Thread by @ObetaMax

I just watched a video that showed some men suspected to be the abductors and killers of Chief Ignatius Odunukwe.

Ndigbo, we should go back to our values that abhor crime.

When our young men ppl suddenly become rich without any identifiable income source, let's not praise them

According to the the video, the leader of the criminals was DANIEL IBEAJỤ, from Enugu state. They killed him, cut him to bits, stuffed his body in a bag and dumped it somehow at Ajah.

IBEAJỤ is an Igbo name. ODUNUKWE is also an Igbo name

So, they killed a brother, Onye igbo

There was a video posted here sometime ago, of some people throwing wraps and bundles of currency notes on a dancer at an event, and people were praising them and "tapping your blessing"

When I asked what he did for a living, I got some uncomfortable remarks from some.

NDIGBO HAVE A PROBLEM. And in all our discussions, we need to bring these issues up.

It's an emergency. Our original core values are going. Let's not allow that.

I'll reproduce some excerpts from an article by our own @FredrickNwabufo some time ago.

Read 👇

"The refrain that criticising your own people for shortcomings is an act of sanctimony is obtuse."

" Crime has no ethnic face, but does that imply condoning or rationalising a persistent ill?"

"I have said it before, we have a problem. The Igbo have a problem. Out of the 21 Nigerians on death-row for drug peddling in Indonesia, 20 are Igbo – from my state – Anambra. Personally, I feel violated by this."

"A few months ago, some armed robbers of Igbo origin launched an attack on a bureau de change in Dubai, bt they were arrested. It is painful, instead of exporting the durable products of Aba, we are exporting crime and violence"

"That Nigerians are a pariah in South Africa is partly due to the activities of some Igbo drug cartel"

"But what happens when these drug gangs return to the south-east? A bazaar of bloodshed. A few years ago, there was a massacre at a church in Ozubulu, Anambra"

"The killings were linked to a drug war between rival gangs in South Africa. The gangs took their battle out of the turf to native soil. Really, we are baiting the hurricane"

"And now, out of the 77 names listed for online fraud in the US, 74 are Igbo. WE HAVE A PROBLEM" .

We have a problem. We cannot solve this problem by living in denial.

I agree, there are millions of us doing great things in our fields, but we must condemn the activities of these criminals among us.

"They do not represent us, but their actions are capable of making an execrable impression of all us.

One drop of dirt is enough to make a basin of water impure. We must have serious conversations on this atypical criminality."

The argument that the Igbo are marginalised and that they are deprived because of the civil war, so very few among them are forced into crime is puerile. This is a terrible way to rationalise a problem that dents the entire group. There is no excuse for crime.

"We have a culture that glorifies ‘’money’’ crime – ‘’ego mbute’’ – the culture of money grubbing and worship, as the-be-all and end-all of everything. It is a pervasive culture, not limited to the Igbo though."

"We need value re-orientation,& this shld be actuated by all groups – age grades and traditional institutions. We must stop celebrating ppl of unknown fortune. We must name& shame those with illicit wealth in our communities. We should upbraid them instead of honoring them"