NWAMKPA MODESTUS (KSM, JP)
I read an article written by a concerned Igbo Trader based in Lagos who identified himself as Okechukwu Okeke concerning the recent meeting that Governor Hope Uzodimma brokered between the Lagos state Governor Babajide Sanwolu and his team on one hand and a select Igbo Traders and personalities in Lagos on the other hand that led to the stoppage of the demolition of Shops and buildings ostensibly owned by Igbos in Lagos. The meeting reportedly gave birth to a bilateral agreement between the two parties and setting up of a fact-finding committee to ascertain the damages uncured by the demolition and fashion out ways of cushioning the effects of the damages.
Mr. Okeke revealed among other things that the Imo state Governor was not the only Igbo leader that the Traders cried out for help during the mindless demolition of their shops but that except Gov Uzodimma who brought the deputy Speaker of House of Reps Rt Hon Benjamin Kalu, others could only play to the gallery. He said few of them could only rush to the press to utter mere condemnation without practical steps to engage their tormentors in Lagos. He praised Uzodimma’s effort and declared the Imo Governor as a ‘true Igbo leader’.
However, it is in the context of the extrapolation and deposition of Mr Okechukwu Okeke that it is important to understand that what the Governor did is actually a reflection of a typical Igbo spirit of ‘Onyeaghalanwanneya’. This was the spirit seen in the lives of great Igbo leaders in the past. This was the spirit that moved the great Ikemba of Nnewi late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu to lead Igbos to a civil war in 1967 after the pogrom of August 1966 when Igbos were killed in the North.
The true Igbo Spirit in Governor Uzodimma was provoked into action when it became most expedient. The Governor quickly responded to the cries of Igbo traders to salvage our Igbo brothers and sisters whose sources of livelihood in Lagos were under severe threat. It was late Martin Luther King (Jr) who once said that ‘The man dies in him who keeps quiet in the face of oppression’ and that the darkest place in hell is reserved for such persons.
Governor Uzodimma moved and deployed his diplomatic dexterity and political sagacity to broker a truce between the Lagos state govt and our embattled brothers and sister in Lagos. He used his good relationship and national respectability not only to get the Lagos state Governor to stop further destruction but indeed secured a better deal for them and ultimately reestablished convivial neighborliness.
True leaders are made of sterner stuff and true leaders are known in terms of adversity, difficulty and challenge of those they are leading. True leaders are not those who make flowering speeches or those who spike up embers of hatred in place of love or who create ethnic and religious bias in place of mutual tolerance and cohabitation. True leaders are not confusionists. True leaders come in and stand in the gap.
Governor Hope Uzodimma has once again earned himself a special place in the Hall of Face in Igboland. You know, some of us who are not directly involved or faced what these our brothers and sisters faced during the time of the destruction of their shops and buildings may not understand the import of the debilitating economic situation as it can only be imagined than felt. However, the truth is that the timely intervention of Governor Uzodimma saved souls and properties. He is today seen as a true Igbo leader.
Truthfully Yours, Nwamkpa Modestus is my name and I approve of this piece.
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