practices but despite that some of the cultures are most likely to continue in
many places definitely. Some would be or are rather destroyed by Christianity
in many places but it was clear that those measures or customs helped to
provide a kind of social security in a world where there was no life insurance
or anything as government arranged social security. What these all add up was
that the Igbo man had his social security before the British arrived. It may
not be the best of arrangement but it was nevertheless a provision and more
over the child is treated in every community as the child of the community
instead of belonging only to his biological parents (Nwa bu nwa oha nile). The
proper training of a child is a collective responsibility of every one in the
community.
Trade and Commerce
There was no currency in
pre-colonial Igbo land, however wealth was measured mostly in terms of quantity
of yam and number of goats one has. This means you can obtain any other things
in exchange of tubers of yams or number of goats. In fact the most important
any man can ever have, his wife was negotiated in terms of number of goats and
quantity of tubers of yams one can provide. Even though trade transactions were
done basically by trade by batter, it was for the most common thing that does
not even worth a tuber of yam; otherwise you could get anything you want with
its equivalent in number of tubers of yam and when more important, goat or
goats were the medium of exchange and for extraordinary important thing like
marriage, a combination of tubers of yam and goats. Some time very serious
things are also settled with cow! In summary there were legal tenders they were
yams and goats. It was not these confused pictures the Europeans painted that
it was mere trade by batter. You bring bitter leaf and exchange with cocoa yam!
It was nothing like that, every thing was measured in terms of tubers of yam
and goats or a combination of both since these were the two main means of
measuring the Igbo man’s wealth in pre colonial time.
Science and Technology
Before the arrival of the British
the Igbos already have unwritten calendar. The Igbo week comprises of four
market days; Orie Afor, Nkwo, and Eke and the four markets day week are referred
to as Ofu izu or one Igbo week. While ‘Izu na asaa’ that is seven Igbo weeks or
twenty eight days make up one month ‘ofu onwa’. That is one lunar month. ‘Onwa
iri na abuo that is twelve moons make one Igbo year or one lunar year, “ngba
afo’. So we already have a calendar before the British arrived and till today
despite western calendar is still being used in many traditional setting and
dating along side the new western calendar.
Iron Smiting, ‘Okpu Uzu’ has been
with the Igbos since the beginning of time, the Igbo man had long forged iron.
That was how hoes, machetes, knives were made and has been in use since the beginning
of time. Many people may not know that the Igbos had long conquered gravity
before the arrival of the colonialists. You may have heard the word ‘Ekiri
Igwe’. It is like a big ball of fire that grows and dims while it flies along
at moderate speed and height in the air. I myself had seen it once. Asking what
it was, the elders explained that in the ancient time men of wealth were in the
habit of inviting great medicine man to their palaces for a particularly high
potent medicine. Because of the quest for uniqueness of that particular
medicine or charm in other word to be sole possessor of such a great medicine;
those men of wealth, would though, pay all the great medicine men charge them
but would employ every tactic to delay the great medicine man to stay over
night. Those who did stay over night found out sadly that that medicine they
did for the wealthy man was their last! Reason those men of wealth believed
that the blood of the great medicine man would even make the charm they
produced ever potent! And secondary and most importantly they would be the sole
possessor of such h a charm. According to the elders many great medicine men
lost their lives to these unwholesome practices. That was how some of the great
medicine men created the ‘ekiri igwe’. Those that have the new creation, invite
them to come and do a big charm in your palace they would come and charge you
appropriately and of course do the charm
to your satisfaction; let it be by one am in the night you finished
paying them, perhaps a cow or goats, yams and chickens or any other valuables
they would gather every thing around and activate the ‘ekiri igwe’ with just a
spark of light from their stone flint and sky high goes the whole things and
the medicine man into a brilliant ball of light! The ball of light would grow
and dim as it flies at moderate height and speed until it reaches the house of
the medicine man where it lands gently and everything inside comes out into the
original form before it turned into a big ball of light! This technology had
conquered gravity even before the Wright brothers conquered gravity. In fact it
beat gravity before anybody any where on earth may have thought of beating gravity.
I really do appeal to any one who might read this book and still have the
knowledge of this ‘ekiri igwe’ or know some one who knows this ‘ekiri igwe’
technology to at least record the process of creating the ‘ekiri igwe’ and
perhaps make it available to our universities researchers. In fact he would be
given all the credit for creating this master piece technology.
Wars and conquests
Most ‘wars’ were for securing
living spaces, most people would want to settle down where there are lots of
water. The most powerful people settle down where there were a lot of water
sources after displacing the less powerful ones who may be occupying the place
previously. Though, several hundreds of years later, when it was discovered
that you can even get cleaner water by just digging deep into the earth. The
advantage of living near and around the water source becomes completely watered
down. In fact it also have a unique disadvantage, most places with a lot of
water source rarely have a level ground topography, you have more of hills and
valleys and even some of the places are prone to erosions while the places you
have little or no water sources have beautiful flat lands that are really good
for modern buildings! Back to wars there were not many records of serious wars
by the Igbos against non Igbos except one highly interesting one. You know the
Aros were more or less like the British, they don’t care where they could
secure a living space. They have one kind of settlements here and there and
every where. When they learnt that the jihads were on their way for a total
show down with the South the Aros quickly established an outpost in the present
day Benue state awaiting the advancing Jihads.
Places like Otrukpo in Benue state has a
sizeable number of Aro communities, Aro Oturukpo, which has of course lost the
Igbo language to a considerable degree. It would have been interesting to watch
the outcome of the fight of horse riding Jihads with his spear and the masters
of forest fight, the chief Aros war mercenaries the Ohafias with machetes and
bow and arrows. Two things prevented this context, the war generals leading the
jihads were unable to conquer first an infinitesimal natural enemy called thick
forest mosquitoes and while they were counting their losses to the mosquitoes
and taking time to plan a new strategy, the super giant Britain struck and
every side has no other choice than to sheathe away all war implements!
This was one area of great
advancement that was exceedingly dealt severe blow regrettably by two issues;
one was our inability to have a written language in time assisted by extreme
selfishness of the medicine men and women and secondly was the European
conspiracy and sabotage. For several centuries, even before the British thought
of sticking their nose into Africa, the Igbo
people got medicine for virtually every conceivable ailment. In fact Igbo
medicine had even delved into spiritual ailment and metaphysical disorders of
all kinds to as far as delving into the world of incarnation and incarnation
disorder! Evidently you can prove for your self the efficacy and potency of
traditional Igbo medicine by the mortality rate of those ancient people. That
was when people would be 90 years old and are still climbing palm trees without
any hassles! Even at 100 they would still be moving around with considerable
vigor! But like I said earlier, the inability of the Igbos to achieve language
codification was a monumental disaster to further advancement and preservation
of medical advancement in particular. The situation was further compounded by
the extreme selfishness of our great medicine men and women. Most great
medicine men and women died regrettably without showing even their own children
the medical secrets. What thoughtlessness! The final devastating blow on the
Igbo medicine was carried out by the British colonialists. Their doctors and
even the Igbo trained doctors made a great ridicule and contempt of all
medicines created by Igbo medical ingenuity. Part of the ridicule were that Igbo
medicine could cure so many things at the same time; but we shall see, after
the British people succeeded in making Igbo medicine apparently irrelevant by
jealous orchestrated campaigns they went back to do a good study of their own
natural medicine and today you can’t believe it, the Chinese, the Americans and
the Europeans all have their own version of their brand of natural medicines
and what is more; they have made billions of Dollars selling it even to us.
