Ndigbo are 'incurably money-minded' -Soyinka

Ndigbo are ‘incurably
money-minded’ -Soyinka
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Igbos vote based on their stomach, they suffer
from incurable money mindedness- Wole Soyinka
The Igbo ethnic group does seem to be getting a lot
of bashing these days from their countrymen. This
time it was Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka who said
they are probably the only set of Nigerians who
are predictable when it comes to voting.
That may not be a bad thing, but then he went on
to say, they vote in the direction of their stomachs.
In his words, the Igbo are “suffering as it were,
from incurable money-mindedness, as they would
stop at nothing in their quest for personal financial
gain”.
Soyinka said this while delivering a lecture titled,
‘Predicting Nigeria, Electoral Ironies’ at the
Harvard University Hutchins Centre for African
and African American Research in the United
States, according to a gazette by the institution.
He reportedly said: “Igbos remained unrepentant
and resolute towards their strategic objective of
secession at worst; or a Nigerian president of Igbo
extraction at best.
“The climax of MASSOB’s war against the Nigerian
state was the call for sit-ins and civil disobedience
that shut down markets and public services, as
Igbos stayed at home in a symbolic gesture to
assert Biafran independence. The call was
honoured by governors in the two principal Ibo
states, though without fanfare.
“The Igbos are probably the only group of
Nigerians that you can predict with great accuracy
whom they will vote for in an election, because
they tend to put their votes where their stomachs
take them; suffering as it were, from incurable
money-mindedness, as they would stop at nothing
in their quest for personal financial gain.
“Muhammadu Buhari was the better of the two
evils as the incumbent president Goodluck
Jonathan had been an unmitigated disaster and
failure. It was a painful decision to tell people to
vote Buhari, but the country needed a new
beginning. I was more against Jonathan, than I was
pro-Buhari.
“Nothing is more unworthy of leadership than to
degrade a system by which one attains fulfillment,
and this is what the nation witnessed time and time
again under Jonathan, who was increasingly
becoming intolerant of opposition in an escalating
streak of impunity and authoritarian madness,
which was most blatant and unconscionable.
“The ‘militricians’ – soldiers turned politicians in
power – aren’t looking for excellence; their civilian
cohorts are worse. Short cuts and how to
circumvent the system for the profit of a few are
the norm of governance. Those who do honest
work are derided as lacking the skill to fit it.
Ironically, things haven’t quite changed a bit after
16 years of democracy in the country.” he said