By Cee Dyke
I know far too many Igbo men in their 60s that are slumping and dying that I am constrained to ask whether being an Igbo man in this demographic is a morbidity factor. The unfortunate answer is YES.
The Igbo man is driven to succeed in a way that makes him exceptional and vulnerable at the same time.
I remember being in London in the mid-’80s and seeing how the offices emptied up into drinking pubs and thinking how lazy the white people were.
Then I visited France and it was a perfect picture of lazy people. All they did was drink and relax.
I visited Quebec once and they all seemed to lounge away their lives.
From an Igbo man’s perspective, the world is full of lazy people, particularly Europeans and their descendants.
Back home in Nigeria, I think that many non-Igbo tribes are just lazy people.
I hope you get the picture? I am a typical Igbo machine. If I am not churning out something productive at any point in time, I feel personally let down and despise my very existence.
This is the Ikenga persona: daring to work every second from sunrise to sunset, with scarcely any meaningful time to wind down.
An Igbo businessman toils day and night to accumulate wealth.
An Igbo musician toils at his craft until he is at the very top.
An Igbo doctor toils like there is no tomorrow, and many of them die from fatigue.
Whether he is a preacher or a cook or a driver or a jobber, the Igbo persona brooks no rest, and by the time he gets to his 60s his hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal axis has so remodeled that he couldn’t wind down even if he desperately needed to and wanted to.
60s is a transition period from middle age to old age. It is a wounding time period but, unfortunately, your average, hyperdriven Igbo man in his 60s has so run his body and affairs up that he is physiologically incapable of relaxation.
Let’s get a little technical here. In one’s 60s, lung capacity begins to diminish, toxins are weighting down the kidney, liver and brain; minor vascular issues are taking their tolls on endothelial cells of blood vessels, brain tissues are seeing degenerative changes, connective tissues are no longer as elastic as they can be, hormones are beginning to dry up, eyes are dimming, and all of this overlapped with peer pressure and not-so-supportive wife.
All these issues put one in a chronic inflammatory condition. How is that? When one is stressing and driving, their cortisol level is up, messing up their sugar control, epinephrine is constantly surging, further narrowing their blood vessels and sending blood pressure to the roof, the body is releasing histamine, triggering inflammation, and heart muscles are just getting tired of the assault from chronic stress.
In short, the 60+-year-old Igbo man is one chronically stressed adult.
So, chronologically, the Igbo man may be in his 60s but he has so worked up his body while striving to achieve that physiologically, until he has clocked 80s and ready to leave this planet.
Yes o. Being Igbo is a definite morbidity factor. Our over-achieving mentality is a lifestyle predilection that both makes us and defeats us.
My recommendations Slow down.
Realize that your wealth won’t go with you to heaven or hell.
See your doctor.
Change your lifestyle.
Don’t despise people who are relaxing just because you cannot.
Make sure your micronutrients are always adequate. Supplement your vitamins.
Avoid unhealthy foods.
Exercise and soak up sunshine.
Take aspirin every night to help suppress proinflammatory molecules.
Talk less and smile more.
Ignore your kids. If they didn’t understand you in your 50s, they won’t in your 60s. Allow God to finish raising them.
You will leave the world just as imperfectly as you met it.
Zukwanu ike!
