“Omo Ibo go….go home. Omo…. Ibo go home. If
you go home garri go cheap for lagos”.
The pogrom was on in the north and Igbos were
being hounded and slaughtered indiscriminately .
Many of the Yoruba elite read opportunity into
the disturbances.. And Lagos, home to many
Igbos, convulsed with hatred for the Igbo.
Prominent Lagos Igbos went into hiding and
pondered their fate. Hunted like rabbits by death
squads , they soon relinquished the idea of
waiting out the storm in their holes and had to
sneak out of Lagos in darkness. Ordinary Igbos ,
free to flee, had thronged the motor parks and
taken the boos and jeers in their hurried steps.
Those who booed and jeered included not only
excited and ignorant motor park touts but also
shrewd covetous and perhaps envious civil
servants and lecturers who had eyes on positions
occupied by fleeing Igbos . A cocktail of sadism,
opportunism and delirium.
The Igbos in Lagos and Yourba land were perhaps
fortunate . The north , seized by their own sense
of vengeance, was a literal killing field. Let’s
leave the details to belong to our history.
Igbos may have fled Lagos in 1966-67 but their
participation in Lagos politics had effectively
ended in 1951. Nnamdi Azikiwe, otherwise a
Lagosian, prevented by corrupted ethnic passions
from becoming premier of the west , left for the
east . And the implications and ramifications of
that dislocation have impaired socio political
cohesion in Nigeria till today.
So when Igbos fled home in 1966 any doubts about
an ordinary law abiding Igbo Lagos resident
having same political rights and status as the
‘indigene’ were settled. For Igbos then , Lagos
was not , after all, home. You can live in Lagos but
do not forget that you belong somewhere else and
it wouldn’t matter if you have lived in Lagos or
port Harcourt all your life. Once law and order
break down, ‘settlers’ fret.
The civil war ended , Igbos with their 20 pounds,
poured out of the villages and many returned to
Lagos. And Lagos welcomed them. And before long
, Igbos , by sheer industry, came to dominate
street commerce in ‘Lagos and as their businesses
flourished, their numbers grew. The Igbos’
preferred trade apprenticeship system meant
that as Igbo entrepreneurs grew they brought in
family and friends from the east as apprentices.
And apprentices imbued with the “young shall
grow” mentality soon became business owners and
brought in more apprentices. So unsurprisingly
Igbos would dominate whole trade lines likes the
motor spare parts and electronics business and all
dealings in imported goods. Naturally , they would
dominate market complexes like ‘Alaba’, and
‘Aspamda’ and ‘Trade fair’ and ‘Balogun’. And
that meant that they would dominate areas like
Ajeromi Ifelodun, and Amuwo odofin and Oshodi
isolo and Ojo , residential areas around major
markets.
Preoccupied with commerce, wary of politics,
mindful of the war and their residency status,
Igbos helped build and develop Lagos but played
only at the fringes politically. The ambitious
trader aspired to be the president of the market
union or the Eze ndi Igbo Lagos for vain glory but
could not wrap his mind around being a member of
the house of assembly and didn’t want to take
political risks. Igbo professionals didn’t get
involved either
And despite the pervasive high level of political
consciousness of Lagos and despite the intensity
of media coverage of Lagos and despite the claim
to progressivism by the dominant party of Lagos ,
Igbos who constitute a significant ethnic minority
were kept out of elective positions.
There is something glaringly anomalous about a
system in which citizens can live all their lives in a
city , raise children , pay taxes , have
constitutionally protected rights to vote and be
voted for but are somehow not expected to occupy
elective positions. For indigenes, politically
ambitious “settlers” are ungrateful usurpers .
And this is a national malaise .
Prevalent high degree of urban migration means
that many have no other home towns besides
where they reside. And how are they supposed to
lead fulfilling lives if they can’t seek elective
offices?
Some are residents/ settlers and some are
indigenes. Yet all are citizens. And minorities
everywhere have been similarly afflicted whether
it be Muslims in Birmingham or Latinos in Florida
or Igbos in Sabon Gari kano or the Arewa in Hausa
quarters in Aba.
Lagos has remained the most cosmopolitan city in
Nigeria and the Yorubas have remained one of the
most sophisticated and accommodating groups in
Nigeria. And nothing in this article discredits the
Yorubas particularly. The culture of exclusivity in
Lagos politics existed in spite of the fact that
Lagos is the most accommodating of all cites in
Nigeria to non indigenes. But since Lagos is the
leading light in commerce , politics and tolerance,
any attempt to cure this national affliction must
start from Lagos. Besides morality, the stake of
non indigenes in the state is proportionately too
high to countenance their exclusion from
effective representation in the governance of
the state.
The AC/APC in a rather tokenistic appreciation of
the electoral weight of the Igbos appointed an
Igbo technocrat , to the Lagos cabinet . And such
tokens must be appreciated. However any
thoughts that that gesture by Tinubu 10 years
ago would lead to greater inclusiveness of the
minorities in Lagos affairs has been conclusively
disconfirmed by the failure of Lagos APC to allow
Igbos represent communities where Igbos
predominate. It’s even more absurd because we
know that the APC has a way of drawing up lists of
candidates.
