By Willie Amadi. 

Many people have critiqued Obi Cubana and other young Igbo billionaires for supporting President Tinubu through the City Boys Movement as a sell out. I totally disagree with them because, when the obvious is clear, it is better to join the winning team and negotiate your turn than fighting as we did in 2023 Presidential election, and thinking that we can win the Presidential election alone now. 

The loses by the Igbo in Lagos are still fresh and counting. 

My reasons for disagreeing are based on history namely: first, the aftermath and shock of the 1967 cessation and declaration of war against Nigeria. As far as the rest of Nigeria, particularly the Hausa and Yoruba ethnic groups are concerned, that bold move by the Igbos led by our great son, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu amounts to an offence with capital punishment or atleast, life imprisonment. 

Secondly, the mere fact that the Igbo stretched the whole of Nigeria nation for a helllish three years of war with practically nothing but resilience and brain power remains a pointer for carefulness. 

Thirdly, the unprecedented fast economic recovery despite the punishment of giving the Igbos only £20 pounds irrespective of the balance of money in their bank accounts after the civil war, and still prosperously rising economically and commercially to be where they are today in the same Nigeria, is both scary and very frightening for them to allow Igbos govern Nigeria without negotiation and reassurance. 

 It will, therefore, amount to a collective suicide for Nigeria to stay aloof and allow the Igbos assume the leadership of this country through their singular might, strength and or self help alone, looking at Peter Obi’s 2023 surprising attempt. 

Finally, I believe that the Igbo can still return to  Nigeria as part and parcel of the pre-1967 era again, if they strategically and wholeheartedly rise in unison like Cubana and the City Boys Movement, openly support Tinubu for a likely second tenure victory and also support him in his desire to activate the all important amendment of the 1999 constitution having strategically and politically acquired the legal and legislative majority components required to amend the constitution. The National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly through the Governor’s Forum and the tranquilization of the northern cabal, makes it very easy and possible to amend the constitution during his risk free second tenure in office without fear ir favor. 

The amendment will yield to the equality of States amongst the federatiing units and balancing the heavily skewed local government councils between the North and South.

By establishing the federating units in the new constitution in line with the spirit and intentions of the constitution, creation of State Police and balancing the rest of the deliberate imbalances, the Igbos under a new Nigeria will have a level playing ground to negotiate the Presidency with either the Hausas or Yorubas and or both agreeing to allow the Ibos take a short at the Presidency for a lasting peace to reign in the new Nigeria. 

The other easy way is the unconstitutional take-over of power by an Igbo in the military through a coup de’tat which will aggravate Nigeria’s problems other than the credible alternatives.

Igbo like Cubana and the City Boys Movement must learn to intentionally create and nurture a new and formidable  political partnership that will help them first, accepted in Nigeria and make it possible to rise to the Presidency of Nigeria. They should perish the illusion that they can make it alone whether with Obi or not, but by a solid alliance first sought and obtained from the Housa or Yoruba nations acting in concert with them. My thoughts though.

Amadi, who holds a Ph.D in Law, is a Member of Imo State Council of Elders

By Segun Adeyemi

Permit me to go straight to the heart of this message.

I can no longer pretend that I have not been following the deeply troubling and increasingly vile exchanges involving you and others in recent times.

What has now become a public brawl is unfolding on social media, an arena without boundaries, without gatekeepers and, it would seem, without red lines.

Social media is a most unforgiving theatre. Whatever is said there acquires a troubling permanence.

Long after we are gone, generations yet unborn need only type a name, and every word, spoken or hurled, rises again, fresh and unrelenting.

Should that not give us pause?

Should it not compel restraint in what we say, and even in what we choose to dignify with a response?

Of all those caught in this fray, you are the one I know, and have known for a very long time.

Our friendship dates back to 1977, a year before we gained admission into UNIFE. We worked together then as clerical officers in the University Library under Mr. Dipeolu (I hope I got that right. If I didn’t, I can be forgiven. It’s almost half a century ago).

That was long before fame found you. You were grounded, witty, perceptive and street-smart, yet deeply studious.

Innovative. Brilliant. We competed, not in vanity, but in intellect, over the books we had read, the ideas we had encountered.

And we read, voraciously. How could we not, with the rare privilege of unfettered access to a university’s intellectual treasury?

We also had fun, maximum fun. We drank palm wine. We drank beer. We partied. We chased babes.

I remember accompanying you, many times, to visit your dear mother, of blessed memory, at her shop near the palace. She feted us each time. Ever so kind. Ever so motherly.

I recall meeting your brother, Dr. Ajayi, newly returned then, whose sports car was the talk of the town.

I reach back into these memories not out of nostalgia alone, but to establish my bona fides to write you this note, to remind you that I knew you before the noise, before the crowd and before the many voices that now speak at you and about you.

You have always earned your place through hard work, discipline and intellect. Many don’t know this, sadly. They only see the fun-loving Publisher of a popular society magazine.

I am not concerned here with who is right or wrong, nor with what ignited this present _Ija’gboro_, this no-holds-barred street fight where everything becomes a weapon, including shared history and past goodwill.

For the sake of all you hold dear; for the memory of your mother, whose dignity and values you carry; and for the sake of God, I urge you: find an off-ramp from this vicious freeway. Step away from this corrosive spiral now.

You are not the sum of the insults hurled at you. You are not the distortion others attempt to project.

No.

You will recall that in those Ife days, you held British Philosopher Bertrand Russell in high regard. Russell once observed:

_”The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”_

Wisdom, my brother, often lies in restraint, in knowing when to disengage from the theatre of noise.

And perhaps you also read the works of another Philosopher, German Friedrich Nietzsche, whose haunting warning feels especially apt at a time like this:

_”He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”_

There is yet another truth, often echoed across ages: when one descends into the arena with a beast, the spectators, in time, cease to know the difference. I didn’t say this to insult your opponents in this shameful arena. They are not my concern here.

I say this with all the affection and sincerity of a brother: rise above this moment. Withdraw your dignity from the marketplace of insults. Let silence, where necessary, speak louder than rebuttal.

May God guide your thoughts, guard your words and steady your steps at this time.

Yours ever so sincerely,

Segun ADEYEMI is a veteran journalist