I have asked this question before and I’m asking again: Why does almost every Igbo All Progressives Congress, APC, member seem to think the best way to earn the trust of outsiders is by talking down on their own ethnic group and setting them up for attack?? As in, is this some kind of acceptance requirement for Igbo political elites??
Almost every right-thinking person in the country has criticized the so-called Lagos-Calabar coastal highway. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar euphemistically dismissed it as a fraud meant to corruptly enrich Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his cronies. Some have said it was just a ploy to dredge and sand-fill the ocean with the sole intent to create free Eko Atlantic 2 for Chagoury. Some have used harsher words.
But the moment Mr. Peter Obi asked why the same govt begging for foreign investors would demolish hundreds of DOLLARS worth of local investment and spend over a trillion naira in building a coastal highway when most of the roads in the country remain death trap, David Nweze Umahi stepped in and rather than respond like a responsible govt official, he dragged the entire Ndigbo into the issue.
And this is not an isolated case. Umahi has always had a predilection for setting Ndigbo up in a desperate bid to advance his personal political goal. I remember Umahi sitting as the chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum in one of their meetings held at Enugu govt house to agree with all his colleague governors on regional security known as EBUBEAGU for the Southeast. He even single-handedly appointed the chairman of the proposed security outfit right there (I know because I was at that meeting) only for the same Umahi to rush to Channels Television the next day to describe regions setting up their own security as an affront to the 1999 constitution of Nigeria and adviced the Southeast to desist from such a move. This was at a time the whole country was at the merciless mercy of the rampaging herdsmen and the South West was already setting up their own AMOTEKUN.
That singular act by Dave Umahi created a huge security vacuum in the Southeast which the Nnamdi Kanu-led IPOB seized to create their own security known as the Eatern Security Network (ESN) supposedly to protect the Southeast from the marauding herders. And since then, AlaIgbo has never remained the same.
Charles Ogbu is a journalist and social change worker based in Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
