Fifty years after the civil war ended, Igbos do not yet feel a sense of belonging, acceptance or safety in the Federation called Nigeria. The sad part is that this belief is shared not just by the generation that witnessed the war and its deadly consequences, but Igbos across all generations, including the millennials who have been socialized into believing that there is a gap between their people and other Nigerians.

Let us not deceive ourselves about certain plain truths. The civil war is perhaps the most remarkable incident in Igbo history in the last century. The pain, the loss, all about it, is deeply imprinted in the Igbo consciousness. Whereas the Igbo nation has shown great resourcefulness since the war, and its people have proven to be enterprising and determined to hold their own in every sphere of life, including outstanding contributions to the making of the Nigerian state, there are Nigerians who still regard and treat the Igbo suspiciously.

Anti-Igbo sentiment may not be so openly expressed, but it is usually something beneath the surface. There are landlords in many parts of Nigeria, for example, who will never rent out their property to an Igbo man. The Igbo tenant is easily stigmatized. I have heard people complain that Igbo tenants are too stubborn or that when you rent a room to an Igbo man, he will end up sub-letting that one room to all kinds of persons from his village, putting pressure on the property’s limited facilities.

Some landlords insist that an Igbo tenant could even start eyeing the property, to buy it off the landlord, or if it is a shop, the Igbo trader would end up renting the entire street, and could turn the street into an Igbo neigbourhood. This stigma has been a source of agony for many Igbos seeking accommodation, particularly in Lagos, but it is of course completely baseless stereotyping. There are good and bad persons from virtually every Nigerian ethnic group.

The stereotyping of the Igbo person can also be found in the political arena. It is assumed by some persons, and such statements have been made to my hearing, that the only reason an Igbo man cannot be President of Nigeria is because every Igbo man sees himself as a potential President, and should the Presidency be zoned to the South East, the struggle for the ticket could result in inter-community strife in Igboland. The name of the group is Igbo, but when other Nigerians want to be mischievous, or perhaps out of ignorance, they refer to Igbos as Ibo, and when you try to correct them, they may insist you don’t seem to understand. It is I-Before-Others (IBO).

Igbos have also been held responsible for all sorts of things, kidnapping, drug trafficking, child trafficking, armed robbery – even when there are criminals from virtually every community in Nigeria. Meanwhile, they are one of the most vertically educated ethnic groups in Nigeria, and the most enterprising in all fields. A friend once said that if you enter any community in Nigeria and you don’t have an Igbo man running a small shop there, or engaged in some other kind of business, then you have no business staying in that community. Igbos are also obviously the most integrated ethnic group in Nigeria, which is why it is ironic that they are also the most vilified.

I wrote what I considered a harmless piece recently in which I referred to the declaration of Biafra in 1967 and quoted excerpts from the Ahiara Declaration. I got a phone call from a friend who declared that I should stop encouraging these “Biafrans”. Nothing I said made sense to him.

“You don’t know those people”, he declared.

“I know people from all parts of Nigeria,” I said.

“You don’t know Igbos. Has there been any problem in this country that you know in which Igbos have not been involved? They have started again, heating up the polity with threats of secession.”

“It is a sign that all is not well with Nigeria,” I retorted.

“Don’t mind them. I don’t think anybody wants to secede. If Igbos really want to secede, you think it is Nnamdi Kanu that will be speaking for them?”

“It takes just one illuminated soul to start a revolution.”

“Don’t bring that line. Everything is not textbook, this man. Just tell those Igbos not to include my people in whatever they are looking for. We are their neighbours. They dragged us into the civil war. This time around, they’ve gone to draw a map, including my people. Biafra does not extend to the South-South. We are just looking at them.”

“Biafra is an idea.”

“I don’t want to hear all these textbook things, I have told you. Which idea? See, most Nigerians do not support Biafra. They think Igbos are just playing games. I’ll send you some other articles written by other Nigerians and you’d see what I am talking about. People are angry that anybody will be talking about secession in 2017! Nigerians are fed up with Igbos and their games. President Jonathan gave them everything but on election day, many of them stayed at home and refused to vote. Now, they are talking secession.”

“But Yorubas are also talking about Oduduwa Republic.”

“The Yoruba are not going anywhere. What they want is restructuring, fiscal federalism. Which Oduduwa Republic?”

