By Charles Ogbu.
First, let's get one thing very clear here; Those asking Ndigbo to boycot the upcoming Anambra
state gubernatorial election scheduled for November this year, are on
the verge of leading the Igbo nation to political perdition. They are
already enroute to Golgotha.
I sincerely hope they are stopped before
they reach 'Calvary' because then, the Igbo nation would already be on
the cross and seeing as we are not Jesus Christ, we would have no
assurances of resurrecting on the 3 day.
Boycotting the Anambra poll is tantamount to tying a political rope round the neck of Ndigbo and squeezing same till we are far removed from our breaths.
In a nutshell, I am simply saying that abstaining from any elections in Ala-Igbo will be a grave mistake of historic proportion; one we will rue for the rest of our lives.
We must defy every call to boycot any election in any part of Igbo-land if we hold any love for the Igbo ancestry.
Politics has everything to do with you even if you claim not to have anything to do with it.
If we boycot the guber poll, we will have opened our political space for political Vultures who come for no reason but to kill and destroy because either way, the election will still hold and a winner will still emerge.
This November election will make or mar the Nnamdi Kanu led Biafran struggle in more ways than one.
Here are the 'hows':
IPOB is now the biggest movement in Ala-Igbo. Their numerical strength and resolve to do whatever they set their mind to, is not in doubt.
With suicidal defiance, they've stood up to the savagery of the uniformed murderers masquerading as the Nigerian security agencies. Fresh from prison, the leader, Maazi Nnamdi Kanu, remains the most influential Igbo man alive.
Now, do pray tell, of what use will the numerical strength of IPOB and the popularity of its leader be if we cannot even deploy them towards electing leaders who share our wars and woes and are sympathetic to our
struggle to emancipate ourselves from this British business centre??
The APC govt has butchered more Igbo sons and daughters than any other govt in Nigerian history in peace time. They do this with both the army and their private militia masquerading as the Fulani herdsmen.
The uniformed thugs that is the army murdered hundreds of umu Igbo and bathed survivors with acid on May 29th-30th, 2016, according to a comprehensive report released by Amnesty International.
Some Igbo politicians serving both in and outside this murderous govt aided and abetted this savagery with their criminal silence.
Now, both the Buhari's APC and those Igbo efulefus are all participating in this election. If we all boycot this election, these political vampires will most certainly bulldoze their way to victory by hook or by crook.
Again, do pray tell, of what relevance will IPOB be if an average Igbo politician knows that he doesn't need their support to win election in a very strategic state such as Anambra with the highest concentration of IPOB members?????
I mean, why respect or fear IPOB if you know they have no say in who governs their land?
Where comet the glory and awe of IPOB if they cannot even stop a state in their own Biafraland from falling into the hands of Barbarians who would waste no time approving the atrocious Grazing Reserve Bill?
Sometimes in 2014, at a time when insurgency in the Northeast was at its peak, the APC government of Yobe state insisted on conducting local govt elections in the state.
The then ruling PDP boycotted the election for reasons not unconnected with security concerns. APC went ahead with the L.G poll and cleared the whole results.
As I write this, the results of that poll have not been upturned by any court on the ground of PDP abstaining from the election.
This is for those who think that boycotting election in a jungle like Nigeria will lead to the results of that elections being cancelled by the court.
As long as we are yet to get Biafra, abstaining from Nigeria political process will be the height of conscientious foolishness; one we will pay a very steep price for.
Go save this post! We will pay dearly if we loose Anambra state to the Vultures in APC.
Quest for Self Determination involves many fronts and stages: There is the awareness stage which is done through street protest.
Nnamdi Kanu's arrest/detention and massive protest by IPOB all over the world have adequately taken care of that.
There is the Diplomatic front done through lobbying. This front is 'very very' crucial to the success of any struggle of this nature.
There is the political front which when combined with the Diplomatic front, the result becomes ten times more guaranteed.
And we can actually run these fronts simultaneously.
Sadly, we have neglected the very important political front for far too long.
Permit me to buttress this point with this scenario:
Imagine that all the SouthEast governors and federal lawmakers were people who believe in the Biafra cause and were elected by Biafrans.
Now, imagine all these pro-Biafra lawmakers walking out of the National
Assembly or insisting on disrupting the business of both chambers until those uniformed boko haram soldiers who murdered Umu-Igbo and bathed others with acid are prosecuted??
Imagine these pro-Biafran governors and lawmakers insisting that Nnamdi Kanu and all his IPOB members must be unconditionally released from prison or they severe every form of cooperation with the federal govt??
Let me tell you two things you probably know already:
1)The fulani Oligarchs controlling this country will never take us seriously as long as these horde of idiots representing us are chosen by them, not us.
2) One pro-Biafra governor or National assembly member is 10 times more important to the Biafran struggle than a million and one street protests.
Bayelsa and River states have proven that no federal might can defeat a people determined to defend their votes.
IPOB has the number to determine the outcome of any election in Ala-Igbo today. The leadership of IPOB doesn't necessarily need to openly participate in the election. It only need to encourage its members to vote and defend their votes.
If Igbo politicians know that we can either punish or reward them with our votes, they will start respecting us.
The Anambra November election is a golden opportunity for IPOB to take the Biafran struggle to the next step. Let's make the best of it.
Wisdom, they say, is profitable to direct.
No comments: