GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Sunday, June 20, 2021

UNDERSTANDING ETHNIC PREJUDICES IN NIGERIA - E O EKE

The evidence would suggest that there is deep seated ethnic prejudices against Igbos in Nigeria, but not in the form many believe. 
I am not talking about the ethnic banter that sees Igbos call Yorubas "Ndi ofe nmanu" (people who eat oily soup) and Yorubas call Igbos "Aje okuta ma Mu omi" (people who can eat stone without drinking water), or Hausas call Igbos "Nyamiri" (please give me water to drink) and Igbo call them "Ndi Awusa" (Hausa people). 

I am talking of prejudice of the type that resulted in the Holocaust and Rwandan genocide, which is why I am alarmed.The evidence does not support the generalization that Yorubas, Hausas and other ethnic groups hate Igbos. The facts would suggest that a percentage of Nigerians, as is the case all over the world, harbor ethnic and religious prejudices and, every ethnic group in Nigeria has their good, bad and ugly. 

Unfortunately, for many reasons, which include the way Nigerians are educated, the Nigerian bad and ugly almost always, end up in position of power, where they hide behind ethnic and or religious identities to act out profound immorality, wickedness and depravity hatched in the dark recesses of their ignorant and prejudiced minds. This is why it is dangerous for any society to tolerate or normalize ethnic prejudice the way Nigeria appears to have done. 

There are prejudiced Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas, Ijaws, Ibibios, Fulanis etc. It is their actions that are projected to their ethnic groups, which creates the impression that one ethnic group hates another and perpetuate the ethnic discord in Nigeria. These are the people who will lead in committing crimes against those they hate. In other words, the unacceptable behaviors of an individual or group of people from an ethnic group is projected to and ascribed to their ethnic groups. This is stigmatization  which is first step towards prejudice. 

I say these because I lived and schooled in West Nigeria among Yorubas and worked in the North amongst Hausas, Fulanis, Biroms, Kuramas etc., and East amongst Igbos. I have seen the best and worst of the diversity of Nigeria and how easily it can be upset by the actions of a few people. When I was in the university of Ife in the 80s. I bought a room in the post graduate Hall in my year 3 from a student from Edo state. When I wanted to move in, another student from Rivers state, who also bought his bed space from another post graduate student said that I would not move in because he did not want to share a room with an Igbo man with my Igbo sense. 

He threatened to deal with me, if I moved in. I left the room I paid for and pirated with a friend, in Fajuyi Hall, with a friend Chinedu Onuoha, a computer science student. A year later, I was elected president of Ife University medical student Association by majority of Yoruba students in preference to a 'son of the soil'. If Yorubas and Igbos hate themselves the way some people would want the world to believe, this would not have happened. 

Today, there are many examples in Nigeria of good interethnic relationships, but these are not highlighted and given the same coverage and consideration like the negative examples. As president of IFUMSA, I was also in charge of making sure that the rooms on campus halls earmarked for medical students were in fact occupied by medical students. On one of such inspections, I found out that the man, who chased me out of Post graduate hall the previous year, was occupying a medical student room in Fajuyi hall. He had failed his exams and was repeating the year. 

When he saw me his countenance changed and I felt he thought I would evict him. I had every right to evict him, that was what the rules stated. If I did, it would not have been because of what he did to me, even though it would be impossible to convince him otherwise. I made sure that every clinical medical student, entitled to a room got one and left the man alone. Unfortunately for him, my room was in Fajuyi hall and any time we met, he appeared uncomfortable. One day, he stopped me and apologized  He told me that what he did was wrong and I reassured him that I was not waiting for the day I would repay evil with evil. We made up. 

I knew that Ijaw people did not hold a meeting, where they decided to hate Igbos and I have never attended any meeting, where Igbos decided to hate people of other ethnic groups. I believe with education and leadership, the mistrust and ethnic tensions, which Nigerian politicians, turncoats and ethnic nationalists are exploiting for their selfish ends can be addressed. 

Nigerians are incrediblely caring, hardworking and generous people and, it would be a shame, if we allow ethnicity, religion and men, who think like, Jonathan, Buhari and Obasanjo to provide the excuse that makes us decide to go our different ways. I belong to the Nigerian generation, whose future was stolen by the Obasanjo, Buhari, Babangida and Abacha generation. These men raped Nigeria and wrecked her future and expect Nigerians to bow down, whenever they appear. 

They are responsible, to a considerable extent, for many things that are wrong in Nigeria. The corruption they embraced, ensured that the country has been unable to make the necessary investments and grow the values that ensure strong and peaceful nations and their contempt for due process and rule of law has allowed autocracy, brutality and impunity to flourish. No people would be happy to be part of a country, which consciously excludes their region from developmental projects, subjects them to discriminatory treatments and find excuses to slaughter them in large numbers. Why should Nigerians expect Igbos to accept this systematic and deeply engrained injustices and prejudices? 

I believe in Nigeria, but actions like exclusion of Igbo state from interconnecting rail network make me wonder, if Igbos have a future in a Nigeria, where the likes of Buhari, who keep silent, when the Fulani herdsmen slaughter Ndigbo would be in position to determine the fate of Igbo people. If the decision to exclude Igbo States was made by Jonathan, what stops Buhari, if he is governing for the whole Nigeria, from remedying the injustice? 

This discrimination must now stop. The civil war ended more than 40 years ago. How long do the likes of Buhari and Obasanjo want Igbos to be punished for wanting to be free before they realise that what they are supporting is pure evil. The continued pursuit of policy of discrimination and active underdevelopment of Igbo regions, is an act of economic violence, collective punishment, abuse of power and misuse of position for political vendetta. 

This policy of the federal government of Nigeria, will only make more Igbos resolve to leave Nigeria and seek their future in an independent country or in any arrangement that would grant the regions the powers to develop at their own pace and control their destiny. No people with any atom of pride and sense of what they can achieve, would choose to be part of a country, where they would continue to be treated the way the government of Nigeria has treated and continue to treat Igbos and their region. It is time to end government discrimination against Igbos, link Igbo regions to the East-West rail line, repair federal roads in Igbo regions and complete the new Niger Bridge. 

These will assuage the just anger of Igbos. An East-West rail line that links Igbo towns will be one of the busiest rail lines in the world, if built and it will be a win win for Nigeria. In fact, it will be one of the best strategic moves, to make it more difficult for the region to break way from Nigeria. Nigerian government should stop hurting the country, by pursuing policy of sectarian empowerment and trying to punish Igbos. Igbos have done nothing to deserve the prejudice and punishment we have endured. It is time to end this madness

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