What Igbos need now is unity, says Nneka Chimezie …Maintains Igbos are on top of affairs in Nigeria

Success Damian:

Mrs. Nneka Chimezie, a business woman and real estate consultant, is also a human rights activist.

Chimezie is the chairman of an Igbo Newspaper, Ekwe Kuo Amagbaa and national coordinator, Igbo Women Forum, an organization that is affiliated to Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF).

Having X-rayed the Igbo nation Chimezie who is popularly called Madam Pinto passed a verdict that what the Igbos need at this critical period is unity.

She maintained that unity must come first before agitation for either Igbo presidency, restructuring or Biafra.

“Right now I think what we need is unity among ourselves. What you don’t understand is that we are on top of affairs in this country, we are the backbone of this country; without us Nigeria is nowhere. It is like we don’t understand the kind of power we wield in Nigeria. We allow the press propaganda, the media to bring us down, to tell our own story. We allow people to tell our history, we allow people to introduce us. So we don’t really know the power we possess, our strength, our worth and Nigerians know our worth and they don’t want us to know it.

“They knew that if we know our worth, if this people can be this powerful, the best thing is to play them down so that they won’t know their worth. For me, I think what we need is unity of purpose, unity among us, respect for ourselves, love ourselves, and help ourselves, that is what we need,” she said.

Chimezie advised the Igbos to go and develop their home states “We need to go home and develop our own land, and make them come to our own land, because we run things, we run things in Lagos, we run things in Abuja, they all know it. If we don’t take our time and sit down and unite ourselves, we are going to be destroyed over time, they are doing it already, they have taken us out of white collar jobs, they have practically schemed us out, and they are also looking for a way, they have not been able to penetrate the business arena, but they will if we continue to play this I before others, this selfishness, being individualistic, I think that is the weak point they are using to destroy us, and allowing yourself to be used, being a saboteur, stabbing your brother in the back, otherwise, in fact, if we unite ourselves, Nigeria will beg us to rule them; they will ask us how did you do it?

She also spoke on the entrepreneurial and survivalist ability of the Igbos adding that the significant milestone made by the Igboman over the years through business is fast being ruined by politics “I think all we need now is to unite, if our fathers could survive with two Naira, and become what they are, what can we do with millions of naira that some of us have, some of us have millions they don’t know what to do with it. There is need for unity of purpose, I think politics has destroyed us more that it is building us, if you watch Igbo land, the people that build Igbo land are the businessmen, politics is destroying us, so much power is dissipated in politics that everybody wants to go into politics, I think there is need for the elders, if we even have them, to sit down and ask themselves this question, what do we need, what do we need to do? Let us leave Nigeria for now, let us talk within ourselves, how do we close our doors and settle our matter and then launch out for Nigeria to see us? If our fathers can fight the war with nothing, what can we do, but I think the war was more of internal than external, the war is more within us than outside, so I have never seen any house that is divided against itself and stood, a house that is divided against itself will never ever stand.”

Chimezie said the problem of the Igbos is the problem of division “I think the problem within us is more of the division among us than the oppression we get from outside, nobody can oppress the Igbos, if you know who an Igbo man is, no man can oppress and Igbo man, but it takes an Igbo man to oppress an Igbo man. Watch whenever you see an Igbo man being pulled down a fellow Igbo is under the table giving idea how it can be done.

“We are one man riot squad, too strong for Nigeria, Igbos are too intelligent, too smart for Nigeria to place us where we are. I think we are the ones marginalizing ourselves, cheating ourselves, maltreating ourselves. Anytime we decide to unite, how do we unite? If you find your brother being maltreated, even if he is wrong defend him outside, bring him in and caution him. Yes it might be the right thing to caution him out there, but that is not the language Nigeria speaks, must you be the one to speak the language of due process, this is the way it should be done, while others scheme out, we continue to fight, Nigeria doesn’t want it, it is divided along ethnic lines.

“So let us go home, if you find your brother wanting outside, defend him, then bring him in and caution, that is what others do, because if we start, and when you see your brother aspiring for something stand by his back, think that is our case point, that is our weakest point, if we can be giving ourselves that support we needed, we don’t need 9jer, we don’t even need the presidency, did we have presidency before we got this far?

“Let them keep their presidency, let us run things underground, our dear president entered and felt he can finish our businesses in one month just like they said they would finish war in two weeks, we just sit down and watched them and we laughed, they made their polices, but we quickly adjusted and begin to run things, so I think what we need now is unity of purpose, we can unite and speak with one voice, we have so many pressure groups speaking for us, these pressure groups should unite and speak with one voice, once they see you speaking with one voice, I don’t think we can be defeated, Chimezie emphasized.