A friend of mine made me aware of a post on facebook that called me out. The post was by a Nigerian brother, Chiagozie Fred Nwonwu , in Lagos, Nigeria. He said that I should use my “international celebrity” to bring attention to the bombings and killings going on in Nigeria. He wants me to do this by writing and/or commenting on these attacks on my blog and on facebook. I was advised not to respond to the post, but being an Igbo man, a Nigerian and a fighter, I NEVER BACK DOWN FROM A CHALLENGE. This an excerpt from Chiagozie’s post:
I am vexing that some Nigerian born “international celebrities” only look homewards when it is convenient. I want them to start commenting on naija matters, especially at this time. They have star power abi, oya yarn about the wahala we are facing, not just about your rosy life in another man’s country. I took Ngoli Okafor to task here o. I know he will vex, but if it gets him blogging about the killings, better
Let me start by saying that I’m not mad at Chiagozie. My brother, I no dey vex. He is a young man who feels passionate about the killings of innocent people in Nigeria by a group called Boko Haram. It is a very sad situation at home in Nigeria right now. All the news outlets including TV stations, radio stations and blogs have carried news about the killings. I see and hear it everyday. My family and friends who are on ground in Nigeria give me the true details of what is going on. Throughout my career, I have always made it known that I am an Igbo man. A Nigerian. I have never once denied that fact. Chiagozie, Nigeria is my home and always will be. I grew up in Nigeria until the age of 18. I became a man in Nigeria. When you say that I ‘look homewards when its convenient’, do you suggest that because I have acheived success in America, I should never come home? Or are you saying that Nigeria is no longer my home because I live and work as you call it, ‘in another man’s country’. I am in America because I want to make a differnce in my life and the life of my family. Does that change the fact that Nigeria is my home? From the outside looking, it must be difficult to see the amount of hard work and suffering that goes into what I do everyday. It’s very easy to look at the glam and feel that my life is a ‘rosy life’.
There were so many great things going on in Nigeria while I was there, but you’ll never hear about any of them. There is never good news coming out of Nigeria. No news outlet ever has good news to report regarding Nigeria or Africa as a whole. All people do is post horrific pictures and report the news that they heard on CNN or some other major news source. All they do is repost some disturbing pictures that they saw online. They don’t realize that all they are doing is sensationalizing the issue. The news is just reported without any course of action. All the news does is to use the condition of the people to sell advertising. People look at all this news and all it does is strengthen the idealogy that Africans are all a bunch of wild animals, with no regard for human life. I refuse to be a party to that. I refuse to profit from the suffering of my own people. I am a doer, not a talker.
What Chiagozie does not understand is that over the years, we as a people have developed a culture of passing the buck. Why should we look to the west to help us solve our problems? Where is our government? All we do is talk. We are still a top oil producer, but import gasoline and other oil products. Why can’t our engineers and business people, stop talking, get together and build refineries so that we can put an end to the importation of gasoline? Are we incapable of soving our own problems?
I looked at Chiagozie’s facebook page and I saw several pictures of dead bodies. What is this supposed to acheive? One of the picture’s on his facebook page is that of a dead boy/man in a gutter in Lagos. Chiagozie complained that he reported the body to the police and they did nothing. Chiagozie, are you truly surprised that the police ignored you? Are you shocked that they did not immediately go out there and remove the body? This is not news. This same thing happened when I lived in Nigeria eighteen years ago. The police was not quick to move bodies eighteen years ago and they are not quick to move the bodies now. As a people, what will we do? Should we come back to the scene, day after day, and take pictures of the rotting body, hoping that someone, someday will move it? Or do we mobilize, put some masks on and remove it ourselves? Even simpler, just cover the body, so that children walking by do not get traumatized by such a sight. We know that the police won’t do it, that is clear. Get together and move it. If it happens anywhere else in the world, the people will move it and not take pictures of it. These gruesome images do nothing but desensitize our children to death and the cost of a human life. Children should not see such things. How difficult is it cover the body the body with a sheet?
As I said before, I’m a doer, not a talker. My focus is on saving our children. I have started a charity which in time will give our children an opportunity to improve their lives and the lives of their families. While I was in Nigeria, I donated clothes, I donated sports equipment and gave money to our schools in Nigeria. I am raising more money as we speak and will return home again to give more. I will make change. I don’t talk about it. What are you doing?
By
Ngo Okafor
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