What happened to our own natural medicine? Virtually dead! But it shouldn’t be so;
all efforts must be made to have a record of all Igbo medicaments. All the
great Igbo medicine men and women must put into writing all they know about our
natural medicine even if you don’t want your children to have access to it
while you are alive apparently not to be your competitor what of when you are
no longer there. Would you rather want every body to loose your endowment? More
over you never know if your child may later become a pharmacist and indicate
interest to develop the natural medicine you left like Yem-Kem who is a multi
millionaire today dealing only and only in natural medicine. Perhaps your
keeping adequate records of all your discoveries may help the Igbos to create
additional millionaires dealing on natural medicine. Today we have For-Ever
living product, GNLD and a host of others who said your records may not be the
one that would help the Igbo people create outfits like these. Finally the
Europeans accusation that one single Igbo medicine would cure several ailments
has been proved wrong a thousand times because many of the natural medicines by
the Chinese, the Americans and the Europeans also have the claim of one single
natural medicine curing several ailments! Should the Europeans claim they gave
us ‘modern’ medicine, they know that they are lying. In fact what they did to
our natural medicine was driven by jealousy and quest to create jobs for their
doctors. In actual fact, the so called, modern medicine despite its near omni-potency
now should have been rightly referred to as the alternative medicine to natural
medicine instead of the aberration of calling natural medicine alternative
medicine. Though for natural medicine to be recognized as alternative medicine
was a battle partially won.
Sports and Recreation
Sports and recreation are among
things the Igbos enjoy so much. The most important sports was wrestling. In
fact wrestling is was so important that those who excel in it in major
wrestling encounters were often conferred with highly elevated title that would
practically put them into the government of their respective communities. The
crowd that wrestling pulls then in Igbo land in pre-colonial time is like the crowd
that foot ball pulls now in modern time. Each village tries as much as possible
to outdo other villages in producing seasoned wrestling champions. Though the
wrestling is nothing like Hulk Hogan fight, it is simple get your opponent back
first to the ground. The next in line include masquerade festival. There is no
village in Igbo land that does not have a masquerade festival that creates a
graet deal of fun and excitement for every one. Though in most communities, the
masquerades were and are still an exclusive of men but the over all aim is to
create fun and excitement. Median dance was also particularly so important that
at times in some communities, the prince of the community or important people
chose their brides while median dances are holding. Vigorous men and women
dances were there also like the Nkpokiti of Umunze that eventually distinguished
itself in modern time when it won an overall dancing competition in England. Today that
Nkpokiti dance group graces the back of five Naira note! The ‘egwu onwa’ or
moon play was a vital recreational venture. ‘Egwu onwa ‘was enjoyed in all Igbo
communities without any exception. In fact ‘egwu onwa’ was particularly vital
because apart from the fact that it was highly recreational, it was also where
folk lore and legends are passed down the generations. Egwu onwa’ was like an
informal school for learning very vital things about the community and other
interesting things. Hunting was also an important recreational activity apart
from the Fact it supplied additional meat menu to the homes the process of
hunting itself is great fun, picture the interaction between several hunt dogs
and a lot of hunters moving with excitement in the forest with shouts and the
euphoria of bringing down a game. In addition those who excel in hunting
especially those that kill a lion were often given the title ‘Ogbu Agu” which
automatically secure such a person a seat in the council of elders and titled
men. So there were enough fun and recreation in the Igbo land and sports were
highly rewarded too.
Religion
This was one area the Europeans
completely misrepresented the Igbo man in their write up, we were painted as
pagans. The Europeans forgot one thing though, that they were no better than
the Igbo man in any way. The Igbo man was as pagan as the Roman man or the
English man before Christianity reached them, perhaps we were even better. For
a start various Igbo communities had several deities they worshiped. Some have
one or two deities. However the Igbo mans understanding was that all those deities
have their earthly assignment of protecting them but that there is one big God
up there just like the Greeks that also have so many deities but they also do
sacrifice to the ‘Unknown God”. That was why it was easy for Apostle Paul to
convert the Greeks to Christianity, by convincing them that he was bringing to them
the Unknown God! That he was there helping the Greek people to unveil the
Unknown most powerful and Omni potent God! The Igbos made sacrifice with white
cock hung on a tall bamboo pole each year for the Great God, ‘Chi-Ukwu” or
“Chukwu bi nelu” or “Obasi”. It was not the Europeans that told us about the Almighty
God, we were aware of him but might not know how to communicate with him. What
perhaps the Europeans helped us to do was to know how to communicate with him
just like everybody on earth was helped by some one to master this
communication apart from the Israelites who were shown the way by the Almighty
God himself!
Language and Writing
No doubt the Igbo spoken language
was fully developed and didn’t undergo any further metamorphosis with the advent
of the Europeans. There were many Igbo dialects of course but every one understands
one common central Igbo language. However on codification of the spoken words
that is the written word we regrettably really lagged behind Almost to a very
fatal consequence. Though the process of codification of the Igbo language had
started but it was too slow. For instance he could use vertical chalk strokes
to indicate how much yam he had in the barn. The Igbos were also use symbols to
track his debtors, like a round symbol may represent those who are owing him
and a straight horizontal line would represent those debtors that had paid etc.
But despite all these, the inability of the Igbo man to achieve codification of
his spoken word would have lead to a monumental disaster in the other developmental
indices. In fact it accounted for our set back in our medical advancement and
our technological advancement. Europe couldn’t
have achieved the stupendous feet they had before and are still having without
the early codification of their language. With written words you can easily put
down your ideas and other people would read it and improve on your ideas. What
then is advancement? In fact the unsuccessful codification of the Igbo spoken
words and the extreme secrecy and selfishness of our inventors accounted for
the level of development the Europeans met us with. The Europeans achieved
codification in time and secrecy amongst the Europeans were almost
non-existence since a scholar in France would read up books written in England
and gather more ideas and a scholar in Portugal would pick up work of a French scholar
and improve on it and so on. That was why Europe
advanced much faster than us and is still continuing on that lead not because
of what we think that are making them thick, they are definitely less selfish
as regard development of their home lands.
In summary on the whole you can
see that the pre-colonial Igbo were a glorious one and without the British rude
interruption we would still have emerged a developed nation state! In fact if
writing was developed much earlier than it was, the British would have met us a
developed nation state and it is doubtful if they would have achieved
colonization!
