₦airaland Forum

The article written by one Adewale Adeoye regarding what he wrongly termed “The Travails of Ika Igbo” (The Nation, 20 September, 2009) represented an exercise in futility, for it revealed nothing new. The Ika Igbo of Delta state do not face any special handicap different than what the larger Igbo ethnic group, in particular, and other Nigerians, in general experience daily within the Nigerian ‘federation’. Were Nigeria a properly constituted state talk of half-Igbo, full-Igbo, Delta Igbo, Anioma Igbo, Ikwerre Igbo, core Igbo, marginalization, resource control, federal character, true federation, state police etc will not see the light of day. These divisive tendencies gain currency owing to the systemic collapse of the Nigerian Project, due to structural imbalance which the ruling classes refused to address in statesmanlike manner. Decades ago, Chief Obafemi Awolowo observed and rightly asserted that Nigeria was merely a geographical expression. This wisdom holds true even today!

In the checkered history of Nigeria, the Igbo of Southeast Nigeria have never been known to look down on their kith and kin across the Niger let alone those within original Eastern Region. All this Igbo denial began immediately after the Biafra-Nigeria civil war. When Igbo people located outside the greater Igbo heartland found themselves subject to all manner of attacks by groups from the victorious federal side. To escape ethnic persecution and humiliation, they embarked on self-denial and ethnic renunciation. The Ikwerre of Rivers state, in particular, under the oppression of the Ijaw, with full Federal Government support, embarked upon an exercise in futility by adding “R” before every Igbo place name such that “Umueme” became “Rumueme”, “Umuola became “Rumuola”, “Umuokwuta” became “Rumuokwuta”, “Umuokoro” became “Rumuokoro”. Did this development change the fortune-economic, political- of the Ikwerre people in old Rivers state? Currently, the Ikwerre Igbo, realizing the futility of such action have started replacing the “R” prefix with “O” so instead of, say, “Rumueze”, it is now “Omueze” etc. Why indulge in this self-humiliation especially when you belong to a major ethnic group? Did economic and political liberation for the Ikwerre Igbo not come after the creation of Bayelsa state despite decades of futile attempts to please the Ijaw and other Nigerians in old Rivers state? Were Ijaw still the dominant group in new Rivers state, would the Ikwerre and other Igbo groups dreamt of ever producing an executive governor for the state let alone in succession?

The reason I used the Ikwerre analogy is to highlight the fact that it is not the Igbo who determine which group is Igbo or not especially because Ikwerre land used to be part of old Owerri Division . Other Nigerians are the ones who rightly remind those self-denying Igbo that, indeed, they are full-blood Igbo, denial or not notwithstanding. The Igbo are grateful to these Nigerians for doing this very important job of enlightenment for the Igbo free of charge. And we commend them for it. The Igbo found in Delta state have never been within the same political administration with the Igbo of Southeast. This unfortunate development was not the fault of the so-called core Igbo or the non-core Igbo, as it were. Rather, it resulted from the economic and political treachery of British colonial authorities. This situation which still persists saw the Igbo whether of the Western Region, Midwest Region, Bendel State, and now Delta state to exist as a minority within a minority-dominated political space. As such, they became subjects of ethnic jingoism of the most bestial degree. The situation of Igbo of Delta North is similar to the fate of a cockroach in a gathering of fowls- it could never be deemed innocent.

Furthermore, in the said article the subject-matter, a certain Chinedu Iraboh, did not face the situation he allegedly experienced in his pursuit of (government?) contract because of the nature of his last name. If so, why is that we have Nigerians bearing Arab and English surnames, yet these Nigerians represent Nigeria at the highest levels of Government both within and outside Nigeria? He is adult Nigerian and should have known that contracts are awarded based on certain criteria such as proven experience, firm’s liquidity and solvency, connection- school, marriage, or business- and, at times, corruption. Did he offer the proverbial ten percent to the contract award committee? Did he arrange for prostitutes and women of loose morals to go fool around with the commissioner for works or finance or the director general? Did he organize a lavish birthday party for the governor, commissioner, or permanent secretary’s wife or child?

