Igbos In Contemporary Nigerian Politics By Babayola M. Toungo

The announcement by Goodluck Jonathan of his government’s intention to convoke a national conference in the not too distant future throw up endless possibilities for addressing injustices and iniquities some sections of this country have been enduring since independence, but particularly since the beginning of the current political dispensation commencing from 1999.  All northerners should see it as a platform for talking to each other and not talking at each other.  The amount of ink and airtime spent castigating the north and its people cannot be quantified; yet the people of the north have always restrained from replying in kind.

Sadly, this hate industry thrives on a diet of primordial sentiments like religion and ethnicity.  Hate seems to be the currency of the new commentators and those in control of the reigns of power.  Hate merchants, again sadly for the country, are those in control of the machinery of government.  I will like to comment on the conduct of those in control who behave as though they are an army of occupation.  The way and manner Jonathan was rigged into office and rammed down our throats by force of arms and the number of military men on northern streets and highways, gives credence to the theory of the north being occupied by the military.  A military now under the jackboots of the Igbos, who shot the first salvo against democracy and democratic rule on the night of January 15, 1966.

The Igbos appears to be on the march again on the road to Kigali if the blinking signals are anything to go by.  This time around they have a compliant government under their thumbs already in place so there is no need shooting anybody dead.  It is a government whose agenda of totally annihilating the north is in tandem with that of the Igbos.  The first warning shot that was ignored by all was the claim by Goodluck Jonathan that only Igbos voted for him in the north, and therefore should be amply compensated.  This is inspite of the fact that Jonathan’s campaign Director General is a northerner and all the PDP governors in the north campaigned for him. The Igbos are now the lords of the manor as far as Nigerian politics is concerned.   The Jonathan administration has taken the country to the 1960s where the same Igbos attempted, albeit without success, to take over the country by force of arms.  Then all military officers of northern extraction were murdered with Igbo officers at the ready to take over their commands.  Under Jonathan, the military, the Army in particular under Ihejirika has been effectively “Igbonised”.

The Igbos first showed their ambitions for controlling the country as far back as January 1^st, 1966, when they went on a killing spree in Kaduna, Ibadan and Lagos.  It was a night when the blood of northern political and military leaders flowed freely and the Igbos celebrated; it was the night when Akintola and Okotie-Eboh were killed for aligning themselves with the hated northerners.  Not a single Igbo officer or politician was killed that night.  It proved to be a defining moment for the political development of the country.  Incidentally all the leadership of the killer gang that night were Igbo officers.  Ironsi took over the rump of the then Balewa government and proceeded to declare a unitary government, which was the ultimate aim of the coup plotters – the subjugation of the proud northern people under Igbo domination.  The reaction of northerners to the wanton massacre scared the Igbos to retreat to their Igloos and thereafter declare the Biafra Republic.  The secession was carried out under the mistaken believe that the bulk of the officer corps of northern origin were killed and therefore no one is left to challenge such a declaration.  They didn’t reckon with the likes of Gowon, Shuwa, Murtala Mohammed, TY Danjuma, Martins Adamu, Abisoye and the rest.

The war that ensued after the secession subdued the Igbos and Gowon’s magnanimity easily reintegrated them into the Nigerian project.  Today the bulk of the Igbo population lives outside the traditional Igbo enclave and can be found all over the country, especially the north.  Northern Nigeria is second home to the Igbos, if not their first home.  This is possible because of the accommodating nature of the people of the region.  Igbos can be found in all the nooks and crannies of the north living side by side with the locals in harmony and enjoying all the benefits accruable to the locals.  If not for their accents, one will never know they are Igbos.  Governments all over the north, as a matter of policy, reserve a certain percentage of market stalls for them in order, to among other things, make them feel welcome wherever they choose to domicile.  Thus the same people accept the Igbos who slaughtered their leadership in the past.  This was the state of affairs before the ascension of Goodluck Jonathan to the office of the President of Nigeria.  We still see the triumphalism and arrogance displayed in the past rearing its head again.

