6 Vices that Negate Igbo/Biafra Nationalism

Vice is behaviour that is considered bad habit and harmful to society. Vices lead to social problems such as conflict, indiscipline, crime, abuse, illicitness, poverty, etc. Nationalism means ‘the desire by a group of people who share the same race, culture, language, etc to form an independent country.’ Six (6) vices that negate Igbo/Biafra nationalism are explained below. They include: 

1) Indiscipline: This is the inability to control your behaviour or the way you work, live, think, etc. It is lack of self control. While this is a general way to look at indiscipline, I shall reduce it to one behavioural pattern called abuse. Abuse is the use of something in a way that is wrong or harmful. Some of the ways that it shows include abuse of opportunity, knowledge, power, privilege, right, etc. I’m going to talk about the indiscipline of abuse of grammar. Igbo people have decided to take Ichoku to another level. Do you remember Ichoku, that drama series from the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Enugu? I believe that was the beginning of the indiscipline of grammar, which are the rules in a language for changing the form of words and joining them into sentences. It is also a person’s knowledge and use of a language or skill. I can’t think up the reasons for this abuse of grammar by the Igbo tribe of Nigeria but I think it must have something to do with not taking the language seriously. It started with the corruption of the word or term Ichoku itself. Ichoku means parrot in Igbo language but it was taken literally to mean trouble making, ‘icho okwu.’ 

Words and phrases suffer this type of corruption often used in informal conversation most of time without care for one’s educational background. Second language users are fond of doing that but this is beyond pidgin or Creole. Most graduates who have to speak this way often do so with mischief on their mind. Anyway, let’s just say that undisciplined use of grammar hasn’t helped the Igbo cause or nationalism. For instance, the English word ‘egoism’ doesn’t have much to do with ‘ego’ the Igbo word for money. The trouble is probably in the pronunciation, which makes it sound like money. Who made this possible? It isn’t right. It has detracted from the Igbo being taken seriously by people of other culture. It’s not an invention. It is mere prank but taken seriously it mocks our formal education system. Whatever secret society that got people thinking that way got them set up for failure but unfortunately they are influencing the younger generation and other people. Even in Ichoku such abuse was only entertainment as it began the phrase, ‘lost in translation’ when illiteracy posed a challenge to the court interpreter Mazi Lamadi Ugorji. There was that episode that Nwa DC asked him to tell the people in court to ‘make peace’ with one another but the interpreter told them in Igbo to ‘make piss’ instead. How that was possible nobody knew and they went away in sorrow and in great confusion. Ichoku is mere entertainment. It shouldn’t be seen as the grail handed to the Igbo for personal relations and interactions. 

Homophones are another rule of grammar that Igbo nationals have used to abuse both the English and the Igbo languages. For instance, everybody knows that most Igbo people greet a lot. When they pass you, they greet you and ensure that you heard them loud and clear. This is everybody receiving it mostly strangers. Imagine somebody saying to you, ‘good mourning’ to actually mean ‘good morning?’ When somebody tells you ’let us pray together’ be sure they didn’t say to you, ‘let us prey together.’ ‘I bear myself wear’ needn’t be confused with ‘I bare myself well.’ Indiscipline, paganism or whatever ‘ism’ that controls such abuse of grammar should be avoided. They like to change up sayings too. Of course, you know ‘that birds of a feather flock together,’ but in Igboland, ‘it’s birds of the same feather.’ And ah! When you want to ‘have your cake and eat it,’ we want you to ‘eat your cake your cake and have it’ (and add too too). When somebody is ‘brazen’ the Igbo think they are ‘bold.’ In fact, if the Igbo are to continue use of English grammar, we are to be gifted dictionaries by Ohanaze Ndigbo. Of course, I don’t know who was bought to bring this ill luck to the Igbos of Nigeria. This is pure sabotage and I’m warning against abuse of grammar, which is gross indiscipline. Learn the proper use of English grammar and when we aren’t comfortable with its use, it’s advisable to choose another language than resort to abuse. Our nationalism if truly sought is more important than choice of English as an official language. I don’t play politics but it doesn’t look like we are winning much with our lack of seriousness or recalcitrance. I’ve made my point clear that the uncouth nature of language users who choose to abuse it rather than use it correctly can only be stratagem. No strategy is useful when it doesn’t yield respect. Igbos use bombast and that merely entertains or intimidates the audience. No story is told, no lesson is learnt. Lastly, what are the Igbo ‘French’ for? I hear that word often but I practically don’t understand. Do the Igbo now speak French rather than English? And that affects other aspects of their lives. Perhaps the French are a much undisciplined lot. I don’t know so.

