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Author: Gerald Chijioke Ogbuja
Posted to the web: 6/4/2009 1:05:46 PM

In my last epistle, I made effort to answer the question, ‘where do you go from here?’ No one can know where to go without first knowing where he is. For when you know where you are then you will know where to go and where to return. Ndi Igbo are in a political cross road. Igboâ's in the North don’t know where to go. Christians and merchants in the North don’t know where they will return. They know they are in a deep political crisis that requires faith and strong conviction. Songs of faith and endurance have always sustained the spirit of poverty, neglect, injustices and tribalism. In a real sense, the life of any suffering tribe is always expressed in poetry and songs. Slaves sang lullabies during the triangular voyage into the strange land. Hunters whistle in anguish scaring away targets without knowing it. Skilled laborers sang songs of pain to sooth their hearts and to uplift their human spirits. Trained to sing religious spirituals African American women raised their voices to sing protest songs such as ‘we shall overcome’ ‘oh, freedom,’ and ‘we shall not be moved.’ Some songs are rhymed artistically to touch human spirit; some rhymed poetically to quench moral thirst. Some are not artistic but dramatic and melancholic. But the song that touches human spirit are sang when people are jobless or when people are massacred in the wide wind of religious fanaticism. Songs that addresses human pains are sang when people are unemployed. Songs that torches the heart are sang when families bury loved ones who died because they are sick or who cannot be treated, or because they lack money or proper health insurance. They are sung because parents have lost their job and doctors would not treat wife or children without first securing their money. Religious spiritual are sung when people are jailed and imprisoned because they are from a particular tribe. They are sung when there is no rule of law. People sing family spiritual when they leant that a member of their family has been killed in fatal motor accident only because the road is rough and bumpy. Social spirituals are sung during riots or violent confrontations, or when innocent people are arrested or detained without legal justification. They are sung when there is miscarriage of justice. They are sung where there is hatred and sadness. They are sung where ethnicity exists and where a tribe plays second fiddle. They are sung where elections are rigged or where representation is unfair and unequal. Every heart goes out where there are tribal disparities in educational opportunities. It goes out when a particular tribe is forced to work at the lowest paying jobs. Yet your needs for the consolation of these tragedies can never pass without your ability to conceive it. Indeed, the dissonance which they are identified as tragedies functions to revolve more insistent instead of diminishing. Perhaps, your passions, your disappointments, and your sufferings remain important to nothing else and they thrust themselves upon you with an urgency which makes it impossible for you to dismiss them as mere trivialities which, so your intellect tells you, they are not.

Prejudice against Ndi Igbo cannot be comprehended by the inaudible language called words. When a young Igbo man graduates from a prestigious university like University of Nigeria Nsukka or University of Ibadan and decides to seek for employment, he is most likely to experience frustrating and even demeaning experience ahead of him. He is even going to lose a job position to a Hausa man who attended a local technical school from the North. Most of the time when an Igbo man walks into an office for an interview, the frustrating question posed to him is ‘do you know how to type.’ Look at that type of question. We can therefore say that there is a calculated system of prejudice that lies unspoken behind employment query. If we must use rhetoricâ's, why must Ndi Igbo end up as secretaries, Liberians and technicians? Why is it unacceptable for them to be managers, administrators, doctors, lawyers and members of government cabinet? The unspoken assumption here is that people from the middle belt are better and different than people from Igbo land. The Northern aristocrats for once have never believed that Ndi Igbo have executive ability, orderly minds, administrative stability, and leadership skills. They never believed that Ndi Igbo have the competency or executive ingenuity. And because they have not, realities are over generalized with prejudice to relegate Igbo man to the level of nothingness. Prejudice and injustice are cankerworms that split a nation and its tribal counties. It divides individuals and makes them separate enemies and entities. I must confess that it takes a special kind of person-someone willing to stand out from the crowd to call our attention on these anomalies. It also takes a person who is willing to bear the burden of sacrifice and responsibility that comes with such significant distinction to challenge what is wrong. It takes such courage and endurance to withstand prejudice and injustice. Pioneers who suffered prejudice and injustice have always cleared the path for all who came after them. And when an Igbo man despite all these prejudices, breaks a barrier and ventures into never-before-territory, the significance of his or her action is even more dynamic because of the effort which is required to overcome tribalism and dispel stereotype myths.  Notwithstanding, the accomplishment of a tribe like Igbo tribe holds out a shining ray of hope for all to see-a beacon to the path of self-realization and meaningful existence.

