Biafra: Activist Law Mefor blasts Joe Igbokwe

Posted by Factnews | 7 years ago | 3,774 times



...says Igbokwe is a hungry 60 year old carrying Tinubu's bag


Pro-Biafra activist, Mr Law Mefor, has attacked the publicity secretary of Lagos State APC and self acclaimed Tinubu boy, Chief Joe Igbokwe as a hungry 60 year old man who carries Tinubu's bag for more than a decade.

The full article published at his social media timeline is reproduced below, verbatim.

MY IPOB MEDIATION ROLE: A REPLY TO JOE IGBOKWE
By Law Mefor

A day ago, I did a report on my involvement in the reconciliation of the IPOB family, especially between Nnamdi Kanu and Dodie Ikedife Snr. Here is what Joe Igbokwe, an APC chieftain and PRO in Lagos State wrote as his response to my report: "Law Mefor moved from ACN to PDP and now IPOB. Hunger can destroy the medula oblangata of a man. tufiakawa agu u ajoka nu".

I would have left this where it belongs: the trashcan. But on a second thought, I felt there a need to tease out a few crucial issues from this unguided utterance. On my Face Book thread where his vomitus appeared, I had reluctantly initially replied: “My brother Joe Igbokwe, i have never joined ACN. That you and I worked with Ngige Anambra guber campaign 4 years ago, does not make me a member of ACN. I worked with Ngige for personal consideration. That you have carried Tinubu's bag as a 60 year old man for over a decade now, what do you call that if not hunger's effect on medula oblangata? May be I am following your footsteps”.

I first met Joe Igbokwe during the failed gubernatorial campaign of Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige OON, in Anambra State four or so years ago. I was the chairman of the media committee of the Ngige campaign organization and this led Joe Igbokwe to conclude that I belonged to the ACN. I have never been a member of the ACN. PDP yes at a point I was its member until Obasanjo's megalomania and garrison politics started and many of us rolled back.

Anyway that is not important now. What is important is his claim that my association with IPOB is pecuniary. It is really sad because the ilk of Joe Igbokwe are food-is-ready politicians who can sacrifice integrity, principle and even consanguinity for their belly. This explains why Joe Igbokwe is about the only Igbo man who has repeatedly said that Igbos are the problems of Nigeria.

It is important to protect one's source of garri. But I do not believe that you have to spit on your mother's grave to do this as Joe Igbokwe has done. Yes, he works for Bola Ahmed Tinubu and has done so for over a decade without qualms. I do not begrudge him. Tinubu is a man I deeply appreciate for assiduously working for the Yoruba nation and even using people like Joe Igbokwe to sustain that ethnic agenda even at the expense of Igbo race. Ikpe amaghi okuko na nri ghe oghe (translated roughly, you cannot blame the fowl for feeding from a plate that is left uncovered.)

The ilk of Joe Igbokwe have left the Igbos unprotected and undefended, and he is strangely happy with himself for such sordid role. For him, my interest in Biafra struggle is like his. Unfortunately, it is not.

A more sensible question would be: Who sent you to discuss the well-being of Ndigbo in Nnewi?  Whose mandate? Whose authority? But the incoherent and ill-conceived submission of Joe Igbokwe is - as always - money. This is strange and preposterous that Joe Igbokwe could only mediate in Igbo conflict if his pay is good.

He can go ahead and counter my moves at achieving peace and concord among the pro-Biafra family as he has always done to thwart the Igbo interest here and there to please his paymasters. We know his type. It is quite pathetic but let us bear in mind that one who is  paid to seat on the head of his people, has a herculean job and old Joe is doing a pretty ‘good’ job he is recruited to do for the traducers of Ndigbo. I wish him luck!

But let him and his ilk know that my goal in pushing peace among the pro-Biafra groups  is clear and noble, and will benefit him also. If we all keep quiet and this crisis snowballs into ethnic cleansing as the pogroms of the 1960s against the Igbos, even Joe Igbokwe will not be free in Lagos. The urchins that will be unleashed on the Igbos everywhere, as the Igbos suffered all over the north and in Lagos and Ibadan in the 60s, will not be able to distinguish an Igbo agent working against his own Igbo people. Igbo is Igbo and Joe Igbokwe will be treated as such when the chips are down – if we all keep quiet or wait for money before we act to protect our own people and our collective interest.

