Three fashionable fallacies lie at the root of prevailing Igbo outlook to Lagos, the former federal capital. The first is that Lagos is a no-man’s land with no indigenous population.

The second is that Federal Government money was used to build Lagos into the huge metropolis that it has now become. This argument goes further to claim that since the “federal money” allegedly belonged to all Nigerians, the political control of Lagos should, willy-nilly, be open to just about anyone and everyone who claims to be a Nigerian.

The third fallacy is that Lagos is a hunting ground, a jungle city where all being “joiners”, the predatory instinct must rule. By this pernicious thesis, Lagos is a place in which regardless of one’s roots – or the lack of it – one can seize the trophy. It is an el-Dorado where anything goes and in which everything, including political authority, is up for grabs since the place does not belong to anyone anyway!

FASHOLA-IGBOS

These are erroneous claims, now being given new life in the current debate on Igbo participation and representation in the politics and governance of Lagos. Granted, the continued perpetration of these fallacies is not restricted to Igbo elements. Others, including some Yoruba (especially those that Lagosians refer to as ara oke– upland people), are equally guilty of the first if not all of these fallacies.

But the current debate marks the first time that an institutional claim to the governance of Lagos would be made by a non-Yoruba group. The commentators, Joe Igbokwe and Uchenna Nwankwo, among others, have done well in marshalling the arguments from the Igbo perspective. Spokesmen of Eko Pioneers, a group of Lagosians, have answered back from the other side. It is a debate that should be encouraged rather than stifled.

The fallacies are, of course, easily dismissed. The Yoruba identity of Lagos is not in doubt, regardless of its ethnically mixed composition. If the “no-man’s-land” claim were to be true, then Lagos must be the only metropolis anywhere in the world without an indigenous population.

Concerning the use of “federal money” to develop Lagos, four points need to be made. First, Lagos was a thriving metropolis even before the British created Nigeria, its prosperity being due more to its strategic location rather than its administrative designation.

Second, it is doubtful that the people of Lagos were consulted before their city was made the Nigerian capital, or that they were forewarned that being conferred with such a status would mean that they would lose their city to stranger elements.

Third, rather than invoke the “federal money” argument to dilute a people’s right to control their land, the rest of Nigeria, and, in particular, the Igbo, should be grateful to the people of Lagos for availing them of a conducive environment in which lives and property are relatively safe and in which the throats of settlers are not routinely slashed by sponsored zealots as happens elsewhere in Nigeria.

Fourth, and perhaps most tellingly, only a fraction of what is now Lagos State was ever under the central government. Strictly speaking, only four of the present twenty local government areas in Lagos State – Lagos Island, Eti Osa, Lagos Mainland and Surulere – were in the then Colony of Lagos.

The rest belonged, first to the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria and subsequently to the Western Region, before the state creation exercise of 1967. Lagos was also not the only city on which federal money was spent. (Calabar was once the capital and so should also qualify as a recipient of “federal money”.)

As for Lagos being a hunting ground, the self-defeating logic of this argument is clearly brought home to all of us – aborigine and settler alike – by the frightening crime statistics in the state.

Perhaps before I go further it is appropriate that I state my qualifications for pronouncing on this matter, aside of course from my rights as a citizen of Nigeria. From my father’s side, I am a Yoruba of Awori descent with strong Egba links. My mother however happens to be Igbo from Owerri in Imo State.

Based on these affiliations, I can claim a fair measure of familiarity with the issues in the current debate on both sides. I understand the feelings of Lagosians on this matter. I am also fully apprised of the passions and pressures that drive Igbo into internal economic exile and which impel their push for a place in Lagos.

While I empathize with the Igbo condition, I share the interest of all trueborn Yoruba people in maintaining and possibly deepening the Yoruba character of Lagos. And no one should have to feel apologetic about that.

The Igbo, perhaps more than any other Nigerian group, are in a vantage position to appreciate a people’s attachment to their soil and the unbreakable linkage between a people and their land and language.

A critical aspect of that linkage is the exercise of cultural and political authority over a land space to which one has aboriginal claim. More than any other group in Nigeria, save perhaps the Fulani Bororo, the Igbo move around the country a lot for considerations of geography and economics.

Unlike the Fulani, however, the Igbo often become sedentary in large clusters in the lands they move into, including Lagos. This naturally raises an interest in participation in the public affairs of their places of domicile. Yet, a legitimate interest in participation cannot translate into a contest for control, which is the way the current claims are being canvassed and construed.

