THINK HOME PHILOSOPHY

A NECESSARY THOUGHT FOR  NDI IGBO

In our   traditional society before the coming of the   Whiteman, by 18 years, a young man has become fully employed as a farmer , fisherman, blacksmith etc. He would have learnt his trade from 5 years of age, by 20   he would have with the help of his friends built a house and by the age 25, he would be married with a child. He becomes fulfilled participating actively in the life of the society. Every member of the society lived in the State, we had a very vibrant society as captured in Achebe “Things fall Apart”. It did not have the trapping of civilization but it was functional, productive and happy. The human person had integrity and fulfillment.

Today the political economic structure has changed, globalization has placed education in the fore front of fulfillment of life desires. there is nothing wrong  about having and acquiring education, but its greatest irony is that our homeland (south east)has for decades suffered massive emigration which is a self reinforcing phenomenon irrespective of the cause. A situation where generally speaking the upper 80% of Ndi Igbo lives outside their roots is termed as DEMOGRAPHIC DISTORTION (DD).to be practical, let us capture demographic distortion with a practical scenario of south eastern person/youth.

CASE 1.

Ngozi  okafor is a 25 year old graduate of  Markeing. She is married to chukwudi, a 35 year old, businessman trading in building material in yaba market. Both of them came from the south east. chukwudi was doing very well in business not until in 2007,his shop was gutted by fire  ,he lost all his wealth to the fire ,thereafter, he became a freelance agent to other  trader in the market. The couple lost their flat due to inability to pay rent which increases in geometrical proportion in Lagos.  Ngozi eventually relocated to the village,6months later, she delivered a baby after a problematic pregnancy complicated by anaemia. She suffered puerperal psychosis for which she   now suffers discrimination and sigma as a mad woman, even though she has fully recovered. Ngozi child will grow up in untold hardship and die by 48years.

4 years ago, Susan 25 ,married her secondary school sweetheart, john 25.They are from Norway, Susan works as a receptionist and John as an electrician in a factory. They have 2 children, they live in a flat they both own by a 25 years mortgage. They each own a car. They have 2 children ,3 years and 1 year old ,both attending  a neighborhood   preschool facility with excellent facility. The children will die by 83 years after living a life of glorious comfort.

CASE2

Chike Okoye29, from Imo state was a popular undergraduate at the university of Lagos. His roommate in University of Lagos, Tunde Omoya hails from Epe in Lagos State. Chikes  parent are middle class retired civil servants who live in Surulere, Lagos. Tunde s parents are farmers.Tunde looked up to chike ,his socialite roommate. They both graduated with second class honours   and remained friends when they graduated. After NYSC ,2 months after NYSC Tunde started work with Nestle, service.he is now an assistance manager married with 2 children, an official car(plus a private car).He lives in surulere in a 3 bedroom flat.Chike has been unemployed for 6 years, his friendship to Tunde has cooled off overtime ,even though,Tunde made efforts to visit his hero but chike started avoiding Tunde because he still wears the jean trousers he had in University of Lagos.

This two cases are common occurrences in the life of Ndi IGBO today. The difference between Ngozi  and susan and between chike and Tunde  is DEVELOPMENT. Norway is developed, Nigeria is not and even within Nigeria  ,Lagos is relatively developed, while non of the south eastern states is not. The above scenario or case studies reminds us that you cannot sing victory song in a strange land,   thus the need for  NDI IGBO to think home. So we ask:

–Will you tell your son or daughter to come back to work in the south east after NYSC.?

–Why is there no high quality persons from other states or other country’s of the world living in the south east?

–NDI IGBO love their homeland but why do they no longer come back home at retirement and only come back in a box?

–Why is funeral the most prevalent activity in the south east, do we want to turn the south east into a graveyard?