“The people of the Middle Belt are also aggrieved.”

“Anybody can be aggrieved. You can’t please Nigerians. And some of these things are political. Obasanjo became President, Niger Delta carried arms; Jonathan got there, Boko Haram kidnapped children, Buhari is there now, and all the ghosts of Biafra are frightening everybody. But these Igbos, tell them they are not going anywhere.”

“I am surprised you are talking like this.”

“What is the matter with those people? They are all over Nigeria. They are even selling land in Lagos. But no outsider is allowed to buy half a plot of land in Igboland. You carry Igbo girl sef, na problem. Go and check your email. I will send you other perspectives on this matter.”

Before long, I received a mail indeed. The fellow had put together a collection of anti-Biafra, anti-Igbo articles which he urged me to read, with the rider that I should pay particular attention to the fact that some of those articles were written by Igbos. I ignored the rider. Some of those articles could have been ghost written. What is clear, however, is that all is not well with Nigeria. We are a country that needs to be rescued from the centripetal forces tearing us apart, and the leading forces today would include, as was the case before now, ethnicity, religion, the politics of hate, and citizen alienation.

If my review of the stereotyping of Igbos in Nigeria and the reported conversation with an Igbo-hater does not fully convey the seriousness of this situation, then the June 6 ultimatum issued to all Igbos living in Northern Nigeria by a coalition of Northern Arewa youth groups should.

A group called the Northern Emancipation Network, comprising 16 Arewa youth groups, has asked all Igbos living anywhere in Northern Nigeria to pack their bags and baggage and be out of the Northern region by October 1, 2017. When the 19 Northern Governors met and dismissed the threat as misguided, the young Arewa Igbo-haters issued a riposte and more or less asked the Governors to shut up. Their message is that since Igbos no longer want to be part of Nigeria, they should get out, because they, Arewa youths, do not want belong to the same political union with Igbos. They are angry that on May 30, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous Peoples Organization of Biafra (IPOB) succeeded in shutting down a part of Nigeria to mark the 50th anniversary of the declaration of Biafra.

The arrogance of the Northern youths is insufferable. It speaks to virtually everything that other Nigerians are uncomfortable with about the Fulani North: a born-to-rule, hegemonic tendency. It is an assault on the Nigerian Constitution, to the extent that the Constitution does not grant any individual or group, the right or the power to determine where any Nigerian may live or work or die or acquire property. All Nigerians are equal before the law. The Northern youths, who do not think so, held a meeting, a press conference, and issued statements. The Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai asked the Nigeria Police to arrest them for promoting ethnic hatred. The only response we have had from the Police Headquarters so far, is from one Jimoh Moshood, described as Police Spokesman telling Nigerians that the Arewa youths “are not sitting in the market waiting to be picked up.”

Moshood, if you actually said that, then you should be relieved of your position forthwith. If you are a spokesperson and you have nothing intelligent to say, the best option is to remain silent, otherwise whatever you say will be used against you in the court of public opinion. So, the Nigeria police only arrest people when they go to the market and wait to be arrested? Is that the new police that we now have? The Northern Emancipation Network called Igbos all kinds of names – “unruly, reckless, insatiable, uncultured, confrontational, ungrateful” – and since they issued their ultimatum, the polity has been heated up, ethnic hate has been promoted, the Igbos of Nigeria have been further alienated.

This was how the civil war of 1967-70 started. Nigeria cannot afford another civil war. No country survives two civil wars. Already, Igbos in the North are reportedly relocating back to the South East or elsewhere in Nigeria. Young Nigerians from the North, the East and the South started the civil war. The politics of ethnicity and the rhetoric of hate ignited the fire that consumed the nation for three years. The scars have not healed because 50 years later, the youths of the North and the East are again lighting up the fire of hate. On June 6, the Northern Emancipation Network also asked Northerners in the East, I hope this includes the peripatetic herdsmen, to return to the North!

The Nigerian Government must take this on-going febrile conversation between the North and the East more seriously than it appears to be doing. The security agencies do not have to go to the markets to look for what is not there. When there is a threat to the state, it is their duty to identify the threat and act on it. All persons who are working hard and making provocative statements to cause a national crisis should be monitored and checkmated. With all the difficult challenges facing this country, at this moment, our security alert system should be pushed a notch higher.

