{"id":17095,"date":"2025-08-03T16:14:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phmundial.com\/?p=17095"},"modified":"2025-08-03T16:14:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:14:47","slug":"memorandum-to-igbo-nation-when-arrogance-replaces-wisdom-exile-is-not-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/2025\/08\/03\/memorandum-to-igbo-nation-when-arrogance-replaces-wisdom-exile-is-not-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorandum to Igbo Nation: \u200eWhen Arrogance Replaces Wisdom, Exile Is Not Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u200e
\n\u200eBy Colonel Emeritus IA Okereke<\/em><\/strong>
\n\u200e<\/p>\n

\u200eLet us, as a people, stop pretending.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eWe have overstayed our welcome in places where we once thrived as guests. The events of recent years \u2014 and particularly the misguided Igbo conduct in Lagos \u2014 have laid bare the ugly face of our arrogance, our lack of tact, and our dangerous detachment from reality.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eWhen Yoruba people voted massively for Peter Obi, a candidate many Igbos promoted, we didn\u2019t return their open-handedness with gratitude. No \u2014 we mocked them. We danced in their streets and declared that we had \u201cdefeated them in their Lagos.\u201d
\n\u200e
\n\u200eWhat kind of people mock their hosts for showing them political kindness? \u200eIt was the last straw that broke the camel\u2019s back.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eI have said it before, and I repeat: the way many Igbos treat the Yoruba in Lagos is akin to raping a wailing woman and asking her how sweet the audacious assault was.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eIt is not just rude \u2014 it is evil.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eLet it be known: The Yoruba are not cowards. They are not lazy. They are not slow. They are deliberate, calculating, and accommodating to a fault. But a time comes when even the most tolerant man locks his gate, burns his guest mat, and reclaims his home.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eWe saw Theodore Orji in Abia expel non-indigenes from civil service. We saw Dave Umahi marginalize fellow Igbos in Ebonyi. We saw Fashola begin a deportation response \u2014 not out of tribalism, but reaction. And we ignored the signs.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eWe have bitten more than we can chew, and the sad truth is: we have no home to run to.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eThe South East is \u201cupside down.\u201d \u200eGovernance has failed. \u200eSecurity is in shambles. \u200eYouths are jobless or dying in the bushes of foreign lands. \u200eThe towns are empty.<\/p>\n

\u200eAnd while our region bleeds, we boast of conquering another man\u2019s land.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eWhat folly.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eThe Yoruba now hold the presidency, the military, the police, and the National Assembly. And one of my old classmates, in the streets of Lagos, looked me in the eye and said:
\n\u200e\u201cWe\u2019re preparing to send you people out.\u201d
\n\u200e
\n\u200eWhat more warning do we need?
\n\u200e
\n\u200eThis is not a time for bravado.
\n\u200eThis is not a time for denial.
\n\u200eThis is not a time for Igbo Twitter grammar.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eThis is a time for Damage Control.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eThe odds are not in our favour. And those of us who understand the terrain must now take the painful step of reading the Riot Act to the Igbo Nation. This is a war without bullets \u2014 a new form of displacement. And if we do not correct our attitude, we will suffer a fate worse than civil war: irrelevance.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eWe must:
\n\u200e
\n– \u200eCall our traders, leaders, and youth to order.
\n\u200e
\n– \u200eStop this reckless entitlement in the Southwest.
\n\u200e
\n– \u200eRebuild the Southeast with the same energy we use to chase shop allocations in Alaba or plazas in Ikeja.
\n\u200e
\n– \u200eDemand accountability from our governors, senators, and elders.
\n\u200e
\n– \u200eEnd this fantasy of domination in another man\u2019s land.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eLet us stop this self-deception. \u200eThe hour is late. The signs are ominous. The hosts are no longer amused.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eThis is not a call to retreat. \u200eIt is a call to rethink, regroup, and respect ourselves before others will.
\n\u200e
\n\u200eGood day, Igbo Nation. \u200eMay wisdom return to us before the gates are shut.<\/p>\n

\u200eColonel Emeritus IA Okereke, Fellow of Defence College<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u200e<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u200e \u200eBy Colonel Emeritus IA Okereke \u200e \u200eLet us, as a people, stop pretending. \u200e \u200eWe have overstayed our welcome in places where we once thrived as guests. The events of recent years \u2014 and particularly the misguided Igbo conduct in Lagos \u2014 have laid bare the ugly face of our arrogance, our lack of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-opinion-and-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deepstrataenergy.com\/phmundial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}