By: Ikem Okuhu
Early this morning, I woke up to a post by Emmanuel Bountiful in which he was celebrating one Mrs Adeola Sowemimo, the first Nigerian pilot on Qatar Airways flying the famed Boeing Dreamliner. Bountiful is an Igbo guy I have never met but respect because he has presented himself as a great chef.
The next I saw celebrating Mrs Sowemimo was Chris Kehinde Nwandu. The social media was to be flooded with people celebrating her shortly after.
They are both Igbo. And it was alright for them to celebrate a person they saw as a Nigerian sister doing great things. But they can’t as much as exercise their voting rights in a city in Nigeria because they are Igbo.
Imagine if Qatar Airways was Lagos Airways or Imo Air or Sokoto Airways or Ibom Air? Would Adeola get that chance even in her own country?
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I understand that there are 50+ mayoralties in London or abi UK..
Of all of these, only about 5 have English men and women as the Mayors. I know when we all celebrated a Nigerian lady or so that won this seat.
Imagine this to be Lagos, my own Lagos…..
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Anthony Joshua is World’s Heavyweight Boxing Champion. He left this country as a child and is carrying a British passport.
When he arrived fame-dom, the British press, who even made us realise we had a son that was a world-class boxer in the first place, would stress his name as “British Heavyweight Boxing Champion. They would not even add his Nigerian Yoruba name.
We all flew into collective rage against Britain for stealing our son. We wouldn’t even let them lay claim to a child they took from us and made a man.
Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba claim Anthony Joshua.
But here at home, we can’t even be adopted citizens of another state. You have to be grateful that you are allowed to pay for a roof over your head.
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Like it or loathe, we are all hypocrites! We are insincere. Behind the facade of our sanctimonious togetherness lies a bewildering primitively sectional volcano bristling with dysfunctional, centrifugal, quasi nationalism.
I congratulate all of us.
We are a great people!!!!
*Ikem Okuhu is a Publisher;Brands and Public analyst