Obasanjo -BBC HardTalk. =============================.

WHY IGBOS ARE ANGRY WITH NIGERIA

My friends who are not from the Easvt of Nigeria where Igbos come from often ask me why there is so much anger in the East and among Igbos. Some wonder why, despite the famed Igbo” wealth’ and enterprise all over Nigeria, the people still complain that Nigeria is unfair to them. Some insinuate that the anger comes from the loss of the 2015 election by Jonathan who the Igbos heavily backed.

And why is it that the current generation of Igbos are so angry as to contemplate carrying arms against the country? With lots are following Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB with his secessionist message. Those not following may despise his antics and rhetoric but are sympathetic to his underlying message? And what is that message? That Igbos don’t feel wanted in Nigeria. That decades of official marginalization and discrimination should be stopped or they would be ready to take their chances in a new nation.

First, for those who think this is all about Jonathan and Buhari. It is not. Igbos were disappointed that Jonathan did not win. But those whose candidates lose elections lick their wounds. It is allowed. It happens when your candidate loses election. Why did the Igbos invest so much emotions in Jonathan, a non-Igbo Ijaw? It was more because of the fear of their experience in the past 50 years. Nigeria has placed an embargo on any Igbo man becoming Nigerian president. Jonathan was the next best thing. Other parts of Nigeria have supported their sons to the presidency. Some have bombed Nigeria into submission to get their son to Aso Rock. Igbos have little capacity to blackmail Nigeria to the presidency. They chose Jonathan as their “Igbo”. But that’s not to say that they are angry enough because he lost to contemplate going to war on his behalf. Jonathan was not really the model of a President you would go to war for. And his Ijaw people have accepted his loss. So?

Igbo anger has been building up in Nigeria since I was a kid in the 70s. As kids, we made choices in our school years based on the narrative of the Igbo place in Nigeria. We knew of the glass ceiling against Igbos before we were out of puberty. After the civil war, despite the “No winner, no vanquished” program, Nigeria placed glass ceilings and no-go areas for Igbos. The war reconstruction program was observed more in the breach. There was the “abandoned” property program that was introduced to drive a wedge between components of the former South-East Nigeria. While the country was too embarrassed to put the discrimination program down in an official gazette, it was there for anyone who cared to look. It was evident in the Igbo police officer who stayed in one position while less qualifies juniors progressed to become his bosses. It was evident when no Igbo qualified to become the Inspector General of Police, or leader any division in the armed forces. It was there when "sensitive" or "lucrative" positions were shared in Nigeria and Igbos were conspicuously absent. It was there when Igbos were only fit enough to be made Minister of Information until Obasanjo came to power. And even recently, it was there when Buhari appointed 47 people to man the critical roles in his government and no one from the South east was there. Any time there is a federal appointment in Nigeria, its usually the east that shouts. It was there from Buhari first term to his second term and anyone in-between.

The Igbo elite called it marginalization. Other Nigerians countered by saying no part of Nigeria was getting enough. Marginalization was universal. But they forgot something. The Igbo cry of marginalization was official policy. It was expected. It was programmed. And occasionally, key gove
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