Many sons from the EAST-name withheld have overcome heavy odds on their way to history. Each of them represents a tremendous accomplishment, whether we examine the superlative intellectual achievement of professorship or the steady and determined military rise and fall like Ikemba Ojukwu. Each of these heroes depicts a person of decision and action. Each had a vision, goal and a purpose. As you strive to open new doors of opportunities and plow new field and frontiers, homage should be paid to those who came before you, and recognition bestowed for the tremendous prices they paid. The more reason why you must pay homage to these heroes is because they cleared the path in which you must walk in the future. As you acknowledge them for their effort, you must declare that you don’t want Northerners in their unruly control because they are accustomed to working by a straight-laced jacket. They are straight because they would not like to bend or to give up or lend you a helping hand. In that case, Ndi Igbo need community workers to do what they expected other tribes to do for them. These people must understand our people, our history and our geography. They must understand the path that will lead this nation to unity. Nobody can do this but you. Ndi Igbo want nothing but better schools and better education. They want their children to learn enough about their political rights. The schools however would create not just voters but community builders who would take on many roles in your villages and communities. In the process some would become teachers, bankers by founding credit unions for private entrepreneurs. Others would become health professionals like doctors, pharmacists, physical therapists, nurses etc. Many would transform into construction workers who would start low-income housing projects.  Schools would train a new generation of civil right activists who will follow the towering footsteps of Gani Fawehmi and Wole Soyinka. Political education of Ndi Igbo would grant them opportunity to learn about the political situation in the county and within their social and economic neighborhood. The reason is because political education/consciousness forms the grassroots basis of new statewide political emancipation.

Every single day in Nigeria and everyday in your tribal life, something negative happens to suppress peoples hope, ambition and aspirations. While hopes are dashed, and ambition crushed, the north continues to make tribalism and prejudice manifest in peopleâ's lives. They make people from other tribes feel different. They make you feel as if you no longer belong to Nigeria. Every time this happens, existentialist thinkers among  you and those who  rationalize about poverty, prejudice,  and injustice begins to wonder how they are going to live their lives as tribal people. Tribalism and prejudice steals a teaspoon of self-esteem each day in the life of a people. While I continue to challenge tribalism, while I continue to persuade for an alternative to prejudice and injustice, I elect to speak once more on what I call ‘faith connection’ in relation to political belief, national justice and equal treatment before the law. It doesn’t matter what tribe I come from, my faith connection is my mainstay. My faith connection has been with me in all that I’ve ever done, whether it was in the community at large, in my church for faith; whether it was in the social or cultural arena. I think people who are involved in political arena who do not have a spiritual base are the people who want to build bigger jails, spend more and more money on OIC, and get people off pension allowances; put them back to suffering even at their old age. The lack of spiritual base on which this country functions is just so destructive as opposed to those who have gone before you.