‘The greatest asset of any nation is the sprit
Of its people and the greatest
danger that can
Menace any nation is the break
down of that
Sprit; the will to win and the
courage to work’
George B. Cortelyou
Chapter 2
Igbo man in colonial time and in
Independent Nigeria
Initially the Europeans and
particularly the British came down to the Igbo nation as business men. The
first contact with the Igbo nation was with the Igbos in the river line areas
(Mbamiri). They mainly traded in European goods like tobacco, mirror, gun
powder, guns spirits, clothes, shoes, salt among others. These commodities were
traded in exchange for palm oil, rubber, animals hides and skins, timber, palm
kernel and later with the discovery of the ‘new world’ , slaves. The mutual
respectful business relationship with the local business men or rather the
chiefs of the Igbo nation lasted for a very long time, before they,
particularly the British, before they started contemplating outright
colonization of the Igbo nation. But before outright colonization they had to
contend with great kings like King Jaja of Opobo ( He is believed to be an Igbo
man sold as house hold slave to the river line area and later with sheer industry
and will power regained his freedom absolutely and not only that rose to become
the King of where he was! He did give the British a real run for their money.
When the British, later, started their plan for outright colonization, King Jaja
of Opobo sensed it and resisted it with every thing in him) Even with the
superior British weaponry, they couldn’t even employ it to subdue him knowing
what the esteemed King was capable of doing rather all kinds of tactics and
cunning were deployed by the British to eventually bring him down to West
Indies where it was believed they poisoned him and later died as a result of
the poisoning. Event like this was how the British took control of local trade
and eventually to colonization! You may link this King Jaja of Opobo’s saga to
Beecroft’s ousting of King Kosoko of Lagos
in 1851 and final annexation in 1861 as a British colony. To show how difficult
it was for the British to achieve full colonization, it took another 53 years!
1914) before the governor general, Lord Lugard now amalgamated all they have
forced under the British influence to become colony of Nigeria. Though it was not certain
when contact between the British and the Igbo nation started exactly but
considering events in the other theater, it is obvious that mutual respectful
business transaction between the Igbo nation and British lasted at least 150
years before they went for outright colonization. Their only leverage was
definitely not intelligence but purely superior weaponry! It was not quite
different from what Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte did with superior weaponry in
Europe the only difference was that he didn’t sell the conquered European
people into slavery or the much recent escapade of the German nation with
superior weaponry in Europe. Because of ‘lebensraum’
(living space) more than half of Europe was
devastated by the German military machine. Though apparently, Herr Hitler did
not sell any European into slavery, I believe it was simply because he had no
immediate buyers after all he collected money from the Americans to allow a
group of Jews to escape to America!
However if you consider how Herr Hitler used conquered Europeans and other to achieve
his aim in food and ammunition production, you would note that it was same as
outright slavery in more ways than one. It is also left for your judgment to
decide which was worse, the extermination of 6 million Jews for instance and
slavery. Why do people engage in all these, was it because the enslaved or
exterminated people were low in intelligence or because they were bush men or
worst still because they have tail? The answer is definite no; simply the
villain posses superior weaponry! So any European writer or thinker who feels
colonization of Africa was as a result of its backwardness or low intelligence
should look back into all the events that happened in Europe
itself! Finally for Nigerians who treat Nigeria unity, as desirable as it
may be, as a sacred thing or even an act of God to stop thinking so. To start
with, it is no sacred thing and very, very far away from being an act of God,
it was simply an act of tobacco-pipe smoking Briton called Lord Lugard. Lord Lugard
did what he did to help him coordinate the illicit business the British
colonialist were doing down these regions. Lord Lugard would still have done
his so called amalgamation if it were the Kingdom
of Lesotho of South Africa or
Kiswahili people for instance were closer by other than Igbo or Hausa for
instance. Come to think of it, part of Cameron was also a piece of the so
called Lord Lugard’s amalgamation! So to keep this potentially great nation on
track, it is a wise thing for every body in this arrangement to respect each
other and work out a mutually beneficial and equitable arrangement to get the
country built up instead of holding the various pieces of the country on almost
a gun point as it stands now citing ‘National Unity” or sacredness of
amalgamation when there is nothing sacred at all about the amalgamation. It was
simply a British maneuver of convenience!
Now on the effect of colonization
on important aspects of Igbo lives; like language, religion, culture,
education, transportation/ interaction, trade and commerce ruler ship and
authority, social values and health care.
Starting with the most profitable
influence, codification of Igbo language by British linguists was a very
important step, though like I said earlier; it was regrettable that this didn’t
happen much earlier than the advent of the British. However, it was batter late
than never. Written language is so vital to any group of people as air is vital
to life. Written language is the identity of the people, you may never come
across people of a particular race, but you can identify them with their
written language. It is among others an important tool of preservation of
culture and knowledge of a people. What is even worrisome now is that while
other peoples are busy now doing further improvement on their spoken and
written language we are gradually, regrettably, ignoring, like before, any
further improvement of our spoken and written language. For instance the
Yorubas in the South-West of Nigeria and the Housa/Fulanis in the North of
Nigeria do a lot or at least a reasonable number of their movies now in their
languages and subtitle them in English language. This makes the language to be
preserved and ensure its endurance. Though the Igbos control a substantial part
of the Nigeria movie industry, it is really worrisome that our actors,
directors and producers do not see any reason to do some thing about ensuring the
endurance and preservation of our Igbo language even to subtitle in Igbo
language is a hard work for them! Though what would have given our spoken
language a greater boost should be to do our movies in Igbo language and then
subtitle in English. It would still sell, after all Yoruba movies still sell at
considerable profit. Talking about the Yorubas they have even moved to the next
level by now translating even popular European, American and Indian movies into
Yoruba and now subtitle them in English! We should also not forget very quickly that
the first movie in Nigeria that was the door opener was done in Igbo language
and yet it sold quite well that was the ‘Living in Bondage’ Could the Igbo
actors directors and producers say they were not heavily embarrassed when a TV
net work Africa Magic failed to allocate a slot for local Igbo films? What was
also highly surprising was that when an Igbo group demanded that Africa Magic immediately
allocate a slot for Igbo firms an important Igbo movie big wig came out as it
were to defend the action of the Africa Magic! Unbelivable! The big wig said
that Africa Magic was right in not allocating a slot for Igbo movies because
they the Igbo movie directors, producers and actors do not do movies in Igbo!
What thoughtlessness. Our Igbo movie directors, producers and actors must have
a re-think and at least do some of their works in Igbo language and even much
more are to be subtitled in Igbo language to help us preserve our Igbo
language.