The south east has no organized private sector , no wonder their cannot be growth and development or progress. However, there is enormous indigenous and cultural entrepreneurship spirit, lots of enterprise but not one corporation.There is not one company employing 300 people in the south east. Apart from banks which are there to collect deposit, there is no companies with educated  ,talented  staffs of up to ten people. The salary structure in the private sector is very poor. Yet societies are developed by the private sector. we  must create our own organized private sector ,if we are to develop. A clinical look at  south eastern governors performance still places very little significant to people and private sector led   governance .The five eastern Governors, though most of    them have done well in terms of meeting up with millennium development goals(MDGs), kudos  to the Enugu state Governor, who is tirelessly transforming Enugu state. The Rochas  Okorocha led Imo state ,who has declared free education from primary school to higher institution ,remain the most populist Governor now. The Orient petroleum, initiated  by Governor Peter Obi is good catalyst to development. Governor Theodor orji led Abia state,is also transforming the state. , low performing  state is Ebonyi state,arguably the poorest in terms of socio political institutions,the recent communal clashes (The Ezza-Ezilo communal clashes)has affected the pace of development in this state.

However, irrespective of this  scorecards, the total sociopolitical climax of the south east still presents an unorganized society. Youths unemployment is still very high among our children both at home and in the Diaspora. Quality of life has steadily declined in the state over the years .A major economic activity in the state is FUNERAL ACTIVITY and the biggest private sector is the CHURCH. Even the funerals in most families cannot be done without the funding from relations in Diaspora (Lagos and other cities).

The insecurity in our homeland has now become generalized and scary, with kidnappers  demanding ransom over their  prey, who are often relations to same kidnappers. This I describe as  Man in the state of   nature ,what jean Jacque Rousseau  described as life been  brutish ,nasty and short. My recent travel to the south east was filled with tears, as I could not place a difference between the Onitsha I knew when my Daddy takes us home for Christmas,12years ago, to the one I met in this my recent  travel, in fact, it is even more worse than ill meet it years back. Road networks, human orientation were not just in tandem with recent Global changes.

More so, the civil service is weak and not oriented to support ,promote and enable business. The south east is regarded as the most deadliest  states to politik ,why because centrifugal forces both from the federal and the state have vested interested to enthrone one of their own ,in order to suck the states treasury dry-the UBA /NGIGE SAGA are typical examples .it is important to say here that what the south east  needs at this time is statesmanship not partisanship which breeds (ilo na asi).Our brothers from the south west have since recognized that statesmanship is necessary in a skewed federal system ,which we practice. Using the AWOLOWO STYLE, Ahmed Tinubu has tactically used the Action Congress to win over all the south western state back from its rivalry Peoples Democratic Party PDP. Though ondo state is ruled by the labour Party by Dr Olusegun Mimiko,yet the south west understand that development of the south west is a collective effort. But Alas! In the south east the indigenous party APGA is mired in murky partisan politics. Lets not go into politics now.

MOVING FORWARD

Simply speaking, think home philosophy is the way forward .we cannot sing victory song in a strange land. There is need to recognize that our roots is begging us to return home not in coffins but alive to transform and develop it. Without a resident human capital and restructuring programme ,we cannot solve our problem .Luckily,Isreal gives us a model of where people in Diaspora have come together and rebuilt a homeland suffering DEMOGRAPHIC DISTORTION .Ndi igbo irrespective of religious beliefs and affiliations must work together to deal with this situation that threaten our very existence as a people.

CONCLUSIVELY

Any individual from the east reading this should ask him/herself this question, in what way can ill add value to my roots? What can be done to develop the south east?will ill still be relevant in the course of event in my present location in 30 years from now? yes we all belong to difference town unions  but we all need to have a personal philosophy that thinking home, and making the south east the dubai of Africa is the only way we can be free as persons, if not, we will be deceiving ourselves living in foreign lands, developing their cities while our roots are in ruins. Let be wise.

UDOKA CONSTANTINE OKPALANEDU(ASST SECRETARY ORIENT PROGRESSIVE SOCIAL FORUM) IS A

POLITICAL ANALYST/ I.T BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXPERT

EMAIL @cruxtita@yahoo.com. and gadgetcareltd@gmail.com