Not a fair characterization

A Service Chief for the Igbo by Lasisi Olagunju (Monday Lines, Nigerian Tribune, Monday, 26 June, 2023) is not a fair characterization of the Igbo. Every ethnic group in Nigeria has its characteristics which are not necessarily flaws. It’s not really the way they are. Or is it? To single out the Igbo as a people without discipline and purpose is thus uncalled for.

Lasisi Olagunju has neither the right nor ethnic “superiority” to pontificate on who or what a true Igbo is. Or how he should behave for that matter. Any division among us is one that is common in any family and we frown at an outsider trying to deride us as a family or to try to wade in from the point of superiority.

Before the Coup and Pogrom of 1966 and the attendant civil war of 1967, we did not have the problems that Mr Olagunju craftily painted as vice. Despite attempts to checkmate us, we as latecomers to Western Education had managed ourselves well, getting trained and swiftly easing into positions being vacated by the colonial administrators.

We had Igbo Unions in major Nigerian towns and we were united and progressive for the most part. The ‘crab in a bucket’ mentality is not who we are. We have always had the onyeaghala nwanne ya philosophy, a clarion call that no Igbo brother/sister is left behind in the push for development.

But post civil war, the Nigerian hegemonists put most of us in a small bucket so that we can self destruct! The rest of us are placed as far as Benue and Kogi to the North as well as Cross River, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Edo States to the South, to reduce our strength and promote division among us. Yet Mr Olagunji talks about Igbo separatism. How convenient! Or isn’t that what the Nigerian establishment wants?

Tai Solarin’s fact-finding visit to Eastern Nigeria in the aftermath of the civil war and his description of folks riding bicycles without tyres did not reveal craziness as they would have us believe. It showed grit and a determination to succeed by the Igbo against all odds, even when the kitchen sink was flung at them (for 3 good years!) from the Gowon led and Awolowo engineered State House Council chambers of Dodan Barracks, Lagos.

Nobody goes through a bloody three year civil war and comes out the same. Going by Mr Olagunju’s penchant for hasty generalization however, I think it would be fair to say that no other ethnic group would have survived the onslaught the way we have.

Even the insecurity in the South East, a hitherto prided safe haven is not homegrown; it is imported. Asari Dokubo, love or hate him, alluded to that in his recent public statement following a visit to Aso Rock Villa. Everything, under the camouflage of espionage and phantom counter-terrorism have been thrown at us to make us bow or go away, all to no effect. The rules of engagement in promoting internal peace may have been observed more in breach as many young Igbo lives have been wasted since 2016 or thereabout and nobody cares.

Mr Olagunju must understand that there is no good or bad Igbo. I had severally, in other fora admonished some Yoruba friends nay the rest of Nigeria to stop trying to understand the Igbo. I suggested that to make such attempt was akin to the white man trying to understand the African American and what he has been through. It’s impossible!

The Igbo are a peace loving people. Yes, we may sometimes disagree, but there’s nothing that happens in Igbo land that is a taboo in Yoruba land. For every Umuleri-Aguleri clash, you have an Ife-Modakeke war which predates it. I was young but old enough to behold the gory destruction from that war on the front pages of newspapers.

Mr Olagunju knows that the Igbo are not the ones that declared Operation Wetie and tried to burn down the country due to political differences between Awolowo and Akintola. Was it not the same fracas that led to the Nzeogwu led Coup of 1966 and the attendant events leading to the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War?

Is Mr Olagunju too encapsulated to notice that 53 years after the civil war, an Igbo has been denied the Presidency (which most Nigerians supported and which he won fair and square) by a candidate of Yoruba extraction, aided by the establishment? A mandate that even the Afenifere agreed and promoted as the turn of the Igbo? Yet he talks about a new beginning as if making an Igbo the Chief of Naval Staff is enough compensation for the grand prize of the Presidency of Nigeria! Really, Mr Olagunju?

With a sense of pride and a belief in our Justice system, we have comported ourselves and remained peaceful. Yes, the uncivilized, uncouth Igbo have chosen the civilized way by seeking redress in the Courts. For a race that is so afraid of the Igbo taking over Lagos (whatever that means) and set out to violently disenfranchise loads of them in the last elections, I shudder to think of what would be happening now if the reverse was the case. Yet, Mr Olagunju has the effrontery to rub it in. In the words of Olufela Anikulapo Kuti, a noble Yoruba and distinguished Nigerian, “Teacher please don’t teach me nonsense.”

The Igbo have been through a lot in this contraption called Nigeria and we are sick and tired of uncouth folks trying to teach us how to sit on the potty seat. The Yoruba have a rhetorical saying: O dami waju, o fe tele tutu? In simple terms, a man must wet the ground so he can step on cool soil. Sugbon awa Igbo ti da eje wa kakiri. We have sprinkled our blood all over the Nigerian landscape and many times over! Yet Nigeria wants more blood. Not this time, bro! Not anymore!

The likes of Lasisi Olagunju, rather than chastise or denigrate the Igbo should be researching on why the political handshake between the Igbo and the Yoruba has been so elusive. For therein lies the key to the true growth and development of Nigeria and of course the necessary freedom from Northern hegemony. The present see-saw relationship between us will only continue to feed into the interests of the hegemonic North until we come together.

Until then, we know when we are being patronized and we do not need any further tutelage from the likes of Mr Lasisi Olagunju. We just want equity and fairness in Nigeria or in the alternative, the quickest route out of her. If you cannot treat your wife well, the best you can do is to let her go. Until then, please let her be.

Sinachi Ukpabi, Sr

Sinachi Adrian Ukpabi is the author of The Heritage: A Story of Interracial Love, Civil War and Culture. He is a Facilities Management professional; his
interests include creative and professional writing, networking,
culture, Spanish Language, photography and sports. He lives
with his family in Durham, North Carolina and The Heritage
is his first novel. More by Sinachi Ukpabi, Sr