In the last one year alone ,
no less than three prominent Igbo businessmen have been arrested, humiliated
and detained by the Buhari administration.
All three are major employers of
labour who fared extreemly well under the administration of President Goodluck
Jonathan and whose companies have become household names.
The first is Cletus Ibeto of
Ibeto Cement, a humble, charming, hard-working, low-profile and exceptionally
profound and insightful man who I met when I was in detention last year.
The second is the ebullient,
young and vocal Ifeanyi Uba of Capital Oil and Gas, who later joined politics
and who was indeed a member of President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign
organisation in 2015 where we worked closely together.
The third is Innocent Chukwuma,
the owner of Innoson Motors whose company is the only one in Nigeria that
produces cars, who I am told is an absolute gentleman and whom I have never
met.
These three men are amongst the
five biggest and most prominent Igbo businessmen in the country today. The
remaining two are Arthur Eze of Atlas Oronto Petroleum International and Emeka
Offor of Chrome Oil both of whom have done very well but that have also had
their own fair share of persecution and travails over the years.
I made a point of doing the
research in the cases of Chukwuma, Ibeto and Uba and why they were having
issues with the EFCC and the SSS respectively and I came to the conclusion that
not only had they done nothing wrong but they were being targetted simply
because they were perceived as being “Jonathan men”, because they were deemed
as being sympathetic to the PDP, because they were Igbo and finally simply out
of envy from ruthless competitors.
Given that it came as no surprise
to me when, just yesterday morning, I was informed that Chukwuma’s home was
raided and tear-gassed by the EFCC and he was arrested and detained in what can
only be described as brutal and questionable circumstances.
I was reliably informed that
officers of the EFCC and the Nigeria Police not only injured many in his home
but that they also slapped his wife.
Never mind that he was later
reportedly offered bail after what can only be described as a gruelling and
harrowing period of torment and trauma: the fact is that his home should never
have been raided and he should never have been arrested, detained and subjected
to this brutal affront and indecorious indignity in the first place.
Such was my concern for him and
the way in which the security forces had behaved at his home that I was
constrained to post the following on both my twitter handle and Facebook page
on that same day. I asked,
“Why should anybody be surprised
about the arrest of the owner of Innoson Motors? They did the same to Cletus
Ibeto about a year ago.These people come from the “wrong” part of the country
and they are providing a service and employment for Nigerians. They must be
punished for it!”.
I went further by offering some
gentle and wise counsel to an old and dear friend by also posting the
following:
“I have known the MD of GTB,
Segun Agbaje and his two older brothers, Femi and Jimi, for close to 40 years
and I have immense respect and deep affection for them. I urge him not to
expose himself to the shark infested waters of politics by allowing himself to
be used by these barbarians to destroy Innoson. If he does he will regret it”.
Yet it does not stop there. The
matter goes much deeper and further than just the travails of Innocent Chukwuma
of Innoson Motors or indeed those of Cletus Ibeto and Ifeanyi Uba h .
It goes to the very heart and
foundation of the fundamental problem of what Nigeria has been turned into by
those who believe that they own her.
It touches on the nationality
question, the quest and struggle for equal rights and opportunities for the
various ethnic naionalities that make up Nigeria and the unofficial and
unannounced policy of the Buhari administration to treat southerners as slaves
and to discredit, crush and malign any Igbo person who aspires to excellence
and greatness and who is a source of pride and inspiration to their people.
To those that doubt this grave
assertion I have one question to ask: can they, under ANY circumstances,
imagine or envisage Aliko Dangote of the Dangote Group or Abdul Samad Rabiu of
the BUA Group , both of whom are highly successful, extreemly wealthy and very
well-known northern Muslim Hausa-Fulani businessmen, being treated in this way
by ANY Nigerian government let alone one like Buhari’s that was established by
the Fulani and solely for the interests of the Fulani? The answer to the
question is a resounding “no”.
Yet for the southern businessman
and particularly for the Igbo one the rules are very different and the
treatment that they get from the government and its security agencies are a
world apart.
As a matter of fact they are
unfairly deemed and insidiously labelled as the “fatherless ones” and the
“orphans of the corporate world” simply because they are on their own and they
have no favour or protection from government.
It is clear that any Igbo man
that has the temerity and the fortitude to shine and to rise up by dint of
conviction, vision, passion and hard work must be humiliated, demonised and
denigrated.
The story and the theme appears
to be a never-ending one and it touches on all spheres of human endeavour in
Nigeria. The policy, principle and practice is the same: as long as you are
Igbo you are in trouble and in order to survive you must sing the praises of
the Buhari administration, bow and grovel to the Fulani, accept your servitude
and slavery with stoic ignomy and “bend the knee”.
In the field of the struggle for
self
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It's unfortunate that this write up only shows your sympathy for these Igbo men,but, failed to enumerate the offense committed by them. The case of Innoson Motors is a clear cut case of fraudulent offense against the GTBank, whereby the owner of the Innoson Motors fraudulently cleared a consignment at the port without the approval of the consignee which happened to be the GTBank. Why don't you present the issue as it is, rather than bringing in politics. The write up is selfish and political. 2019 in the making. Tell the truth and free up your mind.
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