Written by Donald Ekpo
"For as long as
the Old Eastern region remain in disarray and not united, self-determination of
the region will remain impossible." ~ An anonymous retired
Nigerian Army Chief
The word “South-South,” even though it
may sound absurd, is a name we have come to accept as a people. We can’t say
exactly how we came about to be identified with the name neither can we say
exactly when we were given the name, but we just know it is our name.
While growing up back in the days,
geography taught us about “the North,” “the South,” “The East” and “The West.”
For proper definition of locations, we were also told about “The Northwest,
Northeast, Southwest and Southeast”.
I can’t remember anything like the
“NorthNorth”, “SouthSouth”, “EastEast” or Westwest , but here I am today,
writing a letter to my South-South brethren. That is what happens to a people
that are not in control of their Cultural Development or the Political and
Economic Future.
That is what happens to a people that are
just there for their numbers; that is what happens to people that are just kept
for their services; that is what happens to people that are just custodians of
wealth for a supposedly superior people; and finally, that is what happens to
peoples that are slaves.
Any name is suitable for them; they can
only get whatever is given to them even if it is originally theirs. If in
doubt, please remind me of the meaning of KUNTA KINTE.
I write this letter not because it is
frustrating to see how we allowed a defrauded propaganda to position our people
as the pawns in the Political Chess called Nigeria, but rather, I write this
letter in an effort to request that we free ourselves from these propaganda
that has lingered for too long.
If our grandfathers and fathers did not
ask questions, is there any divine law that says we cannot ask? We know we all
belonged to the old Eastern Region of Nigeria before the Northern Protectorate
took back their power after the gruesome murder of General Aguiyi Ironsi.
Just for the records, let me do us a bit
of history here; Major General Ironsi as Head of State was cornered and
arrested somewhere in western Nigeria on July 29th of 1966, his hands and feet
were tied together, then tied to a Land Rover with a little space in between,
and driven on a tarred road, face down for several kilometers.
The then highest ranking Northern
officer, an acting (Unconfirmed) Lieutenant Colonel was chosen to be the next
Head of State ahead of serving Brigadiers, Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels of
the Southern Nigeria, followed by the dreadful killings of officers and
soldiers of Eastern Nigeria including our so-called South South soldiers and
officers.
The genocide that followed is what is
recorded as the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 – 1970.
As if that was not enough, the Eastern
region was broken apart with the sudden creation of the then South Eastern
State (today’s Cross Rivers and Akwa Ibom), Rivers State (Today’s Rivers State and
Bayelsa).
It was during that war that propagandas
were designed, created and generated to separate us from the old Eastern Region
and make the average Igbo man our potential enemy in an effort to reduce their
own presumed enemies. In as much as it is a bitter history, but I find it
necessary to do you this preamble.
I write this letter to remind us that our
region, known as the South-South today was a creation of the North for the sake
of creating the disunity we face today. And more so, it was not just for the
disunity for them to win the war, but to also take away our resources, our
manpower and our economic future.
In 2014 when President Jonathan, a son of
the so-called South-South decided to re-contest the 2015 elections, Sheik
Junaid Mohammed in an engagement on behalf the Northern Protectorate, reminded
us that the so called South-South was a creation of the North for effective
management of the Northern interest in Eastern Nigeria.
How bad could this be? Can we imagine
that? So while we are busy reminding ourselves that we are a different people
or that the Igbos are wicked and are trying to kill us, the North is joyously
taking over and owning 85% of our oil wells while the West takes over the left
overs.
And what do we get? Noise! Even the supposedly
football legend, Sunday Okechukwu Oliseh is busy telling us he is not Igbo as
if it is a curse to be Igbo. One wonders if the name Okechukwu is of Hausa or
Yoruba origin.
When you speak Igbo as a language and yet
claim you are not Igbo, is that not the saddest thing that can happen to any
people of identical culture?
Even Major Kaduna Nzeogwu that led the
first coup that was said to be an Igbo coup is from Okpanam village in today’s
Delta State. Could he have come out to say today like Sunday Oliseh said that
he was not Igbo?
If the Abakaliki or Nsukka indigene that
has a more distant dialect of Igbo is Igbo, how come the Anioma or Okirika
indigene that is easily understood is not Igbo? How did a people of the same
culture get so separated these far?
I write this letter to speak to those of
us regarded as "minority tribes." How can we be minority when in
essences we are known to be about 35 million of the said 180 million of the
said Nigerian population?
How can we be a minority in our own lands
if we were not treated as such, or if we did not accept to be such?
If those from the alliance that separated
us from the West are said to be about 50 million in population, and our
brethren in the East are said to be about 40 million, how can we accept we are
a minority?
Our compatriots from the alleged
minorities of the North are said to be another 30 million, who then is the
minority? Having run through these figures, we know who the real minorities
are.
COMPLETION
Be it as it appears, the truth is that our
region was broken into two so as to weaken our original strength given that at
a combined population strength of 35 million and 40 million people, our
economic and entrepreneurial strength put together would be something the
alliance will be worried about.
So why should we ever think that it is
logical to claim we are two different people when in essence, we have always
been one and the same people for over 400 years before the arrival of the white
man.
If what the white man did to us was not
bad enough, is it not ridiculous that we allowed a certain minority immigrants
to assume control of our economic and political future?
I write this letter to ask my brethren in
the South-South these pertinent question:
Let us assume the very worst situation in
this fracas between us and our Igbo brothers, why are we worried about the
Igbos taking over our “natural resources” (assuming they don’t have theirs),
ARE WE PRESENTLY IN CONTROL OF OUR “NATURAL RESOURCES”?
Does it make more sense that our natural
resources is being controlled by some strange people from over 700 miles away?
People that kill us at will at a single
provocation of their religion?
People that even kill us in our
land?
People that challenge us to the ownership
of these our resources?
People that show absolute disregard of
who we are?
People that think it is a privilege for
us to be in any position of authority?
And finally, people that do not in any
way have the kind of entrepreneurial skills that we have?
Why would we allow our imaginary quarrel
or fights with our brothers translate to the decision of one of the women in
King Solomon’s Judgment that insisted that since she couldn’t have the child,
the other woman should not?
So are we in essence saying it is better
for none of us brethren to own our resources simply because we don’t trust our
brothers, yet we do nothing about the stranger that has ripped us apart?
Are we logically correct in this
senseless quarrel?
Even while we are senselessly worried
about how the Igbos will colonize our people because that is what we were told,
and that is what some of these alliance are still trying to tell us; can we
sincerely tell ourselves that the Igbos are that evil?
Evil enough to leave their Natural
resources in Abia, Imo, Anambra and Enugu states to come and take ownership of
our resources? How will they do that?
How possible will it be for a people that
barely kill by the sword compared to our present oppressors?
Do we honestly see that as a possibility?
How and why did we allow this propaganda to go these far?
Is this not what the alliance has used to
rule us through the divide and rule scheme?
Sheik Junaid Mohammed said it clearly
that our separation was a creation of the North for the effective management of
our resources while we keep fighting an imaginary enemy.
I write this letter to remind us that we
and our Igbo brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers have cultural identities;
we uphold the sanctity of life, we do not kill a man like a chicken, we worship
the same God, and we have identical looks and reasoning capabilities.
Education is a respected virtue to both
of us, entrepreneurism is a common love between us. We both respect constituted
authorities. Even-though we both have the cultural odds, that cannot and should
not be used to castigate an entire people.
So how come the Igbo man suddenly became
evil shortly before the war if the castigation was not a propaganda tool of the
war?
How did we accept that our Igbo brothers
were evil while we were saints? How are we saints?
Is there any evil that is the monopoly of
the Igbos that we are totally clean of? That we don’t have a single man/woman
that does same if positioned in the same situation?
How did we allow a distant people
determine how we live our lives?
If we think we are different and as such
we are treated better than the Igbos, have we noticed that the fate of the
Onitsha Port is the same fate that befell the Ports in Calabar and Port
Harcourt?
We from the East are all forced to go to
Lagos to pay taxes to those ports. How have we been treated differently by
these alliances if we were different from the Igbos?
Are we not facing the same fate as our
Eastern brethren?
How do you think we will fare if we were
the only ones to receive these treatment given a circumstance where the Igbos
are no more in this contraption called Nigeria?
I write this letter to our brethren to
remind us that without a unified stand of the entire region, the
self-determination process will be a farce. We need each other in all
difficulties.
We are the Eastern Region; we are the
region of the Lower Niger; we are a common people; we are not different from
each other.
Starting from the Hills of Ogoja to the
rocky soils of Ebonyi, down to the temperate region of Anambra down to the
enclaves of Itsekiri and Isoko, we all look alike.
