By Dr Uche Diala
It has because extremely hard to engage these days because of the stench of hypocrisy.
One cannot make a submission without it being tagged political or partisan.
Everyone is speaking toungue in cheek and men have refused to call a spade, even as the reality is starring us in the face simply out of fear. Shame on us all.
But even some who joined the bandwagon of populism thinking they can hide behind the 'others' scapegoating are seeking for who will defend them. The chicken has truly come home to roost.
One simple truth is that many, if not most of us are responsible for what we are going through security wise in Imo state today; either by direct participation or by subtle support and aqueisance. For many of us it was simply politics which makes me to ask - who drinks poison by himself expecting another person to die by it?
I repeat, let us stop our hypocritical sermonizing, emergency empathy and crocodile tears. Failed government, failed state bla bla bla. You and I are part of it.
It was here that not long ago I said that we know the unknown gun men are our brothers. My intention was simply for us to tell ourselves some home truths and maybe find a way forward but someone here boldly told me Buhari is intelligent enough to hide and defend his people but me I'm dumb and I'm exposing my own. Really? So the way I would show love to my people is to hide and defend internal evil that I know very well would come back to haunt me in time. Many of us read that and kept quiet. I further asked and severally indeed; "Who lures the enemy to a fight in his own father's compound except a prodigal son? We pretended we didn't see that question.
Somehow we believed that even though there was fire on the bush behind our house, it won't get to our house. What a delusion. Sadly the chicken have come home to roost earlier.
I read some die hard PDP elements posturing like saints or that they give a damn. Nothing could be more laughable. Who do they think they are deceiving? Having sworn since 2015 not to accept their defeat. Even if they were defeated using the same tactics they designed, built and perfected. If they swear that their hands are not in the ala adimma in Imo today, most of them will not wake up the next morning.
So let's quit the hypocrisy and self deceit and face our reality and truth. The death of our innocent brothers and sisters is totally unnecessary, yet it was preventable. I'm not sure there's anyone who is happy about that but if we don't do the needful, they may just have died in vain which would be the real tragedy.
I will try again one more time to attempt to triage our situation, hoping this time we can quit our ostrich game and hypocrisy, get off our high horses and do the needful.
1. IPOB
IPOB was birthed in Afara Ibeku via United Kingdom, nurtured and grew in Onitsha, Anambra state and Aba, Abia State and then banished to Imo state. Has anyone of us asked why?
When Nnamdi Kanu's father's compound in Afara Ibeku was invaded by the Military, no single youth, man or woman from Afara Ibeku was killed to my knowledge but I can mention one of two people that were killed from Okigwe zone. Why?
EASTERN Security Network was birthed and with it the so called unknown gunman whether we accept it or not. How come apparently it is in Imo state that their activities are more pronounced? Have we asked why?
One of our brothers transmitting with an American phone number posted a quote by Nnamdi Kanu where he said: "They will kill us, we will kill them, then Biafra will come." No my brother. It is rather they will kill us and we will kill us, yet Biafra will not come.
IPOB or rather Nnamdi Kanu tried the strategy of "if you see any awusa fulani, kill him, they will retaliate, war will come then Biafra will come". When the awusa fulani didn't take the bait, he changed tactics to fulani herdsmen and when that too didn't get traction, he turned to killing security personnel hoping to achieve the same goal using a warped and demented strategy.
Unfortunately 90% or more of the policemen killed so far in this misadventure are our Igbo brothers and sisters and the police stations and properties destroyed are our own, mostly built by community effort, not government money. Who cuts his nose to spite his face?
Yet many of us, even well educated and exposed persons out of sheer cowardice joined the chant and today they come to grandstand, shedding crocodile tears in hypocritical sympathy. Who is deceiving who?
It is easy to mount a tiger. It's to unmount the tiger that is the real problem. It's still possible but we need to do a difficult examination of conscience and sincere mea culpa and grow a new pair of balls to confront the monster we helped nurture. Can we?
2. GOVERNOR HOPE UZODINMA
Let me first state unequivocally that I am a bonafide member of the APC but I'm not a slave to party. I'm also a Buharist but I have not lost my common sense of reasoning.