2) Promiscuity & Prostitution: This is the state/act of having many sexual partners, taken from a wide range of sources, especially without careful thought. Brazen promiscuity leads to unwanted pregnancies, nymphomania, womanizing, human ‘toll gate’, homosexuality, lesbianism, whoredom, prostitution, harlotry, polygamy, polyandry, etc. I need not state what people derive from being promiscuous. They just are and it’s a social problem. Nobody who has to be nice to men or women for sexual satisfaction or interest will be there to fight for nationalism. They are only interested in their own self interest. What cause promiscuity? I don’t know. But I think there could be a link to incest and other forms of child abuse including child prostitution. But it’s largely indiscipline that makes the old habit not die hard. Corruption and its vile demands force people into promiscuity.

Promiscuous women were used as spies even in Biblical times. There was Rahab, the harlot, who played traitor and delivered Jericho to Jerusalem. She was probably maltreated by her people but she still had to play her role only because she looked for her own self interest and sought protection for her family. For her reward, she was saved from destruction and married to a wealthy man named Salmon. Reward for promiscuity makes it hard to beat. Apart from monetary gains, promiscuous men and women are used far and wide by the enemy. Many classical wars of Greece and Rome were fought over promiscuous women. It need not be so in Igboland. The people we contend with make a mountain out of any molehill that affects us. A relationship with one person doesn’t constitute promiscuity as far as I’m concerned. It’s a love affair. What do you think? Hardly was any war fought defending the honour of a chaste woman. Even as the Bible narrates, Dinah, the daughter of Jacob who became Israel was to marry the man who deflowered her but the brothers were brash in their retaliation. I have noticed a rather promiscuous culture in Igboland that I think is worrisome. 

There appears to be an unspoken language of sex in the city. Everything must include sex. You buy food from a market and you go through the list and pay your sexual obeisance to each trader or vendor. I don’t do that. I don’t know how the Igbo got sold a destructive lie. They act like sex must be the only means of mediating conflicts. When two people quarrel, there’s not to be use of sex to appease the parties and assure peace. Sex has nothing to do with peace. What a shame. I’m not speaking the gospel of virginity. I’m not interested in that. I’m talking temperance. You can’t win a war when you have set yourself up for failure. Sex blinds the emotions and indiscriminate sex leads to other crimes and problems beyond prostitution and abortion. It leads to broken home. It leads to sexually transmitted diseases and even death. Igbo culture should allow for a renaissance that makes it possible for people to limit their sexual activity to marriages or single love affairs. That’s old fashioned, isn’t it? I often laugh that with the rate of promiscuity in the country, and Igboland, most adults apparently walk around naked! Nearly everybody in the city has seen them naked. Haba! Sex shouldn’t be a commodity or exchange. It shouldn’t be a rite of passage. And if it were, why not make it available to all and sundry? I think that prostitution should be decriminalized and regulated than this ‘cult’ that has seen its sustenance in the Nigerian society. Who cares? All the brothels are closed and the harlots are out and in marriages. But they are terrorizing citizens with their incessant demands for sexual obligations and favours from other citizens. Sex should never be obligatory except in a marital and filial relationship. Never at work, never at church, never in fraternities where people hide and make trouble for others should sex be solicited and provided. Enough said already. Creeds, tenets and dogma that demand such love for and use of indiscriminate non marital sex, whether in Christianity or our traditional value systems should be reviewed and jettisoned. I needn’t overemphasize the matter. Promiscuity is vile. Ashewo leads to bottom power, which is abuse of power. By the way promiscuity is different from prostitution. The two words aren’t synonymous. For prostitution to have taken place there must be payment usually in cash. Promiscuity requires more than one constant sexual partner and mustn’t include payment except it’s done for prostitution.

3) Trickery: Trickery is the use of dishonest methods to trick people in order to achieve what you want. Dishonesty means never telling the truth, and always stealing or cheating. There are many manifestations of trickery. This is different from trick, which includes use of bewilderment even in entertainment. With trickery, deception is employed to ensure that the other party loses to you. Voodoo, magic, sorcery, hoodoo, witchcraft and beguiling another are some ways that trickery is used. Theft, scam, use of false pretenses, fraud, exam malpractice, identity theft, advance fee fraud or 419 or yahoo-yahoo, are yet other ways that trickery has been used to deceive people in Nigeria and abroad. OBT means obtaining by trick and plays with its twin GBT, which means gaining by trick. I don’t know how much Wicca involves trickery but Satanists would understand if it’s part of the show. 