Another very important area of
positive influence was transportation and interaction with other parts of the
world. Prior to the advent of British the average Igbo man would consider going
to the next village as almost another country! The Igbo man then travel very
little, though it was the bulk of the ordinary folks that do not go out far at
all apparently because of high insecurity of being caught up by local slave
dealers, but the rich and powerful do move out to far distances even as far as
the river line areas (Mbamiri) where the Europeans initially limited their movements
also to buy European goods and sell Igbo goods and later slaves. In fact one of
the successful Aro business man, Eze Igwegbe Odum, that was recorded in the
novel ‘Omenuko’ by Peter Nwana travel to far distances like other business men
of that era. The chief Igwegbe Odum had nearly fifty wives and explained to
some of his children that he had so many wives, not simply because he wanted
large family alone but as a means of securing trade routes. He married the
daughters of wealthy and powerful chiefs along his trade route, so that when he
is passing either with his local goods and slaves to be sold to the Europeans
or with European goods to be sold in the hinter land to be easily identified as
an in-law and be given easy passage or even to stop over at his in-law place
safely and rest. Any one in those days who didn’t have this kind of ‘insurance’
can’t go to far places or engage in any business that would take him far away
from his home or he or she risks being abducted and sold into slavery. However
with bigger and longer roads built by the British connecting several towns and
further expansion and increased security because of the colonial law
enforcement and also subsequent stoppage of slavery by the British and others,
even the ordinary Igbo man ventured much further away than ever and gradually
small towns started growing around where the British set up camp either for
administration or business purpose. The ordinary Igbo man not only ventured out
of his immediate village to other towns but even to other parts of Nigeria with
his great business quest and today the Igbo man is virtually every where on
earth because of his commercial activities. It is now believed that nearly 60%
of Igbos or at least Igbo youths are in diasporas!
British colonial effect on the
religion of the Igbo man is diverse. Like I said in the earlier chapter, if the
British missionaries were as smart as Apostle Paul, it would have been much
easier to Christianize the Igbos than the Greeks for instance. The Igbos
already know that there is a God in heaven before the arrival of the British.
This Great God was variously referred to as “Obasi Di Ne Elu” ‘Chi- Ukwu’ or ‘Chukwu’.
All the British missionaries would have done were to explain to the Igbo people
that they were revealing “Obasi di nelu” to them for better understanding!
There was no evidence though to show that the British missionaries ever used
force in any way to convert people from their traditional religion in Igbo land
unlike the Arab Jihads used force in the North of Nigeria and some other
places. Even in the same North, the British missionaries and authorities did
not use any force what so ever to change either the traditionalist or the
already Muslim converts to Christianity. Instead the British used the existing
structure to implement their indirect rule. The only thing the British
missionaries do were to let who ever cares to listen by attending church was
that the worship of idols and animals like loyal python was simply not good.
The idols have an eye but could not see, ear but could not hear, it even have
mouth yet was unable to eat continuous sacrifices offered to it and that the
animal worship are nothing more than any other animals. Though, the British missionaries
did two things that effectively that contributed to rapid conversion of the
early Igbo Christians. Number one when Christians ask of land to set up a church
and school, the elders would immediately give them the land refereed to as the
“Aja Ohia”, evil forest. It was believed that any one who enter such a forest
would come to certain and instant harm not to talk of building a house in it!
However the British missionaries built houses in them and even lived in those
houses without the slightest harm! Neither the British nor the African
converted ministers and their local pupils come to any harm at all to the
absolute shock and disbelief of the village elders and men of authority. Even
some of the lands given to the missionaries belong to one deity or the other
and no one would be mad enough to enter such land let alone build on it without
the furious wrath of the deity or so was believed by the elders and deity
priests, but churches and schools were built on them without the slightest head
ache! Till today most of those churches and schools are still standing on those
lands. This one single feat, more than anything that helped the early
missionaries to prove that indeed that what the Igbos call gods were no gods at
all and help so much in the early conversion of the Igbos to the new religion.
In the same line some animals were believed to belong to some deities and who
ever in any way kills any of the animals would face the consequences of the
furious wrath of the deities. Animals like Iguana and the royal python for
instance were believed to belong to one deity or the other, but eventually some
Christians killed them and the elders and the priests waited endlessly for the deity
to strike but till today, the deities didn’t do any thing. Secondly the tying
of church with school and schooling was a strategic plan. Though initially not
many people sent their children to school, even some that sent any body at all
sent their slaves or their laziest children as a sacrifice to the white man.
But when later the few that went to school started playing important roles for
the white man some few years later those who were wise and smart started
sending their children to school in earnest. But since you can’t send your
child to school without him or her being converted to Christianity then it
becomes easier for the missionaries. It was either you forget the British
education or savor it along with being a Christian. They also backed this up
with small but tantalizing gifts like free metal box, white singlet and other
small gifts. Though small they were but they were rare. Those who were not in
school and never want to go to the white man school nevertheless envy those
that are in school that have those rare gifts and on many occasions were what
drew the reluctant ones to go to school but that also automatically means
joining the strange new religion!
As it were the only the only
prize was the loss of local traditional religion and beliefs but even that, it
depends on the side you are now to decide whether it was really a loss or not.
However one thing was certain acquisition of the European education was
priceless. It didn’t take the Igbo man a long time to discover the great
potential education offered for the further advancement of the Igbo nation. At
a later stage, communities joined hands together to send their sons and
daughters to Europe for more education to show
how highly the Igbo man valued education. In addition many communities later
contributed monies and set up their own schools that were how great schools
like DMGS Onitsha, The Ibo boys high school Uzuakoli and others became super
stars on their own. The result of these complete embrace of education- the
Igbos were able to people like the great Zik of Africa, M. I. Okpara, Nwafo
Orizu, Alvan Ikeoku, Dr Akanu Ibiam, Mbonu Ojike, Ernest Ikoli, Jaja Wachukwu
and many others not forgetting people like Eme Agwari who is an unsung hero of
the internet. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Mbonu Ojike and Alvan Ikoku to mention a few were
highly instrumental for the securing of independence for Nigeria. To
show what early embrace of education did for the Igbo nation; at independence
the Great Zik emerged as a star, nearly 60% of the top command of the Nigeria
military was in the hands of the Igbos, by 1964, out of 431 senior officers of
the Nigeria rail way which was then the most vibrant set up in Nigeria, 270
were of Igbo extraction, that was above 60%. The Igbos were also in
considerable control of the nation’s civil service as well as considerable
control of the private section work force. By that time no body would refer to
the Igbo man as mainly traders. In fact it was the enviable height and control
we had in the nation that may have made the great Yoruba states man, Chief
Obafemi Awolowo to invest heavily in education to jump start the Yoruba man
into a fine position and of course his wise decision helped the Yorubas so much
that later when events played into their hands, they were able to seize it and
as of today they are still holding on to it. What is now tragically regrettable
is that we seem to have forgotten completely what education did for us in
colonial time and the immediate post colonial time. There are two excuses we
have, the civil war, its loss and subsequent attacks on education of the Igbo
man by the victorious North and others- De-intellectualization. I wonder why
that was not expected, the people that we were competing with knew it was our
educational prowess that put us ahead of them post colonial Nigeria and so
having lost the war as nit were, what else do you expect the victors to do
among others to curb early recovery of the Igbo man other than smash that which
we pride our self with to pieces! The second thing is not really an excuse. It
was the other side of European Education; we achieved much in the early time educationally
because the community as whole joined hands together to ensure that any son or
daughter of the community that was promising was trained. However the people
who received the privilege came out later and decided to be individualistic;
just themselves alone and their families. One writer rightly pointed out that
communal living had been dealt a devastating blow by education and
urbanization. This is the excuse given by communities for not aiding their sons
and daughters to quality education any more. However considering the two
excuses carefully do they really hold water for abandoning education? Certainly
not! Should the Cameron abandon the dignified foot steps of his ancestors
simply because the forest was on fire? Definitely Not! Because our intra-
national competitors planned the destruction of our educational quest, do we
surrender and give them the pressure of watching us completely
de-intellectualized!? The answer is no. Because some people the community
trained came out and forgot the community is that the reason why the Igbo
communities should stop training more people? I do not think so. It is not only
the Igbo communities that this happened to, the people who lord it over the
country now and are making mess of the nation’s educational sector were mostly
those who went to school on government scholarship. So Igbo communities must
continue to train our sons and daughters in the best schools on earth like we
did before, if any of them comes out and remembers the community, great! If not
at least, he is established and the very least he must educate his own children
and his own educated children undeniable still belong to the community and who
knows any of the children might even do for the community what his parent
couldn’t do for the community that trained him! Perhaps out of every ten
persons the community the community would get two that remembers the effort of
the community and do some thing serious to help the community in need that is
enough. In any case people do change, the ones the community feels had done nothing
today might in due time play an important role on behalf of the community or
perhaps his child may. So nothing is lost after all. Communities, depending on
size must at least send one person abroad each year for serious education and
be rest assured that in no time the Igbo nation would bounce back and once more
be unstoppable!
Influence on culture, there was
no evidence that the British in any way used force to influence the culture of
the Igbo people. Even as regard the obnoxious culture of throwing away of
twins, it was not stopped by the use of any force but rather it was a lone and
long campaign by a nurse, Florence Nightingale, that brought the practice to a
halt. The other cultures like the masquerade festival, Osu (Outcast), marriage,
new yam festival and other cultures continued without any forceful attempt to
stop them by the British authority. For masquerades which acted as a kind of
police before the advent of the Europeans, in addition to its entertainment
role continued even when it was some time used to burn down churches and
schools, yet the British authorities did not because of those excesses outlaw masquerades
instead they met out appropriate punishments to the elders and youths of that
community where the incident of church or school burnt down took place. The
traditional marriage culture did not change in any significant way other than
the fact though took a note of it but does not recognize it rather what the law
recognize is the church wedding where they are even empowered to issue marriage
certificates. The law also recognizes the court wedding, the only thing
different is that a wedding which other wise could not hold traditionally or
even in the church may still hold in the court. In fact some churches may even
not wed any one who has not completed the traditional wedding because the
church does not wed people just because they rushed into the church and say
please wed us. Most churches take their time to announce to announce the
marriage proposal every where they felt some one might have one objection or
the other even if you are living in the city the church must find a way to
announce the marriage proposal in the home towns of the proposed. Should some
one come up and say that that they are opposing the marriage because it is a taboo
or that they have not received the bride prize the church definitely would not
go ahead and get the wedding done. So if any thing the church that means the
British has strengthened the traditional marriage culture. The ‘Osu’ or outcast
is still there with little influence, those who fought and win in it only did
so out of their considerable will power and for the very fact that the Almighty
God did not create any out casts nor was it in his plan in any way. It is,
however doubtful if the law has enough muscle and will to stop the ‘osu’ (outcast)
practice. It is only the individuals with will power and understanding of the
word of God that is the remedy for this culture. The new yam festival
strengthened even with more fun fare. In fact the new yam festival and
masquerade festival in modern time have added so much fun fare that even
multinationals spend millions of Naira each year to sponsor them and even
ranked high among tourist potentials of some states!
Colonial influence on ruler ship
and authority in Igbo land, as has been explained earlier, the Igbo man has no
king of any nature. In some areas they have the title of King as the highest
and most difficult titles any one can attain. Because they never wanted a king
they set the condition to attain the title of kingship so high that it was near
impossibility for any body to attain it, like in some places you could take the
title the King if you paid the debt of everybody in the entire community
without an exception in addition to other earlier requirements of the closest
title to the title of King like the ‘Ozo’ title. Perhaps why they set the
condition to attain the kings title so high was that they were not in any hurry
to have any kind of king what so ever so soon. So in the pre-colonial Igbo, the
towns and villages were ruled by chiefs, with the support of the elders, and
titled men and women in a form of council but never by kings. When the British
arrived, it was indeed very easy for them to proceed to their indirect rule in
places like the Yoruba land and the North where the people were already used to
having King and sovereigns and of course indirect rule worked perfectly in the
area mentioned. However since there were no kings and sovereigns in Igbo land
and the British was bent on doing indirect rule in Igbo land too they had only
one way of doing it, by trying to put a kind of authority on any one they chose
so that the British could rule through him. Since there were no such men, the
British proceeded to appoint what they called warrant chiefs. It is a random
thing, any body the British authorities fancies, they, call him and give him
warrant and bingo! He becomes a king of some sort! But the Igbo man never
accustomed to such a thing as one man lording it over them resisted the idea in
totality but grudgingly moved along with the incongruent idea. In fact they
took it as one of the insults they had to bear because some thing stronger than
the cricket has come to take a seat in the house of the cricket! Despite all
the British effort in Igbo land, indirect rule was doomed to complete failure
and the British administrators on ground in Igbo land knew it only that the
stubborn headed Britons at home wouldn’t hear of any possible failure of their
well thought out of indirect rule. However though the indirect rule or the Igbo
nation failed completely but the people that were given the so called warrants
by the British colonialists some how up till today exercise one kind of
authority or the other in the Igbo setting but of course in conjunction with the
so called council of ‘Igwe’ or council of ‘Eze’. Though the indirect rule
failed, the British authorities did not waste time to dismantle any other
authority that tends to undermine the supremacy of her majesty’s government.
That was how the British fought a war with the authorities of the Long Juju of
Arochukwu. That war was necessary for the British because not only that the
authority of the Long Juju reached a wide circle but the authority virtually kept
the British courts on the land almost empty. Because any case you call up in
the court it was either it was at Long Juju of Arochukwu or at Ojukwu Diobu!
They were the two outstanding “High courts”. There were other smaller, so the
British destroyed the Long Juju in actual war but demolished Ojukwu Diobu. That
was how cases started holding in regular British courts in Igbo land. The warrant
chiefs were at times made judges also by the British authorities. An example
was that of Eze Igwegbe Odum a kind of regent some where in Awka area and even
when he eventually returned to his home town, he still remained a judge even
though he had lost his warrant. He actually used his home as a court and report
all concluded cases to the DC at okigwe until reorganization of administrative
authorities when he then have to hold his courts proceedings in the local town
courts, that his court and two others in modern time was what is called Ideato
where the local government Ideato local government got its name! It is because
of this random way of choosing ‘Kings’ by the British authorities that was how
the governors of the states use the ‘Kings’ to their ends or else get the
‘king’ removed by any other person that he favors and then present him with the
so called staff of office with the Nigeria coat of arm on top! Some time a
governor can even create new ‘kingdoms’ and appoint for them a new ‘king’! This
was in line with what the British authorities bequeathed with their failed
indirect rule in Igbo land. Appointment of ‘kings’ is nothing much different
with appointment of commissioner though when a king is appointed it is
apparently for life of the ‘king’ but it is not unlikely that if for any reason
the ‘king’ moves in any way against the interest of the one that appointed him or
that a new governor comes into office he may be removed as simple as that! The
‘king’ has become one more instrument of the governor and this being the fact
what is the fate of the ordinary people in this whole arrangement of
convenience? It is simply not certain; I leave it for your judgment alone!