Pan Nigerianism

Advocates of the Igbo claim to Lagos often refer to the putatively halcyon era of pan-Nigerianism spanning the 1930s to the 1950s. It was a time, we are told, when all Nigerians lived as one and when it did appear that all ascriptive barriers had dissolved in the ferment of nationalist politics. This period has become a favourite reference point for people with all kinds of agenda. But was the reality not indeed less glamorous? There was, no doubt, a fortuitous convergence in those times. An emergent commercial and educated elite needed to come together in the nationalist struggle to send the British away and so the city of Lagos, which was the hub of that struggle, seemed to have become a melting pot overnight.

Yet, the hometown unions remained strong and affectations to unity were soon exposed as only skin-deep as the struggle to ensure the departure of the British transitioned into the struggle over who would succeed the departing oligarchy. This is the reality that we continue to live with to date. And it would be asking a lot to expect that Lagos should offer itself as the guinea-pig for experimenting with the possibility of a new pan-Nigerian vision. Especially since there is as yet nothing on ground to suggest or guarantee that such a gesture would be reciprocated.

As things now stand, the Igbo in Lagos must decide what they really want from the state: participation, or representation, or control. Currently, their spokespersons seem to be using the three terms interchangeably, raising the spectre of a hostile take-over. This approach is bound to be resisted by a people barely recovering from the debacle of the June 12 annulment and the devastations of the Abacha persecution in which they saw the Igbo – with some admirable exceptions – as having played a less than salutary role.

The attitude and outlook of a majority of Igbo political elite and indeed common people to the June 12 crisis was mercenary if not malevolent. Many Igbo seemed to have approached the crisis with a revanchist agenda borne of deep-seated animosity and ill-will. How so?

Civil war

It is a well-known fact that some Igbo still blame the Yoruba for having “pushed” the Eastern Region into the civil war only to back out at the last minute. This line of argument further raised and reinforced the unfounded stereotype of Yoruba people as unreliable. It has been peddled for so long that many have come to believe it. As Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda once famously said, tell a lie persistently over a long time and people start to believe it to be the truth. Anyway, hostile interests within and outside Nigeria that have reason to fear the rise of a southern solidarity of the type that was emerging with the UPGA party of the 1960s have also invested strenuously in promoting and perpetuating this lie.

Yet, without seeking to diminish the harrowing and often heroic sacrifice that the war entailed on the Biafran side, the truth is that the Nigerian Civil War was largely the consequence of a North and East alliance of brinkmanship whose cardinal objective and principle was the isolation of the West. It is said that the falling out of friends is often the most vicious. So, Igbo political elite are in no position to seek to build a cult of victimhood around themselves or to sermonize about the politics of bad faith that led to the war.

Beginning with the NCNC-NPC coalition, through the Action Group crisis, to the declaration of a state of emergency in Western Nigeria, the creation of the Mid-West Region, all through to the treasonable felony trial, many Igbo political leaders of the time seemed to have deliberately lent a hand or at least acquiesced in stoking the northern brazenness that eventually resulted in the pogroms and the war. Nor should it be forgotten the games that were played with the status of Lagos, with the establishment of a Federal Ministry of Lagos Affairs under northern headship but with copious NCNC concurrence.

Similar treatment

But not to digress. With the defeat of Biafra, many Igbo in secret (and sometimes not too secretly) wished that the Yoruba too should receive a similar treatment someday soon. That day seemed to have arrived with the June 12 annulment and the crisis it unleashed. For some, the June 12 crisis appeared to have presented the Igbo with a perfect opportunity to get back at the Yoruba and permanently cut them down to size.

In executing their now famous exodus from Lagos at the time, many Igbo had said that they feared (hoped?) that another war was afoot, this time with Yorubaland as the theatre. Igbo political elite seemed to have offered themselves all too eagerly to bringing about such a confrontation. The role played by the likes of Sam Ikoku, Uche Chukwumerije, Walter Ofonagoro and Clement Akpamgbo, to mention a few, in adding fuel to the fires of the crisis would for a long time be remembered in the annals of infamy.

No doubt, the annulment and the ensuing crisis sorely tested the political maturity of Yoruba people and their elite. Fortunately, the Yoruba refused to bite the bait and managed to come out of the annulment crisis without a shooting war. There were, of course, several battles and notable casualties along the way. But, in the end, there was no war of the scale that had been feared – or hoped! How this was accomplished remains a tribute to the leaders of the pro-democracy struggle, a struggle that is yet to come to an end and of which Lagos remains the epicenter.

