Where are the Igbo leaders?

In recent years, faultlines etched through ethnic and religious bigotry not only deepened but have begun to crack, especially with the biting economic realities unleashed by the removal of oil subsidy, hyperinflation and widening chasm between the political class and the led. As a consequence people look for escape routes, and one of the most convenient is ethnic bigotry. Blaming one ethnic group for the ills happening in the larger society.

Unfortunately, most of these attacks or ethnic bashing are aimed at the Igbo people. They are stereotyped, shamed, ridiculed and blamed for everything that goes wrong. Recent examples abound from the illogical, religious to the political. An influencer for Bokku chain of supermarkets drew the ire of the Igbos when she stereotyped their traders as cheats who sell products of lower quality, with a view to make huge profits. The hue and cry which arose from the people led the management of the company to apologise. From observations, it would appear that Bokku self-immolated itself, as most of the patrons are Igbos!

Not long after that, primate Ayodele, who fans call ‘BetNaija prophet’ since most of his prophecies do not come to pass, preached a message, saying that the problem of Nigeria are the Igbos. I waited to hear his reasons for such spiteful and hateful sermons, and nothing which correlated with his claims was said. He rather spoke of the Igbo inability to organise themselves and take power. And in his usual manner, he poured out aspersions or curses that they would never rule Nigeria? While he spouted hate and bigotry, my mind went back to Rwanda in 1994. The Hutsi Genocide on the Tutsi was gendered by the radio and the church. The senseless loss of more than 800, 000 lives in four weeks was caused by hate messages from the church! And a man of god in Nigeria was boldly repeating such callous and calculated messages to deflect happenings in the Country and redirect the attention on the Igbo. It would be interesting to know the number of his parishioners who are not Igbo since the group are faithful and dedicated to religion.

The last example which suffices, was the incident when an honourable member of the House, Rep. Abass Adigun who is representing Ibadan North-east/Ibadan Southeast Federal Constituency who claimed that Ibadan is bigger than the whole Southeast region of Nigeria! While his hollow speech showed his clear dimwittedness, lack of intelligence, good education and ignorance, the surprise was the disinterest and unconnectedness of the so-called Igbo representatives who were in the Green Chambers with him! As a matter of fact, while the dimwitted Abass went, unabashed, a Southeast representative sitting behind him, complete with a red cap, Igbo attire and bracelets, stroked his beards listlessly and picked his nose! He didn’t see anything wrong nor felt humiliated by the comparison of Ibadan to the Southeast! It was when the Abass took a bashing from Rep. Obuku Ofurji representing Yenagoa/Opokuma in Bayelsea state, that he beat a hasty retreat, though he maintained that he was right.

Of course, he is wrong. The landmass of Ibadan is 3, 080 square kilometres. The total landmass of the Southeast is 29, 388 square km. It would not have caused the disrespectful Adigun anything to Google, if his aides cannot help him. But he had to demarket and belittle a whole region of people in his illogical comparison. While it is easy to discountenance the distasteful words of Abass, a keen observer will ask cursorily, why didn’t the Southeast representatives react or oppose him to his face? Especially the lackey that sat behind him when he said those words? Their disinterest and unaffectedness appears worrying. And should be worrying for those who elected them from the Southeast.

That raised the question, where are the Igbo leaders who should protect the interest of their kith and kin? Nay, all Nigerians who are oppressed or discriminated against? Prof Obi Nwakanma in one of his articles noted that the current Igbo leaders are inferior. And he gave tangible reasons for it. He observed that while the past generation of Igbo leaders sought to rebuild and reconstruct what was lost as a result of the war, the new crop of leaders would at best engage in self-pity and give reasons of marginalisation and consequences of the civil war for their inability or lack of political will to work and build up the Southeast region and its neighbours. He noted that Nigerian leaders did not stop Igbo leaders or governors from embarking on projects which would boost the GDP of the region or individual earnings of the people.

Building up cottage industries and efficient organisations that would provide services including IPPs, light rails that will crisscross the whole of the region, hospitals, good schools, link roads, among others are not projects that the Federal government would carry out. There is need for intentional and proactive leadership to achieve these. One Southeast leader who has stood out in this regard is Governor Alex Otti who is waving the magic wand in Abia state. Imagine what the Southeast will be if the other governors work in tandem to improve infrastructure and build up services to improve the quality of lives of Nde Igbo? Besides infrastructure, modernisation and digitisation of the civil services, and other government departments and agencies would ensure effective service delivery.

Besides governments, there are other political leaders, traditional, business moguls, religious leaders, academics and IT experts whose expertise would build and strengthen the region making it economically buoyant. While the Oha na Eze pan sociocultural organisation has become somewhat politicised it is important that it should be seen to protect the Interest of the common Igbo in every corner of the world. More can also be done by the Igbo intelligentsia and Diaspora from where the bulk of the strength of the region lies. A unified and purposeful Diaspora agenda aimed at achieving specific goals would be significant in building up the region. A deliberate and conscientious effort to build up and instill pride and a strong persona in the Igbo man, woman, boy or girl in school or at work is the duty of every Igbo stakeholder. Such will go a long way to ensure pride in their cultural heritage, including preservation of their language, foods, music and values.

A lot needs to be done to build up Nigeria into the unified stable country that every Nigerian will be proud, irrespective of tongue or ethnicity. Yet, this cannot be achieved by shaming or damning any one ethnic group. Besides politics, there’s a lot that binds us together and these should be explored, while Igbo leaders need to embrace philosophies of ‘onye ahala nwanneya’ and ‘ onye echefula ala ya’ in their conducts and endeavours.

Okiyi, PhD, writes from Abuja, Nigeria