THE IGBO RACE: A TIME TO SEEK SOFT POWER IS NOW!!!
According to Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, those who successfully obtain political kingdoms (or powers) will have all else added unto them.
Ndigbo fell out of power after they lost what I call PHASE ONE of the Biafran struggle in January 1970. The fallout of that loss is still haunting the Igbo race till today.
Computer wares come in both HARD and SOFT. Hence there are HARDWARE and SOFTWARE. I will try not to delve into these two concepts too deeply here so as not to divert the focus and essence of this discourse.
Computer hardware is just a piece of equipment. Without the software, the hardware is useless waste of human energy, time, and space. Same goes for HARDPOWER in governance. SOFTPOWER is political power pure and simple, while HARDPOWER is economic power (and others). So, when the sage Nkrumah urged Africans to seek political power first and foremost, he was asking them to acquire SOFTPOWER.
Now, Ndigbo, especially the young, have successfully demonstrated that they have acquired the HARDPOWER. If you are still in doubt, please download and watch videos of OBI COBANA show which took place in Oba, Anambra State last weekend. That was the best physical demonstration and attestation of the ECONOMIC SURVIVAL of the Igbo race.
Furthermore, all over Nigeria (and beyond), there are physical testimonies of the Igbo man’s economic survival – in industries such as entertainment, real estate, manufacturing, etc, etc. So, from these perspectives, we have successfully banished the pains and insult inflicted on Ndigbo by the scourge of the £20 and abandoned property issues.
My worry, however, is that without a backup SOFTPOWER, all these “achievements” will come to nothing because, it takes just one depraved lunatic at the top of government destroy or reverse them.
And so, all the talks of marginalisation, referendum, restructuring, and presidency by Ndigbo will amount to nothing until we acquire, control, or influence political (or SOFT) power. If you doubt the veracity of this standpoint, then look no further than to what happened to Chief MKO Abiola’s political ambition. The man had all the economic (or HARD) power, in fact, more than any living Nigerian of his day Yet, he couldn’t secure the pollical power. I recall that, at one point, one notable Northern political bruiser, Umaru Dikko, was quoted as reminding MKO that the presidency was not for sale, even to the highest bidder!
Are you still in doubt of the supremacy of SOFTPOWER over HARDPOWER in governance? Even the imposition of £20 on Biafran returnees irrespective of the millions they had in Nigerian banks before the war is another case in point. Or, for that matter, why are we berating the ABANDONED PROPERTY issue 50-something years after the civil war?
What these and many other examples of how SoftPower controls HardPower litter the terrains of history. In America, there is the antitrust legislation which, on paper seeks to curb the monopolistic powers of large corporations. Additionally, however, this law is used by government in controlling and reducing the powers of individuals and businesses by splitting their empires into smaller less powerful units. This way, those affected can not muster enough resources and, yes, powers to challenge the government.
#K’OkwuaDiliChukwu
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