COVID-19: Ndị Igbo have not learned enough from their Marginalization in Nigeria – Ugo Nwaokoro

Hon. Ugochukwu Nwaokoro

_The Rich people among the Igbos should focus more on helping the poor citizens of Eastern Nigeria rather than give out large sums of money to a referral government that wouldn’t care for the Easterners.

_The same federal government that excluded the East on projects that would be borne forth from a recent loan package of ₦22.7 B now wants Igbos to contribute centrally for corvid-19 response

It is so disheartening that Igbo businessmen are donating huge amounts of money to the Federal Government, the Lagos State government and the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC), to combat the coronavirus pandemic, without any mention of any donation to their states in the South East.

How could any Igbo businessman justify a donation to the Federal Government of Nigeria that recently presented a plan to borrow ₦22.7 billion to be shared and spent on the other regions of Nigeria except the South East? Even Lagos State Government, when push comes to shove, will start discriminating from indigenes and non indigenes of Lagos State, and that would form the bases of how to apportion reliefs and who to help. Dangote is building a coronavirus testing center at the Aminu Kano Stadium in Kano. Nd’Igbo, as you donate to the FGN, LAGOS STATE, and THE NCDC, Please give more to the states in the South East where most of the people that would need the help reside. I won’t rule it out of Nigeria that if the coronavirus continues to spread, everybody would now be required to go back to their states of origin to quarantine. It would be harder for the States to source for relief funds if the pandemic spreads to the states.

The Federal government can easily source for relief funds from the international communities, like the UN, the WHO, etc. Even when Nigeria receives relief funds from the International communities, one would not trust the FGN that excluded the South East from benefitting from the ₦22.7 billion it wanted to borrow recently, to extend part or enough of the relief funds from the International communities to the South East. Nd’Igbo, onye ndi iro gbara gburugburu, na eche ndu ya nche ngbe nile!

Ugochukwu Nwaokoro was a Deputy Mayor of the City Of Newark, New Jersey. USA. He has hosted and/or participated in many fora and Projects focused mainly  on the improvement of living and governance standards of and for the people of Africa’s Homeland and the diaspora. His upcoming book,  “Living in Self Inflicted Bondage, the Nigerian Experience” is a big eye opener and would perhaps, someday, serve as the “Bible of Governmental Re-Organization” all across Africa and beyond as it shares different ingenious ideas to help improve governmental structures and governance among various ailing African governmental set ups.

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