The June 15, 2010 edition of NEXT reported that a coalition of groups in Abia State had asked Governor Theodore Orji to resign on account of the level of insecurity in the state. It was not the usual partisan fare, with a number of opposition parties banding together to hound a state governor. Instead, the call for Orji’s resignation came from seven human rights and pro-democracy organizations.

There was no doubt that the groups – the Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation (HRJPF), Abia Peoples Forum (APF), Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy (CRPA), Popular Participation Front (PPF), Campaign for Democracy (CD), Centre for the Advancement of Children's and Women's Right (CACWR) and Centre for Human Empowerment, Advancement and Development (CHEAD) – were in deadly earnest. They set a deadline of June 30 for Mr. Orji’s resignation. And they promised to commence non-violent civil disobedience should he ignore their call.

My bet is that Governor Orji would not hearken to the ultimatum to resign. Nigerian politicians are not in the habit of giving up power, even when they have no idea how to deploy the resources of their office to solve problems.

The first duty of any government is to guarantee the security of the lives and property of its people. By this measure, Governor Orji has failed the people of Abia.

The groups demanding his resignation took care to offer a convincing narrative of Abia as “a failed state.” The dossier included a “spate of armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom, ritual killings and rape in Abia State, particularly Aba.” The groups decried “the spiraling wave of insecurity in the state.” They instantiated with gory, shocking details: “Between 14 May and 8 June, several banks have been robbed, security personnel brutally killed, trouser-wearing ladies raped, and innocent persons kidnapped for rituals and/or ransom under the nose of heavily armed security men, including the blood-thirsty Abia State Vigilante Services (Bakassi boys).”

Then there was this unanswerable indictment: “Armed robbers and kidnappers now give notice before they strike, as vividly shown by the invasion of First Bank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc, both in Port Harcourt Road, Aba on Wednesday, 2 June. Recall that they had written to inform [the banks] of their intention to rob them and eventually did, to [the] chagrin of all.”

It’s a sweeping, bleak panorama of the state of insecurity in Abia. But the stigma of failure is not Theodore Orji’s alone. It is a humiliating admission to make, but sadly true: a cadre of greedy, visionless leaders has for too held sway in the Igbo-speaking southeastern states. Other past and current governors of these states have – by their corruption, lack of vision and absence of strategic intelligence – condemned Igboland to economic doldrums and moral degradation.

On June 5, A friend was in Toronto to give the keynote address at the annual Biafran War Memorial celebration. His talk harped on the current war in Igboland, a war characterized, above all, by a crisis of values. I tried to persuade my audience that, in sheer enormity and direness, the ongoing war dwarfs the effects of the Biafran war that claimed more than a million lives.

Let’s be clear: the triumph and veneration of morally virulent values is not an exclusively Igbo malaise. Nigeria as a whole has long been in the grips of a deformed ethos, the reign of a disorder in which absurdity is held to be sensible, impunity is exalted, and honor is mocked.

In my view, however, the Igbo have paid the steepest price for permitting these misshapen values to gain traction – and then to be embedded as the norm. The moral cancer metastasizing through Igboland is best detected in the music as well as social language.

For years, the fiercely republican Igbo carelessly allowed themselves to dance to lyrics that proclaimed “ana enwe obodo enwe” – roughly translated as “a community is owned.” At first glance, that lyrical claim would appear innocuous, even persuasive. Another lyric set out to name the Igbo’s “nnukwu mmanwu” – big masquerades. Any discerning person would be shocked by the questionable pedigree of some of the men advertised either as the “owners” of their community or big masquerades.

Wealth, whatever the mode and means of its accumulation, was the unmistakable criterion for “owning” one’s community or receiving recognition as a big masquerade. Bowing to wealth, some Igbo musicians shamelessly trumpeted scallywags, scoundrels, and charlatans. It seemed anathema to credit anybody for the quality of his or her public service, for exemplary moral conduct, or for proven distinction of mind. I have never heard any musician invite Chinua Achebe, the most globally well-known and revered Igbo man – a man of stellar intellectual achievement and stupendous ethical funds – to take a seat among the masquerades. Nor have I heard any musician suggest, in a lyric, that the outstanding novelist has a say in the ownership of his community. No pride of place was reserved for women and men whose stock came in the form of dedication to service, whether in the private or public sector, or self-sacrifice in the cause of advancing the common good.

