Nigerians Slam Kingsley Moghalu For Referring To Igbos As ‘Nigerian Igbo’

The 2019 Presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party, YPP, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has received backlash from Nigerians on Twitter for using the phrase, ‘Nigerian Igbo’ to address the Igbos.

Moghalu, in a series of tweets on Saturday night, said: “Nigerian Igbo complain about political ‘marginalization.’ While true because of the civil war, and while Nigeria needs ‘a new grand bargain’ between it’s ethnic nationalities, the Igbos themselves have harmed themselves.

“They must first shed the victim mentality. Then they must address the disadvantage of being ‘led’ by selfish, greedy and self-centered political elite masquerading as political and social-cultural leaders who are the first to shoot down their own.

“Many Igbo leaders are fine men and women. But there are too many that are envious and self-hating, choose to be politically second-class so long as it serves their little interests.

“Ndigbo needs a strategy, with high impact strategic engagement with other ethnic nationalities with a win-win proposition, not ethnic noise-making.

“Do you think it’s a surprise that @BarackObama became US president despite the attempts of many other black Americans like Jesse Jackson? Obama succeeded because he did not have a chip on his shoulder, though he acknowledged the systemic injustice of racism.

“But he had a proposition, not just a sense of entitlement. He was able to largely because he was the son of a Kenyan man and a white American mother who did not descend from a line of former slaves and therefore was spared of their psychological insecurities.

“The joke in Kenya is that a Luo (his father was from the Luo tribe) could be a US president but not a Kenyan one! I ran for President in 2019 as a Nigerian candidate, not as an Igbo candidate, and no apologies. I love Ndigbo. But I also love other Nigerians, unburdened by the hang-ups of history.

“All of this is not to say we should not deal with the civil war in our national history. It is the elephant in the room. I have argued that Nigeria’s leaders must apologize for the millions of lives lost in the Nigeria-Biafra war if we are to heal. That’s the right thing to do.”

Moghalu tweets, however, received a wide range of criticism as some Twitter users see the Professor as pitting himself against his own people.

Some of the responses to Moghalu’s statement read:

@Drmuzoic: “Biko do we have Igbos from other countries cos I am trying to understand what “Nigerian Igbo” means? I need to understand this first before commenting on the other okotos.”

@UcheOkoyep: “What do you mean by “Nigerian Igbo”. Putting Nigerian first before Igbo.?. That was intentional. How have we harmed ourselves in Nigeria? How do we shed ” Victim mentality” this sounds like what a BMC would say. You are part of the Leaders, so you must address you too.”

@saint2k4real: “No true Ndigbo will ever support u after this, why would they shed themselves of victim mentality? Were they not the victim? I really don’t wanna say much but u just disappointed those that have faith In you.”

@akingbadegroup: “The most worrisome aspects of it is seen Yoruba as their core enemy, yet Hausa couldn’t as well trusted them with power. Politics is all about alliance, a section can’t get power in Nigeria except they form alliance with others PMB tried it alone for 3times until he formed such.”

@Oliverben: “Over 3 million Igbos were massacred in the unjust Civil War. And you want the entirety of the Igbo nation to swipe history behind in order to appear politically correct. Too bad you call it “victim mentality”, though I’m not surprised seeing it’s coming from a politician.”