Igbo in governance

Feelings still run deep and memories of what many saw as malevolent undercutting could remain for long. It is partly in this context that many Lagosians situate current calls for expanded Igbo presence in the governance of Lagos. Many will shudder to contemplate the fate of the June 12 struggle if during that struggle political power in any part of the South-West had been in the hands of people hostile to Yoruba interests. What extent of damage would Chukwumerije have wrought if he had just one kinsman as an ally sitting in a sensitive local government chairmanship or governor’s office in the South-West in those terrible days?

Still, the work of building a united Nigeria must continue as we cannot afford to dwell for too long on past injuries and grievances. The Igbo input into this great work can be both positive and progressive, but not necessarily involving their ruling Lagos. Indeed, I think they have their work cut out for them. My view is that the Igbo are barking up the wrong tree in this whole matter over who rules Lagos. What do I mean by this?

The Igbo are such a leading and (hopefully) enduring part of the commercial landscape of Lagos. At this point in time, what they should be doing is lending their voice and energy to advocating for a reversal of what appears like a deliberate federal abandonment of the former capital, which has made doing business in Lagos all the more difficult.

The movement of the seat of the Federal Government to Abuja was ostensibly meant to un-clutter the environment of governance and deepen our country’s unity by giving everyone a sense of belonging in the nation’s capital.

But the move soon fell victim to elements whose knack it is to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in every good policy. The movement has been implemented as a punishment for the Yoruba and possibly as a reprisal for the central role that Lagos played as the seat of the pro-democracy opposition. Against this background, the attitude of many Lagosians to the Igbo quest for control is that they should commence it in Abuja and its area councils. After all, they say, Abuja is the only Federal Capital Territory that we have.

Federal presence

But speaking seriously, Igbo claims to an expanded role in the governance of Lagos cannot be pursued in an atmosphere of intentional federal abandonment of Lagos. Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos State has been making a case for renewed federal investment in Lagos, given the peculiar heavy demands on the state and its role as home to all. Rather than fantasizing about taking over the Alausa seat of government or occupying commissionership positions, the Igbo in Lagos should lend their weight to the push for special federal recognition for the needs of Lagos, to further enable the state continue to play its role as a safe, liberal and prosperous home for all.

Samuel, a former columnist with Vanguard, had caused this article to be published (in two parts) in Vanguard of 3 May 3 and May 10, 2002.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/igbo-and-the-governance-of-lagos/#sthash.FXfvmPIE.dpuf

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/igbo-and-the-governance-of-lagos/

Good write up, well balanced.

Eko oni baje,all vagabonds shld vamonose.

encroaching is not allowed.

LASU<

DO YOU THINK JOE IGBKWE WAS TELLING YOU THE TRUTH 45% ko, 45% ni

joe igbokwe was telling lies, base on population it is not possible. joe igbokwe was only telling lies to keep his job

If this analysis represents the view of an average South Westerner, then there is a looming problem that required legislative attention to avert the explosion of this dangerous ticking time bomb.

No tribe will play second fiddle to the other where they can muster the majority and desire to fulfil their Nigerian dream through election.

I see war if an Igbo wins a local government election in a free and fair election in Lagos State.

Ngwakwe: If this analysis represents the view of an average South Westerner, then there is a looming problem that required legislative attention to avert the explosion of this dangerous ticking time bomb.

No tribe will play second fiddle to the other were they can muster the majority and desire to fulfil their Nigerian dream through election.

I see war if an Igbo wins a local government election in a free and fair election in Lagos State.

That analysis even represent the view of very moderate thinking Yorubas presently....there are now millions of Yorubas that used to be moderates..but events of the last few weeks have made so many to review such postures...I just pray that 2015 goes peacefully ...otherwise Ibos may regret the day they start making that decision to invest in SW.

Ngwakwe: If this analysis represents the view of an average South Westerner, then there is a looming problem that required legislative attention to avert the explosion of this dangerous ticking time bomb.

No tribe will play second fiddle to the other were they can muster the majority and desire to fulfil their Nigerian dream through election.

I see war if an Igbo wins a local government election in a free and fair election in Lagos State.

its been since the colonial era,
you have what pschologists call OCD,
obsessive compulsive disoreder.
you guys are obsessed with lagos.

Ngwakwe:
I see war if an Igbo wins a local government election in a free and fair election in Lagos State.

You just dey know abi....lol ... oma se ooo!
With recent happenings and the regional integration development agenda, the Yoruba's are now more united than ever.

saxywale:
You just dey know abi....lol ... oma se ooo!

There is not going to be any war....what Ibos will get is the Hausa treatment.

I don't know where this rubbish was dug up from.......we can grandstand and blow all the grammar we want, but suffice it to say that anything that goes contrary to Nigerias constitution is nothing more than hot air! If you say that there are realities on the ground that can't be ignored and for which the constitution makes no allowance for, i'd say fair enough....we should then start from the beginning, which is to rework the constitution or throw it out in its entirety and let everyone go there separate ways.