Nigeria as a nation is a Northern country. It is a Hausa nation if I may explain and if may rationalize. When I say this I my logically saying that Nigeria has been founded by it, conquered by it, while nobody has the effrontery to blame them if they want to keep her membership in the OIC. I am not vexed about Hausa man from the north. I am not vexed of Muslims from the West. I never built any streets, or railways in Nigeria. But the North built them for their own convenience and if the South and East don’t want to ride where the north is willing to let them ride, then they do better walk.  It is as simple as that. What is simple is to challenge our people to build their own roads and infrastructures. It is not simple to inform Ndi Igbo to take heart and rebuild their houses without losing hope. Scripture said, we are created not to hate our enemies, but to love them. The same scripture said that we are created to lift up ourselves, and to demand respect of all humanity. Men from the East, let me tell you that a greater future is in stock for you. You have no cause to feel despaired or lose hope in the present, or become faint-hearted. You will have a free country, a flag, a government, second to none. I say this because if you look at the atrocities taking place in the north; if you look at what befalls Ndi Igbo in the north-beating, brutalizing, killing, burning of their bibles and houses; imprisonment and scorning, you will call a tribe to heart because these evils will come back to your perpetrators one day. Get organized and say no to sabotage and the world will bear witness to your sufferings and accomplishments. Say no to jealously and “put down” among fellow brothers and sisters and you will compel the world to respect you. If you dis-agree to agree and then get -organized, I promise you can shake the pillars of the universe and bring down creation, even as Sampson brought down the temple upon his own head and the heads of the Philistines.

As I continue to persuade and as I continue to explore the topics injustice, prejudice and cultural stab through the lense of Nigerian politics, let me add three fundamental ingridents to our ongoing reflection. As we continue to listen to panels and read from numerous chronicles, there is one constant issue to bear in mind- the ingredient of tribalism which separates us from becoming a united nation. Many pundits have suggested ways they feel could help build what writers and reformers have suggested. Many idealists of our age have propounded plans for the future of Nigeria that would shame Northern critics who view Eastern survival plans as illusionary. Nigeria may very well be in a position as a titan who once said “When I was little my father took me for a ride on a train before he disappeared into the wild wind. I’ll have to take my own child for a ride on a river” The major challenge to Nigerian economy is how to manage its resources better and effectively so that it would benefit the next generation. Simply put, there is no better way to do this than have the interest of women and children at heart. Any economic policy should reflect where you are now and where you will head from here. A major challenge would be to improve the new nationâ's finances without emptying the vast national treasury. Another financial option is to reduce borrowing so that the bank of resources will not run bankrupt. In a country of vast oil reserve, the bank of resource should not be quick to run dry. Ndi Igbo will not believe that the oasis of bitumen has dried out. My conjecture is that the fountain and dam of prosperity will not dry that easy. Listen whatever they tell you ‘believe them not’. That gasoline is still dripping because nature got your back. Therefore, a sublime effort requires Leaders and citizens to limit their borrowing instinct as debtor nation. To solve Nigerian financial problems, Nigerian leaders must pursue several meaningful economic options. One of these options would be to cut down wasteful spending. Another option would be to find new resources other than oil that would generate abundant income that would benefit each tribe. Citizens should be made to pay taxes while big corporations and companies should be made to pay company and property taxes. Government should impose taxes on imported goods and services. Government should advocate for a system of public education that would benefit all tribes. Concerning education, government should provide permanent schools. Despite these provisions, government must order the construction of good roads and transportation that stretched from East to the North and from North to the south. Government must ensure that available infrastructures must generate revenue and provide forms of fund to the country. Above all, government must find a way to erase Nigerian debts. Also trades should be expanded to support commerce and industries. These are the challenges Nigeria must face if she want to become a great nation. Besides erasing Nigerian debts tribalism is still alive and spreading in nearly every department in Nigeria. This single incident should spark fire to the Nigerian justice department to probe Islamic brutality in all major cities in the North. For many Christians, the above is simply a tip of the Iceberg of police brutality, with a double standard of justice-One for Muslims, one for Christians, one for the North, and one for the south-east.

