The lie Igbos must confront in Nigeria, by Chioma Ahaghotu

The very first lie we must confront is the dangerous notion that Igbo people are not free in Nigeria.

This falsehood has been repeated so often that many have begun to internalize it, walking around as if they are captives in their own land. Freeborns reducing themselves to the mindset of slaves in need of “liberation.”

It is one of the most effective tools of brainwashing used against our people.

The truth is simple: no one is holding Ndi Igbo in chains.
No one is forbidding us from building businesses, pursuing education, traveling, innovating, or excelling. In fact, we do it everywhere, across Nigeria and beyond.

History shows that even in the face of systemic bias and political exclusion, the Igbo spirit thrives. From Aba to Onitsha, Lagos to Kano, Sokoto to Maiduguri, we are builders, creators, and competitors. We have never needed to be “set free,” because freedom has always been in our nature.

But let us even accept the fallacy for a moment, that we are not free. If a people truly crave “freedom,” why do their wealthiest and most powerful invest the bulk of their resources outside their homeland? Are Igbo billionaires in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt also in bondage? Is the young man who leaves Umuahia, Enugu, Ebonyi for Lagos to start a business not free?

The truth is, nobody is stopping you from investing in the South-East. Nobody is stopping us from developing our land but us.

That some of you cannot even return to your villages is not because of Nigeria, it is because of your own people. You fear your cousins, your uncles, your kindreds. You don’t even feel safe drinking palm wine handed to you at your own traditional wedding. Yet you talk of “external oppression.” You and I cannot take a day trip to Okigwe without fear today! Because of homegrown Terrorists!

There are far more urgent battles to fight than illusions of imaginary chains. Converting our brilliance , ingenuity and economic might into innovation and developing Ala Igbo being at the very top!

Do you realize how much Igbo wealth lies outside the South-East? More than what remains within!

The real tragedy of the South-East is not external 0ppression but internal failure.

We are producing generations of victims trained to believe that unemployment, underdevelopment, and poor living standards are the fault of a distant enemy, when the hard truth is this: the South-East is poor because it is not industrialized.

Federal allocations flow into every Igbo state every single month. What have successive leaders done with these funds? They enrich themselves while the states get poorer.

Since after the war, every Igbo state has been governed by Igbo men. Nobody stopped them from building industries, creating jobs, or developing infrastructure.

Michael Okpara and De Sam Mbakwe didn’t have two heads, they simply had vision and follow through.

Look at Alex Otti today: he doesn’t have two heads either, yet he is striving to undo decades of rot in Abia. What excuse did the others before him have?

And let’s not pretend migration is new.

Ndi Igbo have always moved around.

Even before the war, when Nigeria practiced regional rule, we spread across the land, doing business, raising families, contributing to every region.

After the war, when Ndi Igbo were stripped of their wealth and reduced to 20 pounds, we rebuilt in one generation. From those ashes, we created businesses, cities, and wealth across Nigeria.

That is not the story of a conquered people, it is the story of a people whose freedom is written into their DNA. A people defined by resilience, enterprise, and excellence.

But something has changed. In the last 10 years, Ndi Igbo have morphed into something unrecognizable, trapped in victimhood, obsessed with shadows, and blind to the rot within.

We must also remember this: Nigeria belongs to all of us. Anyi ga ekete oke anyi, we must take our rightful share in it.

Nigeria is not the only African nation that was amalgamated, and bad leadership and systemic rot are burdens carried in every region.

Our political viability is in our own hands, and we will never achieve it by playing victim and acting like captives.

Our economic strength is our greatest advantage. Until we learn how to leverage it into political influence, we will keep reducing ourselves to victims in our own house.

If we do not wake up now, we will not be conquered by others, we will self-destruct, vanquishing ourselves from within.

Ala Igbo ga adi ruo mgbe ebighebi!