Effect of colonization on trade
and commerce in Igbo land; there was no doubt that trade and commerce received
real boost with the advent of the British in Igbo land. The Igbos traded only
locally produced items mainly food stuff and local wears; means of purchases
being mainly yam and goats which was the measure of the wealth of the Igbo man
at that time, but the advent of the British opened new market for local
agricultural products, palm oil and kernel
timber and other local produces. This also means the introduction of
many European good like spirits, tobacco, guns, clothes and many other things.
Initially those European good were exchanged with local things, the British
indicated interest on. This was an equitable arrangement, but immediately the
British achieved reasonable degree of authority even before outright
colonization, Igbo produces were exchanged for useless cowries and ridiculous
empty sea shells. Even sea snail shells were used to rob the Igbo people of
their produces. If the British had given the live sea snails instead of the
empty dried shell at least the Igbos would have eaten the snail inside and dry
up the shell there after and use it as legal tender later instead of loosing
completely too British cunning at all ends! We lost several hundreds of
thousands tons of our produce and there was no meat in the sea snail shells for
us to cook and eat as meat! The collection of those shells was nothing more
than going to the Lagos bar beach and picking a lot of sea shells and use it
and go and rob some one of his farm produce and who knows if it were not bar
beach they even picked the so called shells they were using as ‘legal tender’
to swindle us of our farm produce. To know how this systematic robbery went on
you didn’t expect to pay the British colonialist with sacks and sacks of
useless sea shells for the British product you were buying from him. Where
would he take such garbage to!? Those sea shells were nothing, so you buy
European goods with equivalent of real Igbo produce that was double loss! The
British took real Igbo goods in return for useless sea shells and turn around
and supply their own goods in turn for real Igbo goods! Since the sea shells
were nothing but mere garbage, it means that the British business men who
thought up the sea shell ‘legal tender’ were not different from modern day fraudsters
and since they cant be brought to justice, at least those who are fighting for reparation of the African people
should include the cost of millions of tons of different Igbo good and indeed
African good that had never been paid for by the European business men or in
the other ward that was ‘purchased’ with useless sea shells! Should the
Europeans want their sea shells back they can go to any of the beaches and have
tons of it for the keeps! This was fraudulent in all ways, the British pound
and the other entire European unit have been as old as their countries and at
no time was the sea shell part of the British monetary unit! So, why
introducing it as a ‘legal tender’ when it was time to buy products from
colonized regions. It was fraudulent they only wanted to pay nothing for some
thing and the only way this worked at all was because Britain posses
superior weaponry. The other adverse effect of colonial was the slave trade
itself. Though the Igbo people did have slave related deals before the advent
of the British, but the kind of slave trade the British and other Europeans
promoted and supported was unprecedented in size and character. It was
sustained by continuous supply of arms and ammunition and continuous war
amongst tribes and communities with trail of blood and anguish. At time an
entire community would be burnt down and every bodied person sold into slavery!
This slave trade was so massive that it very nearly took away every able bodied
youth and children the very life blood of every community. Its effect was
nearly like the effect of AIDS in modern day, all the youths who would have
hastened the development of the Igbo home land, just like in the other African
countries were taken away to a strange land and may be it was not unlikely that
the British had other
Secret agenda about the slave
trade that made them not to engage in outright colonization for a long time.
They may have taken their time to clear the Igbos and indeed other Africans of
all able bodied people who would have engaged the Europeans in any case in
mortal combat if the British had tried outright colonization much earlier.
However as it can readily be seen, the British and other Europeans may have
understood this and didn’t attempt any
thing foolish until the Igbo nation and all other African nationalities were
drained of all youthful bloods before
they now swooped in like hawk to prey on the now harmless old men and women
that were left!
In summary, exploiting better
roads networks and shelving the idea that the next village was another country;
the Igbos went far and wide for his business quest. This was also given a boost
with better transport means and today the only part of the world the Igbo man
is not living is where there was no human being living there that would require
good. Where ever people require goods the Igbo man would most likely be there
to do his business of commerce.
Finally, the effect of
colonization on health care, it is really hard to say that the introduction of
European health practices were of very great benefit or that it was completely
useless. On one hand the Igbos never dealt in any form of surgery and other
medical advancements and if indeed any ailment could only be solved with surgery
it means that its introduction was a great improvement in health care of the
Igbo man. However on the other hand, as I have said in the earlier chapter, the
British medicine did a great harm to our local medicine by virtually killing it
and turns around and developed the European natural medicine and made billions
of Dollars out of its sale. In addition one is yet to see the positive effect
of modern European medicines and food on Africans, the life expectancy had
greatly reduced but it was evident that the Igbo man fared better with his
local medicine and local food much more than he did with European foods and
medicines. Even now those who relied on local foods live much longer than those
the Africans that relied on European foods and medicament. In the olden time
some one at 80 years did still climb palm trees but today because of European
foods and perhaps medicines life expectancy has dropped to an all time low of
average of 45 to n50 years. Though I do believe the final judgment is in your
hands as regard the effect of colonization on the Igbo healt care.
Buy Niger Delta Agonies of Igbos and other Nationalities
About The Book Many people within and without Nigeria who believe that Nigeria has got all it takes to emerge an enviable nation but are disappointed that the nation is one of the hottest bed for systemic corruption can now know how we got to this point and how we may get out- THE NIGERIA QUESTION
Preview
THE NIGERIA QUESTION The Inevitable Clash with the Cabals
Fore Word
“The world is governed by different Personages from what is imagined By those who are not behind the scenes.’’(2) Benjamin Disraeli
The above was coming from Benjamin Disraeli, one of the most powerful men on earth if not the most powerful man on earth in his own time who was the esteemed imperial Prime Minister of Great Britain at the peak of Britain’s world wide colonization; with, British colonies, reaching across the seven seas. Most probably the people behind the scene he was referring to as the actual people governing the vast British empire include people like Cecil Rhodes and other hard headed British colonialists who were making a lot of money for themselves and at the same time coveting territories for the British empire, These kinds of men would have to say how the new territories were to be governed and these people behind the scenes would include powerful lords and of course the Royalties.