The hard fact of the matter is that said constitution allows for every Nigerian to live and work where ever he/she pleases insofar as he/she is a law abiding citizen. So far, i'm not aware of any quota or limit on how many people from a particular place can live/work in another place of the same country. If -as is the case presently- some greedy, vindictive and wicked people have conspired (both overtly and covertly) to deny development to certain sections of the country while taking most of our commonwealth to develop their own region......and steal the rest, then we have nobody else to blame when those areas that recorded a disproportionate and unfair advantage over other areas now witness a high influx of people looking to take advantage of the resources and the population there.

The constitution also allows for every Nigerian to seek elective office anywhere in the country! Telling me that i should first go try my luck in Abuja or Kano is besides the point, as you may just as well make a provisio in the relevant section saying any 'Igbos' looking to seek elective office in Lagos should first test the waters in Kano and Abuja!

This talk of Igbos saying that Nigeria is no mans land; can i see any video/link that shows where any Igbo leader has said such? Culturally Lagos can belong to whoever (certainly not Ndigbo), but that's as far as the ownership goes for now......until such a time when we call time on this charade of a nations existence. Ownership bestows control, and last time i checked the constitution, it didn't say anything on who owns what and where; using such logic, we may just as well say the oyel found in the Niger Delta belongs to the communities where said oyel is drilled, and they can determine who benefits from it and to what extent. What i'm saying is that until Nigeria disintegrates or until the constitution is amended, Lagos and all oyel belong to Nigeria and not to a particular ethnic group or community.

Anybody that wants to start the argument midway -without first revisiting the article that says we're all Nigerians- has his/her head stuck firmly in the sand, and is engaging in an exercise of deceit!



PS- the summation of my argument is the difference between the terms de facto and de jure!

gudugba:

There is not going to be any war....what Ibos will get is the Hausa treatment.

^^^And pray, what might that be ? Planting bombs and running off like cowards?; arriving at churches and open market squares and gunning down as many Igbos as you can b/4 running off shouting allahu akbar eko o ni baje oh!?

IGBO-SON:


^^^And pray, what might that be ? Planting bombs and running off like cowards?; arriving at churches and open market squares and gunning down as many Igbos as you can b/4 running off shouting allahu akbar eko o ni baje oh!?

Don't ask questions....things are taking shape.

We don't know who our enemies are presently ....but we know those that are not our friends.

double post

gudugba:

Don't ask questions....things are taking shape.

We don't know who our enemies are presently ....but we know those that are not our friends.

^^^Fair enough!

gudugba:

There is not going to be any war....what Ibos will get is the Hausa treatment.

Keep plotting genocide and ethnic cleansing. More grease...
When do u plan to import the cutlasses?

Ngwakwe: If this analysis represents the view of an average South Westerner, then there is a looming problem that required legislative attention to avert the explosion of this dangerous ticking time bomb.

No tribe will play second fiddle to the other were they can muster the majority and desire to fulfil their Nigerian dream through election.

I see war if an Igbo wins a local government election in a free and fair election in Lagos State.

You are just waking up from slumber? Just what do you think is genesis of the crisis in Jos, Plateau state? The settlers i.e. the Hausas felt they have the numerical strengths to win jos north local government chairmanship election, and they actually won, but that was their greatest misadventure.

I have a friend, born and bred in Jos, that lost almost 40 vehicles(his car stand) and 3 estates at Alheri before gada biyu during the crisis, this was a guy that his father migrated to jos in mid 60's. I was with him in jos few days before January 2010 crisis broke out. State radio stations were playing " Papa's land" and "Stand up for your right", to ginger the Berom and Angas to go and attack the Hausa communities.


The mistake the Hausas made was to delve into politics, insisting they must install a local government chairman since they are the majority in jos north, but that was their greatest undoing. Moral of the story, don't overstretch your boundaries!

quid:
Keep plotting genocide and ethnic cleansing. More grease...
When do u plan to import the cutlasses?

There is not threat anywhere...stop fretting.

How can I plot genocide on a "no man's land". ?

Rhino.5dm:


You are just waking up from slumber? Just what do you think is genesis of the crises in Jos, Plateau state? The settlers i.e. the Hausas felt they have the numerical strengths to win jos north local government chairmanship election, and they actually won, but that was their greatest misadventure.

