Monday, October 28, 2013

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/opinion/orji-kalu-igbo-consciousness/

Orji Kalu and Igbo consciousness

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By Odimegwu Onwumere


His consciousness about the plight of his Igbo compatriots is proportionate and an important task to him. He is concerned not only to make them attain the presidency in 2015, but also, to transform their consciousness, which was seemingly battered by the Nigeria/Biafra war that ended some forty-three years ago, but continues to rage.

Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, a former governor of Abia State and one of the most honoured and award-winning personalities in the world, sees violence as no longer an option for Ndigbo to march on to their destined abode in the Nigerian project, but only where other ethnic tribes in the country want to extirpate the Igbo out of the surface of the earth, just as Nigerians are seeing the countless and senseless killings of Ndigbo in many parts of the country, especially, in the Northern part of the country.

Ndigbo have always related peacefully in Nigeria, but some people are yet to understand that the best way to live in the country is to see others as human beings and not, as peoples who come from the blues that must be killed without provocation. Ndigbo are living in Nigeria with pains. And this is where Kalu's consciousness to transform them comes in.

The consciousness of Dr. Kalu is not about himself, but about the fact that Nigeria should stop denigrating the Igbo and follow what Brian Eno said: When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That's one of the great feelings - to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue. It is this 'great social virtue' that Kalu is championing.

But, the North which has been known as a servant of the British has always sung a discordant tune. Perhaps, because the British told the Northerners that they were born to rule? But to Kalu, this mindset is despondent and will never resolve the many lingering problems that are besetting Nigeria. It is not certain from where this hatred against Ndigbo in Nigeria emanated from. Perhaps, from this story that the problems of Nigeria are introductory as epitomised by the country's founding Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who was so interested to abide by the dictates of the British colonialists, but did not believe in the unity of Nigeria. He was appointed into the Northern House of Assembly in January 1947; and two months later, into the Legislative Council (National Assembly).

The excerpts of his first speeches at the two legislative houses as published by his friend/master and official biographer, Trevor Clark, in the book: A Right Honourable Gentleman: The Life and times of Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, he submitted: "We are fortunate in having the British here as our guides and teachers. They are great colonial administrators and they have great experience in developing and administering many tropical dependencies. I want all our British officers to realise that now is the time when we, as their pupils, need all their patience and courage, and the use of their knowledge and experience. If ever the Northern provinces change, as I know they must, I want them to change into modern Northern Nigeria, but not into some sort of artificial civilization which is not either European or African.

The Northern provinces are now facing a great danger. "Evil ideas are creeping into the North from outside sources. In all countries of the world you find men who thirst for power, who agitate the government and disrupt the happiness of the people for the satisfaction of their own personal ambitions. I understand we have such a class of people in Nigeria. I do not know what right those people have to claim to be the voice of the North. We must do something soon in the North to show Britain and the world that these self-styled leaders do not and cannot in any matter or in any way represent us. We have our own leaders whom we have chosen".

Balewa was reported to have further said at the inaugural meeting of the National Assembly: "We are still far from one country, despite the railway train and the motorcar which have created the opportunity of understanding among ourselves. This alone is not enough. We here are representatives of different communities, to discuss our common problems and to establish our future destinies.

The success or failure of the Richards Constitution lies mainly with the unofficial members. We should not close our eyes to the fact that the Yorubas, the Igbos and the Hausas, who are the predominant tribes in the country, do not see eye (to eye)…"

Dr. Kalu would ask, of whom are those killing Ndigbo in the north? They said they are following their footsteps when a respected personality like Alhaji Balewa had clamoured for mass literacy for all northerners, and the federal government has never gone back in this request. Ndigbo are not sure if the government has done wrong to the north by providing them with Western education, which has resulted in the targeting of Ndigbo in the north for prey for no just cause.

It is pertinent that Ndigbo come together as one, because they are not loved in this feigned 'one country'. For doubting Thomases, Sir Arthur Richards, colonial governor, doodled Balewa a laudatory note, on the parliamentary floor, immediately after Balewa's speech thus: "There are some people in Nigeria who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of speaking for the whole country as one. A delegation of these people (made up of Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Michael Imoudu) toured parts of the Northern provinces. We did not then understand the real intention of that tour, and we naturally mistook it for one of friendship." This mentality continues today among the northerners that anybody who is not from the north elected as president will never rule them, hence bickering and tinkering and killing of the people from the old eastern region of this country. But OUK, as Orji Uzor Kalu is fondly called, is out to reunite all the countrymen and women to pursue a collective ambition. He does not want anyone to be deceived since Nigeria, as a country, has come to stay. He wants us to eschew aspirations that are along ethnic lines.

Although, he has not hidden his voice to tell the powers that be that Ndigbo are systematically and serially marginalised in Nigeria, he tells those in government to forget the noise some shameless Igbo politicians make about federal presence in the zone, because there is none at all. He says that only a dreamer will not appreciate the renewed vigour with which the Igbo build bridges and work together to reposition themselves in global affairs.


-Onwumere writes from Rivers State.

Kalu can have an opinion like anyone else but what he cannot say and does not have is the right to force Northerners or any other parts of Nigeria to ACCEPT ibos if they troop to other people's lands in millions! Rather than keep crying about another man's bread, why don't you focus on your own bread (land)? If ibos do not keep assaulting the lands of the Northerners after what you did 40+ years ago, I am sure there will be no reason for the Northerners to be chasing non-existing 'enemies' or Kalus to be babbling or me writing this precious post or wisdom or you big-eye man reading it!!