These groups of people are the British Cabals, There is also the hush-hush Bilderberg conference which was a gathering of western money and authority men and women that really do decide what must happen monetarily in the western world to keep the west atop and guard against the ‘evils’ of communist USSR. This conference got its name from the hotel where their first meeting took place in 1954; Bilderberge Hotel at Oosterberk, Holland. It is widely believed by those who knew, that this conference probably brought the colossal giant, USSR, to its knees and gave capitalism almost a world wide umbrella. (2) This is yet another large group of people behind the scenes, comprising of money bags from the United States of America, its continental allies and all European allies. However, you can see that the role this conference has played and may continue to play is to say the least highly beneficial to the West and of course individuals in the conference makes a lot of money for them selves. It is the Western Cabal. So some one might say what the heck, why not a Nigeria Cabal? Here is the why not. The cabals earlier mentioned, apart from the fact they make a lot of money for themselves they, most importantly, keep the overall interests of their country or countries supreme. Let’s have a look at what the cabal that emerged in Nigeria has done and you will be the sole judge where to place them as saints or devious criminals. - Nigerians (the Cabal) starched away $300 billion in several banks across the globe (source one of the leading world magazines) yet the nation was reeling under a loan of $32 billion form IMF and World Bank and others! - When the population of Nigeria was only 55million there were about four refineries. Eventually when the population almost tripled common sense dictate that at least we should be having a minimum of twelve refineries in other to meet the challenge of increasing demand of fuel occasioned by enlarged population to ensure energy security for the nation but what did the cabal do. Not even one new refinery was built and even the existing refineries were rather turned into a pipe hose to siphon the wealth of the nation in the name of turn around maintenances TAM where $2 billion has been ‘spent’ and yet non of the four refineries is even working at up to 30% installed capacity! And for a larger number of times each year are even shot down. This gave the cabal the room to perpetually continue to import refined petroleum and sell at cut throat price to the extent that nearly 85% of the refined crude the nation needs are imported. This means that in case of major international crises that may include effective brocade of sea trade routes the nation would have grinded to a halt before the first salvos flash across the skies! This is all time treason against the father land! You can guess where the refined products come from, of course it is alleged that misappropriated nation’s resources were used to set up refineries in offshore countries. In fact the reason why the cabal is not in any hurry to build new refineries in Nigeria is just for one obvious reason, that the clandestine refineries the cabals set up abroad get perpetual patronage. South Africa has little or no oil and they know that if they were to base the supply of all the energy need of South Africa on imported refined crude they would practically grind their economy to an abrupt stop that is why they are the highest crude refining capacity in Africa because it is far more cheaper to refine than importing refined product. Alas here we are we have crude it would have saved the nation billions of dollars every year refining than importing refined crude but that is not what the cabal is interested in! - With a population of about 55million, Nigeria achieved about 2000 megawatt of electricity. The population eventually tripled instead of power output to have been increased accordingly to meet the nation’s energy security, it even went below the 2000 mega watt to as low as 1500 mega watt at some point! Yet the house committee probe on power alleged that the DO-or-die man alone ‘spent’ $16billion on power! Yet according to reputable world experts on power you only require just $1 billion to generate 1000 mega watt of power and you may even still have some change! So the $16 billion the do-or-die man ‘spent’ should have given us 16,000 mega watts if all the money was spent on generation! But alas the cabals can’t even use that whopping amount to maintain even the 2000 mega watt! The implication of this is that nearly 80% of all the industries had closed down and several hundreds of thousands of workers out of job. At homes if you are lucky that you are getting up to an average of 3 hours per day of electricity you should be singing praises. Many places in Nigeria remain without electricity for some times six weeks at a stretch! This ensures that even those who must operate here at all for any kind of business must buy generator and this means continuous demand for imported diesel and other products which the cabal is also in firm control! It is a complete vice grip on the system. - Somebody joked just recently somewhere, that if James Robertson the last British Governor general were to sight the Nigeria Rail Way as it is now, he would go into spasmodic vomiting and coughing! Yet close to $10 billion has been spent on Nigeria rail way within the last 20 years and what of the workers nearly 80% of the workers had been laid off! - All the huge pipes supplied in form of grants from EU, AU, USA , China, World Bank and who else that Care for descent living are all buried and buried they remain! If not for lack of adequate breathing space, criminals would have long turned those pipes into a formidable hiding place that would be undisturbed for years. Some one joked some time, ‘Pipes every where, when will water run through it?’ Yet, hear what the figure the cabals claimed they have ‘spent’ on water in the last 15 years; close to $8 billion! No single city in Nigeria has a comprehensive water system that no matter where you live when ever you turn the tab there the water goes. Rather in an all important city of Lagos nearly 80% of water is from bore holes and wells. - You won’t be surprised to hear that$2 billion was spent in repairing 400 Km of road and the first rain would break it into many parts that a journey through the road would take you nearly a days to complete that is if you are lucky or most likely you may sleep on the road and continue the next day! I do not want to spend time on the position of health care, environment, agriculture, and particularly education. All these mean that the whole country is in an advanced state of decay because of the activities of the Nigerian cabal contrary to what other cabals in other areas are doing for their own country.
Here the cabal is simply striping the nation.
