By Amb Dr. Kemafo Nonyerem Chikwe
Chinua Achebe was more than a storyteller; he was a visionary who understood the fragility of a people divided against themselves. In Things Fall Apart, he immortalised the tragedy of a society whose internal fractures made its disintegration inevitable. His words have since transcended the pages of literature to become a mirror reflecting the contemporary realities of the Igbo nation.
Today, we must confront an uncomfortable truth: we are becoming a people divided by hatred, selfishness, personal antagonisms, unrealistic ambitions, and the pursuit of desires that our circumstances and political realities cannot sustain.
We talk endlessly among ourselves, mistake internal conversations for national influence, and sometimes imagine that the world is listening simply because we are speaking. We pursue political victories without sufficient strategic thinking, demand outcomes without building the necessary alliances, and allow personal interests to triumph over collective aspirations.
Politics, by its very nature, demands negotiation, compromise, strategic alliances, patience, and a clear understanding of the political environment. It is not enough to know what we want; we must understand the country in which we live, the realities of its power structures, and the strategies required to achieve our legitimate aspirations.
A people may possess intelligence, wealth, education, enterprise, and an illustrious history, yet remain politically disadvantaged if they cannot convert these assets into collective wisdom, strategic influence, and purposeful unity.
Achebe wrote: “The white man has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
Today, the colonial white man is no longer the principal metaphor for our disunity. The knife has changed hands. It is now wielded by our own political rivalries, personal ambitions, mutual suspicions, and the inability to distinguish between individual political interests and the collective destiny of our people.
POLITICS HAS PUT A KNIFE IN WHAT HELD THE IGBO NATION TOGETHER, AND THINGS HAVE FALLEN APART.
But must this be our permanent fate? Certainly not.
The way forward is not more bitterness, louder rhetoric, or endless meetings in which we convince only ourselves. It is a fundamental change in political attitude and strategy: from antagonism to engagement, from personal ambition to collective purpose, from emotional reactions to calculated action, and from the illusion of influence to the deliberate building of influence.
We must learn that unity does not require uniformity, negotiation is not surrender, compromise is not cowardice, and strategic engagement is not a betrayal of principle. Rather, these are instruments through which wise nations advance their interests within complex political realities.
The tragedy of a divided people is not merely that they lose opportunities; it is that they may continue to blame the world for outcomes their own disunity helps to produce.
Until the Igbo nation changes its strategic approach, understands the political realities of Nigeria, and learns to transform its collective strengths into purposeful political influence, we may continue to move in circles—expending energy, making declarations, and celebrating intentions without achieving meaningful progress.
That is motion without movement.
Achebe's warning remains relevant. The question is whether we have the wisdom to recognise the knife, the courage to remove it, and the collective discipline to rebuild what we have allowed to fall apart.
The future of a people is determined not only by what they aspire to become, but by the wisdom of the strategies they adopt to get there.
*Written by Amb Dr Kemafo Nonyerem Chikwe
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