There is tribalism in the hiring practice in Nigeria. People have identified this and people believe that every facet of Nigerian department reflects that same old Hausa where Ndi Igbo and other minorities were second class citizens. Nothing is very painful than being a second class citizen in ones country of citizenships. Also, nothing in history has caused a national sensation and uproar like the lynching and burning of Christian Bible and businesses. One can admit that nothing has created a spiteful image than dragging an Igbo man from his car by senseless mobile police men and beaten mercilessly with baton and Koboko, with over fifty blows, thus inflicting pain upon pain on him as he lay helpless on the ground, offering no physical resistance. Even as other police men simply stood aside and watched as the victimâ's skull was broken in pieces, nothing was done in that regard. The Northern police men would do nothing about this kind of incident and life would continue as usual. But if this kind of incident took place in front court-yard of Aguiyi Ironsi, a bystander will record the atrocity with a Camcorder and call down Lucifer for revenge. And his videotape would be aired on the National Television to millions of Muslims both in Nigeria and around the Arab world.  To the amazement and outrage of millions who watched such videotape, and such brutality, a Northern grand jury and the Caliphates and the public would do nothing and remain unperturbed. A popular outcry would ensure to cause the police chief to resign. He will be forced to resign even when his tenure is not labeled stormy or marked with any allegation of tribal sentiment. We have observed that in the deadliest riot that have taken place in the North, Ndi Igbo have always watched similar drama on the national television.

        “CAST DOWN” YOU MEN OF TRIBAL DIVISION AND SENTIMENTS!

