Deteriorating Situation In Igboland Appalling, Says Author of ‘Shadows Of Biafra’

Nigerian author and scholar, Mr Uchenna Nwankwo, has decried the appalling situation in Igboland whereby “some radicalised Igbo youths seem hell-bent on disrupting and upturning the social and political peace of the Igbo country.”

In his welcome address at the launching of his book entitled, Shadows of Biafra, in Lagos on Tuesday, Nwankwo said, “As a keen observer of the local and international political scene, my impression is that there is a heightened battle for the soul of Nigeria going on today. And that all other matters about Nigeria and its future hang on the outcome of this battle. To switch metaphors, no house built on a faulty foundation can stand. Nigeria was built on faulty foundation, intrigue and deception. Even at independence, these fault lines were deepened or exacerbated instead of expunged and eliminated. Consequently, these have become such a drag on our national progress that while most other countries have continued to make progress in every direction, we in Nigeria are steadily regressing into barbarism.

“It therefore became my resolve to address some of the above issues in this book as well as call for the creation of the appropriate political edifice or superstructure from which the numerous other problems facing Nigeria can begin to attract the needed attention. It is indeed my conviction that before Nigeria can emerge as a great nation and economic power, we must first set its political edifice aright.

“It is also my desire to outline the tactics for the aggregation and empowerment of progressive forces to do the needful by way of rescuing the country from the long entrenched misrule of the conservative faction of the Nigerian political class, which is itself under the sway of the traditional Fulani ruling class of the far-North and it’s Caliphate.

“I am equally concerned and indeed appalled over the deteriorating situation in Igbo land where some radicalised Igbo youths seem hell-bent on disrupting and upturning the social and political peace of the Igbo country. From every indication, these youths want to impose strange un-Igbo ideas and their own brand of order, which oppose the established age-old universal right to free speech, assembly and association in Igbo land. In effect, they want to side-track the subsisting Igbo gerontocracy and our democratic traditions!

“My notion is that we may disagree over some issues from time to time but that is no reason for anybody to resort to thuggery and intimidation or grandstanding in any form. We must eschew intolerance and political gangsterism! We must remain faithful to our democratic traditions.”