SOME days ago, I woke up to find that someone, or group had decided to change my country. It was there on Facebook; a supposed map of a new country called Biafra. I was neither consulted nor my opinion sought. I am not also aware that the Ijaws, who are my parents, our neigbours the Isokos, Itsekiris, Urhobos, Efiks, Ibibios, Orons etcetera, were consulted. Some fellow Nigerians in demonstrating their right to self-determination, decided that I do not have the right to be consulted.

THE mass anger among the Igbo youth is justified as I noted in the first part of this article. But is secession or the call for Biafra the answer? The purpose of this second part is to put across my opinion that secession is neither viable nor in the best interest of the Igbo nation. I will try and proffer what I believe is the way forward.

Sadly, credible international agencies now also allege that about 70% i.e. over 100million of Nigerians now live on less than $2 a day, while fewer employment opportunities exist in a job market that is increasingly, annually bloated, by millions of new entrants.

The gullible average Nigerian conflates ‘change’ with ‘progress’ or ‘positive transformation,’ without realising that the objective processes which lead to change are dependent on the blending of several variables and that positive or progressive change is quite different from mere change. Ordinarily, change in itself is an inherent feature of reality at all levels of being. But progressive change, which is value-impregnated, is utilitarian and consequentialist in character, since it signposts a transition from one state of being to another judged to be beneficial for a certain purpose determined by an individual or group. Hence, there are different ways of perceiving and interpreting change, which means that any interpretation of change is an invitation for deliberation and possible disagreement.

The title of today’s article is taken verbatim from a speech by Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the 2015 National Conference of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Dokpesi spoke in Abuja last Thursday during the conference.