If the security agencies fail to act, particularly on the matter of the coalition of Northern youths promoting Igbo hatred, the Federal Government would have committed a grievous sin, likely to be interpreted as aiding and abetting. And there would be persons who will legitimately ask: are we confronted with a hand of Jacob and voice of Esau situation? Who is sponsoring the Arewa youths? Who granted them the permission to use the platform of Arewa House to spew anti-Igbo hate speech? Who is blocking their arrest by the security agencies? What those boys have done is even worse than the threat of secession by Nnamdi Kanu and his supporters.

But the message is clear: Nigeria is not yet a nation. A country where any group or association can threaten to expel another group is not yet a nation. The common enemy is not the secessionists. The common enemies are the political leaders, the tribal demagogues, the political opportunists, the religious bigots, the paid shamanists, who continue to manipulate Nigeria’s destiny to suit their own purposes. There can be no country except the people love the nation and the state.

http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2017/06/igbo-haters-the-arewa-ultimatum-and-our-nation/

Read the last paragraph, read it very very well.

...

Quite an epistle but loaded with sense.

Brb

Which oduduwa republic are u talking about, abeg jare dry souls..!




OK genocide for the north


Genocide for the IBO


Up Nigeria, should would always stand tall as soon as her enemies are placed under her feet..!


They have tried many times but they never succeeded

INTROVERT:
Read the last paragraph, read it very very well.

Nigeria is a nation passing through challenges.. Get that Right

The writer is biased...!!

I really like the last paragraph, especially the line that goes thus; "There can be no country except the people love the nation and the state"... Once there is no love, there is absolutely no unity.

iam only commenting

can't read this

whitebeard:
The writer is biased...!!

Very biased, he failed to write about the origin of the hate speeches..

Where was he when Nnamdi kanu told his followers to kill pastor kumuyi?

Pdp are the ones behind this Ipob, pdp hardly condemns their hate speeches

It is rather unfortunate that security agencies seam arm twisted and toothless in this situation we have at hand. Someone is looking for some people who were granted permission to use a groups meeting place to make hate speeches and u are telling Nigeria's u don't know where to start looking for them. I salute this "country".

It's clear

Nigeria is not a nation. It is a country with several nations.
Yoruba people are a nation. Igbos are a nation, hausa, ijaws, benin, are nations.
If yoruba people have their separate country, then oodua republic can be called a country and a nation.
It will be better if we split into different countries...so that there will be peace and progress.

omofunaab:



Very biased, he failed to write about the origin of the hate speeches..

Where was he when Nnamdi kanu told his followers to kill pastor kumuyi?

Pdp are the ones behind this Ipob, pdp hardly condemns their hate speeches

Can you show where Kanu instructed people to kill Kumuyi?

Wow...

Always your articulating writing is well understood and it share better narration stimulating the aggression in Nigeria unity.

U have spoken well


Pls What can Nigerians and Nigeria be compared to?

Igbos represents all sorts of evil and crime ever known to man according to them, but still won't allow them to be on their own so as to be free from evil.

Me: They must be SATAN himself, it's only him that can live eternally with evil. Only SATAN fines joy in sleeping and waking with evils, even his possessed humans sometimes get tired of evil and seek repentance.


Biafrans want out.

