Politics
DEPUTY Speaker of the House of Representatives Benjamin Okezie Kalu has been told by the frontline civil society organisation: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) to stop creating the impression that the Igbo people are beggars who line up around government houses to collect bags of rice and remnants of foodstuffs. “He, the Deputy Speaker should stop insulting Ndigbo by informing the World that hunger instigated the extensive and heightened state of insecurity in the South East which is an absolute falsehood”.
Emphasizing that the root causes of the worrisome insecurity and seemingly unending instability in the once economically flourishing and peaceful South East Region is not because the people are so lazy and therefore hungry as the Deputy Speaker’s so-called new initiative for peace: Peace in South-East East project: PISE-P has vigourously attempted to recreate false narratives by distributing bags of rice to some persons in Abia State. “The young man needs to know that most Igbo youths are either in their shops working very hard to make decent living, or farming and engaging in other productive enterprises even in the information technology sectors. The Igbo youths who are well educated and highly skilled, are busy working as medical experts and academics in the different reputable faculties in the advanced societies of Canada, USA, Australia, GB, France, Italy, Germany. So the Deputy Speaker should stop distracting Ndigbo because we will never reduce ourselves to the pathetic position of beggars. Begging is antithetical to our culture and is indeed a cultural heresy.”
HURIWA recalled media reports that the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu launched the “Food For Peace” initiative which he argued is a pillar of his Peace In South East Project (PISE-P).
HURIWA recalled that the misguided initiative which was flagged off in Bende local government area of Abia State, falls under the agriculture and food security pillar of PISE-P, captioned: “A Hungry Man is an Angry Man” in recognition of the importance of food in the drive for peace in the region.
According to news reports, the launch witnessed the distribution of food items across the 17 local government areas of Abia State and other areas in the region.
The chief press secretary to the deputy speaker, Livinus Nwabughiogu said over 6,000 bags of rice, 150 bags of beans, 80 bags of garri, 3000 cartoons of spaghetti, 100 cartoons of vegetable oil and 3000, pieces of wrappers were distributed to each of the councils.
Nwabughiogu in a statement made available to parliamentary reporters said the flag off also featured the distribution of motorcycles, deep freezers, sewing and grinding machines, big capacity generators and pesticides sprinkling kits.
He said other items donated include, several pieces of wrapper, sleeping mats, blankets, mosquito nets, children’s clothes and brocade clothes, recording thousands of beneficiaries.
According to him, Kalu had before the distribution of the items, met with the coordinators in the state and emphasised the need for peace.
Noting that “a hungry man is an angry man” he told the people that in the weeks ahead, PISE-P will unveil other phases of the programme which included infrastructural developments to sufficiently better the lots of the citizenry.
The deputy speaker also solicited support for the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led federal government, stressing that the south east stood a chance to benefit immensely.
HURIWA has however carpeted the Deputy Speaker for depicting the Igbo people as a set of laid back, lazy, perpetually hungry, noisy and angry people, who are in dire need of bags of rice, beans, alubo, amala and gbegiri, and some other food condiments to resort to peace and harmony just as the Rights group said the action was an unmitigated insult on the consciences and Great reputation of the highly sophisticated, urbane, productive and creative population of South East who on their own terms with no federal government intervention even amidst desperate economic sanctions that characterised the unfortunate fratricidal warfare in the early 60’s, re-established themselves as the most respected entrepreneurs in the black World.
HURIWA said what the Deputy Speaker should concentrate his legislative times in Abuja is not to go about attempting to win cheap publicity by masquerading as the messiah of Ndigbo, but he should work together with all the Federal legislators in Abuja to end the systemic marginalisation of Ndigbo in the political scheme of things even under the current political dispensation in which Ndigbo as a member of the TRIPOD that constitute the majority of the Nigerian population, could only be alloted the less fancied position of a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives even when the other major ethnic blocs unlike Ndigbo are in firm control of the executive, judiciary and legislative arms with the Yoruba producing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the chief justice of Nigeria, the Hausas producing the Speaker of the national legislator.
The Rights group also stated that part of the fundamental causes of unrests in the South East is not that the youths are hungry, far from such idiocy, but the fact that the youths of Igbo extractions face unprecedented challenges unlike the other two ethnicities, in the area of landing juicy or even moderately paid employment slots in the federation just as several institutional encumbrances through the Customs and excises are mounted to frustrate Igbo businesses most of which are predominantly importation oriented. Also, for the purposes of clarity, the Fulani born politician called Nasir Elrufai was allowed to become the governor of Kaduna State even when he is one of those ethnic irredentists suspected of instigating ethnic and religious cleansing of Southern Kaduna Christians but the leader of the Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who is not linked with any physical violence resulting in genocide, has been locked up in the underground secret cell of the DSS since the evil days of Muhammadu Buhari’s maladministration only because Nnamdi Kanu is Igbo and had to be put away for daring to use a London based radio Biafra to insult then President Buhari and brand him as Jibrin of Sudan.
HURIWA is therefore tasking the Deputy Speaker to refocus and redirect his attention towards attracting strategic national assets to the South East such as a refinery, federal government offices and workable infrastructures just as the Rights group asked if Benjamin Okezie Kalu is unaware that Kaduna State is home to over 65% of all of Nigeria’s military institutions whereas the South East only have dilapidated police and military barracks as if the South East is a land under occupation.
“The South Easterners are not beggars, they are only asking and agitating for equal rights and justice within the Nigerian federation. If the Deputy Speaker is so desirous of providing economic empowerment to the Igbos, he needs to encourage investments in the areas of agriculture, cottage industry, and speak for the South East to similarly enjoy uninterrupted electricity power supplies from the national grid to boost small, medium and large enterprises based in the South East,” HURIWA averred.
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-January 10, 2023 @ 17:08 GMT|
Tags: Benjamin Okezie Kalu HURIWA
