By Douglas Anele

There is a deafening silence about the civil war in public discourse and we want to draw attention to it so that Nigerians can ascertain where the rain started beating them and take corrective measures to avoid being drenched by another downpour in future. Thus, in our analysis, you can replace ‘Igbo’ with the name of another ethnic nationality and ‘Northerners’ with ‘Southerners’ and my argument will still hold. The major point readers who might accuse me of unnecessary bias ought to bear in mind is that wickedness and injustice are morally reprehensible universally, and no genuine humanist should condone any of them no matter who the perpetrators and the victims were.

Therefore, if Ndigbo had perpetrated the same atrocities against Northerners as the latter had committed (and, sadly, continue to commit) against them, we would have condemned their actions also. As we indicated earlier, members of Nigeria’s ruling elite seem inoculated against the harsh lessons of our history; they are still using the antediluvian strategy of ethnicity and religion to discriminate against and fight their compatriots. The recurrent violent religious uprisings in Northern Nigeria in which thousands of non-indigenes, mostly Ndigbo, are murdered, deadly confrontations between indigenes and settlers in different parts of the country, the federal character provision in the 1999 constitution, and other overt and covert discriminatory practices based on state or place of origin in different parts of the country, indicate that a truly united Nigerian nation is yet to emerge. Therefore, stern-faced proclamations by discredited former military dictators and their civilian clones that “Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable” are pure fiction, because the habits of thought and psychological dispositions necessary for nationhood are yet to take root within Nigerians.

Inasmuch as the 1999 constitution presumes one Nigeria as a single political and economic unit, we believe that Chief Awolowo was essentially correct when he described Nigeria as a mere geographical expression. Similarly, the late Sadauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, was probably right in declaring that the 1914 amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates was “a mistake.” Subsequent centrifugal events in the country since 1970 increasingly corroborate the painful choice made by Eastern Nigeria to secede; they also necessitate re-interrogation of the geopolitical foundation on which Nigeria currently stands. We have alluded to the anti-Igbo policies instituted by Gen. Gowon’s government to emasculate the Igbo, and to some other unresolved problems pushing Nigeria towards disintegration.

The Indigenisation Decree No. 4, promulgated two years after Biafra capitulated, and with each Igbo depositor in Nigerian banks receiving only twenty pounds afterwards, was another prevision of the extent of marginalisation Ndigbo would suffer in the coming years. Without a doubt, Northern military dictators without exception deliberately did not embark on solid integrated infrastructural and industrial development in Igbo heartland, because they intended to continue the emasculation of Ndigbo as a vanquished group. It is germane to point out here that Igbo marginalisation was very successful due to the fact that, from 1970 most prominent Ndigbo invited to eat crumbs that fell from the master’s sumptuous table powered by crude oil from oil-bearing communities were solely preoccupied with satisfying their bulimic appetite for primitive accumulation. They were not interested in using their privileged positions to attract developmental projects to Igboland, which would have alleviated poverty among the masses.

*Gowon and Ojukwu

Moreover, it is unfortunate that prominent post-war Igbo politicians, apart from Chief Sam Mbakwe, Dr. Alex Ekwueme and a few others, are glorified scallywags whose sole motivation is to get rich within the shortest possible time at the expense of the poor. It appears that after the war something terrible happened to Ndigbo, most especially at the leadership level. In the quest for survival after the trauma of defeat and devastation, the Igbo steadily abandoned those fundamental values that made them primus inter pares among other ethnic nationalities before the war, namely, hard work, purpose-driven ambition to excel, quest for quality education and good name, and indomitable desire to make something out of nothing through honest work. It is really heart wrenching that Igbo sons and daughters in positions of authority have joined others to despoil their brothers and sisters, forgetting that a person whose house is burning does not pursue rats. The spectacle of people with the mentality of touts and alley cats parading themselves as governors and Igbo leaders of thought, and so-called Professors “bowing and trembling” before these pretenders begging to be appointed this and that is, to put it mildly, grotesque. We therefore call on Ndigbo to wake up from slumber fast and reclaim the values that made them the cynosure of all eyes before the war broke out in 1967. Nigerians must accept that the existing framework on which the diverse peoples of this country are compelled to coexist now is cumbersome and crisis-prone. It cannot provide appropriate environment conducive to lasting peace, harmony and brotherliness devoid of pernicious mutual ethnic suspicion and fears of domination.

This implies that the concept of ‘One Nigeria’ must be rethought and renegotiated, based on a paradigm-shift in our attitude to one another irrespective of ethnic origin and religious affiliation. Consider the historicist fallacy articulated in 1992 by Alhaji Maitama Sule, a prominent Northern politician: “In this country all of us need one another. Hausa needs the Igbo, the Igbo need the Yoruba man and the Yoruba need the Northerners. Everyone has a gift from God. The Northerners have leadership qualities. The Yoruba man knows how to earn a living and has diplomatic qualities. The Igbo man is gifted in commerce, trade and technological innovation. God so created us individually for a purpose and with different gifts. Others are created as kings, servants, teachers, students, doctors.” Notice that, in Sule’s ethnic calculus, among the three dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria the Hausa comes first and Ndigbo last; there is also a surreptitious insinuation that skill in commerce, trade, and technological innovation purportedly possessed by the Igbo is not as important as the divinely ordained leadership qualities of the Hausa.

Maitama Sule’s ridiculous claim reflects the position of the core Northern establishment till now, which is why several prominent Northerners want one of their own to be President in 2015 at all costs. Of course, morbid obsession and irrational fixation with Nigerian unity anchored on a very strong centre and weak federating units will continue to impede our quest for rapid development. It encourages malignant corruption, emergence of violent insurgent and separatist groups, and bitter political struggles by different ethnic groups to produce the next President. Isa Yuguda and others benefiting from the present shambolic system can continue to call supporters of radical political reengineering names. Yet, the truth is that until Nigeria gradually and systematically evolves into a confederation, with each confederating unit having the right to secede after meeting certain criteria, the country can never fulfil its potential as the greatest black country on earth. Ultimately, since every nation is always a-work-in-progress, time will tell whether Nigerians can creatively resolve “the national question” before it is too late or their country disintegrates, as some Americans predicted, because the pachydermatous ruling class failed to heed the stark warnings of history. CONCLUDED.