The APC was rejected by Igbos in the last polls for
less than objective reasons. That reflexive
rejection borne of bigotry may have, however ,
yielded unintended positive collateral effects in
Lagos. The electoral prowess of the Igbos in Lagos
has been confirmed beyond refutation. The APC
lost comprehensively in Igbo dominated areas .
Hitherto , many treated claims of Igbos’ electoral
importance in Lagos as exaggerated . It is
otherwise perhaps inexplicable that the politically
astute Lagos AC/APC, that has a reputation for
foresightedness and inclusiveness, perennially
failed to attach adequate importance to the
touted numerical strength and wealth of the
Igbos and allocated no tickets to Igbos in Lagos.
How did they cede this glory to the PDP?
While Azikiwe’s ambition to lead the Western
region may be seen as grotesque in today’s
Nigeria because he , an Igbo, sought to lead the
Yoruba nation. Any ambition by a qualified Igbo
woman to pick up APC ticket and represent Amuwo
Odofin cannot be an outsized ambition because
she seeks to represent a political space in which
she is by no means an interloping minority. The
idea that those who are in majority in the state
or who are indigenes must decide for inhabitants
who would rule over every street and ward is not
only undemocratic but immoral. Let’s face it , you
can’t sell Amuwo Odofin to Igbos, collect billions
for those rural lands, have marsh lands
transformed to magnificent estates and yet seek
to preclude them from representing Amuwo Odofin
in the local and federal assemblies.
The sentiment that settlers should not dominate
indigenes may not be totally irrational. From
Florida to Birmingham , from Paris to Jos north,
settlers /indigenes dichotomy has led to social
unrest. It is however more plausible to
countenance the partial cultural exclusion of
minority populations than to condone an attempt
to preclude a population from freely choosing
their representatives especially if that means
settlers taking up elective positions in small
localities where they constitute a relative
majority. It should be a democratic given.
There is therefore no feasible democratic
argument to explain a Lagos house of assembly
without Igbos or minorities. While one may
sympathize with the Yorubas when , with perhaps
innocently felt moral indignation , they ask ,
rhetorically , if a Yoruba can be a member of Abia
house of assembly? Abia state has not even cared
to have an Imo commissioner.
The present governor , T . A Orji sacked civil
servants of Imo state origin when he assumed
office. Internecine squabbles in the east have
meant that Igbos cannot have successful
government careers in states other than their
home states. Let’s not even discuss Rivers state.
Lagos has an Igbo commissioner but Rivers cannot
even contemplate that despite the population of
Igbos in Port Harcourt. The civil war left many
ugly legacies. But since Gov Amaechi has publicly ,
during the campaigns, claimed he is Igbo, we hope
that some pre civil war brotherliness would one
day return. South East Igbos are by no means any
less guilty.
It is sad that Igbos fighting for political Justice
in Lagos haven’t established such standards of
justice in the east amongst themselves. The
general political environment in the east and
everywhere else in Nigeria is hostile to political
representation by non indigenes. And I must
concede that Lagos and the political tendency that
constitutes the south west APC is being held to
higher moral standards. Lagos sets the pace, if
Lagos initiates the practice it would have a great
national normative force. The reality many argue
is that Nigeria isn’t sufficiently politically mature
and sophisticated to tolerate such representation
by non indigenes as the polity is rife with inter
ethnic and regional rivalry . And that our sense of
nationhood is subservient to ethnic allegiance and
other parochial identities. Others condemn
emphasis on ethnic politics. When freedom and
sufficient cohesion are achieved ethnic cleavages
will disappear. Ohaneze and Arewa forum and
Afenifere if conscientiously run will benefit the
nation building.
An inescapable reality is that when a minority
group legally settles in a locality and achieves
significant numbers they cannot be ignored and
must be allowed full political participation in the
overall interest of the society. This is the right
moral and democratic position. Whether it is in
Jos north or Sabon Gari Kano, every human being
must be treated with equal moral concern and
should be accorded human dignity. The irreducible
minimum is to allow full active political
participation. It’s all the more imperative now ,
in this age, when many no longer have “ancestral
homes” and belong wherever they legally reside.
This piece had been written before the sickening
pronouncements made by the Oba of Lagos went
public. He exuded scorn, contempt and hate. Igbos
should forgive the Oba or ignore him. But he
should not be spared collective opprobrium and
sanctions so that others similarly afflicted are
deterred. Igbos do not owe their continued stay in
Lagos to anyone’s magnanimity.
Igbos like other groups, must with clear headed ,
reflective sobriety, pragmatically organize
themselves politically to make their numbers and
wealth and versatility count, protect their
interests, promote local and national unity , and
help enthrone good governance and excellence in
Lagos. And every where else. All who are
possessed by bigotry and conceit will in time come
to reason. Igbos have been back to Lagos politics
but they announced their return on March 28. For
many Igbos now, Lagos must be home.

