“HISTORY OF THE BASSA-NGE PEOPLE
(HOW THEY DEFEATED THE IGALA IN A BATTLE)”
DANGEROUS SINGNAL FOR 2027 AND BEYOND.
By ONOJA OKPANACHI
They won. Yes, not in a war that article with the above headline claimed but in the current ongoing psychological war we are engaged in as a nation which many of us are oblivious of. We are just living our lives taking everything as normal meanwhile others are deliberate about their words and actions while we just float with anything that comes our ways. Very unfortunate condition we have found ourselves in a time like this.
Don’t be confused about mine article. The headline in quote is of a historical narrative published by “Nupe FC” on Facebook which has been generating many reactions since it was released and mine is not a response but a reminder and wake up call which has been going on but ignored by our people as we continue on the paths we seem comfortable with, not ready to sit up and make amends yet. And, painfully, our reactionary acts are manifesting again reminding us always how we keep failing to be proactive as a people.
This ugly narrative penetrates deeply because we have given so much attention to all sorts of “historical presentations” that we have lost sights of our current realities and as a result, gradually loosing the future as well if we don’t wake up and stand up to walk properly. We have been dwelling on these histories of how we conquered this and that to the point of not being mindful of our current economic and political woes. All the people and places we have conquered in the past, do we care to look at them today and compare? If we do, then, is it that what we have become today after all those “conquests” is really good for us? If not, what have we been doing as a nation to recover, gain good economic status and reclaim the glory of old then pursue new ones? How come we have so many individual giants and very dwarf as a people amongst nations in Nigeria? What’s wrong? Do we know the problems and are we ready to fix them now or we want to shift the responsibility to generations to come?
Well, it’s a painful reality today but we can still get things right first by appreciating our current situation and then figure out the way forward, consciously.
On that article, let me tell us something; this is no different strategy from what has been working against the Igala and Kogi East in general politically in the last few years – these strategists have realized a few weaknesses about us and will keep manipulating the people until they realize and begin to be proactive and less reactionary. With that article, the mission is simple; “further disunite them and reduce their strength the more”. This is very possible because we consume everything these days without deep reflections and asking necessary questions to rationalize certain actions and their timing. Check out the source of that article, they were launched on Facebook on December 1st, 2023. Set up for a reason and gradually moving in to cause that distraction and disunity to now reduce the voting loyalty of the area in focus. They will soon move into areas like Ibaji, Akpanya and Ogugu to instigate and provoke the internal differences to rise again and by so doing, weakening what the Igala of Kogi East so much rely on (their population) which unfortunately has become the reason the axis is becoming less strategic in their political outings.
The truth now is, so long as we rely on our ethnic population (as the only weapon to winning statewide elections) to the detriment of real strategies, forget about political power on that ground in the nearest future. See, the impact of this psychological warfare is such that many of the people from Kogi East (even the elites) have erroneously accepted the “49%” of the axis population and voting strength as against available data showing around “51%”. So, by the time many more seeds of discords are sown and that wall of ethnic voting power is finally pulled down, then, the current war would have been won.
Please, note, nothing just happened. People who wait for things to happen always loose at the end. It’s time to begin to ask ourselves what exactly we want as a people – leadership based on capacity for development or just to be in power with or without tangible development just because we have the largest population as a people in the state? And, if we must move in a political direction in the years ahead, what is the leadership structure to follow as a people first before political parties and other various affiliations?
Can you see the Nupe FC’s article as a dangerous signal for the years ahead and be less reactionary? It’s time to begin to be more strategic, less predictable and totally stop being noise makers – let it be that “when they bark, they will bite”. Above all, let’s agree on leadership and clear vision for the axis otherwise, we will just be running around and achieving nothing. Painful but the truth for now.
ARISE!
