Nigeria is a diverse country that is both multi-ethnic and multi-religious. From 1960, after the independence of Nigeria, the federating ethnic/religious units have been engaged in a healthy and at times very unhealthy rivalry for political and social services and the right formula to adopt in the sharing of these offices and social amenities. Ndigbo, by their industry and itinerancy, started quite early and fared very well in all the sectors of the national life, including politics. They occupied the post of the first President of Nigeria, first Senate President and later, during the unfortunate military incursion in politics, the first Head of State. The civil war drew them back.
It’s to the credit of this industrious people that, nine years after the end of the war, they rose majestically to the post of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria. They were both at the leadership of the executive and legislative branch of the country. This feat was achieved by unity of purpose, cohesion among Ndigbo and collaboration with other tribes, religion and sections of the country. Ndigbo as at 1979 were predominantly members of the Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP), which won all the gubernatorial seats in the Zone. However, some Igbo brethren were in the National Party of Nigeria, led by a Fulani man from the Sokoto Caliphate, called Alhaji Aliu Usman Shehu Shagari. After the election, NPP, for the sake of Igbo interest, went into alliance with NPN, being mindful of the fact that their son, Chief Dr Alex Ekwueme, was chosen by this Fulani as his Vice President. NPN, in return, conceded the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to NPP. It was this alliance that gave us those two positions of great political substance and importance and wiped out every trace of the political set back the civil war imposed on us.
Indeed, that alliance led to the pardon of our war leader, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who came back to Nigeria as a Nigerian and declared that the civil war has ended. In his words “we will continue where Zik stopped”. He joined the NPN, led by a Fulani man, as a symbol that Ndigbo, no more held grudges because of the war. He was born a Nigerian in Zungeru, Niger State, Northern Nigeria. He lived a Nigerian and rose in the Army to become the Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria. With the return of democracy in 1999, he joined various national parties and even contested to become the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigeria Army under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). He died as a retired Colonel of the Nigeria Army, after receiving all his retirement benefits, having been pardoned by Nigeria government for his role in the civil war. His corpse was clothed in the uniform of the Nigeria Army. His casket was drenched with the Nigeria Flag. He lived and died a Nigerian and was buried a Nigerian by his colleagues in the Nigeria Army. Whoever is associating him with another country and spilling Igbo blood in the name of another country is doing a great disservice to the spirit of Odumegwu Ojukwu. That person is the true enemy of Ndigbo and it is that person whom the God of Ndigbo, that prohibits the shedding of Igbo blood by whatever reason, will punish. Ndigbo are not secessionists, they are nationalists. This is why we are everywhere in Nigeria. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was a nationalist, Ojukwu was a nationalist. By nature, we are nationalists and anybody who wants to secede, especially through violent means, that will lead to the shedding of innocent Igbo blood, is not doing it in the name of Ndigbo.
Unfortunately, with the return of democracy in 1999, Ndigbo could not utilise those qualities they masterfully deployed in the second republic and carted away the position of the Vice President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, just nine years after the war. In the fourth republic, Ndigbo has not been able to produce any of these offices or the President in 24 years after the return of democracy in Nigeria. This calls for self introspection and change of strategy not the unconscionable shedding of innocent blood. The continuous reference to the civil war as our problem is not only false but misguided. If the civil war couldn’t stop us in 1979 from producing the Vice-President and Speaker of the House, it cannot stop us today from producing the President, with the right strategy. In any case, other tribes have suffered same fate or even worse in Nigeria but they were able to overcome and move on with their lives.
There’s no African nation or country or tribe that can come out to boast that they have never lost a war because the British and their European counterparts defeated the whole Africa and balkanised the continent among themselves. We are all speaking English language today as a mark of loss of political and linguistic power to Britain. The foreign country dominated Nigeria for more than 100 years. The most striking incident that occurred in Nigeria with the advent of British rule was the war between the Sokoto Caliphate, led by the most powerful Emir in Nigeria, the Sultan of Sokoto and the British Army. The Sultanate was defeated and the Sultan, unfortunately, was killed in that war. However, after the war, the Sultanate went into negotiations with the British and pledged loyalty to the British government, which in turn allowed the Sultanate to retain its pre-eminence in Northern Nigeria and continue its leadership position in Nigeria, under the authority of the British. This was called the system of indirect rule by which the British governed Northern Nigeria, through the already established leadership structure of which the Sultanate was pre-eminent. So, there’s nothing wrong in people reconciling after political crisis and getting back to work together again after initial hostility. Old hostilities need not last forever.
