“Igbo destitute” deported
to Onitsha!- Fashola Simply is an Impetuous tribalist.
You recall how his Excellency, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) and
his aids dealt with the Igbo traders all over Lagos when he started his ‘Eko ni
baje’ projects? Though; he gave the Nigerian army ample time to move their
walls and facilities lying directly on the road between Yaba and oyingbo and
indeed paid for rebuilding those structures affected. However, Fashola neither
provided an alternative for the Igbo traders nor did he make any attempt to
relocate them before he commenced his ‘Eko ni baje’ flower planting exercise oshodi
and in fact all over Lagos or did he think of compensating the Igbos. All at
once and in most sudden and wicked manner his tax force moved into Osodi roadside
market using sledge hammer and other dangerous clubs to smash goods and wares sold
by the igbos in addition to goods that were destroy where you can’t provide the
three years tax you are arrested tried by mobile court and straight to ikoyi
prison or kilikili maximum security prison; as I am writing now, hundreds of Igbos
are still serving their jail terms and some have finished serving and came out
to face a bleak future as all means of their livelihood had earlier been smashed
by His Excellency and his armies What is worrisome is that if
my investigation is right and I believe
it is , I gathered that the deported Igbos were and has never been any kind of
destitute at all they are the latest batch of Igbos who had just finished
serving their jail term as regard Oshidi assault and I guess His Excellency’s
advisers fearing negative publicity as the batch may talk to the press quickly
moved all of them into the vehicle and ran off to Onitsha head bridge and dumped
them and speed back before anyone would say jack! Fashola’s aids knowing that the
Igbos are proud people and since the
Igbo man amongst all other ethnic groups in Nigeria has the freest sprit and no
Igbo man would want to say or associated of being imprisoned! Looking at
Fashola’s second show of advanced comics, he assembled ‘destitute’ from osun state
in a record time and sent them back to osun state. Though it is worthy of note
that he handed those son of soil ‘destitute’ in more dignified manner by
handing them over to the governor of the state. One would wonder if that was
not an arrangement between him and the governor of the state in question
because a man of ordinary intelligence would have expected Fashola and his aids
to dump the ‘destitutes’ at Ogun state toll gate since that is the nearest
Yoruba town to Lagos just like Onitsha Head Bridge is the first contact on your
way to Igbo land! Recall that while Oshodi operations were going on His
Excellencies ministry of works was busy tearing up almost all the road sides in
Lagos states and as it were all shops close to the road are all bulldozers by
Fashola’s caterpillars and since most shops are close to the road you can now
add up what the Igbo traders experienced in the hands of this heartless tribal
and impetuous state man. I know of so many Igbos whose three shops were
destroyed in one week wiping out their means of livelihood and just about five
years after, His Excellency has got the gut to be talking of Igbo
destitute. I think that that was what
His Excellency had in mind while he was maliciously executing his so called
‘Eko ni baje’ projects. Perhaps let me remind His Excellency that the Igbo man
has no business with destitution. A classical prove of this was the civil war I
am hundred percent convinced that if the Yorubars had drank the cup we drank
during the civil war plus Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s 20 pounds ceiling on all Igbo
deposits in Bank no matter how much you had pre-civil war the Yorubas would
have had more destitute that would attract the attention of United nations, Ecowas,
UNDP, EU, AU, China, Russia and US! The same thing is true of the other ethnic
groups in Nigeria or they may even be worse off. So Your Excellency, if you
want to insult the Igbos you should have something less demeaning to use other
than associating the wide eyed proud loins, the Igbos with destitution. Though
I know that there are many Yorubas that are not tribal atall the problem is
that in my own opinion none of them has been able to occupy a prominent position.
But if actions of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and General Olusegun Obasonjo were
anything to go by I do not in my opinion believe they care a hoot whether the
Igbo man is heading into the swamp or not! So I am not that surprised that Mr.
Babatunde Fashola SAN behaved the way he did! The shrew can’t stop its stink or
can it? Gen Obasonjo for all the eight years he spent as President made only one promise to the Igbos you
already no it, it was second Niger bridge but you and I already know the level
of its completion! General Obasonjo did not waste any time to wipe out the Odi
community just because some two police officers or thereabout were killed in
Odi but you recall at the same time the Yoruba Vigilante group killed a
whopping 100 police officers in Bariga a suburb of Lagos one expected Bariga to
be turned over like cartage but don’t feel disappointed they were the sons of
the soil! Even before Chief Moshood Abiola won his his presidential election he
was quoted as having said something like he doesn’t need the Igbo man to win
his Presidential election. It was generally believed that it was this verbal marginalization
of the Igbos that pitched him against Arthur Nzeribe!
Come to think of it the so called money Lagos has that the
governor is sending everybody away so that it can go around for the few people
left what is the component and lets see whether the Igbo person contributed
anything into them: Federal allocation, bulk of what Lagos has comes from VAT
and custom: from VAT who brought in the vast goods being vated it is the Igbo
traders on Custom who imported the goods Customs taxed? It is once again mostly
the Igbos. That is not all the other component and very huge too comes from
crude oil which the Igbos in South East and south south along with the other
nationalities from south south contributed for Lagos! Concerning the other arm
of Lagos revenue the IGR shops and business premises are taxed as well as
individuals and the Igbos still have a comparable contribution if it is not a
highly weighty contribution.
Finally I would want to say that I do not blame him, I should
rather ask the Igbo groups to thinker up how to deal with people like
Fashola, Col. Gadaffi, who killed about 500 Igbos in Libya
when his madness ran out of proportion and Atamiels of Ghana that did a mini
Nigeria Must Go on Igbo traders in Ghana by demanding a deposit of $300000.00
for you to run your singlet shop or paper and pencils shop in Ghana and till
date most of the Igbo traders shops in Ghana are under lock and key! The Igbo leaders
and association must find a way to send a message of some kind to Ganges khan
or Joseph Stalin kind of leaders that would want to use Igbo man to practice
macho man leadership either now or later!
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