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ANUS HORRIBILIS IGBORUM By East Meadow, New York
The Igbo Nation has every reason to look forward to the end of the year 2003. It is scarcely imaginable that the lot of the Igbos could sink any lower than in the year 2003. The euphoria in which the year 2002 ended quickly evaporated. For many Igbos, the entry of the former Vice President Dr. Alex Ekwueme in the PDP presidential primaries portended great hopes of a Nigerian President from their kith and kin.
Dr. Alex Ekwueme had rebuffed all pressures on him to join the affray once again. For many of his kinsmen his late entry into the campaign meant he must have his calculus right. After all he is an astute and experienced politician, who knows his onion. The general belief among Igbo intelligentsia is that he must have got iron clad assurances, before he made his late announcement. There were muffled disappointments expressed that the entry was too late and that he apparently did not consult enough with our brothers and sisters in the South-South zone, with whom our history has been so intimately bound together. Then, there is the question of his official announcement in far away Minna. There were reports that he could not even be received by the Evil Genius of Nigerian politics. But to his believers, it all points a master plan that will duplicate the Obasanjo’s feat in Jos 1999.
So as the Igbos celebrated the end of 2002 the average Igbo intelligentsia had every reason to be optimistic about the chances of one of their own moving into Aso Rock come 2003. Then, came the bolt out of the blue at the Eagle Square in January 2003. Once again, it was the Igbo governors who lynched one of their own at the stroke of midnight! He sold the Igbo dream for a plate of vice-presidential porridge! The lynch mob was led again by the intempestous and ambitious Abia State governor, Uzor Kalu. This is the same Uzor Kalu, who parroted "Igbo Presidency" to quell an internal uprising in his administration until he consolidated his authority!This is the same young man who came to national attention in the 1980s with his infamous bogus contribution to the Borno State Development Fund at a fund raising in Maiduguri,where he presented a box of useless papers as Naira Notes.
The same Uzor Kalu is reported recently to have requested on, behalf of Ndigbo, other nationalities in Nigeria to forgive Ndigbo for the Biafran civil war! He claimed to be a toddler during the war and now speaks for Ndigbo in asking for forgiveness of the events he knew nothing about. Even, if he was a child during the war, has his parents not educated him on the antecedents of the war? If as he claims his generation repudiated the war, how can he at the next moment claim speaker ship for the Igbos? If he is ashamed of the history of his forefathers, how can he claim the heir ship of the same progenitors? He must have deluding himself that he is an Igbo leader. Perhaps he is of Chris Uba,s coloration! Can you imagine a more horrible year for Ndigbo?
Then there were the infamous April elections, in which according to local and international observers, their representatives were imposed on them, as there were hardly any elections in South- East and South- South zones. Again, the post of the Senate President zoned to them was filled in Abuja through the instrumentality of a judge of the Federal High Court, (dis)Hon. Justice Egbo-Egbo in collaboration with the presidency.
To cap it all, there followed the show of shame at Awka by the duo of Chris Ubah and Chris Ngige. Again the Igbo nation was ridiculed and made fun of. Again the resources of Ndigbo are being carted away to Abuja where solicitors are having a field day. Interesting enough is that no Igbo lawyer is good enough to represent Chris Ubah and his men in the myriad of cases currently being litigated at Abuja. The powers that be have been reticent watching the conflagration they initiated. Dem de kampe.
Many scholars and writers have studied this political cannibalism in Igbo nation. Some have blamed the republican nature of Ndigbo. But this quality has been with Ndigbo during the epoch of their civilization. So, while this may be a factor, it cannot explain why a gifted nation has turned into vultures devouring its own. More important is that the other two major nationalities in Nigeria have been more ingenious in establishing their history around a centrifugal force.
For the Yorubas, the Yoruba nation was founded by Oduduwa, a legendary warrior who descended from the deities. Every Yoruba man descended from one of his various sons. It is not within the realm of this write-up to examine the validity of this history. Suffice it say that it has been a rallying point to all Yorubas, no what their state in life. Besides, they have always lived in communities in which the word of the oba is the law and is beyond question. The obas have around them chiefs through whom their edicts are transmitted to the mere mortals. The authority of the obas is reinforced by cultural fixation on deities, which has defied the influence of modern religions of Christianity and Islam. Today, a Yoruba man still worships the deities no matter the level of his education. Recently one of our ministers, who is supposed to be a professor, has to be sworn into office using a Sango ritual despite the provisions of the 7th Schedule of the 1999 Constitution!
The Yorubas also have another enforcing agency for any recalcitrant Yoruba man. The Ogboni fraternity is alive and active. Erring nationals can finally be visited by the confraternity. It is only the Yorubas, who can "wet" and burn fellow Yoruba man who errs beyond reprieve. Remember the Wild West of the mid 1960s. It is in Yoruba land that a dissenting voice will wake up and find his house burnt to the ground! This did not only happen in the First Republic, even being Chairman of the NPN in the Second Republic could not provide armor against the fate.
This article is not intended to denigrate the culture of our brothers and sisters west of the Niger.. It is only intended to point to Ndigbo why discipline is not as easy as in other nationalities. It is not the fault of the Ndigbo leaders. It was easier to maintain cohesion, when being an Igbo man brought benefits. It is a different cup of tea when as an Igbo man all you got after the war was 20 pounds irrespective of your previous bank account. It is a different thing when being an Igbo man means loosing the properties you own in Port Harcourt, Lagos or Maiduguri are confiscated as abandoned!