Security like politics is local. I daresay with every sense of responsibility, sincerity and respect that my Governor and Leader of my Party in Imo state has so far failed in both.
As a Party Leader who won election on the platform of the APC, no matter the route he took, how has he built the Party, managed, galvanised and utilised it for leadership of the state to benefit of Ndi Imo?
When you dismantle a house built by others that you rented for a duration, there sure must be rumpus. Anyone that says that that rumpus is not contributing to the chaos we have in Imo today is far from being sincere and knowledgeable.
I read a comment by a former Commissioner in this Administration rehashing the same worn out excuse that the Governor of a state is handicapped because of the security structure and I say with all due respect that he is not being truthful to us and himself.
The Governor of Borno state, Prof Zulum was elected to govern a state that has been an active war zone for over a decade and he is succeeding even with the same security architecture. Why? Simple. He has combined good governance with good politics. Good governance goes beyond building roads and bridges.
How has Governor Uzodinma combined good governance with good politics in Imo state with a view to keeping the peace, harmony and security in our state? It's not just enough to invite the military. The Military will not fold its arms in the face of obvious anarchy (no matter who the provocateur is) and threat to their own lives, whether real or perceived. We of course can't pretend not to know of their excesses and that's exactly why they should only be a last resort when all else have been tried and they failed. Have we tried all else and they failed?
Sadly we all join to demonize Rochas Okorocha because we hate in totality and love in totality which is unnatural. We can and ought to take the good in or from someone and leave his bad.
Okorocha loath him or love him was an APC Governor in a largely hostile PDP state for 8 years. For all his sins, we didn't have the current level of insecurity we have in Imo today. Even though all the dynamics at play today where existent then - IPOB, Fulani herdsmen etc. Except maybe 'Unknown' gun men. 'Unknown' in parenthesis because we know they are not Unknown. Maybe we should rather say 'Angry Gun men'.
It was not by accident. How did he do it? One is by community engagement or participation, even if by a few but every community participated and those who participated in return knew they had a task to try to keep their individual communities in check including these angry 'Unknown gun men' today, even for selfish reasons, at least to justify and protect their pay and participation. Somehow it worked. No one wants to know how you kill a rat so long as the rat is dead.
If my dear Governor Hope Uzodinma wants to make Imo safer, he needs to think out of the box and creatively devise ways of doing so and quickly too.
3. US - NDI IMO
It is easy to point fingers and play the blame game but we must all realise that we all contributed in various ways and to varying degrees to what we have today.
A situation where every Imo person is a politician and reasons and acts like a typical Nigerian politician is a danger to us all. The extremist and uncompromising style of our politics and politics of it must be me or we destroy everything is not helping us. Those who have lost out in the power play ought to play it down and like good sportsmen prepare for the next battle. Even if we don't want to support or help build, we must not help to destroy and sit on the sidelines to grin and clap, which is sadly what most of us do. We hit in the bush and come to the road to join others to say who did it? That's what I refer to as hypocritical sympathy and crocodile tears.
If Imo must be better, we must deliberately repent of our evil ways. Those who silently or stylishly support or endorse the bad being done, maybe because they think it will paint the other Party or Abuja or Buhari bad or that it will enhance their chances in the next election, should realise that they may not even be alive then or if they survive, their relatives, friends, supporters and Party members might fall victims to the evil they tacitly or nichodemously endorse or enable today.
In closing, I'm 100% sure that not a few will ignore the thrust of my submission and pivot to Buhari and Fulani. I won't stop them because that maybe the oxygen they breathe and the therapy they need to survive the difficult times and the common meeting point of most of us, the fad and the topic of convenience that we use to delude ourselves and rationalize and justify our inability to put our own house in order. I will just remind them na ana esi n'ulo mara mma puwa ama. When we allow our homeland to be destroyed by us during practice for a war because we think we are fighting an external enemy, while others preserve theirs, when the real battle comes, we will have neither the resources, warriors nor energy to fight it and we would be routed.
So please take the message and leave the imperfect messenger.
May God help us rediscover our path.
Imo State Belongs To All Of Us.
Uche Diala
Chibuike Ogbuagu II