₦airaland Forum

It is no longer news that Igbo, especially in the five Southeast states, did not participate in the End Bad Governance protest that started in other parts of the country on August 1.

However, why the Igbo shunned the protest and the implications for the country are raising issues in the polity.

Across other parts of the country, angry protesters stormed the streets and for more than five days vented their spleen against what they described as bad Governance, hunger and hardship in the country. The protest became riotous in the North as hoodlums looted shops, and business centres among others. Many states declared curfews to contain the mayhem.

But there was pin-drop silence in the South-East leading many to ask if the zone and Igbo are insulated from the prevailing economic downturn in the country.

Ameh fingers inequity, injustice

Speaking on the issue, Chief Peter Ameh, former Presidential candidate and national secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, said the “absence of equity, justice and fairness is the reason for the political apathy by Igbo in the Nigerian project.”

According to him, “constant and unjust scapegoating of the Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria is the major reason why Igbo abstained from the nationwide protests.”

He continued: “Failure to implement General Yakubu Gowon’s Reconstruction, Reconciliation and Rehabilitation programme is a catalyst for growing lack of commitment by all persons of Igbo extraction within and outside Nigeria in many programmes of the government.”

Chief Ameh also attributed Igbo boycott of the protest to “marginalisation of Igbo in strategic economic and administrative positions under the APC governments, and acts of tribal exclusion mixed with political bigotry.”

He continued: “The main reason why the entire Southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria was unanimous in their decision not to participate in the ongoing #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest across the country is primarily as a result of the easy targeting of lives and property of Igbo whenever there is an uprising or protests in Nigeria.

"Being the only tribe in Nigeria that could be found and visibly seen in the remotest parts of the country, Igbo are always at the receiving end of the consequences of any activity carried out either by the Nigerian government or the public.

Salewa97:
So na only una dey suffer?

All this talk of marginalization and injustice is just noise. When other regions dey protest, Igbo dey sit down like say dem no get mouth. If una no fit stand up for your own rights, who go do am for you?

10mobile:
Imagine telling you, "don't follow this road; it will lead to a big problem" but you insulted me and insisted on following the road. But when you meet a problem on the road you come back to wonder why I am not crying with you over the problem. I no know where some people's sense go.

This man didn't even say the reason Igbos didn't protest.

“Constant and unjust scapegoating of the Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria is the major reason why Igbo abstained from the nationwide protests.

Salewa97:
So na only una dey suffer? All this talk of marginalization and injustice is just noise. When other regions dey protest, Igbo dey sit down like say dem no get mouth. If una no fit stand up for your own rights, who go do am for you?

Philipponzaghi:
Typical Igbo behavior, always finding excuses instead of standing up for their rights. While others are in the streets, they’re hiding in their corners, afraid of the shadows they’ve created. When will they learn that silence is not strength?

Let us look at the ‘protest’ in the South-East. I say this with every sense of honesty: if there is anytime I wish I were of Igbo stock, it is now. During the preparation for the ‘protest’, I was apprehensive. I asked myself whether the Ndigbo would allow the thunder to strike them for the second time on the same spot. I was alarmed.

The genocidal campaign against the Ndigbo over the ‘protest’ was palpable; very ominous! Alas! The Ndigbo proved to be the wisest of all ‘protesters’ in all! Rather than hit the streets and be slaughtered like it happened in the 1966 pogrom in the North, the Ndigbo hit their homes.

The sons and daughters of Ndigbo did what those waiting in the wings for them did not expect. They stayed indoors, drinking and winning. Rather than making themselves available for the security agents kitted with deadly arsenals to ‘curtail’ the ‘protest’ in the East, the Ndigbo locked up their shops and imposed on themselves “sit-at-home”!

In frustration, and somewhere in Lagos, when the ‘waiting-in-the-wings’ state thugs stationed to “deal” with the Igbo boys and girls that would come out to protest, they mistook a Yoruba lady, one Olufunmilayo for an Igbo. I watched the video of the encounter, and I shook my head. Does hunger separate tribes? What if Olufunmilayo had turned out to be an Ibo lady? That is the question I have not been able to answer.

Salewa97:
So na only una dey suffer?

All this talk of marginalization and injustice is just noise. When other regions dey protest, Igbo dey sit down like say dem no get mouth. If una no fit stand up for your own rights, who go do am for you?

Philipponzaghi:
Typical Igbo behavior, always finding excuses instead of standing up for their rights. While others are in the streets, they’re hiding in their corners, afraid of the shadows they’ve created. When will they learn that silence is not strength?

Salewa97:
So na only una dey suffer?

All this talk of marginalization and injustice is just noise. When other regions dey protest, Igbo dey sit down like say dem no get mouth. If una no fit stand up for your own rights, who go do am for you?

10mobile:
Imagine telling you, "don't follow this road; it will lead to a big problem" but you insulted me and insisted on following the road. But when you meet a problem on the road you come back to wonder why I am not crying with you over the problem. I no know where some people's sense go.

This man didn't even say the reason Igbos didn't protest.

Mbanda:
When the yorubas were busy accusing Igbos of destroying Lagos and other parts of Nigeria during and after Endsars protest, what measures did you take in defense of Igbos?

Salewa97:
So na only una dey suffer?

All this talk of marginalization and injustice is just noise. When other regions dey protest, Igbo dey sit down like say dem no get mouth. If una no fit stand up for your own rights, who go do am for you?