It was the despair that Ndigbo suffer in the hands of the authorities in Nigeria that Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, a former governor of Abia State describes the Igbo as third rate citizens in the Nigerian project.
Kalu is of the thinking that rather than the Igbo will be respected as other major ethnic groups in Nigeria enjoy, Ndigbo are relegated to the background in the proposal of things in Nigeria.
Kalu made this known at a lecture he delivered on April 18 2013, at the British House of Commons in the United Kingdom, being the first Igbo person to take the problem that Ndigbo are facing in Nigeria to such a highly revered parliament.
Everyday, Kalu is expressing his love for Ndigbo in many ways. Ndigbo are facing terrible consequences. He does not want to see Ndigbo to suffer in Nigeria like a person in a prison sentence. Alongside this sway, not only Ndigbo, but people from other ethnic groupings say that Kalu tried to reach out to the British House of Commons, because of the abysmal quandary of Ndigbo in Nigeria.
Kalu tells Ndigbo that they should not give up and should eschew any habit of insulting any group in the country, because evident is that with him, they will take their rightful place in Nigeria. He earns the honour.
Apart from this love task, Kalu is one of the persons in the wisdom-filled ala-Igbo who do right things to make Ndigbo proud and bar any intruder from deliberately choosing to do the Igbo any wrong, because politically motioned policies aimed at Ndigbo made them to be going through hard times, but they are able to resist the ills.
Kalu has always taken a step to the right direction in the great-effort for Ndigbo to be fully emancipated in the business of governance in Nigeria. In his expedition to tell the world the scrape of Ndigbo in Nigeria, it is expected that if other Igbo sons and daughters are acting like Kalu to better their lots, many positive features would have been earned.
The energetic and fearless Kalu expressed himself succinctly before the British parliament in a more aplomb manner, and opened an age-long fearfully preserved can of worms, which others feared to open. People were immovable to the fact before Kalu told the story without minding the many perceived enemies that want to run him down unnecessarily, instead of support him.
Kalu did not make a poor presentation of the Igbo case before the parliament, no matter any gainsaying voice, because the Igbo case can never be told at a go; Kalu was more vigorous and undeviating considering the major cause of the Igbo. His level of diplomacy is stylish. For his love for Ndigbo, he uses emotional advancement to address issue. Kalu is substantial and sophisticated in addressing the cause of the Igbo.
The stage that Kalu preferred to present the Igbo cause in London is one of the best of platforms in the world. The speech will be archived for study today and in the future, in the universities and in research works. His speech will be evolving, because the Igbo predicament in Nigeria is wobbly.
Kalu’s speech before the British parliament is not the end of his struggles to liberate Ndigbo from the man-made woes that surround them. It is just part of the dimensions with different ways suggesting that Ndigbo really need to come together and pursue their widespread future. Kalu is not caustic!
Kalu’s love for Ndigbo and how he presents it is always representing, levelheaded and tactful. He does not want extraterrestrials to write the history of Ndigbo since all the attempts by their rivals to plunge them did not work. Kalu understands every of the foe’s attempts to hoax Ndigbo, be it local or international. Kalu does not speak from the side of weakness, hence every Igbo voice is needed, and no matter who is seen or alleged to have erred.
It is the certainty of Kalu that Ndigbo must be united and avoids any acrimony that the competitor is using to divide the Igbo more. He believes that there is no sense in Ndigbo fighting themselves.
It is noteworthy that Kalu’s love for Ndigbo made him to puncture the conscience of those that he took the predicaments of Ndigbo to in London; a pathway that entails that the troubles and troublemakers against the Igbo are coming to an endless end with his balanced natter.
Kalu is gradually achieving the objective, by not being against Nigeria or anybody or group. His attribute follows with equal measure; and in a short time Kalu believes that Ndigbo will not suffer despair again in Nigeria.
Editor’s Note:
Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, contributed this piece from Rivers State. Tel: +2348032552855. E-mail: [email protected]
CROSS SECTION AT THE LONDON SPEECH
HIGH TABLE AT THE LONDON SPEECH
KALU AT LONDON SPEECH