The story of the South West of Nigeria is even more elucidating. On June 12, 1993, a man from South West of Nigeria, MKO Abiola, contested the presidential election and won fair and square. His election was annulled and for daring to fight for his mandate, he was arrested and detained for treason. He was in prison, while the people that overthrew the fourth republic, were in the presidential mansion enjoying the fruit of his labour. The people of the South West and their sympathisers who dared to question the rationale behind this despicable act were either killed, imprisoned or exiled. Kudirat Abiola, the wife of MKO Abiola was assassinated while her husband was in jail. Pa Alfred Rewane, a financier of NADECO and an ally of Obafemi Awolowo was assassinated in his residence. Wole Soyinka and Bola Tinubu fled to exile. Abraham Adesanya, the Yoruba leader, escaped assassination attempts and was detained from time to time.
At a certain time, when Abacha became apprehensive of the South West top military officers around him, he set them up in a coup and was about to execute three Army Generals and other officers from South West but for divine intervention. Eventually, MKO Abiola himself died in detention. The list is endless. If this is not an excruciating and humiliating defeat and degradation of a people, then what could be? Yet the Yoruba did not embark on secessionist tendencies or indiscriminate spilling of Yoruba blood or blood of strangers. They did not embark on self destruction of the Yoruba economy by ordering their people to sit at home indefinitely without providing them with an alternative to cushion the effects of the sit at home on their economy. They simply formed associations like the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) to agitate for the revalidation of June 12 stolen mandate. Their most favourite slogan then was that the Yoruba will not be slaves or second class citizens in their country. I recall Wole Soyinka saying, while granting interview to a foreign media house, that it is those who annulled June 12 that are trying to divide Nigeria and that if Nigeria is divided, he will belong to any part that is called Nigeria. We must learn in Nigeria not to take out on Nigeria the atrocities of some outlaws in Nigeria. With their resolve in agitating against injustice in Nigeria legally, they continued winning more sympathies from the whole world to the extent that when Abacha died, the same forces that annulled June 12, went cap in hand to South West in 1999, to crown one of their own as President. This is what patience and consistency in agitating within the law can benefit a people.
I wouldn’t need to show the injustice suffered by the South South, which, at a time, produced about 90 percent of Nigeria’s wealth, but were the poorest in Nigeria. Most of their youths were domestic servants in major cities, while their soil was completely destroyed by oil spillages. Some of their leaders were executed during the struggle. They agitated, but none called for secession. They gained the sympathy of others. They were granted amnesty and today they have picked the pieces of their lives together and are taking off successfully in Nigeria. They have even produced a President in Nigeria.
Ndigbo must look inwards. There’s nothing wrong in agitation and I will continue to agitate until equity, justice and fairness is meted out to every citizen of Nigeria including Ndigbo. The quest for secession is not helping our cause but hurting our chances of attracting the necessary sympathies from around the world, especially, when people realise that countries in Africa that seceded are not faring better after secession than they were before secession, making all the blood shed for the secession, wasted blood. Please see Sudan and Ethiopia today. We are a majority tribe in Nigeria and can make it democratically if we get our acts together. We must be united first and foremost among ourselves and must learn to collaborate with other tribes and sections of this country. We must stop looking backwards to inherit our forefathers enemies. As the Sultanate negotiated with the British and found common grounds after the Sultan was killed, as the South West negotiated with the cancellers of June 12, after the death of MKO Abiola and found common grounds, as the South South negotiated with the Nigeria government after their agitation against injustice and found common grounds, so can Ndigbo negotiate with other sections of Nigeria on issues that bother them and can find common grounds of equitable solutions. Let us continue to agitate but let it be within the ambit of law for we worship the Most High God that will give us victory at the right time.