Opinion
By Nwabunwanne Dan Aniesi
JOE Igbokwe is not a prodigal son. The prodigal son thinks. He knows he has a stake from his father’s estate. He thinks, and so he was able to come to his sense and realized that under any condition, his fathers house is still better than reveling and dying on the streets.
The prodigal did not suffer self hate.
Joe Igbokwe is not a prodigal son, he is a victim of self-hate. Self-hate is a thing my people and I have found it in some people.
At times, they are victims of lack of capacity for understanding, at other times, they are victims of over bloated self importance. Many times, the victim of self-contempt does not know it, and they work to make it permanent and to build a system around it.
As a matter of fact, systems have been built around self-derision and cultures are evolving out of it, especially in Africa.
It is a tool of conquest. Sometimes your enemy does not want to attack you directly, but he can come in and inspire self-loathing in the family, and then elevate the ones who have become his victim in other to achieve a herd mentality.
Self-hate are in levels, and manifests in different forms. Do you know that there are people who consider speaking their native mother tongue, as condescending? If you ask them, they will tell you it is not classy, it is not modern and etc. There was this girl I met on campus, an otherwise nice girl who is a close friend of mine. The idea of marrying her once crossed my mind, but I never gave it serious thought as I had an understanding with myself that until I am done with my post graduate I wasn’t going to start any form of conjugal relationship, dating, girlfriend or whatever it is called. But one of the days we got talking and I raised the issue of dying Igbo language among children raised in cities outside Igboland. Her response was that it is not a problem, and that Igbo language will not be spoken in her house, and she will not tolerate anyone teaching no her children Igbo language, and it will be English only, and when the child grows and decide to learn Igbo language, they can do so. That statement almost made me hated her instantly, but one thing it sure did was that it foreclosed permanently the idea of marrying her. She had self-hate.
Joe Igbokwe is not a prodigal son, he just has self-hate, sometimes he wants to mask it with the idea that he is speaking in the best interest of the Igbos. But you see, any person, any man, who thinks about his welfare, and does not have the welfare of his descendants as a priority, is not a good man. There is an age one gets to, and you begin to think less of yourself and more of your descendants and your people.
There is something Olisa Agbakoba was reported to ha e said on #theplatform. He said that those Igbos who insulted other Igbos for not voting for Buhari, have all come back in shame. Do you know why? Because history is a mirror. I had stopped arguing some topics with some, supposedly; fellow Igbos, but sometimes I am tempted to still see whether they could come to universal reason. But a profound statement by Cheta Nwanze closed it for me, now I don’t argue with them any longer. Cheta said, not quoting verbatim; that those Igbos who like to deny their Igboness, can as well continue. But that on an appropriate day, those who are hailing them for their Igbo denialism, will remind them, that they are Igbos.
Joe is not a prodigal son, the prodigal son has capacity for balance of thought, even if it is occasionally. Joe does not have it. Let’s let him be and wish him all the best.
**Mazi Nwabunwanne Dan Aniesi is an architect
– May 2, 2021 @ 10:15 GMT /
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