22nd February, 2011
Igbo youth go through school and graduate but Igbo elders having not worked to provide them with jobs have no jobs (unless they go to Yoruba land or Hausa land, other parts of Africa or overseas in search of jobs). Now what would you do if your people do not care for your welfare? You would probably not give a fuck about them. How do you unleash your anger on them? You kidnap those you believe have some money but ignored your plight and demand ransom payment for their release! This is now what Igbo young men, the disowned and uncared for youth, have resorted to doing.
I believe that Igbo’s warped character and pathological culture is responsible for the spate of kidnapping going on in Igboland. I blame Igbos for the evil of kidnapping their people and demanding money for their release just as I blame them for kidnapping and selling their people to Arabs and white men during the days of slavery.
My response is not a very popular approach to the Igbo question and is certainly not going to make me friends among Igbos. What Igbos have developed the habit of doing is using their poorly understood social science to blame the environment for their obvious stunted character flaws. They these days blame Hausas, Yorubas and other Nigerians for all that are wrong in Igboland. The idea is that other Nigerians kept Igbos underdeveloped and poor. Hausas and Yorubas supposedly take most of the Nigerian oil money and spend it on themselves and not on Igbos. They claim that no development projects are sited in Igbo land by the Nigerian state (this may be so but why not do it by yourself, why look to others to do things for you?) Simply stated many Igbos believe that it is the fault of other Nigerians that Igbos are unemployed and poor hence resort to stealing and kidnapping their people for ransom money.
This tendency to blame others for their sins is a carry-over from their slavery days. Till today they blame white men for kidnapping and selling their people to whites (they tend to forget that for over five hundred years before the white men came along they were already selling their people to Arabs, nor did the white man come to their land to kidnap anyone). It is always other people’s fault but never theirs.
By blaming others they do not feel bad about their obvious evil behaviour; they do not feel guilty and remorseful for trafficking in iniquity. By blaming others they remain perfect in their own eyes whereas those they blame, other Nigerians seem imperfect and evil…just as the blamed white men seem evil and imperfect, while they, folks who sold their brothers, masquerade around as innocent victims of others’ depravity.
These people apportion blame to others rather than to themselves and this behaviour (ego defence, no doubt) has wreaked havoc in their individual psychology. Blaming others and not themselves caused their apparent narcissism and delusion disorder; the narcissistic and or deluded person fancies himself a perfect god even though he is an imperfect person like all of us.
To grow up one must look one’s self in the mirror and see one’s strengths and weaknesses and work on one’s weaknesses rather than deny them and blame other persons for what one’s weaknesses produced in one’s life.
Those Igbos who kidnap their people for ransom are cowards; they lack the courage to do what would improve the Nigerian polity. A few Nigerians hijacked the Nigerian state and ripped off the wealth of the land and instead of fighting to dislodge the thieving rulers of Nigeria these cowardly Igbo youth turn their attention on self-gain by kidnapping their people for money. If they were courageous they would form organisations, even militia to attack the thieves in Abuja and bring down the empire of thieves and restructure Nigeria for the good of all Nigerians. But no, collective action for social good is not their cup of tea; their contemptible habit is doing whatever serves their selfish goals hence their current kidnapping of their people for money, doing what their equally selfish, cowardly and despicable ancestors did when they kidnapped and sold their people into slavery.
It is time these people are taught real courage; courage lies in love and fighting for public good, not self-centered good only. It is now time Igbos transformed their garagara behaviour to courageous behaviour that looked after the good of all human beings.
As long as rich Igbos do not care to work to provide employment opportunities for Igbo university graduates, and choose to be idle, knowing that their elders do not care for them, I submit that they would resort to stealing, kidnapping and other anti-social behaviours to make ends meet. The result of Igbos’ lack of caring for their people, their wild individualism is that they would produce many antisocial youth who would kidnap and demand money for their release, or worse: kill them and not show remorse.
Therefore, something has to change in the Igbo character. Igbos must start caring for social interest and working for public good rather than merely work for their individual interests and masquerading around as important persons. A society that does not provide jobs for its youth is bound to produce criminals and that serves them right for why shouldn’t the youth take from the adults who ignored their needs?
This whole idea that each of us is on his own and ought to look after his interests only, that the world is a dog-eat-dog world where no one helps others is the cause of Igbos’ present dilemma and if not changed would produce an Igbo people with collapsed culture. When morality is gone Igbo society would become like Somalia.
Igbos would soon progress from their currently cowardly kidnapping of their people to kidnapping other Nigerians and then go international to kidnapping other Africans and non-Africans for money. When they kidnap white folks, since white folks treat black men like niggers, they would not mind killing a bunch of Igbos in reprisal military strikes. These people are gradually reverting to their ancestors’ level of being: slave sellers. In fact, if there were no international laws preventing the sale of their people, I believe that Igbos would be selling their people to Arabs who would gladly buy them and use them as beasts of burden; what do Igbos care as long they have money to show off as big men! Morality is for inferior persons, not for the supposed Igbo superior men!
I have obviously stated some painful truths about Igbos and most of them know that what I said is true. But instead of dealing with the truth that I observed, the more deluded Igbos would come to the public square and use poorly understood psychological terms to describe me, such as saying that I hate myself and hate Igbos, that I am attributing my self-hatred to Igbos, that I hate Nigerians and Africans in general. Some will even call me psychiatric names; anything to put me down and divert attention from what I said. The idea is that if I am called names and lied about, folks would not listen to me and instead listen to the spurious clowns who call such names. But despite their defensive behaviours, look who is harming other Igbos: they are Igbos themselves, not other Nigerians!
To stop Igbos from kidnapping other Igbos for money, Igbos must learn to care for one another, love one another and work to provide employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed Igbo youth in Nigeria. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. If Igbo youth are gainfully employed they would not resort to kidnapping and other antisocial behaviours .Those Igbos who have money ought to be investing it in establishing factories where Igbos could obtain employment rather than masquerade around as very important persons who do nothing for their people.
—Ozodi Thomas Osuji
•This article, according to the author, traces the current spate of kidnapping and other anti-social behaviours in Igboland to what it calls warped Igbo character and pathological Igbo society; it says that Igbos have wild individualism that seeks individual achievement without caring for the larger society, leaving all to fend for themselves and the ignored youth resorting to criminal behaviours. It says that Igboland is approaching Somalia where law and order broke down and that unless something is done and done soon that Igboland will become Somalia, with no law and order, with chaos and pillage the order of the day and Igbo life become nasty, brutish and short.