Certain actions of the present administration regarding the ethnic balance in the politics and political development of the country warrant the convocation of a sovereign national conference.  The deliberate attempt by the likes of the late Chinua Achebe to rewrite the history of the country shall not go unchallenged.  Keeping mute in the face of such provocative ahistorical narration as found in his last book, There Was a Country, gives room for the likes of his kinsman Ben Nwabueze to build on and extend the fallacy.  The tea party called by Jonathan should be amply utilised to properly put everyone in his place.

Much as the northern part of the country has been bending backwards to ensure the continuous existence of Nigeria as presently constituted and despite getting the short end of the stick at all times, the region has been portrayed as the problem child of the unwanted marriage foisted on us by the British.  Assuming the north is in agreement with the other sections of the country on the “mistake” of 1914, must we continue being together inspite of the manifest hatred displayed against each other, particularly the north?  Must we continue in a relationship where we would continue being treated as unwanted partners simply because some people cannot imagine life without the Federation Account Allocation Committee’s (FAAC) monthly meetings?

It is my contention that all sections of the country are culpable for the stunted growth of the country but the north is continually portrayed as being responsible for all the ills bedevilling the country and northern leaders have always been apologetic for no reason other than to continue worshipping at the altar of lucre.  As in 1966, the Igbos and their cousins in the Niger Delta have taken over the country’s jugular and are strangulating the nation to death while blaming the hated north.  You can check all available statistics and verify.  This was clearly laid bare when the Minister of Aviation was recently caught breaching the Appropriation Act by buying two armoured cars earlier rejected by the National Assembly.  Check this out – the Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah is Igbo; the then acting Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) who authorised the purchase of the armoured cars in contention, Mr. Joyce Nkemakolom is Igbo; the Minister of Finance who granted the waiver for the said cars, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is Igbo; the Director General of the Bureau of Public Procurement who issued the Certificate of no Objection, Emeka Eze, is Igbo; the Chairman Senate Committee on Aviation, Hope Uzodinma is Igbo; the Chairman House Committee on Aviation,  Nkiruka Onyejeocha is Igbo.  And you guessed right – the car dealer, Cosmas Maduka is Igbo.  Yet these are the people who claimed to be marginalised and we are made to feel guilty.  The total takeover of the Aviation and Finance Ministries has not even being taken into account.

The Igbos are found all over the north in places where you least expect to find them, which is mainly because of the accommodating nature of their host communities.  They are involved in almost every business in the north.  They have unhindered access to every place in the region without let.  Which is more than you can say for them in their backyard.  This accommodative nature of the northern people is turning to be a curse for them as their guests are misinterpreting it to be stupidity or even weakness.  We have seen how the economy of the region is taken over by these “marginalised” Nigerians.  The conference grant every section of the country full control of whatever resource is found in the region.  For instance, oil found in the Niger Delta region should be left to the people of the Niger Delta area.  Conversely, all lands in the north or any other region should be left one percent to the inhabitants of the area.  This way, those marginalised will begin to have a sense of belonging.

The historical revisionism by the Igbo intelligentsia as started by the late Achebe and taken over by Nwabueze has set the country apart.  And now that Nwabueze has offered to “write a constitution” as a working document for the planned conference, we can safely predict the outcome and nature of the constitution that we will have at the end of the get together.  Going by Nwabueze’s North – South treatise, one doesn’t need an oracle to guess the Nigeria that will come out of such a kitchen.  It will be a Nigeria where an Ojukwu, who took up arms against his fatherland is given a hero’s burial while a General Muhammadu Shuwa, who defended the country’s corporate existence against Ojukwu’s treachery is buried in a pauper’s grave.

Whenever the sovereign national conference, if we cannot go our separate ways, why don’t we then explore the possibility of reverting to the Parliamentary system that was tried in the first Republic and which worked perfectly before some blood thirsty ethnic irredentists decided to change the government by force of arms.