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For over thirty years after the Biafran/Nigeria war that claimed the lives of millions, the Igbos have continued to remain at the lowest level of political affairs preferring to be used to propagate the political aspirations of other ethnic groups.

From one government to the other, the Igbos have continued to be ruled, ruined, used, abused and dazed, losing their political, social and economic rights to the other ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Igbos that find themselves in the corridors of power have often become political vultures who only work for their private pockets, feeding fats on the injustices against the Igbo people while trumpeting the cacophonic rhetoric of their pay masters.

From Nzeribe, Iwuanyanwu, Odogwu, Chukwumerije, Ofonagoro, Mokelu, Chikelu and Nweke, Festus Odimegwu, Irukwu, Achuzia, Maduekwe, et al, these men have one thing in common: to misinform, disintegrate the Igbos and reduce them to political dwarfs with no hopes of rising to any exalted political positions.

We have remained beggars of political rights. Lepers that no one sees fit enough to rule Nigeria, and often seen as interlopers in the political affairs of a country millions of Igbos shed their bloods for.

Like a woman raped in public, the Igbo people have been reduced to nothing without dignity in a country where our resources have been tapped to sustain while we are tamed for destruction!

It is so unfortunate and shameful that these flip-floppers of men, men of questionable and dishonorable characters with no conscience, men with little or no conscience who have mortgaged the rights of an entire generations of Igbos and fanned the embers of distrust, still parade themselves as leaders even in the face of the palpable injustices and the highest degree of contempt against the Igbo people.

By any stretch of its definition and application, justice has been grossly denied the Igbo people. The Igbos have continued to suffer untold hardship and made to look like second class citizens in a country they call their own. No thanks to the many bad heads we call leaders who have sold the political rights of the Igbos for a plate of porridge!

When it comes to the Igbos, justice is theorized with every form of rhetoric but when it comes to other ethnic groups, all efforts are made to ensure the full implementation of the definition of justice. Otherwise, how can it be reasonably and justifiably explained that the Igbos have continued to remain at the abyss of political affairs in Nigeria?

No one seems to believe in the Igbo course, no one seems to believe the Igbos have the capacity or the political depth or intellectual capacity to make Nigeria great. The Igbos are treated with disdain while our so-called leaders watch with stupidity! Little wonder, General Olusegun Obasanjo can willfully describe the Igbos as a conquered people and go free.

We have all witnessed a situation when even one of our so called Igbo leaders described the quest for an Igbo Presidency as “idiotic.” We have also witnessed the Igbos being described as immature for the Nigeria’s presidency by one of the Northern politicians. With such aspersions and dehumanizing adjective on the Igbos, one cannot help but conclude that the present crops of the so-called Igbo leaders are legendary and monumental failures. The Igbos of today are now modern day slaves who are only good to serve others and be onlookers of event in their country. It is a big shame!

While I am not trying to promote the politics of ethnicity, the Igbos have died enough, suffered enough and endured enough. They deserve to be treated and accorded the same respect like the other ethnic group.

Are the Igbos not qualified enough by citizenship, academics or by geographical location to be trusted enough to produce the next Presidency of Nigeria?

If the Hausa man and the Yoruba man can lay claim to the governance of Nigeria, showing all the elements of patriotism, the Igbo man has the same rights under the constitution of Nigeria. It is the duty of Igbos to insist on their rights and rightly so, after all, what is sauce for the Hausas and Yorubas, is also sauce for the Igbos.

The greatest problem of the Igbo man today is disunity. Even while we suffer from the oppression and tyranny of the assumed majority, the Igbos have continued to be disunited because the seed of discord that was planted by the foot soldiers of the enemies of the Igbos have not been removed and because our leaders are more interested in what goes into their pockets.

Besides disunity, the Igbo man is engrossed with pride. This is even most pronounced during town meetings and Associations where under the simplest issue, arguments are raised and the next thing you hear is “Who are you,” “I have PHD,” “I am a Chief,” I am this and that.

While this town meetings and associations should have been used to galvanize and strategies methods for the actualization of the Igbo dreams, it has become a breading ground for hatred and disunity and avenues to showcase personal wealth and acquisitions.

The Igbo man is quick to acquire degrees, including honorary ones. He is quick to flaunt them even when unnecessary. He is quick to tell you how many honors and chieftaincy titles he has acquired, he is quick to remind you to add EZE, NZE, DR. CHIEF and other prefixes to his name but he is not quick to remember that these titles and honors are nothing when his people are denied the basic political, economic and social rights while his community is grossly underdeveloped with gullies and all sorts of environmental degradation.

We have the highest number of degrees and honorary degrees; we have the highest number of chieftaincy titles; we have the highest numbers of successful businessmen; we have the highest number of anything you can think of, yet we lack the basic knowledge to put ourselves together and work for a common course.

We have been pitched against ourselves for too long. The Igbo man must recognize that there are enemies within. We cannot end the Biafran war and continue fighting ourselves. It is time to build our communities and demand for what is our rights. We cannot get justice and equal rights when we see ourselves as enemies, when we align with other ethnic groups against our own. We should learn from others and build a formidable group.

Everywhere in the world, you will find an Igbo man. We have abandoned our homes and preferred strange lands. Not because we love to do so but because those whom we look up to as leaders do not guarantee our rights and safety. They cannot guarantee that they have our interest at heart; they cannot guarantee that they can fight the course of the Igbos. They have failed and they are the greatest Igbos of shame!

The so-called leaders of the Igbos should beware that history is taking notes of their activities and the younger generation of Igbos whom their actions and political summersaults greatly affect will soon rise up to defend the Igbo nation.