The
unbridled quest for money and the attitude of “only money counts” in all Igbo
affairs, came under severe attack, yesterday, when the Catholic Bishop of
Nsukka, Most Rev. Professor Godfrey Igwebuike Onah, delivered the 33rd Public
Lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, FUTO, titled
“Intellectualism and the Development of a People.”
According
to the fiery Catholic cleric, the toll Igbo people have paid in values for
this, has been enormous, adding that money and what money can buy seem to be
all that matter to Ndigbo.
“Even our
proverbial egalitarianism and republicanism seem to have disappeared as the
super rich became the owners of the community and their praise singers remind
those who were in doubt that the community or town, indeed belong to some
people”, Professor Onah lamented.
Tracing
how the Igbo degenerated to the present level, the Bishop said that before the
Nigeria-Biafra war, the intellectual was the pride of the Igboman, pointing out
that it was a pride to be referred to as doctor’s mother or father.
“Then
came the war, the blockade, the starvation, the surrender, the humiliation and
the economic emasculation. Despite the beautiful slogan of no victor, no
vanquished, there was and still is, a clear plan to crush the presumably
rebellious Igbo spirit and, thus, shatter the myth of the resilient Igboman”,
Onah said.
Continuing,
the erudite cleric recalled that at the end of the war, the foremost battle of
Ndigbo was for survival in a Nigeria that neither wanted them in its fold nor
would let them go, “having been stripped to the bare skin of all the material
wealth they had acquired before the war by the post war Nigerian government”.
According
to the cleric, a careful scrutiny of the way most political office
holders were selected in Igboland and what they do with the common patrimony
when they are in office, will confirm that Ndigbo have collectively sold their
birthrights to those who have the hard currency to spray.
“Before long, the only money counts attitude found its way into the precincts of the churches and, through harvests, bazaars and the unending fund raising programmes for the innumerable church projects, it gradually moved into the sanctuary”, Onah said.
The Bishop
also reasoned that from the sanctuaries, the money virus exploded like a petrol
tank on fire, spilling it’s content into massive open air rallies, crusades and
fanfares of the miracle industries and mega markets, where the insecure wealthy
class, the distressed youths and miserable victims of the reckless pillage of
our national wealth by an unscrupulous political class collectively fund the
extravagance of some self appointed redeemers.
FOR MORE STORIES VISIT
CKN NEWS SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:
Twitter: @CKNNigeria
Facebook: CKNNigeria
CKN NEWS Hotline:
08080054001
Whatsapp: 08099677755
BBM : 2BE329DF
Website: www.cknnigeria.com
Tags
Society