BIAFRANS, LET US REASON TOGETHER
QUESTION: Dear Russell, permit me to asked these following questions, I duly believe strongly on your efforts since this struggle and you have some days ago met with IPOB spiritual leader, mazi Nnamdi KANU, my questions are as follows, how prepared, he is,if eventuality the north attack the southeast, how far he has try to discuss with the south south, any reprisals if the Biafra are attacked by the soon to be enemy, how sure are you that the south south Will be in support of actualizing the Biafra project by abandoning their eternal masters Hausa Fulani and Yoruba, it is true we came always to air our views but that has never been any co contrite arrangement I have seen so far,you that the opportunity's to meet Mazi Nnamdi KANU, and let's hear his answer,don't answer on his behalf,today he's out from detention, so j need answer bros Russell
---- Evangelist Iyke Felix
Thanks for your question, whatever its true intent is. First, I am Russell Idatoru Bluejack, an individual who lacks the lacuna to speak for the Niger Delta. I put it to you, dear brother, that no one has the mandate to speak for a people. Yes, we have elders here down South, but whether their modus vivendi is elderly is an entirely new argument. I am not a Niger Deltan in the same way others claim. I was born a Niger Deltan, but transformative and liberating education has ingrained in me a mental outlook that enables me to see anyone that affects my life as either my brother or foe. Take note, brother, I have gained absolutely nothing from being seen as a Niger Deltan! I went to school alone. I work hard to eat. I studied hard to the gamut that I became tutor to my contemporaries across departments, the reason I am called Prof. There is no impactful and transforming presence of crude oil in my life. Let those who swim in the ocean of haughtiness tell you whether they even know the colour of crude oil. Yes, we own the oil; however, we are alienated from its use and proceeds. How Niger Deltan is that?
The pride of being a Niger Deltan is loud online, yet virtually nonexistent in actuality. It is against that backdrop that I think our brothers and sisters down South should reexamine their teething human and economic problems and take a stand. I will tell you what I see around me. I see poverty in the Niger Delta. We own the oil, yet we have very few billionaires. How many billionaires can Rivers State boast of? Anambra has more than 1500 billionaires. Is someone thinking? Possessing the resource is one thing; exerting control and use over it is another. The resource is ours, yet owned by emirs and generals from the North. How Niger Deltan are we? Are we regionally Niger Deltan or resourcefully so? How many indigenous oil companies are owned by Niger Deltans? How many Niger Deltan youths are absorbed by these oil companies? We own the resource, the companies are our supposed tenants, yet the North and West constitute the clientele of these companies. How Niger Deltan are we?
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will not jump into our heads and make us consider these issues, will he? He submitted his sovereignty to Nigeria in his altruistic bid to prove that he was not an armchair agitator for freedom. He was beaten, unjustly incarcerated for years, and given the most ridiculous bail conditions. These he did to reawaken us, to cause the speck fall off our eyes, to make us show a leg from this overstretched slumber. I am a very young, penurious Niger Deltan that thinks the youths here must rise to the occasion. I have given what I have to sting our youths. I don't have any business with the barrel and nozzle (guns), but what I have does not have limit. Every good essay written affects millions of lives. No gun, irrespective of its bewildering firepower, can do that. Thanks be to God that the response is encouraging. I have our brothers in the East, most of whom reside outside the shores of this suppressive enclave called Nigeria, to thank for that. The pervading Niger Delta mindset, one that is about SELF as against OTHERS, is the real problem. Our people are hind-sighted, not farsighted, and not foresighted. Here, we talk about our own Republic without asking ourselves whether we can wade through the thorny international prerequisites to actualize it.
I, Russell Idatoru Bluejack, a native of Peterside, Bonny LGA, along with my family, friends, comrades, and like-minded followers do hereby align myself with the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu-led IPOB for the onward articulation of a nation that will be devoid of gun battles, arson, suppression, subjugation, malice, discrimination, prejudice, and destructive propaganda. I enjoin all well-meaning Niger Deltan to consider the creed of IPOB with an open mind and do the needful. Let us consider our children and their own children. We have forgiven our brothers in the East for their past malfeasances. We beseech them to forgive us, too. Let us work together. LET US JUBO JUBO BELEMA - LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Finally, our people should come back home. Nobody will fight a war that he has already won. Let them incur the losses and return home. It is that simple. Nation-building requires enormous sacrifice. No one gives you freedom: you grab it.

The Nigeria question continues.

I always tell my friends that Nigeria can never ever be good for human inhabitation. A country that is devoid of patriotism, garnished with blood thirsty elements that doesn't value human life is a typical example of hell fire.

kingzizzy:


Can you show where Kanu instructed people to kill Kumuyi?

I heard it live on radio biafra. he not only insulted kumuyi, he threw jabs at Yorubas generally, Adeboye, Oyedepo, obasanjo, awolowo, etc. a guy called in and mentioned that kumuyi should not be allowed to visit the south east. he encouraged people to attack kumuyi if he steps into the south east. he later went on to tell the listeners to attack northerners the moment he's arrested by the zoo. I heard all these live on radio. if KANU was not in support of the violence he would have corrected the caller immediately. he didn't. he encouraged the caller!!!