Igbo land is an integral part of Nigeria so is not immune from some of the governmental chicanery which keeps the federation castrated. If he is whining about losing out of a contract award, what does he expect Nigerian owned firms that loose out to Chinese, Korean, German, American, British, French firms to do? Was Mr. Chinedu Iraboh not in Nigeria during the first GSM bidding rounds? What happened to the bid efforts of Chiefs Mike Adenuga and Annie Okonkwo’s firms? Did Mr. Irabor not read about Gbenga Obasanjo’s allegation that his father, former President Obasanjo, preferred to patronize his (Gbenga’s) wife with contracts than he, his son? In the award of contracts across the world, several variables come into play and these variables are tripled in Nigeria. My advice to Mr. Iraboh and his ilk is to seek connection with the centers of power in any state or local government he is seeking for contract. Nigeria has not developed or advanced to the stage where contracts are awarded purely on merit, ability and experience.

In Anambra state, for instance, both regimes of Chief Chris Ngige and Dr Peter Obi, have patronized and continue to patronize the civil engineering firm Inter Bau, a company owned by Chief Nathaniel Okechukwu, an Igbo from Delta state. The contracts both governors awarded and continue to award to Inter Bau, dwarfs any that was awarded to civil engineering firms owned by Anambra state indigenes or other Igbo. This patronage is not borne out of ethnic solidarity rather because Inter Bau has demonstrated that if given the opportunity to prove its engineering feat, foreign firms were not better at executing contracts than it. Again, Governor Peter Obi in a resolve to shore up the internally generated revenue base of Anambra state, commissioned a Yoruba-owned firm for that purpose. In doing this, the governor was looking both at experience and result, not tribal affiliation. Other firms owned by other Nigerians, whether from Delta state, Delta north, other parts of Nigeria and foreigners alike are all over Igbo land, executing various contracts just as Igbo-owned firms are awarded contracts across Nigeria.

Furthermore, much as I have great respect for the Ijaw, Urhobo, Isoko, and Itsekiri of Delta state and other Nigerians alike, is it not madness for a Delta Igbo to exhibit signs of inferiority in the presence of these groups to the extent that, whereas these other peoples are at home speaking their various languages in the presence of an Igbo from Delta state, the Delta Igbo would rather speak pidgin English before this people so as not to be “found” out as Igbo. Supposed that the Delta north people are the only Igbo people in Nigeria; would they not assert their equal stake both in the Delta state and Nigeria? Why should they display timidity in the presence of these other groups? What informed such attitude? Even in schools-universities, polytechnics, and other higher institutions- Delta Igbo always feel intimidated by groups with whom they share the same state. Why? Because the denial and denunciation of their Igbo origins render them numerically inferior to the combined numbers of these other groups. This self-inflicted injury is happening in a Nigeria where Igbo students constitute the largest students’ population after the indigenous students’ population in higher institutions. Since they vehemently deny being Igbo, they invariably alienate themselves from the larger and vibrant Igbo student population. On the other hand, minority student groups do not accept them as integral part of their group because they know they are misguided Igbo . In such situation, they are viewed with suspicion by both groups and are left in limbo.

Additionally, the Apoi Ijaw in Ondo state despite adopting both the Yoruba language and culture still identify fully as Ijaw and with Ijaw causes. Also, the bloodline between the Itsekiri of Delta state and the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria is not as tight as that between Delta Igbo and their kith and kin across the River Niger, a distance of less than 5 miles, yet Itsekiri leadership recognizing the strength and opportunities inherent in belonging to a larger group, consider themselves an extension of the larger Yoruba community and fully participate in Yoruba cultural, economic and political causes. They do not nurse any shame about such identification. But, regrettably, Delta Igbo, under the guidance of centrifugal forces, continue to deny being Igbo, as if such denial provides any material benefit. Even the experience of Dr Peter Odili, an illustrious Igbo son and two-term governor of Rivers state, during the presidential nomination processes seem not to have registered with the Delta Igbo and South South Igbo in general.