Eko o ni baje o!

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/lagos-politics-the-return-of-the-igbo/

Huh!!

Is this supposed to be a poem

What is this one saying

Onyi42:
“Omo Ibo go….go home. Omo…. Ibo go home. If
you go home garri go cheap for lagos”.
The pogrom was on in the north and Igbos were
being hounded and slaughtered indiscriminately .
Many of the Yoruba elite read opportunity into
the disturbances.. And Lagos, home to many
Igbos, convulsed with hatred for the Igbo.
Prominent Lagos Igbos went into hiding and
pondered their fate. Hunted like rabbits by death
squads , they soon relinquished the idea of
waiting out the storm in their holes and had to
sneak out of Lagos in darkness. Ordinary Igbos ,
free to flee, had thronged the motor parks and
taken the boos and jeers in their hurried steps.
Those who booed and jeered included not only
excited and ignorant motor park touts but also
shrewd covetous and perhaps envious civil
servants and lecturers who had eyes on positions
occupied by fleeing Igbos . A cocktail of sadism,
opportunism and delirium.
The Igbos in Lagos and Yourba land were perhaps
fortunate . The north , seized by their own sense
of vengeance, was a literal killing field. Let’s
leave the details to belong to our history.
Igbos may have fled Lagos in 1966-67 but their
participation in Lagos politics had effectively
ended in 1951. Nnamdi Azikiwe, otherwise a
Lagosian, prevented by corrupted ethnic passions
from becoming premier of the west , left for the
east . And the implications and ramifications of
that dislocation have impaired socio political
cohesion in Nigeria till today.
So when Igbos fled home in 1966 any doubts about
an ordinary law abiding Igbo Lagos resident
having same political rights and status as the
‘indigene’ were settled. For Igbos then , Lagos
was not , after all, home. You can live in Lagos but
do not forget that you belong somewhere else and
it wouldn’t matter if you have lived in Lagos or
port Harcourt all your life. Once law and order
break down, ‘settlers’ fret.
The civil war ended , Igbos with their 20 pounds,
poured out of the villages and many returned to
Lagos. And Lagos welcomed them. And before long
, Igbos , by sheer industry, came to dominate
street commerce in ‘Lagos and as their businesses
flourished, their numbers grew. The Igbos’
preferred trade apprenticeship system meant
that as Igbo entrepreneurs grew they brought in
family and friends from the east as apprentices.
And apprentices imbued with the “young shall
grow” mentality soon became business owners and
brought in more apprentices. So unsurprisingly
Igbos would dominate whole trade lines likes the
motor spare parts and electronics business and all
dealings in imported goods. Naturally , they would
dominate market complexes like ‘Alaba’, and
‘Aspamda’ and ‘Trade fair’ and ‘Balogun’. And
that meant that they would dominate areas like
Ajeromi Ifelodun, and Amuwo odofin and Oshodi
isolo and Ojo , residential areas around major
markets.
Preoccupied with commerce, wary of politics,
mindful of the war and their residency status,
Igbos helped build and develop Lagos but played
only at the fringes politically. The ambitious
trader aspired to be the president of the market
union or the Eze ndi Igbo Lagos for vain glory but
could not wrap his mind around being a member of
the house of assembly and didn’t want to take
political risks. Igbo professionals didn’t get
involved either
And despite the pervasive high level of political
consciousness of Lagos and despite the intensity
of media coverage of Lagos and despite the claim
to progressivism by the dominant party of Lagos ,
Igbos who constitute a significant ethnic minority
were kept out of elective positions.
There is something glaringly anomalous about a
system in which citizens can live all their lives in a
city , raise children , pay taxes , have
constitutionally protected rights to vote and be
voted for but are somehow not expected to occupy
