allAfrica.com: Nigeria: The Igbo And Their Country (Page 1 of 1)

Sharing jokes with friends in the hilarious atmosphere of an elitist Lagos Club in the orties, the late Justice Daddy Onyeama - an Igbo, and Nigeria's first World Court Judge - was reported as saying that "Igbo domination of Nigeria is only a matter of time".

That bantering remark seemed to have been taken too seriously by the non-Igbo in Oyeama's audience. Since that quip, their compatriots have looked at Ndigbo individual and group actions in the economic and political space of Nigeria with suspicion. Over time, this suspicion seems to be changing to a general resentment of Ndigbo. It is this resentment that partly explains why the lives and properties of the Igbo are invariably targeted during riots and public disorders, even when Ndigbo are not part of the warring groups, be it in Kano, Bulumkutu, Bauchi, Gboko, Kaduna, Uyo, Jos or Isale Eko.

In 1953 for example, a non-Igbo national political party leader visited Kano on a political mission: riot broke in the city. It was mainly Igbo lives and properties that were lost in that riot. Thirteen years later, in 1966, Nigeria's first Military Head of State, General Aguyi Ironsi - an Igbo signed the unification decree. By that decree, military governors and top civil servants of regional (state) governments could be posted outside their region (state) of origin. Although the unification decree was a product of the top brass of the then military junta, many non-Igbo regarded it as Ironsi's hidden agenda for Igbo domination of Nigeria.

The crocodile mascot wielding Ironsi was consumed in the aftermath of the unification decree, which saw a serial massacre of Ndigbo on May 29, July 29 and September 29, 1966. The poor General must be turning in his grave and wondering at what stuff his compatriots are made of, to have so vehemently opposed the unification decree, only to now be making a mantra of one nation, one people, one destiny.

Ndigbo suffer two types of violence in Nigeria: physical and structural violence. The first - physical, is objective and can be seen; the second - structural, is systemic and subtle. The massacre of the Igbo in 1966 is a good example of the physical violence type.

An example of structural violence inflicted on Ndigbo was the so-called sales of "abandoned" properties in the early seventies, in Rivers State. Properties owned by Ndigbo in Rivers State but especially in Port Harcourt, were fancifully classified as abandoned properties. The government constituted an Abandoned Properties Committee (or was it commission?).

A swashbuckling Major, in the person of David Bonaventure Mark, headed it. Yes. David Mark, now President of the Nigerian Senate. In an unprecedented bargain in which the seller (property owner) had no say, hundreds of Ndigbo properties were 'bought' off them by Rivers State indigenes and their friends. What was most significant about the whole sordid act was that while the Igbo were being so violated, their compatriots looked the other way, except for a few voices of conscience raised in the South West.

How does one explain the inexplicable neglect of the South East geo-political zone by successive post civil war national governments?

When the war ended in January 1970, the soft-spoken General Yakubu Gowon, then the Head of State, made headline news worldwide with his "no victor no vanquished" declaration. Give it to Gowon, he is a sincere person. But the truth is who ever heard of a shooting war that ended without a victor and the vanquished? Looking back at events after the end of the civil war, the "no victor no vanquished" talk, provided a camouflage for a highly sophisticated plot to hold down Ndigbo for as long as is possible by successive national governments.

Now think about the reason for the deplorable and deteriorating state of federal roads in the South East; the near zero federal government industrial presence in the zone; the foot dragging over the construction of a second bridge across the Niger to the South East; the seizure of 46 (or is it 48) oil wells located in Abia State (mercifully President Yar'Adua is said to have returned them to Abia State); the continued detention of Ralph Uwazuruike, leader of the Movement of the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, an organization that professes non-violence as a strategy.

Think also about why the South East zone is the only zone with five states; of the remaining five zones, four have six states each while one has seven. Add to all that, a development in the Obasanjo's Presidency, which saw Abuja engineering and sponsoring Igbo renegade, turncoats and vagrants to representative and public leadership positions.

Ndigbo since after the civil war have been subjected to covert discrimination and marginalisation by the machinery of state. Inspite of the odds against Ndigbo as Nigerians, they remain firm in their belief in our potentially great country - Nigeria. It is not for nothing that emeritus History Professor, Tekena Tamuno, described the Igbo as "nation builders". The ubiquity of the Igbo trader is too well known to warrant spotlighting. Newspaper columnist Mohammed Haruna has this joke, that the only evidence an investor needs to believe that good business can be done in any Nigerian town, village or hamlet, is that at least one Igbo man lives in such a place.

Republican and irrepressible by nature, Ndigbo must work hard to protect themselves from the physical and structural violence to which they are periodically exposed. They must begin by closing ranks. It is also important for them to agree on who is Igbo and who is not. The need for identifying who is Igbo is informed by the fact that, he who is not with you, is not for you. Are the Igbo made up of only indigenes of the South East zone - Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states? Is the Ikwerre man, the Etche man, the Ekpeye man, the Ahoada man, the Ndoni man, the Egbema man and the Ndoki man, in Rivers State, Igbo? If yes, do they accept they are Igbo? Is the Ika, the Anioma man, the Ukwuani man of Delta State, Igbo? Was Eze Chime the legendary progenitor of the Ume-eze Chime clan of Delta State an Igbo who married a Bini princess? Or was he a Bini man as many of his descendants believe? Is the Onitsha man of Anambra State Igbo? If yes, why does he call non-Onitsha South easterners, Ndigbo?

For the collective effort needed to square up to their problem in Nigeria, Ndigbo must have a grassroots socio-cultural organization that is capable of articulating Igbo interest and pursuing same within the Nigerian nation. The Ohaneze Ndigbo as presently constituted cannot speak for Ndigbo. It has an inverted pyramidal power structure. That leaves it with a narrow power base. Ndigbo need an umbrella cultural organization in the mould of the moribund Igbo State Union, which had a pyramidal power structure. Ndigbo don't take Ohaneze directives to them as binding, unlike directives by the Igbo State Union of yore that had binding force on Ndigbo because such directives were handed down through the numerous Igbo Town Unions that formed the power base of the Igbo State Union. The Ohaneze has not achieved much in its more than twenty-six years existence because it is inherently defective in structure.

Ndigbo need Nigeria and other Nigerians, just like Nigeria and other Nigerians need Ndigbo. But above all, Nigeria and her leaders must bear in mind that justice and equity are necessary conditions for peace and development in any country.

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