When I made the point that those who chose to criticise the Bariga LCDA for renaming some bus-stops in Lagos without looking at the action that provoked that reaction were being one-sided, I was merely calling for fairness in our evaluation of that episode. I affirmed the right of the LCDA to make that decision and made reference to how similar incidents were treated in Igboland when they occurred many years earlier. So far, there has been no coherent, point-by-point response to my submission by the columnist who preferred the logic-chopping tactic of a gaslighter. 

At the time I wrote, the action of the local authorities in Lagos was still limited to the Bariga LCDA- at least that was the only one known to the public. But since then, the Eti-Osa Local Government has followed suit with scores of street names changed. We don’t know for now what we might wake up to see in the next few days, weeks or months. It is highly regrettable that this is the kind of debate we are having in the 21st century. This shouldn’t be the path for us to walk as human beings not to mention as a people trying to forge a common front towards nationhood. The problem will, however, not be resolved by any one-sided condemnation of what is happening.

Actions like this are often a reaction to previous actions that should not be overlooked if we want closure to them. They must be acknowledged if corrections are to be made. While identitarian behaviours like this have been in existence for ages, they have not been frequent. The 2023 elections in which some people were determined to make Peter Obi president whether or not he had the votes have focalised this divisive behaviour in a manner we have not known for decades. We all understood the desire, even demand in some quarters, for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction and by a conjuncture of freak occurrences, Peter Obi had a showing far better than was expected. 

No sooner did he achieve that electoral success than the cantankerous elements that had taken over the cyber space appropriated his success in triumphalist ethnic terms. They saw it as evidence of Igbo takeover of Lagos, their so-called no-man’s land. The indigenes of Lagos and other Yoruba who have for long despaired of that kind of rhetoric from the Igbo took notice and decided to act to take back Lagos during the following governorship election. Many months before the elections, the Igbo arm of the so-called Obedients had launched online attacks on both Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress candidate, that they viewed as the main obstacle between Obi and his presidential ambition, and the Yoruba as a whole. The Yoruba came under relentless attacks and these campaigns were fanned by Peter Obi’s brand of religious and ethnic politics.

Some Yoruba people too started fighting back and soon the online battles were spilling offline and assuming real life consequences. Let’s not forget that the wound left by the #EndSARS Protest in which the likes of Nnamdi Kanu urged his foot soldiers to destroy Lagos was still festering. In all of this (and this is to relate it to the recent name changes and what-not), someone like Charles Oputa aka Charly Boy remained a highly partisan player, not a mere supporter of Obi. His support for Obi led him into making personal attacks and snide remarks on key Yoruba figures, politicians and others. He is on record for taunting the authorities in Lagos for failing to change the name of the bus-stop that was hitherto known by his name after initial attempts to. 

Nigerians’ right to vote for who they choose is constitutionally guaranteed, as is the right to live anywhere in the country. We should not have to be asking if any Igbo has the right to live, own property of have monuments named after them anywhere in the country. What we should be asking is how do some Igbo people, not all, go about this? I am specific about this not to profile any group but to see how an honest solution can be found to the matter as there is no other Nigerian group, whether within or outside Nigeria, that have routinely had to contend with the kind of group issues the Igbo have had with their “hosts”. Beyond Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa are recent examples. The Nigerian spirit is one of entreprise, adventure and confidence and the Igbo exemplify all of this. They make their mark and make a home wherever they can be found. But what I have observed about this, however, is that some of them go about things in a separatist and territorial way. 

Many groups have settled in and thrived in Lagos, but what’s the point in some elements among one of them claiming that it is a no-man’s land or that they developed it, and from that proceed to question the rights of those indigenous to the area when they have places they claim are indigenous to them?  Is it not remarkable that a so-called Eze or King of Igbo, Jude Chukwudi Ihenetu, would boldly proclaim a desire to create an Igbo Kingdom in Ghana? Forget that he has now recanted, the fact is that he got to Ghana where he thrived in business (even though some now claim he was involved in illegal activities) and was welcomed with open arms. What business did he have saying he would acquire 50 acres of land to create an Igbo Kingdom? It is interesting that he/they spoke about naming streets after Igbo politicians and leaders in this grand scheme of building an exclusive Igbo enclave, with its own schools and estates, etc., where the Asantehene reigns as paramount ruler. From whatever angle this is viewed, it is a separatist move. 

In what world would that work? When Obi Nwakanma says everyone, including the Yoruba is a settler in Lagos, is it in the same manner that the Igbo are settlers in, say, Ngwaland, Nsukka or Nnewi? He calls Lagos an Atlantic City, a global city but definitely not a Yoruba city? What is it then, an Igbo town? The Edo, he says, have more right to the origin of Lagos than the Yoruba, yet it takes him, an Igbo man, to bring that fact to the world. How many times have the Edo or any other group contested ownership of Lagos with the Yoruba? Why is Obi Nwankanma wailing more than the bereaved? How did he arrive at the point where he placed Charly Boy next to Fela, not even Femi, Seun or Made, in the cultural life of Lagos?