elective positions. For indigenes, politically
ambitious “settlers” are ungrateful usurpers .
And this is a national malaise .
Prevalent high degree of urban migration means
that many have no other home towns besides
where they reside. And how are they supposed to
lead fulfilling lives if they can’t seek elective
offices?
Some are residents/ settlers and some are
indigenes. Yet all are citizens. And minorities
everywhere have been similarly afflicted whether
it be Muslims in Birmingham or Latinos in Florida
or Igbos in Sabon Gari kano or the Arewa in Hausa
quarters in Aba.
Lagos has remained the most cosmopolitan city in
Nigeria and the Yorubas have remained one of the
most sophisticated and accommodating groups in
Nigeria. And nothing in this article discredits the
Yorubas particularly. The culture of exclusivity in
Lagos politics existed in spite of the fact that
Lagos is the most accommodating of all cites in
Nigeria to non indigenes. But since Lagos is the
leading light in commerce , politics and tolerance,
any attempt to cure this national affliction must
start from Lagos. Besides morality, the stake of
non indigenes in the state is proportionately too
high to countenance their exclusion from
effective representation in the governance of
the state.
The AC/APC in a rather tokenistic appreciation of
the electoral weight of the Igbos appointed an
Igbo technocrat , to the Lagos cabinet . And such
tokens must be appreciated. However any
thoughts that that gesture by Tinubu 10 years
ago would lead to greater inclusiveness of the
minorities in Lagos affairs has been conclusively
disconfirmed by the failure of Lagos APC to allow
Igbos represent communities where Igbos
predominate. It’s even more absurd because we
know that the APC has a way of drawing up lists of
candidates.
The APC was rejected by Igbos in the last polls for
less than objective reasons. That reflexive
rejection borne of bigotry may have, however ,
yielded unintended positive collateral effects in
Lagos. The electoral prowess of the Igbos in Lagos
has been confirmed beyond refutation. The APC
lost comprehensively in Igbo dominated areas .
Hitherto , many treated claims of Igbos’ electoral
importance in Lagos as exaggerated . It is
otherwise perhaps inexplicable that the politically
astute Lagos AC/APC, that has a reputation for
foresightedness and inclusiveness, perennially
failed to attach adequate importance to the
touted numerical strength and wealth of the
Igbos and allocated no tickets to Igbos in Lagos.
How did they cede this glory to the PDP?
While Azikiwe’s ambition to lead the Western
region may be seen as grotesque in today’s
Nigeria because he , an Igbo, sought to lead the
Yoruba nation. Any ambition by a qualified Igbo
woman to pick up APC ticket and represent Amuwo
Odofin cannot be an outsized ambition because
she seeks to represent a political space in which
she is by no means an interloping minority. The
idea that those who are in majority in the state
or who are indigenes must decide for inhabitants
who would rule over every street and ward is not
only undemocratic but immoral. Let’s face it , you
can’t sell Amuwo Odofin to Igbos, collect billions
for those rural lands, have marsh lands
transformed to magnificent estates and yet seek
to preclude them from representing Amuwo Odofin
in the local and federal assemblies.
The sentiment that settlers should not dominate
indigenes may not be totally irrational. From
Florida to Birmingham , from Paris to Jos north,
settlers /indigenes dichotomy has led to social
unrest. It is however more plausible to
countenance the partial cultural exclusion of
minority populations than to condone an attempt
to preclude a population from freely choosing
their representatives especially if that means
settlers taking up elective positions in small
localities where they constitute a relative
majority. It should be a democratic given.
There is therefore no feasible democratic
