Dr. Reuben Abati
Fifty
years after the civil war ended, Igbos do not yet feel a sense of
belonging, acceptance or safety in the Federation called Nigeria. The
sad part is that this belief is shared not just by the generation that
witnessed the war and its deadly consequences, but Igbo nation across
all generations, including the millennials who have been socialized into
believing that there is a gap between their people and other Nigerians.
Let us not deceive ourselves about
certain plain truths. The civil war is perhaps the most remarkable
incident in Igbo history in the last century. The pain, the loss, all
about it, is deeply imprinted in the Igbo consciousness. Whereas the
Igbo nation has shown great resourcefulness since the war, and its
people have proven to be enterprising and determined to hold their own
in every sphere of life, including outstanding contributions to the
making of the Nigerian state, there are Nigerians who still regard and
treat the Igbo suspiciously.
Anti-Igbo sentiment may not be so openly
expressed, but it is usually something beneath the surface. There are
landlords in many parts of Nigeria, for example, who will never rent out
their property to an Igbo man. The Igbo tenant is easily stigmatized. I
have heard people complain that Igbo tenants are too stubborn or that
when you rent a room to an Igbo man, he will end up sub-letting that one
room to all kinds of persons from his village, putting pressure on the
property’s limited facilities.
Some landlords insist that an Igbo
tenant could even start eyeing the property, to buy it off the landlord,
or if it is a shop, the Igbo trader would end up renting the entire
street, and could turn the street into an Igbo neigbourhood. This stigma
has been a source of agony for many Igbos seeking accommodation,
particularly in Lagos, but it is of course completely baseless
stereotyping. There are good and bad persons from virtually every
Nigerian ethnic group.
The stereotyping of the Igbo person can
also be found in the political arena. It is assumed by some persons, and
such statements have been made to my hearing, that the only reason an
Igbo man cannot be resident of Nigeria is because every Igbo man sees
himself as a potential resident, and should the presidency be zoned to
the South East, the struggle for the ticket could result in
inter-community strife in Igboland. The name of the group is Igbo, but
when other Nigerians want to be mischievous, or perhaps out of
ignorance, they refer to Igbos as Ibo, and when you try to correct them,
they may insist you don’t seem to understand. It is I-Before-Others
(IBO).
Igbos have also been held responsible
for all sorts of things, kidnapping, drug trafficking, child
trafficking, armed robbery – even when there are criminals from
virtually every community in Nigeria. Meanwhile, they are one of the
most vertically educated ethnic groups in Nigeria, and the most
enterprising in all fields. A friend once said that if you enter any
community in Nigeria and you don’t have an Igbo man running a small shop
there, or engaged in some other kind of business, then you have no
business staying in that community. Igbos are also obviously the most
integrated ethnic group in Nigeria, which is why it is ironic that they
are also the most vilified.
I wrote what I considered a harmless
piece recently in which I referred to the declaration of Biafra in 1967
and quoted excerpts from the Ahiara Declaration. I got a phone call from
a friend who declared that I should stop encouraging these “Biafrans”.
Nothing I said made sense to him.
“You don’t know those people”, he declared.
“I know people from all parts of Nigeria,” I said.
“You don’t know Igbos. Has there been
any problem in this country that you know in which Igbos have not been
involved? They have started again, heating up the polity with threats of
secession.”
“It is a sign that all is not well with Nigeria,” I retorted.
“Don’t mind them. I don’t think anybody
wants to secede. If Igbos really want to secede, you think it is Nnamdi
Kanu that will be speaking for them?”
“It takes just one illuminated soul to start a revolution.”
“Don’t bring that line. Everything is
not textbook, this man. Just tell those Igbos not to include my people
in whatever they are looking for. We are their neighbours. They dragged
us into the civil war. This time around, they’ve gone to draw a map,
including my people. Biafra does not extend to the South-South. We are
just looking at them.”
“Biafra is an idea.”
“I don’t want to hear all these textbook
things, I have told you. Which idea? See, most Nigerians do not support
Biafra. They think Igbos are just playing games. I’ll send you some
other articles written by other Nigerians and you’d see what I am
talking about. People are angry that anybody will be talking about
secession in 2017! Nigerians are fed up with Igbos and their games.
President Jonathan gave them everything but on election day, many of
them stayed at home and refused to vote. Now, they are talking
secession.”
“But Yorubas are also talking about Oduduwa Republic.”
“The Yoruba are not going anywhere. What they want is restructuring, fiscal federalism. Which Oduduwa Republic?”
“The people of the Middle Belt are also aggrieved.”
“Anybody can be aggrieved. You can’t
please Nigerians. And some of these things are political. Obasanjo
became President, Niger Delta carried arms; Jonathan got there, Boko
Haram kidnapped children, Buhari is there now, and all the ghosts of
Biafra are frightening everybody. But these Igbos, tell them they are
not going anywhere.”
“I am surprised you are talking like this.”
“What is the matter with those people?
They are all over Nigeria. They are even selling land in Lagos. But no
outsider is allowed to buy half a plot of land in Igboland. You carry
Igbo girl sef, na problem. Go and check your email. I will send you
other perspectives on this matter.”
Before long, I received a mail indeed.
The fellow had put together a collection of anti-Biafra, anti-Igbo
articles which he urged me to read, with the rider that I should pay
particular attention to the fact that some of those articles were
written by Igbos. I ignored the rider. Some of those articles could have
been ghost written. What is clear, however, is that all is not well
with Nigeria. We are a country that needs to be rescued from the
centripetal forces tearing us apart, and the leading forces today would
include, as was the case before now, ethnicity, religion, the politics
of hate, and citizen alienation.
If my review of the stereotyping of
Igbos in Nigeria and the reported conversation with an Igbo-hater does
not fully convey the seriousness of this situation, then the June 6
ultimatum issued to all Igbos living in Northern Nigeria by a coalition
of Northern Arewa youth groups should.
A group called the Northern Emancipation
Network, comprising 16 Arewa youth groups, has asked all Igbos living
anywhere in Northern Nigeria to pack their bags and baggage and be out
of the Northern region by October 1, 2017. When the 19 Northern
Governors met and dismissed the threat as misguided, the young Arewa
Igbo-haters issued a riposte and more or less asked the Governors to
shut up. Their message is that since Igbos no longer want to be part of
Nigeria, they should get out, because they, Arewa youths, do not want
belong to the same political union with Igbos. They are angry that on
May 30, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of
Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous Peoples Organization of Biafra (IPOB)
succeeded in shutting down a part of Nigeria to mark the 50th
anniversary of the declaration of Biafra.
The arrogance of the Northern youths is
insufferable. It speaks to virtually everything that other Nigerians are
uncomfortable with about the Fulani North: a born-to-rule, hegemonic
tendency. It is an assault on the Nigerian Constitution, to the extent
that the Constitution does not grant any individual or group, the right
or the power to determine where any Nigerian may live or work or die or
acquire property. All Nigerians are equal before the law. The Northern
youths, who do not think so, held a meeting, a press conference, and
issued statements. The Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai asked
the Nigeria Police to arrest them for promoting ethnic hatred. The only
response we have had from the Police Headquarters so far, is from one
Jimoh Moshood, described as Police Spokesman telling Nigerians that the
Arewa youths “are not sitting in the market waiting to be picked up.”
Moshood, if you actually said that, then
you should be relieved of your position forthwith. If you are a
spokesperson and you have nothing intelligent to say, the best option is
to remain silent, otherwise whatever you say will be used against you
in the court of public opinion. So, the Nigeria police only arrest
people when they go to the market and wait to be arrested? Is that the
new police that we now have? The Northern Emancipation Network called
Igbos all kinds of names – “unruly, reckless, insatiable, uncultured,
confrontational, ungrateful” – and since they issued their ultimatum,
the polity has been heated up, ethnic hate has been promoted, the Igbos
of Nigeria have been further alienated.
This was how the civil war of 1967-70
started. Nigeria cannot afford another civil war. No country survives
two civil wars. Already, Igbos in the North are reportedly relocating
back to the South East or elsewhere in Nigeria. Young Nigerians from the
North, the East and the South started the civil war. The politics of
ethnicity and the rhetoric of hate ignited the fire that consumed the
nation for three years. The scars have not healed because 50 years
later, the youths of the North and the East are again lighting up the
fire of hate. On June 6, the Northern Emancipation Network also asked
Northerners in the East, I hope this includes the peripatetic herdsmen,
to return to the North!
The Nigerian Government must take this
on-going febrile conversation between the North and the East more
seriously than it appears to be doing. The security agencies do not have
to go to the markets to look for what is not there. When there is a
threat to the state, it is their duty to identify the threat and act on
it. All persons who are working hard and making provocative statements
to cause a national crisis should be monitored and checkmated. With all
the difficult challenges facing this country, at this moment, our
security alert system should be pushed a notch higher.
If the security agencies fail to act,
particularly on the matter of the coalition of Northern youths promoting
Igbo hatred, the federal government would have committed a grievous
sin, likely to be interpreted as aiding and abetting. And there would be
persons who will legitimately ask: are we confronted with a hand of
Jacob and voice of Esau situation? Who is sponsoring the Arewa youths?
Who granted them the permission to use the platform of Arewa House to
spew anti-Igbo hate speech? Who is blocking their arrest by the security
agencies? What those boys have done is even worse than the threat of
secession by Nnamdi Kanu and his supporters.
But the message is clear: Nigeria is not yet a nation. A country where any group or association can threaten to expel another group
is not yet a nation. The common enemy is not the secessionists. The
common enemies are the political leaders, the tribal demagogues, the
political opportunists, the religious bigots, the paid shamanists, who
continue to manipulate Nigeria’s destiny to suit their own purposes.
There can be no country except the people love the nation and the state.
Dr. Reuben Abati
was spokesperson and special adviser, media and publicity to President
Goodluck Jonathan (2011 – 2015). He tweets from @abati1990.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer.
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