Sonnie Ekwowusi
3 November 2009
opinion
Lagos — The old political script playing itself out in Anambra at the moment shouldn't be conceived as ordinary PDP affairs which concerns only a few PDP stalwarts. Neither should it be conceived as a unique political problem afflicting only Anambra State .
Aside being a big threat to our democracy the latest Anambra political conundrums are a big threat to the collective survival of Ndigbo. Of course not mere survival on basic necessities of life. With their ingenuity, industriousness and unbelievable capacity to turn every man-made misfortune into fortune, Igbos have always survived under the most telling human adversities and precarious human situations. For example, shortly after the civil war Igbos who returned to Lagos and met their abandoned property either in ruin or in the intricate web of State confiscation had to start life from the scratch. Many who willingly surrendered themselves to be recruited as apprentices or what is loosely referred to as "boy-boy" regained their "freedom" in no time and later became the business moguls of Nnamdi Azikiwe Street , Lagos . That was rare tenacity at its best; a tenacity for mere survival, stomach survival, if you like. But, as I said, the survival we are talking about in this piece transcends stomach survival: it has to do with real human existence.
When a people's dignity, honour, pride, reputation, and existential values are constantly eroded in nauseating juju politics: when there are deliberate attempts to make Igbos mere laughing stocks, to denigrate and humiliate them to submission, there is a cause for concern. In recent years in the various Ndigbo publications, at the various pan-Igbo cultural association gatherings and Igbo Economic Summits, the same old questions asked by Professor Adiele Afigbo, Elizabeth Isichei, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Dr. Arthur Nwankwo, Professor Chinua Acbebe and others are constantly being asked: What is happening to us? Where is our future and the future of our children? Where do we go from here? Similarly, among Igbo intelligentsias and renaissance groups, both home and abroad, the consensus is that it is not the portion of Ndigbo to be in this helpless situation. In his incisive paper at the Ohaneze National Symposium to mark the Igbo Day in September 2009, Prof. Anya O. Anya tried to provide answers to the above queries. Copiously quoting Prof., Afigbo, he stated that the collapse of the traditional Igbo political leadership has led to the inauguration of "permanent experimentation in Igbo land in the search for the appropriate" leadership that would lead to the much-vaunted harnessing of the potentials and endowments in Igbo land. According to Prof. Anya, there is no where this experimentation is more loudly felt in Igbo land today than in the messy Anambra political situation.
One cannot agree less with Prof., Anya. Anambra, arguably, is a frontline Igbo State . It is thermometer, if you like, with which to measure developments in Igbo land. Therefore the Anambra political problem easily rubs in as the Igbo problem. The decay in Anambra should make any sincere Igbo man very uncomfortable. Personally I hate to remember let alone discuss the madness of the last seven years depicting Anambra as complete darkness: the Obasanjo dirt, escape of the Uba brothers and now the new madness. When, for example, Andy Uba prays the Court of Appeal to proclaim him as "a governor-in-waiting" he is invariably telling the Court that in the dividing of the spoils in Abuja a few years ago Anambra State was given to him as his personal kingdom and therefore the Court must allow him exercise unimpeded dominion over his kingdom, or, to borrow from Achebe, his private fiefdom. Besides, Andy and others see themselves as "stakeholders" who have spent a lot of money trying to capture Anambra State . Therefore, they want INEC or the court to allow them to keep Anambra as their personal inheritance.