Using the agency of the South South Peoples Assembly, a group founded and funded by Governor Odili himself, non-Igbo South South leaders exploited the organization to scuttle the presidential aspirations of Peter Odili. For them, it was better the presidency remained in the Southwest or returned to the North than for a South South Igbo to hold the office for the region. Why’s that? According to Chief Edwin Clark, a so-called Ijaw leader, “South south cannot be represented by someone with double loyalty”, which indirectly refers to Dr Odili’s Igbo roots yet Odili, like millions of other Igbo, belongs to the South south geo-political zone. If it happened to Odili, it could happen to Chief Austin Opara, Chief Peter Okocha, Chief Chibudom Nwuche, and Chief Benjamin Elue among several illustrious Igbo from the South south. In Germany, for instance, Germans from former Soviet Union are busy retracing their ancestral roots and returning back to Germany. These returnee Germans do not face any noticeable persecution in the states they are returning from. They return because they recognize the strength in belonging to a large group. Jews all over the world are flooding to Israel because they wish to be in a state where they do not constitute a minority or, worse, a minority within a minority. Delta Igbo should copy these examples and do what is right for present and future generations of their people.

Moreover, sometime state creation is often cited by a section of Delta Igbo as a sign of Igbo hatred towards them. The 1996 state creation exercise of the Abacha junta, for instance, is always used as a demonstration of this ‘hatred’. In recorded history, Delta Igbo, in their quest for an administrative region of their own, have always received full support from the larger Igbo group. It was such solidarity that saw to the creation of Midwest Region in 1963. Without the unalloyed support, material, moral, and political, of Zik of Africa and Dr Michael Okpara, Midwest Region could never have been realized . Without support from those luminaries, Chief Dennis Osadebey, an Igbo from Delta north, would not have become the first premier of Midwest Region.

In the case of issues surrounding the states creation exercise of 1996, Anioma state was one of the three states recommended by Ohaneze Ndigbo for the entire Igbo nation without considerations of geographical or regional location of such a state. However, Abacha decided to create just one state for each of the six geo-political zones. In Nigeria’s geo-political arrangement, Anioma is in the South South zone, not in the Southeast. For the South south, Abacha carved out Bayelsa state from old Rivers state. In the Southeast, he chopped off parts of Abia and Enugu states to form Ebonyi state. So where did the Igbo go wrong here? We should remember that during Abacha’s junta, not one Igbo was a member of his so-called Provisional Ruling Council until Commodore Amadi Ikwechegh was introduced into the body, much later in the life of the dictatorship.

Finally, Delta Igbo like the greater Igbo group should put its house in order and stop crying wolf where none exists. The civil war affected the Igbo generally and terribly. However, the Igbo, by dint of hard work and unmatched determination, have scaled some of the wedges placed in their way since after the war. In attaining this height, the Igbo did not rely on any internal or external forces for assistance. The Delta Igbo equally paid dearly during the period of the conflagration. No one could ever forget the Asaba and Umuechem cold-blooded massacres of innocent men, women and children. The Ikwerre, too, suffered just like other Igbo groups.

However, such group suffering should form the basis for ethnic stocktaking and reconciliation that might lead to ethnic rejuvenation and collective survival within the Nigerian state. It should not form the basis for the championing centrifugalism amongst the Igbo; for at the end of the day, those Nigerians who know the boundaries of Igbo land will remind the irredentists among the Igbo that they are Igbo. Having survived what amounted to a near ethnic annihilation at the hands of fellow Nigerians, the Igbo are busy now gathering their flock that were scattered across the globe. The results have been encouraging so far. Igbo sons and daughters are not lacking in any sphere of human endeavour both in Nigeria and overseas. This newly found consciousness needs be consolidated by all and sundry. Group which thought the Igbo were finished are now envious of Igbo attainments. Let not allow unreasonable in-fighting amongst segments of the great and indomitable Igbo nation derail this nascent vigour.

Mujaheeeden:
Ishilove come and deny your igboness here



Pazienza come and school her again

Afam4eva:
She's Ukwuani not Ika, so you can let it go.

Mujaheeeden:
She said she is not igbo so Is Ukwuani igbo

Afam4eva:
Why are you so interested in this topic. Aren't you a Muslim?

Mujaheeeden:
Ishilove come and deny your igboness here

Pazienza come and school her again

Afam4eva:
Why are you so interested in this topic. Aren't you a Muslim?

HopeAtHand:
Im yet to see an article where they will mention Igbo and fail to add Ikwerre. I know Igbos sponsor all these write-ups but i doubt if they grasp, even marginally, the situation of things as it is now.

Except maybe in the world to come, but in this world, there will always be Ikwerre and Igbo as different entities.

Ugomba:
where was ikwerre mentioned here? are u dis inferior?

HopeAtHand:
In the checkered history of Nigeria, the Igbo of Southeast Nigeria have never been known to look down on their kith and kin across the Niger let alone those within original Eastern Region. All this Igbo immediately after the Biafra-Nigeria civil war. When Igbo people located outside the greater Igbo heartland found themselves subject to all manner of attacks by groups from the victorious federal side. To escape ethnic persecution and humiliation, they embarked on self-denial and ethnic renunciation. The Ikwerre of Rivers state, in particular, under the oppression of the Ijaw, with full Federal Government support, embarked upon an exercise in futility by adding “R” before every Igbo place name such that “Umueme” became “Rumueme”, “Umuola became “Rumuola”, “Umuokwuta” became “Rumuokwuta”, “Umuokoro” became “Rumuokoro”. Did this development change the fortune-economic, political- of the Ikwerre people in old Rivers state? Currently, the Ikwerre Igbo, realizing the futility of such action have started replacing the “R” prefix with “O” so instead of, say, “Rumueze”, it is now “Omueze” etc. Why indulge in this self-humiliation especially when you belong to a major ethnic group? Did economic and political liberation for the Ikwerre Igbo not come after the creation of Bayelsa state despite decades of futile attempts to please the Ijaw and other Nigerians in old Rivers state? Were Ijaw still the dominant group in new Rivers state, would the Ikwerre and other Igbo groups dreamt of ever producing an executive governor for the state let alone in succession?

Blind boy, have you seen it?

Ugomba:
I have never heard abt ikwerre billionaire or international personality before. or even a business mogul.
stop deceiving urself, u guys are NON-ENTITIES and like a RAG to the IGBO nation.

HopeAtHand:
Im yet to see an article where they will mention Igbo and fail to add Ikwerre. I know Igbos sponsor all these write-ups but i doubt if they grasp, even marginally, the situation of things as it is now.

Except maybe in the world to come, but in this world, there will always be Ikwerre and Igbo as different entities.

HopeAtHand:
Im yet to see an article where they will mention Igbo and fail to add Ikwerre. I know Igbos sponsor all these write-ups but i doubt if they grasp, even marginally, the situation of things as it is now.

Except maybe in the world to come, but in this world, there will always be Ikwerre and Igbo as different entities.

Stop giving yourself false hope.
The major ethnic group in Nigeria will always be Igbos, hausas and yorubas. Even if Igbos should actualise their country, you and your goons will always suffer the effect of minority.

If is not Igbo is nothing like Igbo.
Ikweere rejecting thier igbo identity will never diminish the population of Igbos or reduce their status to minority

The joke is on ikweere

HopeAtHand:
Im yet to see an article where they will mention Igbo and fail to add Ikwerre. I know Igbos sponsor all these write-ups but i doubt if they grasp, even marginally, the situation of things as it is now.

Except maybe in the world to come, but in this world, there will always be Ikwerre and Igbo as different entities.