4) Gossip: This is informal talk or stories about other people’s private lives that may be unkind or not true. Gossip is a bad habit that destroys nations. It’s addictive and enslaving. Many people who are entertained by gossip hardly verify those stories about other people because humans are wicked; they think of and want the worst for others. Dishonesty, malice, envy, dehumanization, disobedience, incredibility, humiliation are some ways that gossip has destroyed families, communities and nations. The gossip industry is a multi billion (in any currency) industry. It is financed by many businesses and conspiracies to promote personal and public interests and agenda. It is used to tear down the integrity of other people. Gossip builds propaganda, which destroys the intelligence of a people. It leads to ‘group think.’ Have you experienced mob intelligence? It is when as individuals people wouldn’t do what they agree to do as a group. Aba is a place known for lynching. Many times thieves have been mobbed by individuals who wouldn’t do such if they knew all the details of the event. Gossip is destructive. The Igbo even ask, if you accuse somebody of theft in the morning while in the market and discover them innocent later in the day, do you go back to everybody who heard that story and correct it? The Igbo must beware of gossip and propaganda in order to gain nationalism. 

5) Treachery & Sabotage: This is behaviour that involves not being loyal to somebody who trusts you. Traitors employ many methods to carry out their vice. These include gossip, sabotage, rivalry, insubordination, disobedience, etc. Rivalry is a state in which two people, companies, etc are competing for the same thing. Igbo hatred of their own life and existence makes them succumb to treachery and blackmail. Have you noticed that whenever the tribe fields a presidential candidate how in no small time nearly all the states would field a candidate? While democracy allows everybody the chance to contest and win, it’s not done without strategy as far as nationalism goes. It’s very important that the Igbo eschew treachery in order to front a credible candidate for future elections. I’m not advocating watching from the sidelines and allow a traitor to destroy others always. It’s unsavoury that the only time to do a thing is after another has gone to do it. While the Igbo of my ethnicity (Ngwa) say ‘uba mbu njije,’ it is no reason to only imitate, mock or ridicule another Igbo person or entity in order to achieve any feat. Need I say more? Gangs, syndicates, rackets, syndromes, cabals, conspiracies, etc, have formed out of treachery. A traitor is a friend of your enemy.

6) Greed & Opportunism: Greed is a strong desire for more wealth, possessions, power, food, children, etc. It is a selfish or excessive desire for more than is needed or deserved. English nuances recognize similar words, which include avarice or excessive desire of gain, cupidity or extreme greed, and covetousness.  Greed leads to many ugly trends in the society including corruption, insecurity and poverty. Greed leads to recklessness. The unending drug war in most societies of the world including the Igbo society has led to many deaths both from the effects of drug use and conflicts from drug law enforcement agents. Prostitution, money laundering, baby mama syndrome/saga,  public office, sexual offence, murder, betting, gambling, rapacity, gluttony, ‘alert economy,’ ‘godfatherism,’ illicit use of drugs, child/human trafficking, child labour/slavery, etc are often fed by the demon of greed. In fact, the illicit economy runs only on the wheel of greed. Greed is different from ambition, which many people confuse to suit their selfish end. Ambition is the desire or determination to be successful, rich, powerful, influential, etc. This is good trait and different from greed, although it’s often its genesis; from desire/determination to acquire to obsession with wealth and all that comes with it.    

Credit: Vanguardngr

Secret societies running in the open are the major reason why there is rampant vice in the Igbo society. Many of them have disguised as churches. In spite of all the miracles and signs and wonders we are still lagging behind in character. No society that desires its own place would allow such evil to get hold of its mainstream life. The Igbo have destroyed their value system. Borrowed cultures have only reinforced vices in Igbo society. Having inordinate number of offspring often from different sexual partners, they have made business of formal education, especially private education. Wealth is not everything. Success of character is good success. Perhaps this evident lack of character is the sacrifice for development and greatness but we must clog the wheel of vicious self destruction. Even the Holy Bible says, ‘woe unto those who call evil good, and good evil.’ Vices drive the illicit economy. They are never what people don’t live with and endure. But they lead to insecurity, poverty and corruption. If the Igbo society needs nationalism, it should consider eradicating these six vices from its public and private cultures, or at least reduce them to the level they are most ineffective.   They are spoiler of nationalism, by my judgment. The Igbo could make hay while the sun shines.