The eviction order from Are­wa land given to Ndigbo by the foot soldiers of Hausa/Fulani political machine has be­come a subject of controversies immersed in deceit, duplicity, hy­pocrisy and sophistry. I was par­ticularly prompted to write this piece because of the cacophony of responses from the quarters of Ndigbo, the principal actors in this drama and it leaves one wonder­ing what Ndigbo actually wanted.

If Nigerians that created Biafra did not kill Biafra, Biafra will kill Nigeria.

But however, there are those who after fifty years of the end of the civil war, are still basking in eu­phoria of victory and insisting on perpetual subjugation of a people. For them the status quo must be maintained however warped and retrogressive it is. They feel invinci­ble because they control the whole security apparatus in Nigeria. No­body can dare them, they have the power of life and death over the rest of us. Little wonder their foot sol­diers inside the Arewa House, the symbol of Hausa/Fulani political hegemony have the audacity and impudence to give eviction order to Ndigbo without giving a hoot about the consequences. This is be­cause of their fixation on the belief that Ndigbo were conquered peo­ple whose actions and voices must be confined within the limits de­fined for them by their conquerors.

But ironically, my grouse was not about the quit notice which to me was a blessing in disguise, my grouse is about the ambivalence of the Igbo people living in Are­wa land, the naivety and hypocri­sy of the southeast governors, the silence of the authentic Igbo lead­ers (with the exception Nnia Nwo­do the Ohaneze President Gener­al ( I do not mean rabble rousers) and finally the sophistry of north­ern political leadership including their governors. If anybody told me that Nasir El Rufai the Gover­nor and Chief Security Officer of Kaduna state did not know about the press conference inside Arewa House and the purpose, consider­ing the recent security upheavals in the state, I will tell the person to go tell it to the zombies and yet he was the first to issue condemnation and arrest order for the youths. What an irony. What a country.

Ndigbo living in Arewa land found themselves in a state of am­bivalence like the Jews in the wil­derness after they left Egypt. The Jews complained and grumbled to Moses that they wanted to go back to Egypt into slavery and servitude instead of enduring lit­tle pains and making little sacrific­es for their greater tomorrow and that of their unborn generations in the promised land. The same goes with Igbo people in Arewa land. Their love for money and prop­erties more than their lives, liber­ty, respect and dignity of the hu­man person has beclouded their sense of history. They must not al­low history to repeat itself again in the north. It is time for them to call the bluff of Arewa North and come back home and develop their fa­therland, Biafra or no Biafra is ab­solutely inconsequential. Ndig­bo can survive anywhere, even in hell they will build edifices to the chagrin of Satan.

The worst mistake Ndigbo in Arewa North can make is to play the Ostrich in the present circum­stance. The assurances of the Are­wa Consultative Forum, Elders, Governors, Emirs etc, were mere sophistry. They will all be in their air condition mansions when the mayhem will start; all the security agencies under the control of Are­wa people will hear no evil see no evil until after the carnage when thousands of lives had been wast­ed then they will come out and be on top of the situation and the real charade will start.

To before warned, is to before armed. Our fathers were never given this golden opportunity to leave before they struck. You have been given expo, and it is proba­ble that the eviction order was nev­er intended to be made public by their masterminds. What are prop­erties and businesses compare to life and human dignity. Let them take inventory of your properties and businesses and share the boo­ties among themselves, after all you were the conquered and ungrateful people who have not paid tribute to your conquerors since they spared your lives after the war when they had the opportunity to annihilate the whole Igbo race.

Ebue is a former secretary of the Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ), Enugu State Council