By Bianca Ojukwu
WE MUST STRONGLY RESIST THE URGE TO JOIN THE BANDWAGON TO KEEP DEMONIZING OUR OWN….
When other tribes accuse the Igbos of ‘kparakpoism’ or overriding affiliation to their race, I wince. It is not just exaggerated, but possibly unfounded. Or at best a long eroded myth going by the attitudes of today’s generation of Igbos, especially some of the Igbo business class and elite.
It is an igbo minister or exalted government official that you will walk into his office in Abuja, and he will begin to blow big English grammer and warn you not to even dare to greet him in Igbo. Tell him you are from his village and things might even be worse for you.
Now, the most disturbing trend which is becoming more entrenched these days is the habit of ‘one man down, who’s next’ that this generation of Igbo elite and businessmen, and even the rank and file have developed whenever an igbo mogul or politician dies in tragic circumstances or faces challenging circumstances. They will quickly latch on to stories that list out 101 reasons why that person ‘deserves’ the fate that has befallen him.
Most of these negative articles are ‘authored’ by shadowy persons who could possibly be from Timbuktu, with contestable assertions, but the people who will keep forwarding and refowarding those negative write ups against one of their own, and sharing freely on social media will be Igbos. For many, especially their contemporaries, it is simply a matter of ‘one less competitor’. This is the bitter truth.
I remember when one igbo bigwig of a major political party was pictured handcuffed alighting from a security van, I was so appalled by the fact that the person who kept forwarding this image with great relish was supposedly one of his ‘best’ friends always moving about with him, who seemed quite elated by his friend’s reversal of fortune.
It was the same when a former deputy senate president experienced serious challenges in a foreign land.
Today, a foremost banking tycoon is being demonized in some quarters by those who never had the courage to speak up when he was alive to defend himself, and I cannot count how many of those cowardly write ups that have been forwarded to me, or to so many platforms on WhatsApp. I don’t see those of his self acclaimed high profile ‘friends’ and ‘brothers’ rallying to defend a man who has been silenced by sudden death.
This cycle needs to stop. There is a thin line between information shared in the ‘public interest’ and information shared for ‘salacious purposes’. People die everyday, and most of those did not do anything to ‘deserve’ their fate or steal anybody’s yams from their barn.
Not only are we in a country where the biggest criminals are walking and flying around freely, and displaying the proceeds of corrupt enterprise like a centurion’s breastplate, there is simply no point in gloating over a fate that must befall all of us, saint or sinner,; whether on a dusty road or a hospital bed.He who is without sin should cast the first stone. No body knows whose turn it will be tomorrow.
Treat others as you would wish to be treated. No gain in desecrating the memory of someone you know little or nothing about, based on information being peddled to serve other interests.
Remember…..in this world, we are all members of that universal company called ‘Turn by Turn Ltd’.
Iyom Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu
February 2024.
