It is very sad and disappointing that President Muhammadu Buhari described Ndigbo as a mere dot in a circle in a recent interview with Arise TV. Whatever that means or how the president arrived at that awkward expression is unacceptable. That unwarranted representation of one of the most resilient, assertive and resourceful people in the country is quite unfortunate and repugnant. It shows the utter disdain with which the president treats Igbo issues, especially since his assumption of office as a “born again” democrat.
In an occasion the president would have spoken like an elder, a leader of the entire country and indeed a father to the nation, and probably showcase his achievements and chart the way forward, he chose to be divisive, parochial, partisan and disingenuous. That highly-edited and crowded interview by Arise TV would have been used by the president to speak like a statesman and douse the rising tension in the land occasioned by his ineptitude and visionless leadership, rather he turned it into an avenue to denigrate the Igbo, the youths and all those asking for a change of the current unitary structure of Nigeria.
Instead of the president blaming himself and his ruling party for failing Nigerians, he used the 6th anniversary of his administration to shift blame and even dodge responsibility. He blames every other person, except himself and his so-called change party for the self-inflicted woes of the country. Nigerians are suffering more now than in 2015. The ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and Buhari will not like to hear this version of Nigerian reality. They will only listen to their praise singers and all those detached from ordinary Nigerians, who suffer as a result of bad policies of this administration.
The 1999 Nigeria Constitution is very clear on the primary duty of the government. Section 14(2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) states unambiguously that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” Therefore, any government that failed in this regard can be said to have abdicated its primary function and by extension other functions.
The overwhelming insecurity in the country characterized by terrorism in the North East, banditry in the North West, killer herdsmen menace in the North Central and killing of people in the Southern Nigeria by unknown gunmen, killer herdsmen and security operatives, shows that this government with willing and shameless loquacious defenders, has failed woefully in its primary function. Therefore, it lacks the moral right to blame Nigerians for its abdication of duty and failure.
Buhari’s a dot in a circle utterance is provocative and insulting. To me, that description, which is in bad taste, is fiction. It is devoid of reality. The truth is that igbo is a people. igbo is a nation and not a dot in Buhari’s fictive circle. I am Igbo and therefore not a dot in a circle. I am human. I am a living person. A living person cannot be equated to a mere dot in a circle. The Igbo constitute a major ethnic group in the country. The Igbo is bigger than some countries in Africa and Europe. Such an ethnic group that can be found in almost all parts of country and in every country in the world, known for their industry, creativity and inventive spirit can never be reduced to a dot in a circle by a sitting Nigerian president. It is clear that Buhari has not been fair to Ndigbo, let him not add to it the dot in a circle ridicule.
Good enough, our South South brothers understand Buhari’s divide and rule tactics and have quickly refuted his claimed alliance with them to reduce the Igbo to a dot in a circle and deny us access to the sea. Buhari’s reference to Ndigbo as a dot in a circle is a product of what Chinua Achebe observed to be “received stereotypes drawn from mythologies of oppression.” Any oppressor gives his victim a derogatory name in order to further subjugate him. Africans passed through that stage during the era of slave trade and colonialism. The difference Buhari wants to create with that warped description of Ndigbo can only be found in the mythology of domination using divide and rule tactics, which can never work in a 21st century Nigeria.
Still drawing strength from Achebe’s thoughts on imperial mythologies, there is a big difference between the European individualistic ideal and Africa’s communality or cooperation. Africans believe that we exist because of others or what the Bantu refers to as “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” or “a human is human because of other humans.” No human should claim any superiority whatsoever over another on account of race, whether white or black or brown or red.
Nigeria came into existence because of the diverse people that make up the country. Without the coming together of these diverse peoples, there will be nothing like Nigeria today. It is important for us to understand that no group of Nigerians came to that table as a master and the other as a servant. All of us have equal stakes in the Nigerian enterprise. And all of us will decide how the enterprise will be run. No one should dictate to the other how Nigeria should be administered.
Administering Nigeria must be seen as a collective responsibility which requires the inputs of all to work effectively. Instead of leveraging on our diversity, which is supposed to be our strength, our leaders, including Buhari are busy creating artificial differences in the country as represented by his dot in a circle statement.
Since representation can be politicized and can be used to label and stereotype a people, I put it to Buhari that my people is not a dot in a circle of his fictive imagination. The politics of difference, which he is playing, cannot help Nigeria in any way in its march to development. Rather, it will continue to divide the country and make it a laughing stock in the comity of nations.
In his 6th anniversary, Buhari ought to be consolidating on whatever is his achievements as well as preparing his handover notes preparatory to his retirement in his cow farm in Daura, Katsina State in 2023 and not use the occasion to insult and abuse the Igbo with his dot in a circle hate speech.
Many prominent Nigerians including Noble Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, have expressed the urgent need to save Nigeria from imminent collapse through constitutional reordering or what is popularly known as restructuring. President Buhari and his cheerleaders should listen to those voices of reason and work with other patriots to steady the ship of state from the looming shipwreck.
The future of Nigeria and its people is what should occupy the mind of Buhari now and not the fruitless and needless journey of denigrating Ndigbo at every occasion he deems fit. He must be reminded that Ndigbo is not his problem and can never be. We have passed through the 1966 pogroms, the fratricidal civil war years and its ugly scars; we don’t want to be reminded of that deliberate state genocide again.
Although the healing process has been very slow and painful because of failure of successive Nigerian governments to do so, it will be better if this government and others to come will rise to the challenge and address frontally the fundamental issues that gave rise to the Nigerian civil war, popularly called the Biafran war or the Biafra/Nigeria civil war.