How Did I Become Onye Igbo?

Many years ago, at the incipience of the Boko Haram terror reign, a Nigerian stand-up Comedian, Mc Acapella, once made a joke about how ndị Igbo could become mercantile with just anything including suicide bombing. In that joke, he forcefully argued that if and when ndị Igbo begin to appreciate the “economics of terror”, it would become near impossible to tame the Monster.

We all laughed it off as some big joke, believing that the average Igbo person asides loving wealth, is largely epicurean and holds life sacred. Today, Mc Acapella’s joke can be likened to one of the many prophecies of Nostrademus.

What we have in the Southeast is hybrid terrorism cloked in separatist agitation. Hybrid because it combines the unconventional approach of the Southsouth militants before Yaradua’s Amnesty with the fatalistic and self defeating strategy of the Boko Haram up North.

Here we have seen people beheaded, houses burnt and once peaceful hamlets deserted and soaked in terror. My friend from Awọ Idemili in Orsu LGA of Imo State lost his grandmother few weeks ago, apart from the burial expenses, he has been asked to pay 1.5million Naira to a certain group known as “Umuoma” before he can bury his aged grandmother. At Ogbaru, Ukpor, Unubi, Orsumoghu, all in Anambra State, dare-devil criminals terrorising these areas are asking to be treated like El-Rufai and Masari’s Bandits.

This joke is one too many. Criminals in the SouthEast are asking for State compensation and recognition for killing the innocent. After all, this is what Northern leaders do with Bandits and “repentant” Boko Haram terrorists. How did I become onye Igbo?

— Mazi Ejimofor Opara writes Awka, Anambra State.