This, I think, is at the core of what I call the juju politics in Anambra. I don't know what you may choose to call it. But certainly it goes beyond what ordinary man conceives as politics. We have come to a situation where even the politicians jostling to grab political power in Anambra are not in control of the political happenings in Anambra. For example, when at the minute Prof., Charles Soludo's name was announced as the PDP flag bearer in the February 2010 Anambra gubernatorial election, his fellow party men who battled it out with for the same position did not know where Soludo's name was coming from. So there are many foreign invisible hands in Anambra politics. Of course, the people who should be the source of political power are powerless. Neither their opinions nor their votes are reckoned with. The February 2010 election will go the way of other elections in Nigeria : it will be marred by gerrymandering and rigging. The Anambra kidnapping has assumed a more frightening proportion. It is now a weapon of political revenge or a way of scoring a cheap political point over one's political opponent. This is sad. Come Christmas 2009 die-hard kidnappers are likely to lay siege to Eastern routes. Social activities are likely to be paralyzed. Fear will continue to rule the State; fear of one's brothers, fear of one's relatives and fear of one's village people.
Nevertheless there is no room for despair. Instead of lamenting that Igbos are marginalized or cheated in the scheme of things in Nigeria (which fiery-fighters like Gani Fawehinmi perfectly reckoned with) Igbos should seize this moment and transform it as something that could be used to improve tomorrow. Needless complaining about daunting challenges either. "The challenge of disadvanges should be the Igbo man's gold mine", said Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu many years ago. The first daunting challenge, I think, is to ensure that a fair and free gubernatorial election is organized in Anambra come February 2010. To this effect, Pan-Igbo cultural associations should forge a common front to ensure that the election is not rigged. Conscientious Igbo monarchs and traditional rulers should sit Professor Maurice Iwu down and tell him face-to-face (with nice Igbo proverbs, of course) that Igbos will hold him responsible if the 2010 Anambra gubernatorial election is rigged. It is important that the Anambra people should start drumming it now into the ears of INEC, Prof., Iwu, the Police and others who care to listen that anything short of a free and fair election in February 2010 will not be acceptable to the people.
On their own part, Igbo town union leaders and community leaders should enlighten their town folks on the great need for vigilance watching over their votes and ensuring that their votes count after voting on Election Day. The culture of silence is the most insipid culture capable of destroying everything. Therefore let the people speak up and condemn injustice and evil. Let the truth be told as well. Unfortunately the greatest obstacle to the truth is the erosion of core values. Due to loss of values, some compromised Igbo traditional rulers shameless run after corrupt politicians for money. In turn, the corrupt politicians use them to rig elections. To compound the problem, many families are disintegrating. Some kidnapers, it is gathered, go to the ridiculous extent of colluding with family relatives, uncles, family friends of their would-be victims to facilitate their kidnapping. Mothers against daughters, daughters against mothers, sons against fathers and so on and so forth. In the Igbo traditional society which Prof., Anya alluded to in his said paper, there were strong family ties and community ethos that kept the society in perfect harmony and in check. Values such as respect for elders, respect for truth, decency, handwork and moderation were lived. The society had an in-built mechanism for ejecting evil doers in its midst. If you had a neigbour who was thief, he was naturally brought out in public, tried and punished. In contrast, the modern community, with its complexities and sophistications, seem to shelter evildoers. A kidnapper might be living in your community and members of your community might not see anything wrong with kidnapping.
Therefore apart from the political crisis, there is the deepening crisis of values. And we cannot pretend that this crisis of values is not there or that it is caused by others from outside. It could be argued that the political crisis begets the crisis of values or vice-versa. But certainly both must be tackled in the search for a proper ordering of Igbo land.
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Anambra is heart of igboland wicked obasanjo know it and his PDP robery gangstars and kidnappers in the name coursed chris uba and rotten andy uba.but i assured them one thing they are defeated and loser in Anambra and igbo land in general.they might have Nigrian army,nigerian police,stolen money,fettish and powerless juju power,cults and tout bodyguards.but they must be a loser ,THE GOD OF SONS and DAUTHERS of Anambra and IGBO LAND THE GOD OF ABRAHAM AND DAVID, JESUS CHRIST( OGBA-AKA EJE OGU WERE MMERI LOTA)WILL ANSWER THE PRAYER OF HIS PEOPLE.TRUE LOVING PEOPLE THAT HAS BEEN REDEEMED BY PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST.