By Mike Ugoh
The unwritten agreement between the Yoruba and the Hausa Fulani as to how Nigeria should be ruled and administered has been working since after the civil war and has been taking a high toll on the Igbo, the third leg of the tripodial arrangement of the country.
The Igbo the largest ethnicity in the former eastern region and indeed Nigeria, along with other nationalities in the area, better known as eastern region in the past are supposed to have the greatest say in the country and accorded the greatest respect and honor because history, civilization and modernity appear to have met them where they are today. Forget all the insensible talks of the Igbo's and Israel. All things being equal Igbo ethnicity is supposed to be over 40 million. The tiny population of Israel probably left their Igbo kith and kin for where they are now in the Middle East of Europe and not the other way round. We know our demographic- arrangements and figures are purely for national interest. On the September 5, 2004, former Imo State governor, Chief Achike Udenwa, told Nigerians in an NTA programme that for every one square kilometre in Imo State, there are 600 people. This statistic is only for Imo State, there was no mention of ever thickly populated states like Enugu, Anambra and Abia. The Igbo took the last census figure allocated to them grudgingly, believing "that it is their respect for the crown that barred them from slapping the king."
The nations of the former Eastern Nigeria are one people with one custom, tradition and culture including religion, but who were separated by war. The civil war to all was an ill-wind which brought neither side any good. The treatment any of the different ethnicities and states are getting from the federal government of Nigeria is the same paltry thing compared to the other regions. Deport any member of this oriental group of nations from any part of the world to Calabar, Enugu, Port Harcourt etc, he will trace his home with ease.
Thank God, the Berlin Wall erected by Soviet Russia after World War II to separate the two German nations was removed 20 years ago, and so shall whatever separated the brother nations of the former Eastern Nigeria since after the 1967 -70 civil war someday be removed.
All the road networks in the region are bad and dilapidated etc. It is amazing how the other ethnic groups in the region turned against their bigger brothers, the Igbo, with whom they shared all God's natural endowments. The Ibo, Efik, Ibibio, Buguma, Ikwere, Abonema, Ijaw etc, seem to have been created where they are now and from where they have migrated to other parts of the world. Deport any member of these ethnic groups from any part court, caliber etc. he will trace his home with ease
Some other Nigerian nationalities like the Yoruba are found along the southern parts of some West African countries while the Hausa are in the northern part and beyond to north and central Africa. But the Igbos and their brothers cannot be found in any other part of the world only in the east region of Nigeria except they traveled out for education or business.
Most worrisome is the seemingly irreconcilable hatred level the Ijaw, the second biggest nation in the area have for the Igbo. To them, the Igbo race is better not allowed to exist, reason for this legendary hatred is not clear. The enormity is frightening. Ijaws, it will be recalled, have ever before the country Nigeria was born, been the sole landlords of the riverine areas, their creeks and ports. That was why they were very active in the slave trade. They lived more on water than the land. The Aro Chukwu slave traders and head hunters provided the ready markets for the Ijaw dealers, who in turn kidnapped and brought the captured Igbos to the white merchants, who were ever ready at the ports waiting.
According to the books, King Jaji of Opobo, a boy from Orlu in Imo State, was picked up by slave hunters when he was just 12 and taken to Aro Chukwu from where he found himself in Opubo, now Opobo. Most Ijaws have Igbo blood because a lot of them were descendants of Igbo slaves. Even now, it is hard to distinguish between an Igbo and Ijaw person except for language.
One expected that the harsh realities of history and anthropology as it affected the two nations should have impacted positively on their growth, development and relationship. But no, it impacted negatively instead.
Another mortal dislike of the Igbo in the Southern part of Nigeria is that by the Yoruba. This situation seems to predate history and has always gone from generation to generation. Southern unity is an illusion.
If the mutual distrust, hatred and suspicion between these two large ethnic groups are not cleared. No one can say exactly how or when it started. Some say it was as a result of Awo-Zik political face off. These two large human beings were great leaders and idols of their people; Zik for the Igbo while Awo was for the Yoruba. These giants were political contemporaries who lived and died suspecting each other mutually. Others say it was because Ojukwu, the then leader of Biafra disregarded and bye passed chief Awolowo in the Biafra saga, Ojukwu released Awo from prison in Enugu at the outset of the war and he later became Gowon's wartime Vice President and Federal Commissioner for Finance. No the whole thing predates all these. This spirit of hatred of the Igbo was exhibited by General and President Olusegun Obansanjo in any decisions or issues that concerned the Igbo, the two different times he ruled Nigerian. Be it politics, economy, commerce etc.
Obansanjo hated anything Igbo of the South Eastern Nigerian with passion. He hated the men but was making children for their women, a case of subduing a man and taking over his wife.
It is not easy to quantify in terms of naira and kobo the incalculable harm the; "Igbo must vanish syndrome", has done to the South in general and former eastern Nigeria in particular. Except for Chief Obasanjo, a uniformed prisoner who circumstantially was thrown up to rule Nigeria, what else has changed? Though a Southern and Yoruba, the life and soul of his administration which he said was not to fix Nigeria but to stabilize it, was in the north.
Truth of the matter was that Ken Saro Wiwa was hanged by the Abacha government because the south was not united; Odi was destroyed by Obansanjo administration capitalizing on the same reason weakness. Even the so called Niger Delta, the fate, situation and circumstances that threw up the militants or soldiers of equity in the Niger Delta of Eastern Nigeria was bellied in the same weakness. Association of Arewa or northern legislators, governors, local youths, traditional rulers etc. are all in place, steaming and functioning 100%. They have their representatives in the Niger delta area trying to find a lasting solution to the problem of neglect of the place, while there is no organized Southern pressure group to do the same. The formation of these northern pressure groups is not illegal. After all, it is paying off handsomely to them. They are getting for almost everything they want for the good of their people and area.
For now, not because the President in from the North, when they bark, the government at the centre cringes. If by 2011 and beyond the, insist any political party that has a northerner as its flag bearer, will get their votes, they will carry the day because they are not just organized but focused and democracy as we know it is a game of numbers. They are united using the name of their mentor and idol late Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, their leaders recently mobilized and raised billions of naira ostensibly for the health and development of their geopolitical area, but political watchers argue that their motive is to be in the ready to buy and takeover any federal government properly including banks that could be sold anytime. They see Nigeria as a project and are willing to acquire as much as they can from it to benefit their region and its people.
You cannot beat them. They are a step ahead, know what they want and are going for it. History will not forgive the great people of the Yoruba land if for petty primordial oddities, the enter their cocoons and allow the goat to deliver on the tether, same things about the Ibos they are a great people with a lot of recorded politicians, traders academics and intellectuals. These two ethnicities who hold the ace as to what next Nigeria, should get across the Niger and talk to each other. They should ask themselves what and what did we do to or against each other. What does the Igbo man have against the Yoruba man and vice versa. If at this precipitous time of events and politics in and around the country in general and the region in particular, you do nothing, say nothing, in the end when things go against your expectations, do not complain.
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