Permit me to make this modest and higher proposal that will accelerate justice and unity in a divided society called Nigeria. But before I delve into this proposal, it is pertinent to reflect on a historic proposal made by Jonathan Swift. With great wit and penetrating humor, Jonathan attacked injustices of his time. He forced his readers to look at the ugly side of truth with wary introspection. Swift was in his college life when he published the essay, “A modest proposal” in 1729. At that time, England ruled Ireland, and English polices had ruined Irish economy. Ireland then was filled with poor people like we have today in Nigeria who experience injustice and inequality of the day. In that essay, Swift posed as an official who offers crazy solution to the nagging problems of the time-namely, to have Irish babies sold for food. By launching such modest proposal, Swift was really attacking England and its rich landlords who mistreated the Irish poor as cases found in Lagos, Portharcourt and Abuja. His proposal was like challenging the hassles for life in Osodi and Ajegule. It was really a melancholic objection to those who walk through these great towns or travel in this great nation, when they see the streets, the roads, and the cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female and male sexes, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for their alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work, spent their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who, as they grew up, either turns thieves for want of work, or have their dear native country to fight for the pretender, or sell themselves to men as customers. If you picture this image painted by Swift, you would certainly say that there were prodigious numbers of children in the arms, on the backs or at the heels of their mothers while they beg for food on the strange streets of Lagos, Onitsha and Aba. These deplorable sights and other incidents culminating in the present fosters additional grievance to families in a nation of plenty. I therefore believe that whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these Eastern and Western children of Nigeria sound useful members of a noble and wealthy nation deserves so well of the public as to have his status set up for a preserver of a nation. I have always found my epistles grossly mistaken in a computation of arrogance. It may be true, but I am not arrogant. I am moved and motivated by grievances and the deplorable condition of life in which people found themselves in a nation of abundant resources and in a country of deep oil reserve. For my own part, I have for a very long time pitched my tent and articulations on what the East can do to prevent voluntary abortion, and that horrid practices of women murdering their children, alas, too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babies, more to avoid the expense and expedience than the shame, with more tears and pity in the most salvage and inhuman breast. Beyond these horrible practices; beyond Swiftâ's social and economic emancipation, people from the North and people from the East are urged to cast down their anger and change the way they make decisions. If Swiftâ's proposal is not sufficient enough, permit me to make this higher proposal that would challenge Nigerian senators and leaders to put the governed first before anything. Let me propose in this sarcastic epistle by calling Nigerian leaders to cast down pride where it makes them carry out barbaric activities. Cast down negative feelings about other tribes. Cast it down in the House of Representatives so that law-makers can make genuine friends and not “friends of benefits.” Cast down those personal ideologies that limit your abilities to make friends from other races, nationalities from strange geographical upbringings and by whom you are surrounded, by whom you must confront on a daily basis. Cast it down in postal services, in aviation industries, in banking services, in schools and churches, in agriculture, in domestic services, in cultural disparities, in financial inequalities, in religious indifference, in nutritional differences, in moral disparities, and above all, cast down all immaturities that drag you down from attaining your sublime goals in your chosen professions. Your greatest danger is that in the great leap from inequality to equality; from injustice to justice and from religious freedom to religious intolerance; from Islamic intimidation to Christian brotherhood; from Islamic imposition (Harem/pudah) to freedom and liberty of Christian women; and from the exaltation of the Caliphate to the adoration of the chieftaincy titles; you may overlook these differences; you may overlook the fact that you are from the East or North; you may overlook the fact that the masses of you people are to live by the production of your hands; by the wisdom of your commercial racketeering; by your enviable and creative entrepreneurship; by the ingenuity of your academic excellence; by the geographical separateness of your tribal sects and by the differences of your tribal tongue. If you cast down pride; if you cast down selfishness; if you cast off greed and sabotage; I mean if you allow humility to encapsulate you and all the entities in your tribal hemisphere, you will grow in dignity and in the abundance of the fact that the masses of you are to live by the productions of your hands. But if you fail to cast down, you will lack the ability to prosper in any adequate proportion as you will not learn to dignify and glorify common labor, common tongue, common economy, equal education and employment opportunities. But if you cast down you will glorify personhood and manhood. You will glorify womanhood and motherhood. You will put brains, education, skills first and tribe last. Putting human acumen and national interest first is a noble ambition. The ambition to cast down will glorify common efforts and drives human skills into common occupations of life. While I urge you to cast down, I will not fail to echo that no tribe in Nigeria can prosper till it learn that there is as much dignity and glory in living together as brothers. If you fail to cast down; if you continue to remain prisoners of the past recklessness, you will destroy the energy and dynamism inaugurated by your ancestors who were great patriots of your great sovereignty. When you cast down, you will earn the enduring confidence and the irrevocable trust of people from other tribes and other races; other tongues and other linguistic expressions. An irrevocable trust is one which cannot be changed or cancelled once it is set up without the consent of the beneficiary. Like in many financial worlds, we often observe that contributions cannot be taken out of the trust by the grantor. Therefore, irrevocable trusts offer tax advantages that revocable trusts don’t for example by enabling a person to give money and assets away even before he/she dies. An irrevocable trust obtained after you cast down is and would be quite different from “revocable trust” you acquired while you proud on or when you puff ahead.

Nietzsche criticized Christianity, abused theology and dethroned the Christian God with his “superman” postulation.  Despites these radical thoughts, Nietzsche were able to cast down before he died. The philosopher, Hegel showed no pride before casting down. That was why he articulated that the liberty of Greeks polis was destroyed for two major reasons.  Hegel believed that the private acquisition of riches leads to inequalities which by destroying the opposition of interests destroyed the reciprocity of ends. Secondly, the spread of Christianity perpetuated the dualism by conferring an absolute value to the individual conscience to the detriment of communal values (Okere, 1983). The city of Italian corruption and proprietorship which identified the reality of a person by the goods which he possessed contributed to the same effect witnessed in many industrialized societies and in many African countries like Nigeria and South Africa. Northern proprietors must cast down. Eastern entrepreneurs must cast down. Both tribes must not evaluate the financial ability of a person before he is accorded respect within the rank and file of the society. Both tribes must cast down in humility before they can deal with any national issue of human interest. Hence, incidents of tribalism are tragedy and painful even when they are abandoned in our consciousness. At times, when the North feels that Ndi Igbo are witnessing stupidity of being put on the spot or treated in a manner inappropriate to their educational, social, political or moral worth, it is not unusual for them to respond by denigrating another personâ's knowledge. Common sense as Ndi Igbo would believe is more profound than what the North learns from the book of Koran. Rather than withdrawing altogether from social contracts with people who have different belief, tongue, dialect, value, Ndi Igbo seem to feel a need to be near them, even if the means call for sometimes differentiating and defending a nation.