I have a friend, born and bred in Jos, that lost almost 40 vehicles(his car stand) and 3 estates at Alheri before gada biyu during the crisis, this was a guy that his father migrated to jos in mid 60's. I was with him in jos few days before January 2010 crisis broke out. State radio stations were playing " Papa's land" and "Stand up for your right", to ginger the Berom and Angas to go and attack the Hausa communities.


The mistake the Hausas made was to delve into politics, insisting they most install a local government chairman since they are the majority in jos north, but that was their greatest undoing. Moral of the story, don't overstretch your boundaries!

yes, but u can over-reach your boundaries and enjoy oil resources that do not exist on your land

gudugba:

There is not threat anywhere...stop fretting.

Yes, u are planning the threat. Keep it up.

quid:
yes, but u can over-reach your boundaries and enjoy oil resources that do not exist on your land

Mention one state that hasn't benefited from oil money. Is the oil from ibo states?

Rhino.5dm:


Mention one state that hasn't benefited from oil money.

By the Yoruba understanding of one Nigeria, oil proceeds must also not be used to develop other places outside the oil producing areas.
Fraudulently, the same oil producing areas are the least developed in terms of infrastructure.

As you can see, there is a great fraud and selfishness at the heart of the yoruba understanding of one Nigeria. Keep it up.

quid:
Yes, u are planning the threat. Keep it up.

Keep fretting then.....as long as loud mouths keep pushing their luck beyond the acceptable limit in Yorubaland...then you have absolute cause to worry...

We don't go looking for enemies or go into unnecessary territorial expansion ambition ..but won't give an apology defending every inch of the Yoruba territory .

quid:
By the Yoruba understanding of one Nigeria, oil proceeds must also not be used to develop other places outside the oil producing areas.
Fraudulently, the same oil producing areas are the least developed in terms of infrastructure.

As you can see, there is a great fraud and selfishness at the heart of the yoruba understanding of one Nigeria. Keep it up.

Can I get an answer, which.state hasn't benefited from oil money?

gudugba:

Keep fretting then.....as long as loud mouths keep pushing their luck beyond the acceptable limit in Yorubaland...then you have absolute cause to worry...

From the look of things its the Yorubas that are deeply worried about the effects of one Nigeria.

Rhino.5dm:


Can I get an answer, which.state hasn't benefited from oil money?

Check your logic:
1. Nigeria is one country.
2. However, people should strive to remain in their regions.
3. But, financial proceeds (mineral resources existing in each region) should not remain in any region but be distributed to all regions.

Warped thinking.

quid:
From the look of things its the Yorubas that are deeply worried about the effects of one Nigeria.

It's either you are utterly deluded or being childishly naive with that opinion .

gudugba:

It's either you are utterly deluded or being childishly naive with that opinion .

How can u call that an opinion. You are ignoring the reality unfolding around you and your brothers

quid:
How can u call that an opinion. You are ignoring the reality unfolding around you and your brothers

What else it is you've expressed.. ?

Quit behaving like a m0ron already ..

gudugba:

What else it is you've expressed.. ?

Quit behaving like a m0ron already ..

Go and learn the difference between a FACT and an OPINION.

quid:
Go and learn the difference between a FACT and an OPINION.

Learn to keep quiet if its important you should and NEVER talk just to show your obvious ignorance.

If you look up the definition of fact and opinion...you will come to understand what you've expressed.

Rhino.5dm:


Can I get an answer, which.state hasn't benefited from oil money?

Don't mind them, all the states has benefited from the oil money.

but what I keep thinking about is
1) if niger delta were in the territory of NE,NW or SW how are they gonna allow other region to benefit from it ?
2) if th Fulani in lagos were upto the number of ibos with heavy investments also will they face same thing ?
3) if the number of yorubas in delta, Benue state or Ebonyi state are large will they not hope to participate in the politics of the place they call home?
4) with kind of understanding are we not making mockery of ONE NIGERIA ideology ?
5) I keep hearing words like "we are good to ibos(other Nigerian states) or "our accommodating nature is legendary", pls tell me if I must know, has their been any free land yorubas gave ibos or any other group ?

Note: I really wana know bcus I hv not been enjoying free meal, free transportation, free Medicare, etc, incase if others do let me enjoy. at the matter of fact I have not received the c/o of the land I bought.

quid:
Check your logic:
1. Nigeria is one country.
2. However, people should strive to remain in their regions.
3. But, financial proceeds should not remain in any region but be distributed to all regions.

Warped thinking.

Are you daft?

I want to know which state hasn't benefited from oil money to warrant idiots using oil money as the criterion of co-owning Lagos.

Kano received oil money, Anambra state is a leech, so why is anambra belonging to the ibos, kano belonging to the Hausas while Lagos is for all?