By Ikechukwu Amaechi
As I reflect on the happenings in Lagos State since the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections, I cannot help but see the spectre of the 1994 Rwanda genocide unfolding before our very eyes. In the years leading up to the 1994 genocide, the Hutu-led government used all its propaganda machinery to spread bigotry and hatred against the Tutsi, painting them as a threat to Rwanda, exactly the same way a section of the Lagos community is inciting hatred against Ndigbo, portraying them as enemies of the Yoruba.
“For genocide to occur,” Kennedy Ndahiro, Rwandan journalist wrote on March 13, 2014, “it must be preceded by the dehumanisation of a group … dehumanisation removes the individuality of a person. There is no difference between the group and the individuals. When done well, pity for the 'other' becomes impossible and extermination becomes the natural next step.” In the last three weeks, Ndigbo have been grossly dehumanised in Lagos. They have been portrayed as ungrateful migrants – never mind that they are Nigerians – who want to appropriate Yoruba heritage.
What is their crime? They are accused of being
responsible for the failure of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential
candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to win Lagos in the
presidential poll. And just as Ndahiro wrote, to those baying for Igbo blood, it
doesn’t matter that some Igbos voted for Tinubu because there is no difference
between the group and the individuals.
Sadly, neither Lagos State nor the Federal
Government is taking any proactive step to forestall this impending calamity.
Here, on March 2, I cautioned: “It behoves the government to protect Ndigbo and
their businesses wherever they live, particularly in Lagos. It will be a crime
against humanity if Ndigbo are killed or maimed in any part of Nigeria and
their businesses destroyed because of their electoral preferences, a freedom
which the Constitution guarantees them.”
The advice went unheeded. Instead, the threats have been ratcheted up. Ndigbo are being hounded, harassed, intimidated, abused, negatively stereotyped and dehumanised simply because Labour Party fielded a candidate, Peter Obi, an Igbo, who has gone ahead, unbelievably, to fundamentally change the political landscape in just eight months.
But to the
extent that ethnic nationalities do not present candidates for elections, a prerogative
of political parties, Ndigbo have no dog in this fight. LP won the presidential
election in Lagos, not Ndigbo. APC, not Yoruba, lost the poll. The fact that
Tinubu, APC candidate, is Yoruba does not mean that Ndigbo defeated Yoruba.
LP’s feat couldn’t have been possible without the Yoruba. Many of the Obidients
are non-Igbo.
So, it is disingenuous to ethnically colour
the unfolding political revolution. That is why the threat against Ndigbo if
the LP wins the March 18 governorship election in Lagos is saddening and
harebrained. It is even more so because none of the governorship candidates in
Lagos is Igbo. They are all Yoruba. So, why should Ndigbo be made to suffer
vicariously if a Yoruba man wins Lagos governorship poll?
Of course, those baying for Igbo blood are desperately trying to sell the ridiculous dummy that the LP candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, is Igbo, even when they, unlike him, cannot point at the grave of their parents and grandparents in Lagos. The only reason for their heresy is that Gbadebo’s mother and wife are Igbo. But the Nigerian society is patrilineal and kinship is largely traced through the male genealogical lines.
The fact that Chinedu is his middle name is a non-issue, the same way former governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi’s middle name – Rotimi – does not make him less Ikwerre. Zik, Nigeria’s first President, named his first son Chukwuma Bamidele Azikiwe and he ended up being Owelle-Osowa-Anya of Onitsha. The first wife of Senator Ademola Adeleke, Osun State Governor, Erelu Ngozi Adeleke, is Igbo, just like his late mother, Madam Nnenna Esther Adeleke.
Yet, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, flagbearer, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar, a Fulani from Adamawa, carried the day in Osun. Why is nobody
accusing the Fulani of taking over Osun, a Yoruba heritage? What becomes of the
children of Rotimi Akeredolu, Governor of Ondo State, whose wife, Betty, is
Igbo? Should Tinubu’s children, whose wife, Oluremi, is Itsekiri, be denied
their political rights in Lagos?
Today, there is hardly any Igbo family that does not have Yoruba blood and vice versa. My most beloved cousin, Cynthia Amaechi, is married to a Yoruba from Kwara State. So, if we go by the logic of the irredentist Tinubu agitators, her children can never aspire for anything in Kwara because their mother is Igbo.
The victimisation of Ndigbo, which has led
to the burning of Akere Motor Parts and Allied Dealers Association, AMPADA, in
Ajegunle, has nothing to do with where Gbadebo’s mother and wife hail from. It
has to do with Tinubu’s toxic politics because in 2015 when the Oba of Lagos,
Rilwan Akiolu, a Tinubu acolyte, threatened Ndigbo with death if they do not
vote for Akinwunmi Ambode, the candidate of the PDP, Jimi Agbaje, who was the
preferred candidate of some Igbos had no filial relationship with them.
In 2019 when Ndigbo were brutalised in Lagos
by APC thugs, none of the two presidential front liners – Muhammadu Buhari and
Atiku Abubakar – was Igbo and there was no Peter Obi in the race. In the last
three weeks, grievous lies have been peddled against Ndigbo. They have been
accused of being unaccommodating to other ethnic nationalities in the
South-East. And when these lies are purveyed, it sways those that have never
crossed River Niger.
As I write, one Anthony Chinasa Abiola is
contesting for a seat in the Abia State House of Assembly to represent Umuahia
Central Constituency. His parents are Yoruba. Yet, nobody is telling him to go
back to the South-West; instead, excited Abians are spending their money to
promote his candidacy. Those giving us some song and dance about how the owners
of Lagos are accommodating Ndigbo paint very ugly picture. Yet, the truth is
that there are non-Igbos in the employ of state governments in the South-East.
It speaks volumes that the most prominent apolitical person Tinubu has visited
to share the joy of his victory is Tony Elumelu, Chairman of UBA, who is Igbo.
Yet, he is allowing his disciples to wreak
havoc on Ndigbo. Some others have lied about how non-Igbos are not allowed to
buy landed properties in the South-East. Yet, I know of many Yoruba people who
own properties in Alaigbo. There is an “Ama Hausa,” which is the homestead of
the Hausa, in every major city in the Southeast. The popular Onitsha Head
Bridge food market in Anambra is a business fortress dominated by
Northerners. There are expansive Fulani cattle/livestock markets at
Lokpanta, Abia State; Ugwuoba, Enugu State; Amansea, Anambra State, etc. and
the traders are thriving. Who cares who they voted for?
Why should who Yoruba, Ijaw, Hausa, Fulani,
etc., voted for be an issue when in 2003, then President Olusegun Obasanjo, a
Yoruba from Ogun State, garnered more votes even from Anambra, than Dim
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Grand
Alliance, APGA? Why should that be an issue when Umaru Yar’Adua, candidate of
the PDP, a Fulani from Katsina State, garnered more votes from the South-East
than the candidate of APGA, the only party then that could be deemed Igbo
party?
Why should that be when Goodluck Jonathan, an
Ijaw from Bayelsa State shellacked other candidates, some of Igbo extraction in
the 2011 and 2015 polls in the South-East? Ndigbo are republicans and vote
whoever they feel has the capacity. Put some Igbo characters on the ballot
today and the same Igbo electorate that gave Obi over 90 per cent of their
votes will look the other way. This Tinubu-inspired toxic politics is an
ill-wind. Unchecked, Africa may have another Rwanda-type genocide sooner than
later. The augury is stark. The Nigerian state must act fast before it is too
late.
*Amaechi is a commentator on public issues
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