If Nigerian leaders fail to cast out, citizens would remain poor, sad, disappointed and worried. Plenty of people will continue to be sick and mad but if the government cast down, people will remain joyful and satisfied.  The sufferings associated with tribalism and marginalization is reflected in many cosmic Igbo music and stories. In hard times, Igbo songs call leader to cast down. It calls parents and children to cast down. A Carter Family song called “No Depression” had similar Igbo choruses: I’m going where thereâ's no depression. To the lovely land thatâ's free from care, I’ll leave this world of toil and trouble; my home is in heaven, I’m going there. All these have, challenged writers in Nigeria to publish manuscripts in which they knew when they were growing up. Their writings reflect the frontiers of the Sugarland that has an enduring romance with Igbo land. As a result, many have been associated with trilogies, a series of books about a strong tribe that had stood tall against tribalism, about national pride, about personal contempt, about individual insecurity, and the desire of many who were caught up in an unforgiving time. At all times, citizens are required to “put off”, so that they can overcome difficult conditions of living. Zora Neale Hurston was a writer and anthropology who studied black culture and folklore in the Americas. Her writings influenced Harlem Renaissance writers of the 30s. The following except from her autobiography describes an incident during the depression that showed her how principles can be compromised when a personâ's ability to make a living is threatened. Many events have taken places in Nigeria that has continued to threaten lives and society. Many of these incidents have made Ndi Igbo to realize how theories go over board when a tribeâ's livelihood is threatened.  An illustrative story is unmistakable here. An Igbo man came into a Berber shop in the North one afternoon and sat down in Mohammed chair. Mohammed was the owner of the shop and had the first chair by the door of his shop. It was so surprising that for a minute Mohammed just looked at him and never uttered any words. After he found his tongue, Mohammed asked, “what do you want this Igbo man?” “Hair-cut and Suya” Okafor replied in hostility. “Why are you hostile in your response?” asked Mohammed. Because your enquiry was aggressive and belligerent, responded Okafor. “But you cannot get hair-cut and Suya here. Mr. Okonkwo has a Kiosk for Ndi Igbo on the nearby street across the rail road, Mohammed told him. “I know that, but I want a hair cut here.” By force, Mohammed held him by the arm, took his Revised Standard Bible and his Umbrella and threw them out of his shop. While he held him roughly in his arms, he was also helping him out of his chair nevertheless. I don’t know how to cut the hair of an Igbo man, Mohammed objected. “I trained on Hausa and Muslim hairs. Nobody here knows how to please an Igbo man said Mohammed. Go away and find your folks and pray the Bible while your hair is being roasted. I will stay up here until my Umbrella and Bible is brought back to me. I know my rights and I know I did not start this drama. “Disrespect of this nature got to be stopped,” Okafor responded. I will stay right here because things like this have got to be straightened up. I will continue to be here until the Mobile police arrive. “Go ahead and call the mobile police and if you wish; wake up Azikiwe from the grave, call his brother Ojukwu,” Mohammed retorted. “You must go uptown and get your big head cut. Don’t be hardheaded for a haircut. “I am waiting in line expecting my turn for a haircut. “You are next, Alahaji Usman,” Mohammed said to the waiting customer, “Sorry, mister, but you better go uptown.” “But I have the right to wait for my own turn if I please, Okafor said, and started heading to the best of the swinging chairs which has been empty. Usman whirled the chair around so that Okafor could not sit down or step in front of it. “Don’t touch that swinging chair,” Usman glared. But instead Okafor made a stride to get into the chair by force. “Don’t argue with him! Throw him out! As they began to struggle, neighbors and passers-by joined force to drag Okafor out of the Berber shop for the second time. The rush carried him away out into the dusty hamarttan street and flung him down on the middle of the express road. He tried to lay there and be a martyr, but the roar of oncoming rail train made him jump up and scurry off. While trying to avoid the train, he was hit by a fast moving car and Okafor sustained head injury and died on the spot.