It was inevitable that the habit of worshiping material possession would bring Nigeria to its present troubling pass. In Igboland, the consequence has been nothing short of tragic. One of the popular phrases in Igbo public speech is, “onye bu igu ka ewu n’eso” – or, the goat follows the man with the palm fronds. It is a disturbing statement in every particular. It reduces humans to the level and ethic of a goat. It dictates that every goat/human must follow the man with food, even where the food is stolen.

Such scant regard for sound moral values has had devastating effect. It has fed an anything-goes culture. It has enabled shady characters to sink roots in Igboland and criminals to make a cottage industry out of kidnapping their fellows. There are whispers that some traditional rulers, unscrupulous police officers, shady businessmen as well as “prominent” politicians – the kind often dubbed big masquerades – now organize, sponsor or run their own kidnapping cells.

The Igbo have never faced a more serious challenge than the current blight of kidnappers. We can no longer afford to dress up the ugly truth in fine garbs: the Igbo people are engulfed in a war for survival akin to Biafra, but more desperate, if you ask me. The only difference is that, in this case, the enemy is within.

The casualty is extremely high. Fewer and fewer Igbos resident in such places as Abuja, Lagos or Port Harcourt look forward to traveling to their home states. And when they go, they must arrange to hire several police officers to guard them. The prospects are even grimmer for Igbos who live abroad. For fear of kidnappers, many – perhaps most – traditional marriage ceremonies are now held in Nigerian cities far from Igboland. Imagine the economic and social costs of the flight of such ceremonies. How about investment in new businesses? They have virtually dried up.

Igboland is beleaguered, dangerously close to becoming a no-go area. Yet, the Igbo governors have disconcertingly shown little inclination to weigh any serious measures to remediate the situation. Is it that they fail to recognize the scale of the threat, that they are bereft of ideas for tackling the monster, or – as many people speculate – that some of them are profiteers from the crisis?

Equally indicted are those men and women who run around Abuja and Lagos, styling themselves Igbo leaders. Their pretension to the role of leaders is rebuked by the fact that they have not seen fit to confer and focus on strategies for winning the deadliest, costliest war facing their people. The Igbo’s cultural and moral crisis is exacerbated by a crisis of leadership.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the specter of kidnapping was germinated and fertilized by a permissive culture that, over many years, sought to blur the line between “alu” (sacrilege or profanation) and “ife zili ezi” (good conduct). Consequently, if we are to win the war we’re in, we need not just a diligent, sanitized, well equipped and highly trained police (a far cry from the corruption-ridden apparatus that has usurped the name of law enforcement in Nigeria), an attuned political leadership, and a judiciary that is awake to its sacred mandate. Above all, we need a fundamental re-orientation of values. We must reclaim that moral clarity that once enabled the Igbo people to be appalled at execrable conduct and to look at ill-gotten wealth and say, in fierce repudiation, “Tufia!” or “Alu!”

We must seek this moral rebirth, or we’re doomed.

Igbo Kwenu!!!.

Soon some internet non-nentity will come out to blast this man and label him an alarmist.

In as much its not yet a war situation over there, the rate that things are turning up, it might just end up that way.

December is around the corner and I shudder at the prospect of what will happens to folks travelling home against all odds. How many poeple can afford to hire private security guards right from and back to the airport for the entire duration of their stay.

Most of the politicians and police there are surely part of these problems and therefore cannot be part of the solution. Let the FG declare a STATE OF EMERGENCY in Abia.

Okey Ndibe could not have put it any better.

the truth is unless the attitude of may Igbo chiefs and politicians are curbed and everyone is called to account for what they may have done or failed to do, nnukwu manwu and Oke manwu's will continue to embarrass and endanger the image of igbo people all over the world.