‘The greater the number of Statutes, the greater the number of Thieves and brigands’ (30) Lau- Tzu
What is really the difference between, a racist white minority government in pre-independent South Africa that made ‘laws’ to ensure the complete and continued economic and political advantages to the minority whites or the white British colonialist in pre independent Zimbabwe that made similar ‘laws’ though quite unlike the racist South Africa but nevertheless have the same purpose, continued economic and political advantages for the minority colonialists; and a handful of individuals called the cabals or the godfathers in an independent African countries and elsewhere that make ‘laws’ or subvert existing laws and institutions to ensure continued and complete economic and political advantages for the minority cabals to the detriment of the entire citizens in that country? The creation of kangaroo laws by the racists and colonialists and the subversion of laws and institutions by a click of cabals in an independent state are one and the same crime against the citizens! There is no difference between the South African racist government mowing down school children in Sweto simply because the children protested the apartheid system and the cabals moving in its armed wing to erase villages in oil producing Niger Delta simply because the people are asking for immediate stoppage of 90% short payment of their resource allocation and an improvement of their environment the cabals had virtually destroyed which has spanned for a period of over forty years! What is the difference between a racist south African government thief that coveted the riches of South Africa only for the minority whites alone and the cabals in Nigeria for instance that coverts the wealth of the nation in various guises just for the favor of the infinitesimally minority cabals alone; living vital infrastructures in complete state of shambles!? Similar ailment always does get the same prescription at all times if the patient hopes to survive. An entrenched and institutionalized system of criminal, Fraudulent and treasonable exploitation of a people’s economic And political means by a cartel kind of cabal in an‘independent’ State in its best is as criminal as crime of imperialist exploitation of The people by colonialist pre-independence; and its worst even More sinister than the colonial exploitation! The colonialists only Use force of superior weaponry in order to exploit and may not Corrupt the entire system and the people. In many cases they even built an honest system! But the cabals’ exploitation is only possible only and only by corrupting the system and the people! In fact the first thing the cabals do to start its process of exploitation is corrupting the system and the people; so that its disciples may justify their crime and treachery by stating thereafter that ‘apeople deserve the kind of government they have!’ Circle of Hopelessness Each new leader that comes in to ‘manage’ the country is greeted by almost a pathetic expectation and hope for him to salvage the country by the teaming masses of ignorant and regrettably amnesiac Nigeria citizens. These expectations and hopes are often fraudulently reinforced by some deceitful and worthless tokenistic moves or announcements like ‘removal’ of a particular offensive minister or some deceitful announcement like; ‘There would be electric light to every home and factory for 24/7 within the next 180 days!’ The peoples’ fraudster may even announce he or she is in direct charge of a particular strategic sector and you can imagine hope rise to an all time high in the minds of the ignorant citizens but of course it is a pipe dream because the actual thing the so called leader would do in that strategic sector is to ensure that the cabals who spun him or her; perfect their looting strategy in that sector. Look behind the last thirty years the most looting by the cabals have taken place in those sectors deemed by them as strategic hence the cabal’s front man says he or she is in direct control! Have a look at the sectors it is petroleum, power or infrastructure! It is either a sector that produces the highest revenue or gulps the highest appropriation! In petroleum when the cabals front men finished with it virtually all the refineries are dead or dying to ensure that the cabals import all the refined crude the nation requires! What is more nearly 90% of the nation’s refined crude are Imported and since the cabals claim that the fuel is subsidized it means in some years the cabals go home with a tidy sum of N500 billion to N1 trillion subsidy amount alone! In addition a number of carefully planned prize manipulation, systematic hoarding and artificial scarcities bring in yet an ever increasing amount of ‘revenue’ to the cabals in spite of the alleged subsidy. Finally the importation of the refined crude is to say the least high treason against the father land , in the sense that in case of international crises before the first bombs move across the skies, Nigeria would have been grounded to a halt because international shipping is the first thing that ground to a halt when serious global crises looms. Yet at one point or the other the cabal’s front man has been in charge of this same sector. On power and infrastructure sectors you may recall at one point or the other the cabal’s front men said he or she was in charge of power sector or infrastructure. In power sector, when one of the cabal’s front man finished with that sector according to the one time chairman house committee on power that conducted a kind of probe on power, that several billions of Dollars were pissed into the power sector without any thing to show for it! Just like in petroleum how could the power sector be developed since there are many cabals who now specialize in importation of heavy duty generator sets and others and are making billions out of the deals. What of the cabals that are importing gas that the generators use, should the power sector be fully developed how then are they are going to continue milking the nation through the importation of gas!? Till tomorrow the power sector will not be developed. One of the front man that also at one time took over the power sector made sure that the first thing he achieved for the sector is hike in the electric tariff by over 100%! Do not make any mistake about it in the future any sector the cabal’s front man says he or she is taking over is the sector you should expect the highest amount of looting by the cabal’s! In each regime, if we should call them that. Some one said looting episodes, the ignorant and timid masses would despite their initial high hopes and expectations groan under the weight of the cabal’s lootings spree and would be ‘relived’ when the cabals replace one front man with another. Only for the masses to discover that the story remains the same, they the masses would even find out that the preceding front man is even ‘better’ than the new one! But the real discovery is not that the old front man is better but that with successive front men the cabals become more daring! Why not? When the ignorant masses do seem as if they don’t know what is happening to them and you can be rest assured this process have no end. Front men of the cabals may change a thousand times but the cabals’ plan and strategy to loot remains irrevocable in fact it is being reinforced and perfected with successive front men! This book is not in any way for the countless cowardly multitudes who regrettably say, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them!’ This book is to clarify the thought of those patriots who had wondered what is really wrong with our country or have mull over the question, what is this system? This book is for the action man or woman who would irrevocably deal with the Nigeria question and would do all that is necessary to free the beloved father land from misery, disgrace and ultimate disaster occasioned by the cabal and its support institutions. – The action Man! Finally my joy would know no bound when this book is able to stir up supreme patriotism in a capable Nigerian to carefully identify the cabals that have raked our beloved country and for him or her to irrevocably wield the big stick hard enough to disable completely the cabals and bring to irrevocable tatters the obnoxious, treasonable, fraudulent and internationally embarrassing intricate criminal system (Nigeria System), the cabals have created without bringing down the entire structure! In the other word, the action man, that would smoke out the various rats without burning down the house. Dedication Dedicated to millions of Nigerian peoples that have had to surfer grave poverty deprivation and death as a result of devious greed of the cabals and their selected front men and women. It is also dedicated to my late parents, Mazi Raphael Iheatu Igwegbe and Mrs. Lillian Oriaku Igwegbe (Nee Chukwu) for managing, in spite of all odds to give me a university education. Finally dedicated to the action man or woman where ever you are and when ever it will be that would seize the bull by the horn and save our beloved father land. Content
Page 1
Foreword i 2
Dedications
Chapter 1 Emergence of the cabal and consolidation
Chapter 2 Systematic looting of Nations Wealth Systematic siphon through administrative structures Looting through supposed provision of electric power Looting through apparent provision of roads and rails Looting from apparent provision of water Looting through the so called constituency projects. Looting made possible by frequent foreign loans. Looting through health care Mischievous Monetary policy. Looting through the cabals’ private sector activities. Looting as regard crude oil and component.
Chapter 3 Comprehensive high-jack of the political system
Chapter 4 Destruction of all effective Resistance institutions De-intellectualization of the nation and demobilization of the student unions as an instrument of mass mobilization by the cabals. Fragmentation of the Nigeria Labor congress. Demobilization of, the civil societies and super vocal individuals.
Chapter 5 Futility of all other political agitations, as a solution to the Nigeria question. Agitation by the South- East for a sovereign state of Biafra. Agitation by the South-South for complete resource control. Agitation for true federalism. Probes and confiscations.
Chapter 6 Current General, internal and external pressure on the cabal and the response of the cabals. Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) Pressure For electoral reforms, Uwais’ Committee report. Harriboton, Seimen and other high profile international scandal probes; by foreign countries. G20 meeting ‘snub’
Chapter7 The options available to the man of the people as regard to answer to the Nigeria question and the dangers of each option. Option of probing all looting, prosecute all suspects and jail on conviction Option of violent and bloody peoples’ revolution akin to the French revolution Option of a military revolution akin to Jerry Lawlings revolution in Ghana. The cabals putting a stop to their hold on political power and resources of the nation voluntarily! The option thought up by the man of the people by him or her self.
Chapter 8 Steps to be taken by the man of the people; to lay a new foundation for our beloved father land, after successful confrontation of the Nigeria cabals. Urgent and total reforms and serious reinvestment in agriculture. Urgent provision of adequate, electric power for the country. Educational Emergency. Provision, of sound roads, rail networks and inland water transport for the father land. Development of tourism potentials of each state. Foreign Policy. Political reforms: A National conference B water tight census C credible voters’ register and automatic updating D Electoral reforms
Buy Nigeria Question, The Inevitable Clash with the Cabals
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