Chief Goddy Uwazurike is a Lagos-based legal practitioner and President, Aka Ikenga, the pan Igbo think-tank organisation. In this interview, he speaks on the development of the South-East, Boko Haram and other issues. Excerpts:
We just lost Prof. Chinua Achebe. We already lost Cyprian Ekwensi and Chris Okigbo, all great writers. What do we have left?
Prof. Chinua Achebe left his footprints on the sands of time and it is difficult to have another father of African literature. Cyprian Ekwensi was of a different mould. He was a pharmacist, started writing. He wrote from a northern point of view where he grew up and lived. He had a way of writing. Chinua Achebe’s writing was more like writing Igbo language, translated straight into English. If you ask a child who grew up learning Igbo first before learning English a question, before he answers, he translates it from Igbo to English. If you have one of these children we have around here or abroad, they learn English first, anything you ask him he takes from the English point of view.
So, for Chinua Achebe, be wrote Igbo English without destroying the original meaning and that is the great legacy of Chinua Achebe. Chris Okigbo lived a very short life but for such life he left indelible footprints that we still mourn him till today. A member of the great Okigbo family, but, somehow, everybody remembers Chris, none knows Pius, who lived up to age of 80. But what makes a man remembered is never defined. We still have good writers coming. The good thing is that the foundation has been laid, but there can only be one father and that is Chinua Achebe.
Kano riots, one can say its Kano killings. It is believed that Igbo are targeted in this Boko Haram menace. Do you agree?
Everywhere in the North, where there is a riot between two Muslims, the target is always the Igbo man. It could be between Sunni and Shiites, the target is the Igbo man. Between Sunni and Sunni, the target is the Igbo man. As you know the Sunni and Shiites are two broad divisions in Islam, and they are always fighting. For Boko Haram, sometimes, they hit Muslim targets, but their major targets are always the Igbo dominated areas, be it the church, be it the motor parks. The motor park was dominated by Igbo transport owners, so let nobody deceive you that the Igbo were not the target. Those buses were owned by Igbo, those operators were Igbo, passengers are expected to be Igbo.
Long distance transport, as pioneered by Ekene Dili Chukwu and Chi Di Ebere, is dominated by Igbo. So, anybody going to bomb luxurious buses will know who the target is. Igbo are targeted, unfortunately. Let me put it this way, those who rush to war do not know that war means death. Secondly, war is an evil wind that blows no one any good. Those beating the drums of war in whatever form, whether for political, religious, or economical reasons, are the ones who will reap the whirlwind. Let me put it further, those who start wars never see the end of it. They never really know. Check history books. What happened to Hitler? Napoleon Bonaparte? They are never there.
Once you start a war, the war consumes you. The victims always live on. The Jews were meant to be exterminated, what has happened? Today, Israel is waxing stronger. Israel is a nuclear power and nobody is talking about it. Those who survived in Germany had to turn their back on Hitler’s programmes and, up till today, to be called a Hitler man is to be called somebody who should be ostracized. So, all those who are screaming support, either vocally or in their pockets, will have their story to tell, but they will not be allowed to tell the story. The inferno will consume them.
Without Igbo vote, the Jonathan government could never have been. Has he performed to pay back because soon the man may come seeking another support?
President Goodluck Jonathan has not rewarded the Igbo for giving him the highest percentage of votes. Remember, during the last elections, all the parties dominating in Igbo land all collapsed for him. Even outside the Igboland, the Igbo everywhere saw Jonathan as their own candidate. It was like a one-way traffic. So, if we do not get any one-way return from him, believe me, he will be the loser. The Igbo are still waiting. Igbo in South-east and South-west, infact Igbo everywhere in this country, they are waiting to see the dividends. You are talking of Niger Bridge.
Igbo will not forget in a hurry that Obasanjo once awarded contract, commissioned the contract with fanfare. You know what? We are still waiting to see the contract. When the succeeding government came, they couldn’t see any file or any contract on Niger Bridge. That was 2007. Until today, we are still waiting. On the side of Jonathan, I understand it is going to go on public private partnership, PPP. Fine. Whatever you want to do, start. The present Niger Bridge is shaking. If you know the economic value of that bridge, you will not hesitate to commission it. You don’t toy with it. Open up the production area.
They want to industrialize the South-East, but where is the electricity network, where is the infrastructure? If you have a factory in the South-East, or South-South, you will have your own electricity, you will have your own water9themselves the concept of power, controlling 43% of the world’s population – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Why is Nigeria not there? Nigeria will not be there because our economic policies are confusing. If you have money to invest, you go to those countries, you don’t come to Nigeria. For you to come here, there are things they expect you to do. Whereas a businessman wants a place to invest that will actually look at things the way they should be looked at.
Boko Haram, who are they? They are killing people, Christians, Muslims, everybody.
What is clear is that Boko Haram are Islamic fighters. Whether they are fighting for Islam, I am not sure. But they are fighting for political power. But let me tell you, wherever you have this kind of fight, the country is finished. Take a look around. You have people fighting based on religion, then there is no country left. I praise some of our past rulers, they took care to side step it.
And I think Jonathan is right by recognising it as a political challenge, not as a religious challenge, but those who want to destablise his government. Or as somebody said, to make his government ungovernable. And now, who are the losers? What is happening in the North-East? Nothing. The only news you hear in the North-East, is killed, killed, killed; maimed, maimed. Nobody talks of development.
Source: Vangurad
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