by Kelechi Udensi

The time for us to be serious is now. We can never succeed in this war against tribal differences like this. I cannot wait to see a Nigerian devoid of tribal differences.

“It is a fact that most of the pirates I see selling pirated CDs and DVDs are Igbo,” he unbelievably said. “He even threatened
me after I seized my film from him. Why?” he asked. And with this, all my respect for Kunle Afolayan went off the window. How could someone who claims to be so educated mutter such utter nonsense, in an already heated situation?

I do not even want to go into the foul-mouthed tirade of Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu. He appears to me as uncivilized
and brash, so I won’t even blame him. All he has done is do more harm to All Progressives Congress’ (APC) chances in Lagos. But Kunle Afolayan? What was he thinking? Was he drunk? High on some cheap stuff? I can never tell.

Yes, he probably was bitter over what pirates had done to his business. But a man of his standard should have thought better. I am disappointed. Now let me let him know something. In Abia state, a Yoruba man tried to sell a pirated copy of Chinua Achebe’s “There Was A Country” to me. Let me also shock him by telling him about a certain Yoruba man who sells pirated Nollywood movies at Narayi, Kaduna. Does he also know a lot of Yoruba men move round the streets of Aba selling what of course should be concocted herbal drugs? But nobody ever blamed the Yoruba tribe, even if people did not like the issues at hand.

Let me use this opportunity to advise people to stop this insult on Igbos.

During the presidential election, we endured lots of embarrassment. We were insulted and told to “go and die”. Now, a certain Oba has told us to perish in a Lagoon. Now, brother Kunle has accused us of piracy. The Igbo tribe is a great one, proud of itself and never would wish it were from another place.

I, for one, am proud of my Igbo roots. I can never imagine being from any other tribe. Igbos respect other tribes. You can never see an Igbo man insult an Hausa man in the east. It is not possible. No Igbo man would arrogantly dismiss a Yoruba man in the east. If anything, they accord those tribes all respect they deserve. So why this?

The time for us to be serious is now. We can never succeed in this war against tribal differences like this. I cannot wait to see a Nigerian devoid of tribal differences. I cannot.

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– Kelechi Udensi tweets from @jonsingkay

 
Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.