By Ifeanyi Ejiofor
There are moments in the life of a people when silence becomes complicity, sentiment becomes self-deception, and misplaced loyalty becomes an accomplice to the very destruction it claims to resist.
I had the privilege of hosting a few of my media friends, all of Igbo extraction, for a candid and unusually frank conversation. It was one of those rare occasions when men deliberately put aside the comfort of familiar narratives and subjected our collective assumptions, prejudices, misconceptions and emotional attachments to the cold light of reason.
We spoke truth to one another.
We interrogated a number of deeply misconceived impressions and the dangerous emotional attachments which, for far too long, have constituted one of the greatest impediments to the advancement of our people. I was particularly struck by the uncomfortable reality that some of our educated elites are still held captive by ethnic sentiment to such an extent that they inadvertently rationalise, excuse or promote destructive tendencies merely because those tendencies are clothed in the language of ethnic emancipation.
That, in my respectful view, is not patriotism.It is intellectual bondage.
And there is perhaps no greater tragedy than when education liberates a man from ignorance but sentiment subsequently chains him to folly.
Our conversation was a genuine heart-to-heart engagement. We examined a number of misconceptions, misplaced beliefs and the circumstances that have continued to make our people susceptible to manipulation. I left that engagement sincerely encouraged, believing that I had been able to reach a few minds which, in turn, may help correct some of the dangerous impressions presently circulating within our society.
Let me state this without equivocation: the Igbo people have suffered grave historical, political and economic marginalisation within the Nigerian federation. That reality cannot honestly be wished away. But neither can our legitimate grievances constitute a licence to destroy ourselves.
We cannot cure marginalisation by committing suicide. We cannot secure the future of our children by burning the bridge upon which those children must eventually walk.
We cannot demand justice from others while becoming unjust to ourselves. And we certainly cannot build a nation, region or people upon the ashes of innocent lives.
Shortly after that meeting, I went online to catch up with the day’s trending stories. What I encountered left me not merely disappointed, but deeply troubled.
I read statements from persons whom I had hitherto considered sufficiently educated and discerning to appreciate the enormous consequences of every word they publish. Yet, once again, I witnessed the familiar spectacle of people attempting to rewrite realities that have left bloodstains upon the conscience of our land.
Those who have orchestrated facilitated or celebrated bloodshed, violence, killings, kidnappings, intimidation and other grave atrocities in Alaigbo cannot simply wash their hands in the waters of propaganda and proclaim themselves innocent.
Nigerian courts are courts of law. International courts and tribunals, where their jurisdiction properly arises, are equally bound by law. Evidence, not propaganda, sentiment, social-media theatrics or ethnic romance, must ultimately determine guilt or innocence.
As the elders say, when the masquerade dances in the marketplace, it must be prepared to answer the questions of the villagers.
I remember vividly the alarms we raised, the condemnations we issued and the cries of anguish that reverberated across our communities, even when a bounty was publicly placed on my head by the now self-proclaimed “content creator” Simon Ekpa and those associated with his campaign of violent criminality.
Today, I watch with profound amazement and disappointment as some persons who proudly identify as Igbo, including some members of the legal profession, publicly praise or celebrate persons whose activities have been associated with grave bloodshed , violence and devastation in our homeland.
Saints, indeed!
Apparently, in this strange theatre of selective morality, a man can be associated with bloodshed and still be canonised by social media, provided he has the right ethnic vocabulary and the right number of admirers.
He who dances upon the grave of another should remember that the earth beneath his feet is the same earth that will eventually receive him.
I do not pray for anybody’s destruction. I do not ask that evil be repaid with evil. My prayer is simply that every man who knowingly participated in, encouraged, financed, celebrated or otherwise enabled evil will one day confront the full moral, legal and historical consequences of his choices. For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
We must stop defending evil merely because the perpetrator speaks our language . Let nobody imagine that history has gone to sleep.
The land remembers. The victims remember. History remembers.
And when the dust of propaganda finally settles, only truth will remain standing.
May God heal our land, restore the dignity of our people, comfort the bereaved, and grant us the wisdom to distinguish genuine struggle for justice from the dangerous merchants of death who exploit our legitimate grievances for their own ends.
Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Esq., KSC
Dunu-Ezeugosinachi
