There Is An Ongoing Jihad Against Ndigbo!

BY: ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES 

Sometime last year, there was a report that some Western Intelligence agency had predicted that the Islamic State - a global terrorist organization whose objective is to impose extreme Islamic ideologies across the world - were on the verge of infiltrating Southern parts of Nigeria. Many people might have missed that report and those who read it may have waved it off as an impossibility, but some of the recent events in the Southeast should make any analytical mind sit back and reanalyze that report once again.

It is easy to argue that any Islamic agenda cannot work in the Southeast, because Southeast is the most predominantly Christian geopolitical zone in Nigeria. There is a scanty number of Igbos, especially, in the Nsukka area of Enugu, but even the most devout Muslim among them would hardly consider the fundamentalist ideology of ISIS or any other such Islamic sect. In the Southwest, where we have the highest concentration of Muslims in the Southern part of Nigeria, there is also little chance that any group that comes out directly as a fundamentalist Islamic sect will muster any reasonable following or sympathy, because of the cultural orientation of the Yoruba people, who, like their Igbo cousins, are fiercely Republican and inquisitive.

Like every influential terrorist organization in the world, the Islamic State is commanded by some of the most intelligent military strategists you can find anywhere in the world. They understand that terrains differ as much as specific populations think differently. Therefore, they adopt different methodologies in different territories. They understand that the methods they used in the Northeast, where majority of the population are Muslims and a great percentage of them are poor and uneducated should not be the same method they will deploy in the Southeast, where 95% of the population are Christians and a greater percentage are at least, literate and financially ambitious.

In the Northeast, Islam could be a quick sell, but in the Southeast, anything that has the pretence to Biafran agitation would be quickly embraced by majority of the people, then, when you spruce it up with rhetoric that condemns the obvious and undeniable political persecution orchestrated against the Igbos, you are sure to get everyone, go hysteric against the Nigerian system. 

When Boko Haram started, a great majority of Northern Muslims believed it was in their interest to counter "the anti-Islam policies" of the Federal Government. The masses were already disenchanted with even their own brothers from the North, for not being Muslim enough. They considered most of them as having strayed from the faith, and it was very easy for Yusuf and his commanders to sell the hot loaf of Islamic redemption and fighting for Allah. At those early stages of Boko Haram, it was almost impossible seeing a Northern Muslim, no matter how educated or politically exposed, condemn the activities of Yusuf's boys. They always found a logic to justify the carnage, no matter how senseless. After all, it was thought that majority of those been killed were Christians, therefore, "infidels". Today, no one in the North is safe, and the real owners of that organization have surfaced. We no longer have Boko Haram, we have different factions of Al-qaeda, Iswap or ISIS battling for superiority, destroying properties, taking children and women into hostage and turning Northern Nigeria to a war zone.

The Igbo of the Southeast Nigeria is hated for his adventurism, boldness, industriousness and fierce Christianity. It is possible that the Islamic conclave within and outside Nigeria is yet to forgive the Igbos for warding off the advancement of Islam into the Igbo nation and for refusing to stay down after the onslaught against her economy and development in the disproportionately weighed civil war of 1967 to 1970. Ndigbo are also envied for the fact that they have withstood the political persecution meted on them since Nigeria's Independence and have continued to prosper, economically, educationally and in every other area of life. It is not interesting to the Islamic world that the Igbo is thriving against all odds and surviving every obstacle placed on their way to progress. So, it would be understandable if some mercenaries have been engaged to destabilize Ala Igbo and reverse or at least, arrest their further advancement in all areas of life.

In Chinua Achebe's words; "...Nigerians will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo." He traced this resentment to the Igbo's culture that; "gave the Igbo man an unquestioned advantage over his compatriots in securing credentials for advancement in Nigerian colonial society."

The true Igbo man will not allow a battle in his homestead. It is almost a cultural concept which an Igbo is trained with that you do everything to avoid allowing any fight in your house. If you try to provoke a wise Igbo man into a fight in his house, he will drag you out either to a neutral ground or to your own house, because he understands the damage that would be done to his house, even if he defeats you in that fight. It is therefore unconvincing to any reasonable Igbo mind that any group of true born Igbos would deliberately declare war on their Fatherland without external prodding.

These extraneous elements funding the destruction of Igbo land understood that the Igbo are also among the most fearless ethnic group in the world, hence, they needed to capture their fancy, before terrorizing them. They know that the Igbo fears no man nor God and would most vehemently resist any idea that may aim to force them into a bottle of thoughts, because of their independent-mindedness on issues. The only thing that can unite the Igbo man is Biafra, and these jihadists are apparently appropriating this passion among the Igbos to destroy whatever chance we have of actualizing the Biafran dream.

Unfortunately, Nigerian security agencies are either involved in this conspiracy to wage a proxy war against Ndigbo or are intentionally ill-equipped to effectively combat these ISIS mercenaries destroying Igbo land, killing our youths and sabotaging our economy. We will not keep quiet as Igbo youths and watch them succeed. We shall be unveiling a plan to counter this invasion of our land, in a very short time.

ALA IGBO MUST PREVAIL!

Onwuasoanya FCC Jones is the Deputy National Youth Leader of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide.