I was last here March 3, and between then and now, a lot of water has passed under the proverbial bridge. Interestingly, I did actually have a lot I would've written about, just that it didn't come to me to do it. It wasn't just the lack of inspiration that did me in, but a general lack of appetite to write, even in my other lives. It came to me to write during the general elections, but I didn't want to be so invested in it, so as not to suffer any kind of pain should I come off disappointed in and with the exercise. But yea, I was very, very disappointed, but not the kind that sears at the heart with pain. I wasn't disappointed that President Muhammadu Buhari was pronounced the winner, the possibility of which I never discounted, seeing as even if he'd lost, he'd have found a way to remain in power, because I didn't think he'd be another Jonathan. I was disappointed in the election body for not trying to have done better than the last presidential elections in 2015, and to think that in 2019 when we'd gone digital in every aspect of our lives, we still must vote analog making Joseph Stalin's assertion that "It's not the people who vote that count, It's the people who count the votes", concerning elections truest about Nigeria.


I was disappointed in members of security agencies, who looked the other way, when voter intimidation and suppression was going on in areas like Okota in Lagos, where the opposition expected to have a strong showing. The shame that was on display in Rivers State, with the attendant loss of lives, after Transport Minister and former Rivers State governor literally threatened to unleash fire and brimstone on his own people,


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8lSb_lxrJ4

after the courts stopped his party from fielding candidates at all levels for the elections in the state. The one that touched me personally was the message that was sent to the Igbo in Lagos, and maybe elsewhere in Nigeria, which was that though they may contribute to the economy of their states of abode, outside of their enclave in the east, not only do they not have the right to decide who becomes governor of that state but they cannot, and should not have an independent mind, when it comes to voting who to become Nigeria's President. That was very unfortunate a thing to happen in Lagos, even if it has already become the state of affairs in the North of Nigeria, especially seeing as it appeared that the sentiment of the Yoruba mass enjoyed the backing of the movers and shakers of Lagos politics, as exemplified by no less a personality, as the wife of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC and serving Senator Oluremi Tinubu, in her conversation with an Igbo voter that went viral during the elections.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0dlin2a69M

The seed that has been sown against the Igbo in Lagos has been a long time coming, and I fear that in the nearest future, if the purveyors of Igbo tribe-shaming do not stand down, things will come to a head. I say this because it is not only in politics that you find this happening. I attended public primary and secondary schools growing up, and back then, it didn't matter if the victorious house won on the shoulders of Igbo kid athletes, the song that made the round about the house that came last was usually, "Yellow (house for instance) l'orú, omo yibò lo bà aje", which loosely translates as, "Yellow house came last, the Igbo kid spoilt everything" from the Yoruba, which is Western Nigeria's predominant lingo, as well as that of the indigenes. From there to denying the better qualified Igbo kid the chance to become Senior Prefect in public schools, because the same is unheard of in any of the schools in Southeast Nigeria, where the Igbo (mainly parents of such Igbo kids in Lagos) come from.


A few years back, while searching for accommodation, I got turned down from some of my choices simply because the landlords/ladies didn't want Igbo tenants. One of them offered to allow me, only if I'd agree to an upwardly reviewed rent, and when I rejected the offer, my agent adviced that going forward I should pretend I am Yoruba, since I speak the language impeccably with the "àmì", but I would have none of that. Other instances of discrimination against the Igbo in Lagos abound (including in business, where just recently following the last elections, thugs were unleashed on Igbo traders in Oshodi, disrupting their activities just because of their choice of candidates for the state and presidential election), but it is not my intention to list everyone of them. It is just unfortunate to note that even the Lagos the Igbos call home, after their native homes, have begun to go the way of other states in Nigeria, where the Igbo sleep with one eye open. Sadly, it is with the most dangerous of explosives, in the name of politics, that it found a home this time, and by the look of things, the seeming non-closure of the events surrounding the attempts at voter suppression in areas largely populated by the Igbo in Lagos, means that the possibility of a repetition of same in future elections is all but guaranteed, and peace will only be maintained, if the Igbo decide to overlook this slight, and stay indoors like they did during the gubernatorial election, after the bitter experience witnessed during the presidential. Interestingly, what those who benefited from the crookedness of the last election didn't consider was that those other votes weren't mainly by the Igbos, but by other Lagosians who'd become fed up with the status quo.


The Yoruba in Lagos, and so called Lagosians cannot dream of a metropolitan Lagos, in the mould of a megacity, and yet continue to harbour sentiments of exclusion for certain groups of people. I even heard a man in an online video complaining that the Igbo in Lagos don't like marrying out of their tribe, and I immediately understood where he was going, but he failed to understand that even in New York with the variety of races of human beings there, growth hasn't been because of intermarriage, rather the ease of doing business amongst the different groups. There, they have quarters, with each group almost exclusively living amongst themselves in some areas, unlike what is obtainable here, but is beginning to creep in, like it is with Okota, and some other places where Igbos predominantly reside, or Obalende where you also have a large concentration of Hausa people.


Igbos left Lagos in 1993, after Nigeria's then Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, annulled the Presidential Election result, that Chief M.K.O. Abiola was poised to win. Not because they were threatened by the military, but because they were threatened mainly by their Yoruba neighbours, that's why many of them took their children to the East and returned to continue their businesses in Lagos, so it isn't today that the Igbo Question arises each time Nigeria faces an election cycle. This generation of Igbo have no plans to return home in the event of the likes of 1993, or in response to a threat. Hopefully, we won't get to a situation where the FINAL SOLUTION to the IGBO QUESTION will be on the table for consideration by those who feel this is an issue of urgent national importance.


Lagosians would love for Lagos to be like London, but London's mayor is of Pakistani parentage, and is Muslim. That argument about how Yoruba in the East can't even fathom a percentage of what Igbos do in Lagos, should not suffice at all, because the population that should allow the Yoruba or Hausa, or indeed any other Nigerian tribe, to think of doing, or requesting the sort of rights Igbos demand of their hosts, is not there at all, and such comparisons shouldn't be made at all. When politicians want elective offices anywhere in Nigeria, they devote some of their posters to ones where they adorn the Igbo attire just to make Igbos in the area have a sense of belonging, enough to vote for them however you won't see Igbo politicians in their states doing same for other tribes, because the numbers are electorally negligible. What I'm saying is, if Lagosians want their state to rank with the best in the world, they must endure what that status brings with it, they cannot want a megacity status, and still want to be exclusive, or want to deprive strangers or visitors certain inalienable rights due them. Unfortunately, many of those at the forefront of championing for the purification of Lagos for Lagosians only, aren't Lagosians, but Yoruba from other states who came here to meet many of the Igbo who were born and bred in Lagos, and speak better Lagos-Yoruba than they could ever think to speak.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- CHANNELS TV


MY HIATUS AND THE IGBO QUESTION https://madukovich./2019/04/14/my-hiatus-and-the-igbo-question/

What's wrong with you people?
Every day, Igbo this, Igbo that.
Is Igbo the only tribe in Nigeria?
You people should stop all this nonsense!

Igbos should think beyond Lagos