Stop Distorting Igbo Culture, Traditions, And Unity, Ipob Warns Those In Social Media And Skit Producers

Stop Distorting Igbo Culture, Traditions, And Unity, Ipob Warns Those In Social Media And Skit Producers EASTERN PILOT| October 4, 2023 IPOB...

EASTERN PILOT| October 4, 2023

IPOB PRESS RELEASE

The Leadership, the Directorate of State (DOS) of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have watched with dismay the brazen distortion of Igbo culture, tradition, mores, folklore, and essentially our unity by content creators and skit producers on the social media. This press release is to caution all Igbo skit creators to be circumspect of their activities on social media creating skits regarding the culture, mores, folklore, and the comprehensive unity of Ndigbo and Biafrans in general.

IPOB commends the vibrancy and the ingenuity of Igbo youths in creating job opportunities for themselves using social media's new media. We are aware that Nigeria has no interest in creating job opportunities for Biafrans. Hence, there is no physical presence of the federal government in Nigeria's infrastructure such as international airports, seaports, or factories in the Southeast region. The only federal government infrastructure in the Southeast is military and Police barracks and prisons, which are found in all the states in the Southeast.

We understand that the lack of these productive infrastructures is among the economic exclusionary policies of the Nigerian government against Biafra to force Igbo youths to migrate to other regions, thereby leaving the Southeast region deserted. The current spread of insecurity is another federal government-sponsored project to stop our people from returning and investing at home.

Irrespective of all these government emasculation gimmicks against Ndigbo, some of our people have remained resilient in providing and creating job opportunities for themselves and others in the southeast. Among the self-propelled job opportunities is skit-making. Skit making or content-creating industry is fast becoming another Nollywood. However, we do not want and will not tolerate the use of social media content to disparage our culture, folklore, mores, or traditions, thereby adversely affecting our unity as the Nollywood industry did. Lately, we realized that some of the play scripts in the Nollywood movies were sponsored by Nigeria DSS and some enemies of Ndigbo to create a bad impression of Ndigbo and our culture. For instance, Nollywood movies created the impression that riches are from voodoo and cultism instead of the hard work and dedication that Ndigbo is known for. The same movies made the impression that Ndigbo kingsmen always envy other successful men. They made non-Igbos believe that Ndigbo loves and worships money more than anything else. Again the Ndigbo are not united and do not help one another. But on the contrary, there is no other tribe in the world that unites and assists one another like Ndigbo do. No doubt Nollywood movies made Ndigbo and our culture famous but not without those bad impressions. Such unfortunate impressions are what we don't want to repeat in the current content creation and skit-making industry from Ndigbo and others.

To this end, we call on all Ndigbo skit makers to vet their skit recordings before posting them to social media. Ensure that your skit post has no content that brings distrust, shame, and disunity among Ndigbo from different Provinces or regions. The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi KANU has repeatedly said that Ndigbo in Rivers, Bayelsa, Edo, Benue, Kogi, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Abia, Imo, Delta, Enugu and Anambra are one people. In IPOB, we see us as one people. No Igbo State is better than the other. Secondly, no skit recordings and posts should insult and ridicule our culture and traditions as a collective people. All skit makers should join the effort to unite our people, not scatter them.

IPOB does not and will never support social media censorship. We believe in complete and total freedom of speech, but we wouldn't tolerate tearing down the walls of unity among Biafrans that we are fighting and dying for. We can't be fighting other tribes for disrespecting us while our youths are busy dragging us through the mud in the name of social media skit-making. That will not be tolerated any longer.

Therefore, going forward, any skit maker that creates intra-ethnic confusion among Ndigbo will have IPOB to contend with. Similarly, any skit maker that denigrates the culture and traditions of other Igbo provinces or States will hear from us. Igbo skit producers should also take this as advice and a warning.

COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL, MEDIA, AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB