By Ihechukwu Madubuike
In their recent meeting with agents of the Federal Government, South East governors and their acolytes raised the issue of self-defense through the much maligned and non-performing Ebubeagu and vigilance groups in the battered wasteland of the South East xone. And to wit:
“The meeting endorsed our South East joint security outfit, Ebubeagu, and asked them to work with security agencies and to respect the rights and privileges of all those living in South East and visitors.”
Apart from the inelegance of the construction, the intended meaning of the statement remains ambiguous because of a stylistic flaw. If anything, it reflects the confusion in the minds of leaders who have failed to put together a well-structured security architecture in the South East. It is also significant that security is listed as the number nine item in their communique. And as they rambled through the communique, they forgot the main reason for meeting with the Federal side: Security of life and property, not secession, which is a consequential matter.Absence of the agitation for a separate existence and its condemnation by either elders or youths, of persons of South East extraction, is not tantamount to peace in the South East.
There is nothing in a name, many will argue, but can the Lion, however, conceived in Igboland, tell its own story to justify its highfaluting nomenclature and symbolism or will it remain the object of political manipulations, a masquerade without followership, an abstract ideal? An “absract ideal,” that indeed is what the outfit represents in the mind of many in the South East. The resignation of the chairman of Ebubeagu, General Umahi, and the circumstances surrounding that resignation are not savory and suggest a stillbirth.
Until the Lion has a story to tell, its exploits, travails, bravery with the hunter and so on, it will have no glory, no honour. It will not glitter. It will die on arrival, as, indeed, it appears to have been the case here. The governors have not addressed fully the implications of the allegations raised by the General. No General goes to the battle front without the necessary armaments. We are tottering, behind the madding crowd, reminiscent of the title of Thomas Hardy’s subversive and unsettling novel. The Igbo nation has a story to tell, a story steeped in pride, gallantry and resilience, different from the state capture and “one chance” syndrome, which have overtaken our land.
Insecurity, in my estimation, is the greatest challenge in Igboland today. It should be given the same rating, if not a higher rating, as our genuine concern for restructuring the distracted Nigerian polity. Both will help us deal, inter alia, with the twin monsters of youth unemployment and de-industrialization in Alaigbo today. These will also help us achieve the ideal Ebubeagu, not only of means but also of the mind, an existential aphorism that will ensure self-apprehension and induce an Igbo renaissance, a rebirth of a can-do spirit, the like we had in the 1950s and the 1960s.
Political and economic prosperity cannot be achieved without security. As humanists and social scientists, we must see security as a commitment in which the protection of the entire population is our number one engagement, daily.
Oh yes, we can raise the bar. We need a homeward, an autochthonous inspired leadership to do this. Ebubeagu must, therefore, be a symbol of affirmation and opposition; opposition against all forms of military and psychological subjugation; affirmation of a people’s will to be themselves, to defend themselves at all times, a fin de siècle inquisition against external invasion, prelude to internal colonization. The Igbo say “ifekwuru, ifeakwugideya.” No one survives alone, ultimately. A masquerade that is pushed around is not it.
•Prof. Madubuike wrote from Abuja