argument to explain a Lagos house of assembly
without Igbos or minorities. While one may
sympathize with the Yorubas when , with perhaps
innocently felt moral indignation , they ask ,
rhetorically , if a Yoruba can be a member of Abia
house of assembly? Abia state has not even cared
to have an Imo commissioner.
The present governor , T . A Orji sacked civil
servants of Imo state origin when he assumed
office. Internecine squabbles in the east have
meant that Igbos cannot have successful
government careers in states other than their
home states. Let’s not even discuss Rivers state.
Lagos has an Igbo commissioner but Rivers cannot
even contemplate that despite the population of
Igbos in Port Harcourt. The civil war left many
ugly legacies. But since Gov Amaechi has publicly ,
during the campaigns, claimed he is Igbo, we hope
that some pre civil war brotherliness would one
day return. South East Igbos are by no means any
less guilty.
It is sad that Igbos fighting for political Justice
in Lagos haven’t established such standards of
justice in the east amongst themselves. The
general political environment in the east and
everywhere else in Nigeria is hostile to political
representation by non indigenes. And I must
concede that Lagos and the political tendency that
constitutes the south west APC is being held to
higher moral standards. Lagos sets the pace, if
Lagos initiates the practice it would have a great
national normative force. The reality many argue
is that Nigeria isn’t sufficiently politically mature
and sophisticated to tolerate such representation
by non indigenes as the polity is rife with inter
ethnic and regional rivalry . And that our sense of
nationhood is subservient to ethnic allegiance and
other parochial identities. Others condemn
emphasis on ethnic politics. When freedom and
sufficient cohesion are achieved ethnic cleavages
will disappear. Ohaneze and Arewa forum and
Afenifere if conscientiously run will benefit the
nation building.
An inescapable reality is that when a minority
group legally settles in a locality and achieves
significant numbers they cannot be ignored and
must be allowed full political participation in the
overall interest of the society. This is the right
moral and democratic position. Whether it is in
Jos north or Sabon Gari Kano, every human being
must be treated with equal moral concern and
should be accorded human dignity. The irreducible
minimum is to allow full active political
participation. It’s all the more imperative now ,
in this age, when many no longer have “ancestral
homes” and belong wherever they legally reside.
This piece had been written before the sickening
pronouncements made by the Oba of Lagos went
public. He exuded scorn, contempt and hate. Igbos
should forgive the Oba or ignore him. But he
should not be spared collective opprobrium and
sanctions so that others similarly afflicted are
deterred. Igbos do not owe their continued stay in
Lagos to anyone’s magnanimity.
Igbos like other groups, must with clear headed ,
reflective sobriety, pragmatically organize
themselves politically to make their numbers and
wealth and versatility count, protect their
interests, promote local and national unity , and
help enthrone good governance and excellence in
Lagos. And every where else. All who are
possessed by bigotry and conceit will in time come
to reason. Igbos have been back to Lagos politics
but they announced their return on March 28. For
many Igbos now, Lagos must be home.

Eko o ni baje o!

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/lagos-politics-the-return-of-the-igbo/

if any IBO vote for APC in lagos they are all fools!!!!

Wow. This is the amuwo odofin he was talking about .Here I was thinking it was one back water place.

Lagos 4 all

We yorubas have suffered oooooo. Well, I blame tinubu, Gani Adaams, Fenifere, and ALL yorubas for this problem but I assure that there must be Consequence fr this mistake.

Ibos, do as you like. Am off!