Census In Lagos, Count Me Out!

 By Ochereome Nnanna

The recently concluded election in Nigeria was an eye-opener for people of Igbo stock living in Lagos, especially those who slumbered in blissful ignorance of the peculiar situation that this ethnic group finds itself in Nigeria. In June, July 2017, a group that called itself Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, AYCF, led by one Yerima Shettima, issued a quit notice to Igbo people living in the North.

Their offence: the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, was demanding for a referendum to enable Ndi Igbo and other interested ethnic groups in the South-South to quit Nigeria. This was IPOB’s response to Muhammadu Buhari’s extreme nepotism targeted against them, as well as the violent activities of land-grabbing Fulani militants masquerading as herdsmen. The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and Governor Nasir el-Rufai threatened to arrest Yerima and his cohorts. Some of the AYCF hoodlums even dared them to come. IGP Idris and el-Rufai barked but did not bite.

Nearly six years later under the same Buhari regime, the same Igbo people were asked to “leave Lagos”. Their offence: wait for it – they sought to vote for candidates of their choice! They were cynically profiled, harassed, threatened, disenfranchised, beaten and killed. Hate speeches were heaped on them, and organised arsonist gangs set fire to five markets dominated by them. In this Lagos case, nobody even barked. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu issued a statement warning that the Igbo Lagos residents must respect the culture and traditions of their “hosts” in order to be “accommodated”.

The law enforcement agencies, especially the Department of State Services, DSS, and the Police, ignored chest-beating fellows such as MC Oluomo, Bayo Onanuga and Fani-Kayode’s brazen incitement of ethnic crisis between Yoruba and Igbo. If anything, we saw pictures of two children of Yusuf Bichi, the DG of the DSS, cosying it up with Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC-announced President-elect, somewhere “in abroad”.

The heads of our Police and security agencies were more interested in sucking up to the “incoming” president than arresting a situation that could easily derail the expected inauguration. The Service was more interested in intimidating Nigerians hoping for justice at the electoral tribunals. It threatened to help install politicians even before the courts had adjudicated on allegations of rape of our laws in “awarding” victory to some of them. Never in our history had state agencies abandoned their sacred duties and genuflected for a “president-elect”.

What will they do if he assumes power? And so, the Igbo people in Lagos were left at the mercy of hoodlums hired and deployed against those seen to be against Tinubu’s political interests. It was not Igbo vs Yoruba but APC thugs against Ndi Igbo. The attacks have continued long after the elections were “won” and lost. They are serious about their demand that Ndi Igbo should “leave Lagos”. But that is not going to happen. How can? The Igbo have always been, and will always be, part of Lagos. The Igbo people are the second largest ethnic group in Lagos after the Yoruba indigenes. Way back in the 1963 census, the Yoruba residents numbered 465,406 or 72 per cent, compared to Igbo (99.63) or 15 per cent.

After the war, the highly fraudulent Nigerian rulers removed crucial census indices such as ethnicity and religion, insisting on State of Origin. This was primarily calculated to mask the real population of the highly migrative Igbo people outside the South-East. It is estimated that about half of the Igbo people live outside the South-East due mainly to the search for greener pastures, Federal neglect and poor leadership usually foisted by powerful outside forces who do not wish Ndi Igbo to stand again on their own real feet.

Because of this estimated population, the number of Igbo people in Lagos is more of guesswork than anything else. One of Tinubu’s attack dogs, Joe Igbokwe, claimed in a statement justifying the forced eviction of street people in Lagos in 2013, that the Igbo were 45 per cent of the state’s population. The World Population Review puts the 2023 population of Lagos so far at 24,418,768. Out of this, APC Governor of Ebonyi State claims Igbo constitute over 11 million, which roughly corresponds to Igbokwe’s 45 per cent claim.

Apart from population, Ndi Igbo in Lagos are a giant pillar of the Lagos economy. While the Yoruba feudal lords and land owners still control the cream of the business and economy, Ndi Igbo dominate most of the commerce. Take away the Igbo stake from the Lagos economy and its mother will know it again! Per capita, Lagos Igbo residents are more economically fulfilled than the rest of the population, though Yoruba have by far more of the super-super rich. Those who are asking Igbo to “leave Lagos” certainly don’t know what they are talking about.

The same people that are encouraging illiterate miscreants to chant “Igbo, leave Lagos” begged the Igbo not to travel home but to stay and be counted during the 2006 census, lol! The reason was simple. Population is a major index of revenue allocation. Even if Ndi Igbo are 30 per cent of the Lagos population, if they effectively boycott the impending census, Lagos figure could fall below 18 million, and that will definitely affect their allocation from the Federation Account. 

As for me and my family, count us out in the Buhari census. I have no faith in what Buhari, who insolently called Igboland and people “a dot in a circle” will do with Igbo census figure. Secondly, here in Lagos, the innocence has been “disvirgined” (apologies, Chimaroke Nnamani). I and my family are boycotting the census unless we find ourselves in Abia State then. If you are Igbo in Lagos, I recommend the same to you. Let’s leave it for them.

*Nnanna is a commentator on public issues