The Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has said that the Igbo need to interrogate their claims of marginalisation, to know whether the clamour for secession is right or wrong.
Soludo made the remark Tuesday while delivering the 6th Biennial Adada Lecture organised by the Association of Nsukka Professors at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).
He said it was surprising that the ivory tower no longer interrogates issues in the way it used to, insisting that universities generally have lowered the bar of critical thinking.
“The declaration of the Nigeria-Biafra war was made from this hall (UNN), and the justification or otherwise of that declaration should have been interrogated by the university community.
“We are creating thousands of papers that never leave the shelves, while the country is struggling for real solutions.
“Nigeria is drowning in more noise, less light. We must condemn the widening gap between classroom ideas and government action. Knowledge that does not inform policy is as good as no knowledge at all.
“The future of the Igbo is in a united Nigeria. The debate must be led by Igbo intellectuals, not left to street rhetoric.
“Stop standing with hands on hips while the nation drifts, the silence from the intellectual class could cost Africa dearly. Talent is not enough, if you don’t act, you are part of the problem,” the governor said.
Soludo reminded scholars that history favours thinkers who act, not just those who write, citing global icons like Isaac Newton, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Kwame Nkrumah.
Soludo challenged lecturers to look inward and said intellectualism without action is sterile.