Kidnapping started in baylesa thanks to Ibori and Odili and to some extent i could see the boys points, now it has turned into business in Igbo land. People are afraid to return to their villages as their lives are at risk. can you imagine someone who has been waiting for paper to return and see their people FPO over 20 years returning from America after such a long time with many be money he borrowed from his credit card and someone kidnaps him for ransome. Is that not a curse. Would they ever come home again if they get out alive. O read that the army are now involved in the fight in Enugu. Hopefully we will know the big wigs involved. If i have a way, the army and police should also raid their homes, take them away and demand billions from the impoverished families and keep them in prison if they fail to come up with the ransome. That will teach them a bit of lesson and if possible strip them naked and give them 24 lashes every day until their families pay the ransoms and they have been to prison for 25 years.

I don't really share this view that the writer is propagating.

^^^stop living in self denial. Am sure u will not want to end up as part of the statistics before it dawn on you how true what this man is talking about.

^^^^^

Alarmist. I spent the holidays traveling throughout Abia State from Aba to Umuahia back to Arochukwu and the only problem are the police checkpoints.

No denying the fact, there is '''war'' in Igboland. But can we deny the equal fact that there is also ''war'' in other parts of Nigeria? Basically, the ''war'' in question is kidnapping and armed robbery. Can we deny that these two types of ''war'' are not found in the SS and SW? Can we deny that come 2011, the SW will not be inflamed yet again with political killings (their unrivalled trade mark type of ''war''). Granted that the North is far less afflicted by these two ''wars'', but there are even more dire ''wars'' in the North, namely rife inter-ethnic and rife religious wars. So he who wants to deny that other parts of Nigeria are not at ''war'' should say aye!

ilugunboy:

^^^stop living in self denial. Am sure u will not want to end up as part of the statistics before it dawn on you how true what this man is talking about.

Pray tell, what exactly am I self-denying?

I have a question which remain unanswered on this insecurity situation in Nigeria and Igboland in particular. Nigerians are so dumb these days that they hardly ask intelligent questions. All they do is to echo and re-echo news of problems without even trying to think about a possible solution.
My question is this:

Assuming a state governor wants to solve armed robbery or kidnapping, what can he do, when the police is NOT answerable to him?

He cannot sack the state police commissioner, or any police officer in his state. All policemen answer to the IG at Abuja.

What can a state governor do?


CURRENT NIGERIA'S SECURITY PROBLEMS ARE MAINLY TRACEABLE TO THE CIVIL WAR of 1967 -1970.

Why do governors get the appellation of "chief security officer" when they cannot even sack a police officer.

Okey Ndibe enjoys my respect, but I am a little disappointed that he failed to ask hard questions.

I was in a meeting over the weekend about this issue and the consensus was that thing will only get worse until we get LOCAL POLICING.

If my town has only 200 policemen (we can pay them ), I can assure you that no kidnapper will operate there. The key to stopping this is not responding when they strike, it is to find them BEFORE they strike. Igboland is not difficult to police. We know ourselves and foreigners are easy to spot.

Nigeria is killing Igboland slowly using incompetent Federal police.

Anywaz, OnlyTruth, you're always welcome to my state

FL Gators:

Anywaz, OnlyTruth, you're always welcome to my state

Thanks.

However, I never run from challenges no matter how dire. Believe me this kidnapping thing is very easy to solve.
The whole thing is simmering though, soon it will either be solved or it will blow into a full scale war.

I really don't see this as a purely social problem like Mr Ndibe put it in his article. I believe it is a socio-political and economic problem. I heard that most of the initial kidnappers were university graduates would couldn't find jobs after graduating.

If I would blame Ndigbo for anything, it is that we are not defying the federal government enough on issues that concern us. We should just tell the federal government that we need local police. If they refuse, we should simply arm Bakassi or MASSOB to give us security. You cannot refuse to provide us security and still reject our providing same for ourselves.

All the deprivation of Igboland is gradually coming together, from people who were schemed out of the military to those who were schemed out of federal government jobs.
These people need livelihood.
We should confront this problem frontally rather than the usual "blame the victim" mindset.

Onlytruth:

Thanks.

However, I never run from challenges no matter how dire. Believe me this kidnapping thing is very easy to solve.
The whole thing is simmering though, soon it will either be solved or it will blow into a full scale war.

A re you assuming that kidnapping has only [b]one [/b]base that can be solved?

I'm having a hard time seeing how local policing would work/curb kidnapping  without honesty in the legal system.

