I want us, today, to take some time to think deeply about our social, economic, and political state as the oppressed in Nigeria. There is a Gestalt of forces working against our resolve to become free. These forces are both within and external to us: the external oppressors in the North and their western sympathizers and our attitude to the struggle. Each force tends to have devastating effect on us, but we are naturally immune to one. If that be case, our attention should swerve to the other. What are these forces and do they differ one from the other? How do we extinguish them and liberate ourselves from both oppression and suppression?
The external forces against our decision to severe the strings binding us oppressively are working hard to ensure that we are economically and politically deflated. It is their devious intention to vitiate our quest for freedom vide a sustained harsh economic policy that targets us for incapacitation. These forces spring from a region for which Nigeria was forged by Britain because of its servility to the latter. Yes, for its gullibility occasioned by the absence of lettered inhabitants, this region from which the external forces are acting became the baby in Britain’s womb. Nigeria, thus, became the gift the colonial master offered to the colonised.
We have suffered this long and much because of our imperviousness to British colonial project, for we were too exposed and lettered to stoop to conquer. Great minds indigenous to the Eastern Region, such as King Jaja of Opobo, were too smart to be colonised to the gamut that they outsmarted the imperialists in Palm oil business. Yes, we are the object of the collective scorn of both the British and their Fulani successors. They hate us for being the natural occupants of a region flowing with milk and honey. The real objective is to annihilate us, yet we live. We remain the ancient people of the region sprawling with diverse tribes all of which give exquisite ambience to our region. The external forces are working hard to break us further, but we seem to have subdued them with the reinvigorated call for regional autonomy: restructuring and referendum. Kudos to us all!
But the external Gestalt of forces cannot do much harm to us. There is another prong of the forces working against that poses far more serious threat to our social, economic, and political well-being: our attitude. We have striven to ward off the external enemies, but we seem to lack the needed congruence and harmony within to finally put our enemies out. Yes, we must check ourselves again to ensure that nothing rattles our cage. Until we are able to have that elusive regional dialogue, we shall continue to sing discordant tunes. One song, one goal, one call, and one agendum. We must be ONE in all ramifications in order to emasculate the formidable external forces against us. We cannot be broken again. It is time to say, “Enough is enough!” The time to free ourselves from this protracted captivity is now. Let us harmonise and emerge as victors. Let us sit down, have that talk, reach that decision, and make progress together. One love and God bless us all.
Russell Idatoru Sunju Bluejack