It was only that night that I analyzed the event as one of those experiences Ndi Igbo had to face as they live and struggle in a tribally wired society. The episode was one of the pointers that a tribally divided nation cannot set aside their differences to have a simple hair-cut together under one roof. A tribally divided nation cannot “cast down” and provide services to another unless they speak the same dialect. A tribally divided nation engages in a confused struggle over trivial matters. Because, Usman did not “Cast down” Okafor had to suffer and die like a fowl for the sake tribalism and principles. Okafor found himself in a tribally divided culture and received the sanction of Jim Crow (Laws or rules that discriminates against minority). The sanction of Jim Crow supports those who buy goods or services from a business. The same applies to an Igbo man who wants to earn a living in the North or to receive approval of anything from people from the North. Therefore, the Uncle Tom from the North and Okafor from East must cast down. They must cast down because experience have shown that self-interest rides over all sorts of lines, over all sorts of culture, over all levels of class and cause a tribally disadvantaged man to suffer as Islamic martyr. I have observed such episode happened in the states in racially overtone manner. I have equally read and watched it in times magazine and in the CNN where it featured, calling on both parties to cast down. I have seen similar drama breaking over racial, national, religious and social lines. East against North, West against South, Muslim against Christians, Anglo-Saxon against Anglo-Saxon, Jews against Jews, Negro against Negros, and all sorts of combinations of all. If individuals in that shop had cast down, it would have been a beautiful thing to turn to that shop crowded with customers and with the willingness to announce that Okafor was going to be served like every other person even at the risk of losing patronage. The most inspiring lesson in this episode is beyond the fantasy of the mind. The lesson is beyond the teachings and persecution of Islamic doctrine. It is beyond the prescription of Christianity.

As if things weren’t bad enough last years, the government continues to make promises to citizens to feel that tomorrow would seem better for everybody. Even when the country is still gripped by poverty, wary projects are executed to put the nation back to economic crises where all is plagued by a series of severe droughts and malnutrition.  In grasslands states of Imo, Abia and Enugu states, cattle-rearing and farming is overused depriving the lands of grasses that held it together lowering and blowing the topsoilâ's away into enormous dark clouds. This unusual believe makes the tribal North to develop nostalgic images of respectability that make them conceive of themselves as sacred individuals. Indeed, Igbo regulars share my conservative opinions with those ethnic North who believe that the stability of their local community is threatened by poverty of a broader acknowledgment. Over and above this, the so-called Northern Caliphates, those core Muslims whose political allegiance shifted dramatically away from liberalism before and after the biafian war are still players with indestructible strength. Contrarily, the poor working Igbo men remain antagonistic to symbols of Islamic conservatism. While they remain very antagonistic about the expediency of their condition, they are forthright about the failures and abuses of the war on poverty and the friction on middle class. While the Igboâ's refuses to provoke a war on tribalism, they remain cynical about the motives of those who would do well with leftward leaning views on foreign policy and an overriding belief in the legitimacy of collective liberalism.  In Nigerian today, nobody is certain of the limit of tribal activities from the West, but we all know that the West is as segregated as the East. The weight of peopleâ's opinions suggest that Ndi Igbo believes that what makes them stand out from others in Nigeria who share their views on many issues like abortion, purdah and female genital mutilation (FGM), OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference) is their readiness to affirm the value of personal responsibility with overwhelming self-confidence. Over and above these, the Igboâ's are sensitive/conscious of their own separateness when behaving in accordance with specific ideas of moral and tribal worth. From much of the same Western viewpoint, the Igboâ's believe that the North holds this country in bondage. Because it is a fact, it is not accident of nature that they have governed sizably and like Oliver twist continues to seek more political power. Therefore, there is no essential distinction between any one of these ideas, or any class of them, founded on a correct observation of the nature of things, but merely on a consideration of what the West and Igboâ's believe. When philosophers say that nothing is by accident, they are making reference to the “fact” that important events are brought about by those who hold the rein of power. Walk the streets of the middle belt and the North-West, you will find no difference in language to put its people off from others in the city. Only Tiv and the Benue tribes seem to distinguish themselves from any other tribe of Midwest metropolis. But beneath the surface are patterns of life and thoughts, attitudes and customs which Igbo republic uniquely and distinctive identified within a tribal economy. Understand Ariaria and Onitsha markets and you will understand how the North depends on the east as chief economic merchandize of Nigeria. Yet no section of Nigerian city has been examined so thoroughly as those distinct of Onitsha and Aba where the Bakassai militia find save haven. Portrayed after post-Biafrian experience, these two cities are ghettos but they are as political, cultural, and economic and they are the market hub and attraction of all tribes of Nigeria.