FL Gators:

A re you assuming that kidnapping has only  one [/b]base that can be solved?

[b]I'm having a hard time seeing how local policing would work/curb kidnapping  without honesty in the legal system.

Ok, look at it this way; the states make criminal laws, right? How can they enforce those laws when the law enforcement is NOT in their hands?

Let me tell you, if my town Nnewi is allowed to create and equip a police force for itself, we would recruit and arm THE BEST even if we have to recruit them from Abroad.

200 well trained and armed policemen can ROUT all the so called armed robbers operating anywhere near my town.

Their modus operandi would be to take the war to the criminals. Pure intelligence based LOCAL policing.

The criminals would know that the war is over only after they are dead.
We have laws, we only need to enforce them. Anambra state has capital punishment for kidnapping, but the NIGERIAN POLICE is part of the kidnapping in Anambra state. So who would enforce that law?

If towns form their own local police, this thing will stop. It has NOTHING to do with the so called Igbo love of money.

Nigeria is just decaying, and nobody at the center cares.

Onlytruth:

Ok, look at it this way; the states make criminal laws, right? How can they enforce those laws when the law enforcement is NOT in their hands?

Let me tell you, if my town Nnewi is allowed to create and equip a police force for itself, we would recruit and arm THE BEST even if we have to recruit them from Abroad.

200 well trained and armed policemen can ROUTE all the so called armed robbers operating anywhere near my town.

Their modus operandi would be to take the war to the criminals. Pure intelligence based LOCAL policing.

The criminals would know that the war is over only after they are dead.
We have laws, we only need to enforce them. Anambra state has capital punishment for kidnapping, but the NIGERIAN POLICE is part of the kidnapping in Anambra state. So who would enforce that law?

If towns form their own local police, this thing will stop. It has NOTHING to do with the so called Igbo love of money.

Nigeria is just decaying, and nobody at the center cares.

I see. . . .

I noticed how you changed from a possessive form to a Non-possessive form [NIGERIAN POLICE].

Care to explain that? I feel like. . . you know, there's an explanation there.

BTW, dont towns own their own police in Nigeria? Really?

FL Gators:

I see. . . .

I noticed how you changed from a possessive form to a Non-possessive form [NIGERIAN POLICE].

Care to explain that? I feel like. . .  you know, there's an explanation there.

BTW, dont towns own their own police in Nigeria? Really?

I deliberately used it because frankly that is the mindset of the police posted in Igboland. They operate as if they are still fighting the civil war. When they mount roadblocks (supposedly to search and arrest criminals), they only extort money from innocent drivers and commuters.

When you deny them that, they form cohorts with criminals involved in armed robbery and kidnapping.
We can't win with that force in Igboland.

So the REAL SOLUTION is LOCAL POLICE,
and NO, towns don't have police formations in Nigeria.

Onlytruth:

I deliberately used it because frankly that is the mindset of the police posted in Igboland. They operate as if they are still fighting the civil war. When they mount roadblocks (supposedly to search and arrest criminals), they only extort money from innocent drivers and commuters.

When you deny them that, they form cohorts with criminals involved in armed robbery and kidnapping.
We can't win with that force in Igboland.

So the REAL SOLUTION is LOCAL POLICE,
and NO, towns don't have police formations in Nigeria.

My assumption was correct. I predicted your reply before you posted.

Lol I feel ya tho

FL Gators:

My assumption was correct. I predicted your reply before you posted.

Lol I feel ya tho

Yea, Nigerian police force is criminally corrupt and inept.

Some kidnappers in Anambra operate in police uniforms with police issued firearms.

What do you want me to conclude?

Onlytruth:

Yea, Nigerian police force is criminally corrupt and inept.

Some kidnappers in Anambra operate in police uniforms with police issued firearms.

What do you want me to conclude?

Pull your defense wall down.

I'd rather reserve my comment on this.

BTW, Nigerian police are corrupt, true. And you think local polices are going to be different?

FL Gators:

Pull your defense wall down.

I'd rather reserve my comment on this.

BTW, Nigerian police are corrupt, true. And you think local polices are going to be different?