The Hausa/Fulani have also something the Igbos have not been able to claim:- a founding father! To the Hausa man, even though he was conquered by the Fulani. He has accepted his position as heirs of the legendary Othman Dan Fodio, the founder of the caliphate. Dan Fodio is not only a temporal leader, he also holds a spiritual overlord over his subjects. He is or was divinely vested with absolute power. His origin is claimed to be from Saudi Arabia. Islam reinforces this principle that all authority is divinely vested and not subject human disputation. Therefore, any edict of the emir or sultan is divine. Whoever, the authority appoints as emir is not open to question. Even when deposed Sultan Dasuki was imposed on Sokoto by the Evil Genius, no mortal could question the choice. It is not surprising that such societies are more likely to be cohesive and monolithic than in Igbo land.
Consider all the above with what happened in the 1960s when Ndigbo started to elect theirs Ezes and Obis! Till today, no ascendancy to the traditional seat in Igbo land is resolved without extensive litigation. Why should anyone expect that the political ruler ship should be any different? Traditional ruler ship in Igbo land is not hereditary. No one family is divinely ordained to rule in Igbo land.The latest is the Obi ship of Onitsha, which is still in litigation. Such a ruler cannot command the follower ship of a divinely ordained hereditary emir.
There are those who blame the psychology of the lost war for the Igbo tragedy. There are those who see in the purposeful policies of various governments since the civil to make sure that the Igbos are never given the opportunity to pose a problem to the Nigerian polity. Hence the cry of marginalization! This has been achieved by the manner the Igbo nation is cannibalized and fragmented into Cross River, River and Delta States. The Igbo nation has never been blessed with vast expanse of land. The limited lebensraum has been responsible of the famed Igbo adventure and entrepreneurship. There is no community in Nigeria with a population of up to ten, where there is no Igbo man in residence. Even the Hausa/Fulani has derived a hypothesis for their migrant and itinerant tribesmen. "If you enter a community of over five and there is no Igbo man among then, do not stay overnight there." There is no town from Greenland to Antarctica where you will not find an Igbo man toiling for a living!.
It is, therefore, difficult to authenticate the claims of some Ndigbo that they migrated from Israel. Is it a historical fact or a consequence of limited lebensraum? My uncle will swear and quote profusely from the Bible to convince you that the Igbos are migrants from Israel in the Middle East. He will quote the culture and the 7 day week ad nauseatum. I am not a historian.
For Ndigbo to solve the problems confronting them today, it is important for their scholars and historian to update their history:-. A history that can sustain our common heritage our common ancestry and our common destination. This research is as important, if not more important, than our fight for a President of Igbo extraction. We need to reconcile whether our forefathers first migrated to Arochukwu, Enugu-Ukwu or Igbo-ukwu. This effort I remember had once been given to Igbo scholars before the war, but to the best of my knowledge was never fully researched and published. Ndigbo did not drop down from heaven! We are not and cannot remain a people without history. There is the saying that if you do not know your name, you have to answer any name you are called. We cannot continue let others give us our name. Ohaneze should make Igbo history a priority in its cultural agenda.
Ndigbo must also fight the disease of "indgenship". Since Ndigbo, for the foreseeable future, will remain scattered all over the country and in Diaspora Ndigbo will never get their fair share unless the provisions of the constitution regarding citizenship is given its real meaning. The word "indigene" should be anathema to Ndigbo, Ndigbo cannot allow the practice of apartheid in Nigeria. There is no reason, why a Nigerian born in another state should not aspire to the highest office in that state. There is no reason a Nigerian citizen resident in a state and paying taxes in the state, should be denied the right to all the rights and privileges of a citizen!
It is estimated for an example that Ndigbo make up 40% the population of Lagos State and more than 50% the economic investments in Lagos. Yet, the right to organize and contest for elective office is denied to them. The situation in Kano and Kaduna or any other major city in Nigeria is not different. None of these states have found it possible to appoint or elect their citizens of Igbo extraction to any public office.
It is the fear of other nationalities that Ndigbo might dominate the public life of Nigeria, if politics were to be played as prescribed in the constitution. This explains why there is common antagonism against Ndigbo. Ndigbo should make it their condition for any political cooperation with any other zones or political parties the common citizenry of all Nigerians. Political rights of citizens are more important than a president of Igbo extraction. There is no reason, why Ndigbo should be in permanent alliance with any other nationality. They say in politics, there are no permanent friends only permanent interests. There is no reason, why Ndigbo should not align with any nationality ready and willing to grant Ndigbo full citizenship rights. There is no reason, why census enumeration should not list the nationality of the citizens counted since Ndigbo are dispersed all over Nigeria. We are told that tribe is omitted in order not to politicize census. But, what is the value of census, if it does not provide the essential demographic parameters of the country? Igbo heart land does not account for 40% of Ndigbo population.
So, although 2003 has been a horrible year for Ndigbo, there is no reason for them to hang their heads in shame. How many years did it take Israel after its sack to regain her glory? Only a battle has been lost, the war is far from over. It is time for Ndigbo scholars and researchers to go back to the historical and political drawing board. If Oduduwa sired the Yorubas and Othman Dan Fodio sired the Hausa/Fulani the Igbos must have descended from someone and somewhere. Is this research beyond our brightest brains?
September 2003 |