We can no longer sit and watch the youths run the rings round our future without making moderating inputs; they have to be made to gain perspective and submit to reasoned process. So, if getting the Biafra agitators to agree to disagree and disagree to agree is  a sin, I have no apologies.

Igbokwe’s  very plain language of denigration is therefore like a child laughing at the rotting yam in his father’s barn. It is his own  dinner and future he is laughing at unkown to him. Thinking about such Igbo people, whose ranks are actually growing, makes feel so bad.

But it is never too late to make amends. Such beguiled e eliites must wake up before another unprepared horror is clamped on pour people. The Biafra struggle is now such a portent force and  can no longer be wished away as infantile. Even if it is, it will be worse in outcome to let it remain so

I didn’t wait for Nnamdi Kanu to be in a position to give me money before I visited him in Kuje prison two or three times, including when I joined Soludo, Pat Utomi and others to him the same Kuje prison visit.

I was in Awka for the gubernatorial campaign on Chris Ngige and returned to Abuja poorer. It was based on principle. Yes we all need money but where principle and higher values dictate, as the case of my IIPOB mediation role, money becomes such a secondary factor. Though to some like old Joe, if monetary value is not attached to any anything, they would rather not take part.

As the two sides to the IPOB disagreement enjoy my confidence, all I have tried to do is join forces to get them  to agree to work again together. That way, the struggle will be put in greater perspective. It is my view that there is a need push this momentum the Biafra struggle has garnered and use it to have the country restructured for good of everybody. Nigeria the way it is no longer sustainable and the Igbos are the most cheated. IBB, Atiku Abubakar, Obasanjo and many more Nigerian leaders have all said it is time to restructure Nigeria. Such acclamations are indirect acknowledgement that Biafra struggle is justified and that only restructured Nigeria can bring about peace. Only Joe Igbokwe cannot see this growing national need, which has bred so many humanitarian crises round the country, having been blinded and blighted by his dazed chase for food in Yoraba land like a rot ell.

Yes, many say Kanu's seeming extreme views need to be moderated but do we do that by keeping our safe distance? Do we wait until IPOB starts throwing money about to wake the Joe Igbokwes whose only interest is money?

I support Nnamdi Kanu. Again, no apologies. His position is right even though I may not agree totally with his manner and method. As an emerging Igbo leader which situation and vacuum created by the likes Joe Igbokwe thrust upon him, Nnamdi Kanu is work in progress, and will grow into a giant of a leader even in a restructured Nigeria. He has raked up the forgotten Igbo interest and should no longer manage it alone. All hands must be on deck helping him keep his eye on the ball and avoid the allure of megalomania, which his new role has spun. Ikedife has been a moderating voice. Bringing them back together  will ensure that the struggle continues more responsibly and responsively and both Ndigbo and indeed Nigeria will all be the better for it.

By the way, Dozie Ikedife is from Nnewi, just like Joe Igbokwe. If Joe Igbokwe had played his parh as an Nnewi elder, may be there would not have been any need for a Law Mefor to go to Nnewi repeatedly in search of peace.

Since the days of Emeka Ojukwu, no Igbo man has spoken truth to power the way Nnamdi Kanu has done, and that is what has jolted the polity out of stupor. The quit order from the northern youths is a response to Nnamdi Kanu and his success with the sit at home order on May 30 Biafra Remembrance Day.

Joe Igbokwe is my friend so this is brotherly nudge for him to regain perspective and stop acting like a butterfly calling itself a bird. He will never be Yoruba  no matter how hard he tries. Though, a man who is frightened by the prospects of losing source of livelihood deserves my sympathy. It is nothing but a wild cry for maternal help. So it is with Joe Igbokwe and that is why many concerned Igbos call him Joe Yorubakwe. (If Yoruba agrees).

There is now a serious need to rescue Joe Igbokwe from Joe Igbokwe. By culture, Igbos do not allow there own to be lost in such questionable manner without doing something about it.His should not be an exception. Even if it means revising his agwu and okwu chi. Let it be done and urgently too.

 @Law Mefor is an Abuja based Social Psychologist and Journalist.






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