PATRIOTISM: Why Igbo People Should Support Nigeria
By Reno Omokri
I find it funny when Nigerian traders in Ghana complain about the almost insurmountable roadblocks put in their way by the Ghanaian government, and cry out for the Nigerian Government’s help for those restrictions to be lifted.
The Republic of Ghana requires Nigerian traders to pay a $1 million deposit as foreign capital base. Hundreds of shops belonging to Nigerian traders, mainly from the Southeast of Nigeria, were shut when they could not meet this heavy burden, in addition to other special taxes levied by the Ghanaian government on only foreigners.
Why is it funny? Because Nigerians are foreigners in Ghana. Now, many of those traders are in support of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra’s secessionist agitation.
Be forward-thinking before you jump on something whose consequences you do not know. Do you see what you are facing in Ghana? That is what you will face in Nigeria if Biafra breaks away from the Federal Republic of Nigeria. You will automatically be a foreigner. There will be a border. The Nigerian tax rules will be against you.
You will be unable to register businesses with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria, except you give a majority stake in your company to a Nigerian or a group of Nigerians. You will be subject to expatriate quotas, so you will be unable to use a night bus to bring your brother from your village to serve you in Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, Sokoto and other Nigerian commercial nerve centres.
Whatever monies you make in Nigeria will not be transferable to the Republic of Biafra, unless you go through the CBN and pay official rates and other taxes meant to discourage capital flight.
You will need ports to import your goods. You will need customers to buy those goods. Your ports are ALL outside your Biafra. At least 150 million of your customers are outside Biafra. If you break away, where will you import through? Cameroon? See what Cameroon is doing to the Anglophone Ambazonia. Ambazonians are flocking to Nigeria for safety, and you think you can go there? Who will you sell to? Your fellow traders? And when immigration and economic roadblocks are placed in your way by the Nigerian authorities, like you are experiencing in Ghana, what would you do, since you will no longer be citizens?
Look, think this thing through. Take in the whole picture. Look down the road. Do not be so impulsive. Think, then act. Do not act, then think. Even Colonel Emeka Ojukwu himself was buried with full Nigerian military colours under President Jonathan, because while in Ivory Coast, he had time to think. He renounced Biafra and pledged loyalty to Nigeria, following which he was granted a Presidential pardon by President Shehu Shagari on Tuesday, May 18, 1982, upon which he returned to Nigeria a month later on Friday, June 18, 1982, and went straight to State House, Ribadu Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, to swear allegiance to Nigeria.
Even the one in Europe masterminding much of the confusion in Nigeria, how was he able to get to Europe? He got there by virtue of being a Nigerian athlete representing Nigeria, which gave him the leverage that eventually took him to Europe.
In the light of these facts, you may want to rethink your strategy.
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Omokri is the bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years.
