As Nigerians, there is a quality that is about becoming peculiar to us. We like to pretend. Even when we are hungry and need all the assistance in the world, we will prefer to lie low and bury our heads in our mattresses and pretend that nothing is happening.

The same way it is in larger matters that concern existence in this nation. There is killing, poverty and infact, people are dying every minute, including relations of those in power, yet, talk about it, so that solutions will come, then you hear leaders who ordinarily should acknowledge this and work to salvage the situation, respond with the speed of light, telling all in loud voices, that there are no such things. This has become our habit.

In this nation today, there is an undeclared war that is going on. We all know it, we see it daily but, we are afraid to acknowledge it. There is an undeclared war going on against the Igbos in this nation and the casualties are becoming too many to manage or to ignore. And if others will ignore it, hiding under an attitude of cold passivity, I won't join these groups that die many times before their death, because, those that get wasted away are Nigerians whose only offence appears to be their love for this nation. They are mainly the Igbos.

I will like to supply evidence to back up my position, beginning with the recent General Odumegwu Ojukwu's incident. Ojukwu by every account is a statesman. For the lgbo nation of today, he is the patriarch. He is what Abraham was and still is to the Jews. Till the present, he is the true embodiment of the real essence of Ndigbo and to a greater extent encapsulates our aspiration within the Nigerian State.

I do know that other ethnic groups in this nation do have theirs. I can mention Shehu Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Olu Falae, Obasanjo, Bola Tinubu, J.P. Clark just to mention but a few. Few weeks ago, General Ojukwu made a statement over Andy Uba's obviously out of order attempt to reopen an issue that was long dead. Ojukwu had warned that if a position was taken that was likely to produce bloodshed and make Ndigbo to suffer unduly, then those doing so should know that such action would amount to a clarion call for civil war.

Ojukwu had hardly ended the statement when architects of war against Ndigbo came out in their true colour to show that there still exist in this country highly placed persons who still do not believe let alone coming to terms with the fact that the Nigerian civil war ended more than 40 years ago. If the quoting of Ojukwu out of contest was disturbing and destabilising, the pedigree of those who reacted, the manner they went about it and the kind of condemnation piled on Ojukwu's head, was not only nauseating but confirmed the huge contempt citizens of this nation hold against Ndigbo and particularly against their leadership class.

I hold this view strong and deep down me because I feel it is a true reflection of things. Why? Because I live in this country, I have practiced journalism from the low to the high level and I have been in politics up to the high level. In all these spheres, I have read and come across instances where supposed acclaimed leaders from other parts of this nation spoke their minds strongly about this nation, some even threatening to cause riots or to downgrade others, without a corresponding reaction of the kind of crude show that was made of Ojukwu's innocent but patriotic out burst on behalf of the wellbeing of the Nigerian state.

I don't see how Ojukwu's position that if this happens, there will be a civil war amounts to a threat. Ojukwu is aged and certainly has no army. Everybody who knows English language and the allowance it gives us to dance around will know that Ojukwu only employed a hyperbole to reflect or appropriately capture the seriousness of the issue at hand. Even if it were not to be so, Ojukwu, I believe deserved some respect, given that men of his standing from other ethnic groups are not descended upon in the manner that some charlatans took him up.

Lets say it here that it was wrong for Gen. Yakubu Gowon to have said 'if Ojukwu wants war, we give it to him, after all I defeated him before.' But from my knowledge, this kind of statement from a man preaching forgiveness and one who was at the helm of affairs when the war ended, tells more than a story. For me it tells the Igbos never to mind the so called three Rs. You were defeated in war and a people defeated in war have no right to speak, agitate or assert their rights until the generations known to the war and possibly the news or stories are gone to the world beyond. It is this and more that make me believe that the Ojukwu incident is not an isolated development.

In 1999, Ekwueme who had patriotically served this nation, first as Vice President and during the late Abacha dictatorship put his life on the line to save this nation was to be denied the privilege of presiding over this nation, his running a very credible campaign notwithstanding. To beat him, a man who was not even a registered member of a political party was brought out from detention and given the arsenal to subvert the rules and win the Presidency.

The explanation we got many years after the progenitors began reaping the whirlwind was that Ekwueme in one of the constitutional conferences raised the issue of zones, which for them meant he could return this nation to the Biafran challenge as President. Today the zonal principle is in use but Ekwueme, the visioner was not good to lead this country.

If it stopped here, perhaps those of us very critical from the land of Ndigbo would have thought it a mistake. But it did not. Obasanjo in exercising sovereignty in the South-East employed the tactics used by conquerors to further decimate their captives. In dealing with Ndigbo he went for nincompoops and at best men of little known consequence and standing.

At first, he used one Nwokolo, when he won the elections and was deeply entrenched, he dumped him. While this happened, the Ekwuemes, Ezeifes, Ojukwus, Anyaokus, Achebes, were there. The Anambra upheaval that we still see till today was deliberately done to split the Igbo's and make them look stupid and portrayed them as people who have lost not only the war, but shame and dignity.

Today, I cry every time I recall that public positions in this country that share and become musical chairs, for which other Nigerians would beg and plead before sanity returns, are positions held by an Igbo son or daughter. Senate presidency given to Ndigbo had the highest turnover rate. Just recently Ogbulafor escaped a palace coup when he was yet to stay one full year on the seat. Look at Iwu of INEC, he has been so vilified and harassed, that you will think that Nigerians from other tribes never held this position before. Prof Nwosu, who defied odds to produce June 12, is not even acclaimed but his works are praised.

Onovo, the IGP is barely three months in office but three newspapers have done three negative editorials on him even questioning his proven ability. I need not mention Soludo, former CBN governor who as far as I know did not do anything but who is being dented because he had a speculated close relationship with workers in his sector.

Today, every Nigerian including those who will jump at the least opportunity knows that the South-East has the record of the worst road network in this country. For a people that travel, there is no airport designated and operated as international within the whole region. The people are industrious and have ingenuity as middle name, but electricity supply in the region is erratic, nearer the point of no supply at all. No industries. Even in small things like effective zonal broadcast stations, the FRCN, AIT and NTA have their worst zonal set ups in the region.

The truth is that we know our troubles and the pains. We have long resolved to live with them in the hope that God has a way of turning adversity into big blessing. But it must be said that when those who are supposed to be brothers chose to engage in unbrotherly acts, they invariably stir the chains of brotherhood. The danger in this is that when it snaps, nobody can tell who the first casualty could be; after all, Nigeria is like a market place. This is the plain truth.

Now this, Egbu is 50.

Today is my golden birthday. I had looked forward to this day. When I look back, I see the truth in what God has said, that 'the race of life is not to the swift, nor the battle for the strong, nor riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill. It is only God's agenda that decides all.' I have seen rejection; I have heard people make stories nothing anything near what you are. I have dealt with people who want you dead but will eat and drink with you.

I have experienced death plans collapse on the head of the planners. Above all, I have also seen men and women who are like God, kind, understanding and merciful. I thank God, true men of God who have been close to me, Dr Stanley Macebuh, Nduka Obaigbena, Orji Uzor Kalu, T. A. Orji and many others I can't mention here.