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September 11, 2000
Act 1, Scene I. Well the Ibos out number every other tribe on these committees and we have some Professor this and Dr's from all corners who wants to recite their papers to the T. Anyways folks were limited to a few minutes. Act 1, Scene II If you take the Olateru -Olagbegi's out, the Yorubas did not show up in good numbers. The Ibos however are there in good numbers plus some of the red cap chiefs and even the Ogonis show their colors. Now this forum , I said was well organized because we had Embassy officials helping to register folks on line and name tags were all laid out in order. All you had to do was walk to the table showing the alphabet of your last name, pick up your name tags and other materials , get a cup of coffee and walk around while you check out the display booth of a few companies at the conference center. There was no ragging or screaming at this junction. Act 2, Scene I If you registered late last night your name tag was waiting for you on the tables provided. The conference hall is slowly filled to capacity and before long OBJ arrives. We all stood up and he shook hands, and chatted with his fellow country men before he sat down. The Consulate General in Atlanta opened the session with a plea to all present to turn their cell phones off. Almost all obliged (you know some meathead won't) . Act 2 Scene II. He outlined to us his objective and how he came to realize that the government has to have a dialogue with Nigerian professionals, sons and daughters who keep fleeing home for greener pastures. He admitted the failure of past rulers to seek intellectual opinion. Rather than develop our capital in human resources, we train them and watch them all leave to contribute and help develop other countries. The speech is over and OBJ adjourns and will be back after we all get some lunch and he goes to some other meeting and interview at CNN. Act 2, Scene III Some Ibos will tell you that OBJ and some other PDP chiefs are marginalizing the Ibos. And of course we all have our sad story of what happened to us when we went home and so on and so on. At this scene we see quite a huge number of Ibos still and Yoruba's next in line and our homies from the Delta and Edo. No don't ask me. Maybe two Hausa. even Jubril Aminu says he is Fulani/Kanuri. Scene 111 to be continued.....
Okay where I stop sef............. Act 2, Scene III We are all waiting for 2.00 p.m to hit. Now we are all mostly charged up from our sectarian debates about: Corruption
...and then one of my close Amala friends from Minnesota came close to poking my eye ball out from anger . He wants to ask Mr. President why he had to bribe the cops 25 times at different check points from Ibadan to his home town in Ekiti State. At this point, I said it was time to go and take our seats. ACT 3, Scene I .........NO NO.. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO Now the Town Hall Meeting is on and it is Question time. We have a long line of my fellow country men and women. Most are emotionally charged and angry firing questions at Mr. President and here we go.. Mr. President how come you still have corrupt Nigerians in your cabinet? What are your plans for the Ijaws who have been denied all of their lives ? How come all of our oil revenues goes to the North? What are your plans to stop Armed Robbery? What about corrupt police officers ? are you going to fire them? What are your plans on stopping the Sharia? What are you going to do about falling Education standards? What about the Itshekiri's , the Ibibio etc? What about the Delta development how come we are still neglected? When are you going to do something about it? We the Ogonis , it is time we get some JUSTICE .When are you going to release our fellow OGONITES in jail? We the Ndigbos , are not favored in the Federal Government when are you going to do something about it? Do we still have a Regional Army ? How come a particular section of the country dominate the Armed Forces? Take care of OPC. kill the Bakkassi Boys ..stop the Sharia movement. Yepa!...anyway, let me continue... Just like a Soldier, OBJ was returning fire for fire, some come with laughter others kind of sting. Now at this point, our dear Ndigbo asked him about something he read on the Internet about his comment on Ndigbo Nation. Now don't forget OBJ too is charged up now ..and the result was to tell bobo and his sources or sources to GO TO HELL..... At this junction, some NDIGBOS are mad as hell. They want an apology. The Ngbati, ngbati nation thinks the Ndigbos have taken over the conference and says they deserve what they get. Of course the Ijaws are still not happy , the Ogonis feel slighted and on and on. Now guys don't forget , we have accused OBJ of acting like a messiah and all of our questions and requests points to us all wanting a MESSIAH ..To take care of our own problems as we see them. I am seating at the conference now going.....we have lost track of our goals and I’m thinking.. Maybe OBJ was right to have sent Soldiers to Udi or Odi , Maybe he was right when he threatened Tinubu to take care of the Armed Robbery problems of Lagos State or he will call in some heavy arms. Maybe he was right to have refused to release monies to the Assembly...creating constant friction between the Executive arm and the Legislative. Maybe he was right when he asked the Delta region government to stop pipeline oil thieves or he will send the military. Well maybe this is the reason why Nigerians lay around for days and weeks at Aso Rock to see OBJ and ask that he takes care of their own problem first. Maybe Mr. President is acting just like the MESSIAH that we ask him to be......the one who will take care of all of his children. I say it is time for his children to take care of their own problems and then maybe a visionary will come through for us all. The conference is declared closed and depending on who you talk to you will get all kind of views about the outcome. The debate went on outside of the hall as to how he should have answered one question or another and how this whole event should have taken a course favorable to whomever you are talking to at any point in time. Act 3, Scene II With over 1000 in attendance, accusations start to fly. The Ndigos have hi-jacked the dinner tickets and they are going to share it among themselves and their wives. I was registered as number 1xx on the listing but after many fruitless attempts to track down the bearer of the tickets , I gave up, collected some of my fellow Amala boys and we left to have our own private dinner and continue the debate. I honestly thought it was a well organized forum with good intentions and with a few more practice sessions, the follow up sessions if they happen as OBJ promised (our Messiah), we should all experience better days in the life of our OBODO Nigeria. Epilogue: Ngbati, Ngbati boys are still complaining. You want to control a situation ...then show up in good numbers. Abi ke. That’s all folks. Thanks for the precious time you have taken to read my tori. Sunny Boy
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