I was tagged in a post by an Ebonyi lawyer who narrated how she denied being from Ebonyi State while appearing in a court in Enugu State.
Her reason? According to her, a large number of the suspects standing trial were from Ebonyi State. She noted that some of them were graduates who eventually resorted to cr!me, which she attributed largely to unemployment. She also mentioned that some of the cases involved capital offences, although she did not go into the details of the alleged cr!mes.
Interestingly, many Ebonyians in her comment section chose to insvlt and disp∆rage her for denying her identity.
But I think we may be missing the bigger picture while focusing on the trivial one.
Whether she denied being from Ebonyi or not should not be your problem. It is her choice, her life and ultimately something she has to deal with herself. Her decision does not make Ebonyi State a bad place.
There are bad people everywhere. There are good people everywhere.
Ebonyians are good people. I am good, and you reading this is also good. If anyone chooses to deny their state because of the actions of a few individuals, that is their own burden to carry. It is certainly not mine.
One thing I know is this: evil does not know tribe, clan or state.
Why didn’t Governor Soludo deny being from Anambra when he travelled overseas and encountered Nigerians from Anambra who were in prison? Would that have made Anambra people cr!min∆ls? Of course not.
So, insulting this lawyer because of what she said solves absolutely nothing.
But beyond the argument over whether she should have denied her identity, there is a much more troubling question we need to ask ourselves:
Why does it seem to be us so often?
Why are Ebonyians repeatedly appearing in crime stories across the South-East?
And please, don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying crime is in our blood. It is not.
There is no criminal gene that belongs to Ebonyi people.
But poverty, unemployment, hardship, poor opportunities and lack of economic mobility can make vulnerable young people susceptible to criminal networks and desperate choices.
And this is where we need to stop being defensive and start having an honest conversation.
If our young people are graduating from universities and still cannot find meaningful opportunities, what happens next?
If a young man has no job, no business, no skill, no capital and no hope of building a decent life, who becomes most vulnerable to recruitment by criminals?
We cannot solve this problem by insulting people who talk about it.
We cannot solve it by pretending the problem does not exist.
And we certainly cannot solve it by saying, “It is only a few people.”
We need serious orientation. We need skills. We need jobs. We need businesses. We need mentorship. We need stronger families and communities. We need to give our young people something meaningful to pursue.
Because the goal should not simply be to defend the name of Ebonyi State.
The goal should be to make the name of Ebonyi State synonymous with hard work, enterprise, integrity, innovation and progress.
So, instead of f!ghting the lawyer, perhaps we should ask ourselves the difficult questions.
What is happening to our young people?
Why are some of them turning to cr!me?
And what can we collectively do about it?
Something has to be done.
God abeg.
NOG
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