If you remove Nigerian police from Igboland and let every locality that can fund a police force do so -States, Local government areas, or Cities, crime rate will drop drastically. If your crime rate fails to drop, you simply fire your police boss and hire another. Simple.
When he knows that his job is on the line, he would deliver. But, why would you hire a police boss whose record is not stellar?

Nigerian police is not a force for good in this fight.

Onlytruth:

If you remove Nigerian police from Igboland and let every locality that can fund a police force do so -States, Local government areas, or Cities, crime rate will drop drastically. If your crime rate fails to drop, you simply fire your police boss and hire another. Simple.
When he knows that his job is on the line, he would deliver. But, why would you hire a police boss whose record is not stellar?

Nigerian police is not a force for good in this fight.

Is employment going to increase too?

If not. . . .

FL Gators:

Is employment going to increase too?

If not. . . .

I happen to come from a school of thought which believes that violent crime can be reduced through measured violent response.
If fact that works most of the time. I know that unemployment is bad, but it does not explain or justify kidnapping your neighbor or killing innocent folks in a bank (like happened in Aba last week). These things never used to happen in Igboland. It was imported. A murderer is a murderer.

In the days of our fathers, thieves never had guns. They waited until the owner of the house left and they moved in to pilfer few stuffs like food and clothes. There days, thieves want to be RICH and they are prepared to do ANYTHING to be rich. This is a strange culture and must be fought to a standstill. Our fathers worked hard and they thought us hard work, discipline and focus.

Covetous foreigners sent to do police work in Igboland started with road blocks and migrated to open armed robbery and kidnapping.

Onlytruth:

I happen to come from a school of thought which believes that violent crime can be reduced through measured violent response.
If fact that works most of the time. I know that unemployment is bad, but it does not explain or justify kidnapping your neighbor or killing innocent folks in a bank (like happened in Aba last week). These things never used to happen in Igboland. It was imported. A murderer is a murderer.

In the days of our fathers, thieves never had guns. They waited until the owner of the house left and they moved in to pilfer few stuffs like food and clothes. There days, thieves want to be RICH and they are prepared to do ANYTHING to be rich. This is a strange culture and must be fought to a standstill. Our fathers worked hard and they thought us hard work, discipline and focus.

Covetous foreigners sent to do police work in Igboland started with road blocks and migrated to open armed robbery and kidnapping.

I get what you're saying.

Back in the days, one can leave their house with the doors unlocked. . . . nowadays one fears been attacked in their own home.

I dont think Nigeria in general used to be like that. . . . desperate time comes for desperate measures to survive. PERIOD.

Dont think we'll ever be sure of it's "origin" or where Igboland "imported" it from.

FL Gators:

I get what you're saying.

Back in the days, one can leave their house with the doors unlocked. . . . nowadays one fears been attacked in their own home.

I dont think Nigeria in general used to be like that. . . . desperate time comes for desperate measures to survive. PERIOD.

Dont think we'll ever be sure of it's "origin" or where Igboland "imported" it from.

The origin is really important. If we can't be sure of the origin, then, no one can ever be sure of the possible solution.

Methinks that the origin is many -former Niger delta militants, Nigerian police, political thugs and former armed robbers.

I read an article on Sahara reporters written by a guy who visited Igboland in December of last year. In it, he claims that the kidnappers are former Niger delta militants of Igbo extraction who helped MEND, only not to be added to the amnesty program, according to him pushed aside by their Ijaw brothers when the money showed up. As tendentious as that may sound, it may be true.

My concern really is how to stop it because it is adding to our problems in Nigeria.

Onlytruth:

Methinks that the origin is many -former Niger delta militants, Nigerian police, political thugs and former armed robbers.

I read an article on Sahara reporters written by a guy who visited Igboland in December of last year. In it, he claims that the kidnappers are former Niger delta militants of Igbo extraction who helped MEND, only not to be added to the amnesty program, according to him pushed aside by their Ijaw brothers when the money showed up. As tendentious as that may sound, it may be true.

And I thought I was the only one who thought this. . . This is the reason why I don't share the writer's views on this "War in Igboland".

Onlytruth:

The origin is really important. If we can't be sure of the origin, then, no one can ever be sure of the possible solution.

Methinks that the origin is many -former Niger delta militants, Nigerian police, political thugs and former armed robbers.

I read an article on Sahara reporters written by a guy who visited Igboland in December of last year. In it, he claims that the kidnappers are former Niger delta militants of Igbo extraction who helped MEND, only not to be added to the amnesty program, according to him pushed aside by their Ijaw brothers when the money showed up. As tendentious as that may sound, it may be true.

My concern really is how to stop it because it is adding to our problems in Nigeria.

I see.

Then there was this unanswerable indictment: “Armed robbers and kidnappers now give notice before they strike, as vividly shown by the invasion of First Bank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc, both in Port Harcourt Road, Aba on Wednesday, 2 June. Recall that they had written to inform [the banks] of their intention to rob them and eventually did, to [the] chagrin of all.”

What I find funny is that warnings were given multiple times and yet nothing was done.

I'm beginning to suspect the security of the bank itself.

From what I've read and learned on NL, I think it's safer to bury my money in my backyard. . . . its safer there.

Like someone on here already said, we Igbos know ourselves. People back home know who this kidnappers and robbers are but are too scared to

call them out. How can a 21 or 22 year old guy with no college education and just started doing business yesterday be driving a brand new $50,000

car and be building a mansion in the village. And the goods in his store are not even worth anthing, those are your kidnappers and rubbers, it's not

rocket science.

OgidiBoy:

Like someone on here already said, we Igbos know ourselves. People back home know who this kidnappers and robbers are but are too scared to

call them out. How can a 21 or 22 year old guy with no college education and just started doing business yesterday be driving a brand new $50,000

car and be building a mansion in the village. And the goods in his store are not even worth anthing, those are your kidnappers and rubbers, it's not

rocket science.

Ah ahn, dont you believe in miracles anymore?

FL Gators:

I see.

What I find funny is that warnings were given multiple times and yet nothing was done.

I'm beginning to suspect the security of the bank itself.

You would be likely correct, unless the security men died in the raid too. If they survived by whatever means, they remain suspect in my own views as well.

From what I've read and learned on NL, I think it's safer to bury my money in my backyard. . . . its safer there.

Don't worry Gators, this will pass as well. My main concern is the toll it would take (in terms of culture destroyed) before it passes. I don't know about your culture, but Igbo culture is not regenerating for the better unlike before. These days, evil is far more convenient to copy than good. I still recall when a rich man was ostracized in my town because his source of income was suspect. Such persons were usually greeted with a shunning "Tufiakwa!" no matter how highly placed.

I still believe that the Nigerian police force plays a BIG role in the kidnapping. Several reports cite cases where men in police uniforms stopped a busload of people and simply "cherry picked" their victims.
With the number of police check points in Igboland, you cannot help but wonder how kidnappers move around freely.

FL Gators:

Ah ahn, dont you believe in miracles anymore?

That's more than miracles my dear, go to Onitsha and see these guys, English they can't speak, they live in slums and drive the most expensive cars.

OgidiBoy:

That's more than miracles my dear, go to Onitsha and see these guys, English they can't speak, they live in slums and drive the most expensive cars.

ROTFLMAO!


@OnlyTruth

Don't worry Gators, this will pass as well. My main concern is the toll it would take (in terms of culture destroyed) before it passes. I don't know about your culture, but Igbo culture is not regenerating for the better unlike before. These days, evil is far more convenient to copy than good. I still recall when a rich man was ostracized in my town because his source of income was suspect. Such persons were usually greeted with a shunning "Tufiakwa!" no matter how highly placed.

My culture. The only thing that gives me hope when I think about Nigeria.

Sadly everything is "quick money" nowadays. . . . across every culture. Even if we employ local police, the only thing that can change "quick money" is if we change our mindset and if the Govt starts doing its job. Sadly, the govt wont change light years from now. . .  so, basically. . .you know what I'm saying.

I still believe that the Nigerian police force plays a BIG role in the kidnapping. Several reports cite cases where men in police uniforms stopped a busload of people and simply "cherry picked" their victims.
With the number of police check points in Igboland, you cannot help but wonder how kidnappers move around freely.
'

There's no doubt about this. Wasnt it just recently that a police weapon was found at the scene of a bank robbery?