Every Igbo man knows very well that money does not walk through the door into his bedroom. He knows that money is usually tucked in a hard shell and only hardwork and determination will crack it. He does marvelously well, to the admiration of many, in money acquisition.
He also knows that chains of degrees(which he has in abundance) are not delivered to him in his bedroom on sympathy grounds after wailing for years. Only persistent hardwork attracts them. Most academic institutions outside Igbo land have unbelievable numbers of Igbo students in them doing their thing no matter how it is to gain admission. Sports? Even the legendary mathematical Odegbami respectfully referred to what he called the Igbo fighting spirit during one of his Sports Parliament shows as a very helpful factor they relied on for their soccer laurels in his playing days.
The Igbo go out there and get the sports laurels without begging anybody for the opportunity. What about politics? He lags behind! Not due to lack of capacity. By unconscious choice, he plays the victim and engages in endless wailings and complaints of marginalization. You often hear statements like: they don’t give us good appointments, they don’t promote us, etc. Who are the ‘they’ for God’s sake? Does anybody own this country more than the Igbo man? This is not in the character of the Igbo man! To sit down and wait for someone to have mercy on him and give him what he needs? No way.
He will go and get it, no matter how hard it is. So, why not do the same for politics? Who can even marginalize the Igbo man? Nobody! If you are enjoying his goodies, he willingly gave them up. You will soon find yourself scampering for cover when he comes for them. So, get up man and take your rightful position in Nigerian politics. Many Igbos have done very well politically in some other countries.
So why not Nigeria? Every game(football, handball, swimming, etc) has rules and traditions, in other words, it has a way of playing it. You must learn the way a game is played and master it in order to excel. Some are individual games such as boxing, while others are team games such as football.
Some people are better in individual games than in team games. Politics is even more than a team game because it involves whole populations and spans across generations so do not expect quick results. The legacies laid for the north and west of Nigeria decades ago are still relevant in their political successes today.
There is sufficient ground to believe that president Buhari is living up to his promise that we should not expect the same treatment for those who gave him 5% of votes as those who gave him 95%. But do we settle for that? Is that the end of the world? Is part of our agreement not to wait for a bad leader to serve out his term and we vote him out? Are we asking for change of rules midway into a match? If the positions were swapped, are we sure we would maintain the same position? If you are not ready to give your best to any game you decide to play, you must be ready to play second fiddle. The consequences of halfhearted politicking can be grave but must be embraced because you asked for them
