From: TONY JOHN , Port Harcourt
A Niger Delta activist, Annkio Briggs, has condemned the anti-Igbo song going viral in the North, saying that it was a clear demonstration of the level of hatred in Nigeria.
Briggs, who described the song and hate speeches as “horrifying and unbelievable”, said it has shown how appalling the police system the country has.
Her words, “It is horrifying and unbelievable. If you look back on other issues, especially how the civil war came about, how the politics had been conducted in Nigeria, it sad that Nigeria is going down the part of total hate.
“But, again, we cannot pretend, as Nigerians, that this is coming out from the blues. It is not coming out from the blues. It is a long term process that has brought us here, where Nigeria, as a country, lack trust. There is total distrust amount ethnic nationalities. And that distrust has emanated from the feelings from different quarters in recent times, that they are not part of the country.
“Perhaps, some sections of Nigeria, if not all the time, feel they are more Nigerian than others. Now, such a record floating around, and if someone has listened to it, the best that politics and politicians can do for us, the best that the law, the people, who are going about shouting hate speech can do for us, is to get to the bottom of this development.
“What sort of police system do we have, when a certain people would do a certain thing and you can never find them. And a certain people would do do a similar thing, if not the same thing, and immediately, and within 10 minutes, you have figured out who the people are, where they are from and, even, why they have done what they did.
“Such an offensive record is going around. Now, the Igbo people, who this is directed at, an ethnic group this record is directed at from another ethnic group in Nigeria, calls for serious concerns.
“But, for me, if that is not forthcoming, the Igbo people will be, within their rights of looking for safety and securing themselves, if the decide to leave the North en mass, if they make that decision for themselves.
“In Nigeria, who are holding the economy of buying and selling, trading, importing and exporting majorly? It is the Igbo people and they are concentrated all over the country. Now, if you express that much hatred to a particular group of people, why will the Igbo not also, circulate such record in Igbo language? I am saying that hate record or anti-Igbo song is wrong and highly condemnable”, Briggs expressed.