                ADAPTATION AS A MEANS OF TRIBAL SURVIVAL

Having explored the legacy of casting down, I must at this juncture urge you to develop alternative mode of overcoming tribalism and injustice. In a tribally founded society, adaptation has been found an alternative to peace and happiness. Adaptation in a tribal economy requires patience and skills because happiness is not guaranteed unless people develop specific skills and autonomy. The skill I mean is establishing your own merchandize and become an employer of yourself in a specific area of specialization/ establishing your very self than submitting your wimps and caprices to others in the society.  If every Christian effort fails, Ndi Igbo must develop skills and adaptation to keep their businesses thriving even in the remotest part of the North because the country belong to all-North, South, East and West.  In this case, Ndi Igbo must empower themselves even when they found there is no light at the other end of the tunnel. If you must survive and empower another, you must follow the principle and dynamism of collective adaptation. Every living thing on earth needs a place to live where its needs can be met in order to thrive and survive. An environment is the surroundings in which an organism lives. It is an environment in which humans survive. If all the needs of an organism are not met in an environment, its survival is in great danger. Many plants and animals have special features which allow them to survive in a particular habitat. If the North happens to be your habitat, then you must develop adaptation to religious intolerance. You must develop adaptation to radical confrontation at market places and in your churches. If the north happens to be your habitat, you must develop adaptation to the harsh dry weather and the burning of houses and churches. Animals speak the language of environmental adaptation. Birds live in many different types of habitat. Some birds, such as penguins live in very cold areas while others, such as Flamingo lives where it is hot like in Northern Nigeria. As part of adaptation and survival, many of these birds fly-to catch food and to escape predators. Birdâ's beaks are adaptation that enables birds to survive in their chosen habitat.  A lion could not survive in Antarctica-reason is that it is too cold because the lionâ's prey does not live there. Therefore, different habitat offers different resources. A resource is something that a living thing can use. Almost anything in a habitat has resources, but each kind of living thing needs the resources that are right for it. Ndi Igbo must develop courage to accept themselves as infidels even when they seek for finance and resource to sustain themselves and families. Ndi Igbo are to find a way to overcome these challenges and move on. A fish has grills to obtain oxygen from its watery environment. A frog has a slime coat to keep its skin from dying out. Acactus has special parts that allow it to store water for a period of time. Other plants have colorful fragrant that blossoms to attract insects. All these special parts are adaptations that help organisms survive in their environments. Like these animals, Ndi Igbo must develop adaptation that will help them survive challenges in their Northern habitat. While I continue to persuade you to develop adaptation relevant to your own habitat experience, I will not fail to persuade you to cast down.

Gerald Ogbuja