Yes, We Protest!

 By Obi Nwakanma

Chinua Achebe, the leading African writer of the 20th century, did write in his The Trouble with Nigeria, that Nigeria was a fractious nation. However, a shared fear and antipathy of the Igbo was the single thing that unites Nigeria. This situation persists. And this certainly, is the impulse that drives Bayo Onanuga, senior Special Assistant to Mr. Tinubu on Information and Strategy, to keep invoking the name of the Igbo in his enterprise as a hack, and a regime propagandist.  The Igbo, it is now clear,  are Onanuga’s nightmares. 

At every turn of event, he invokes the Igbo. When his world is about to fall apart, he invokes them. His masters love him for sticking it to the Igbo. But he does not seem to know or understand the Igbo. So, let me tell him a little bit about these people. They are democrats. It takes them a long time to arrive at a decision, because they talk, and debate and disagree, to the point sometimes, of distraction. They are slow to anger. They watch. They sniff the ground carefully. They are patient. They make sure that they are on the right they act. 

So, when they do, they strike very brutally. Onanuga continues to assault the Igbo. He threatens them. He manufactures and mobilizes public opinion against them, in ways that put their lives and property in danger, particularly in Lagos. The mild Igbo “socio-cultural” Ohanaeze, has this past week issued a very mild warning to Onanuga. A cease and desist. But Mr. Onanuga will not listen. He is intent on causing another pogrom of the Igbo in Nigeria. What am I talking about? 

This: last week, in an effort to cause a national rift, and distraction, Bayo Onanuga accused the Igbo, and the former Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi of organizing and funding the proposed National Protest against bad government, slated from August 1-15. He blames the Igbo for trying to unseat his master, Tinubu. He threatens on behalf of the government to arrest Mr. Peter Obi, and other Igbo sponsors, or organizers of the national protest. Onanuga’s invention, of course flies in the face of fact. 

The fact is that Nigerians, from across the national divide, tired of the poverty, the deaths, the insecurity, and the hunger in the land, have given the Tinubu administration notice of a national protest to save Nigeria from itself. This has nothing to do with the Igbo. In fact, many different groups of the Igbo, clearly infiltrated and sponsored by Igbo allies of  Tinubu’s government have been going around publicly dissociating the Igbo from participation in this protest. They argue that the Igbo have frequently borne the brunt for trying to save Nigeria. That the Igbo have always paid the high price, and have never benefited from the nation of Nigeria.

That the Igbo just want to be left alone. Let other Nigerians go and try protesting without the Igbo. It is a very flawed position, of course. But I understand where some of these Igbo rejectionists are coming from: since the founding of Nigeria, the Igbo whose lives seem entwined with the fate of this modern nation, have tried as a group, to save it from disaster to disaster. They led the anti-colonial nationalist movement. They tried to lay the grounds for an efficient, modern nation state founded on the republican ideals of freedom, prosperity, and individual liberty.  They failed.

The Igbo were accused of trying to dominate Nigeria. Their adversaries called the January 1966 coup an “Igbo coup,” and on the strength of that powerful propaganda, organized a massive genocide of the Igbo in Nigeria. The Igbo were pushed to defend themselves, and they fought a devastating civil war. The war ended in 1970, but the Igbo continue to suffer the fallouts: marginalisation, discrimination against them, divestment, and political isolation. A good swath of the contemporary Igbo basically has “zoned out” of Nigeria and have practically no interest in what happens in Nigeria, or to it. So, those wishing to exploit Igbo angst, are urging them not to participate in the planned protest.

This is the ironic part of Onanuga’s buffoonery: that a large part of the Igbo has publicly declared that they are not interested in the protests. They are basically protesting their situation in Nigeria by not joining the planned national protest. As far as they are concerned, Nigeria can go to hell! This, of course, would be a very terrible, strategic mistake. The Igbo must join other Nigerians, and participate in this national protest against bad and evil government. Yes, the Igbo must be part of the national protest! The attempts to “bribe” the Igbo with the signing into law, the Southeast Development Commission (SEDC), and trolling it out quickly is a childish form of deflection. It is a Greek gift. 

The liberation of Nigeria from toxic government and state capture is the only gift that the Igbo must accept,  because they have been the worst victims of bad government in Nigeria. The key element of the demands that fuel this protest include the restoration of the rights of the citizens for economic and social justice, and the arrest and trial of the past leadership of this nation, who have supervised the economic and sovereign liquidation and plundering of Nigeria.  

Yes, Bayo Onanuga’s move was very Machiavellian. Divide and conquer. By signaling and specifically targeting the Igbo, he hopes to instigate the familiar anti-Igbo feelings, and break the ranks, and the cohesive momentum of this gathering rage against Nigeria’s criminal political leadership. Tribalize it.  Second, he hopes to deflect Igbo participation, because he understands the energy the Igbo bring to such things. 

Third, it is a tactic of intimidation, which uses empty threats, and arm-twisting to stop a deluge that threatens them off power. He designs to lock down the most potent source of national anger, and the fuel of our current discontent: the lingering effect of the brazen electoral heist masterminded by his party, the APC. He continues to imagine the Igbo as the greatest losers in that stolen election, and thus, he associates all protests against Tinubu to them. But Tinubu is a very unpopular president, because he has no national mandate. Opposition to him is full-spectrum. Bayo Onanuga’s statement on the Igbo is scare-mongering. He is attempting to take from the Buhari template. But the Igbo survived Buhari.

So, Onanuga too will soon enjoy his just deserts. And in another move also to scare, deflect, and intimidate participants of the national protest in Lagos, the Lagos state government this week, suddenly announced the start of the Oro Festival in Lagos to coincide with the period of the planned Protest. The government thus  places curfew on the citizens. A number of things need to be said about this. First, Lagos is a 21st century city of diverse people. It is no longer the string of fishing villages which the Edo Warriors founded and occupied, nor the small slave port which British gunboat annexed for the British empire, in which some primitive masquerades ran around intimidating people. Lagos is a great Nigerian megapolis.

The Oro is an anachronism in a worldly city like Lagos. It should never be permitted to threaten the life and wellbeing of people. By all means, do your Oro, but turn it into a great, open cultural festival that reflects the more humane aspects of the culture. A factory worker returning late from a night shift should be able to go home to his or her family safely, Oro or not. Any traditional festival that cannot guarantee that should be abolished. We are in the age of reason, not the age of primitive fetish fear-mongering and intimidation, which is what this Oro Festival threatens. Yes, respect people’s culture. I am all for that. But culture also must be self-respecting. Any culture that does not affirm life, and contemporary civilized culture must be erased. 

The Oro festival should never prevent people from coming out to protest. Indeed, those spirits of the Oro, must join the people, to chase out evil from the land. The Orbit encourages the vast populace to come out as one, defy Oro and the fear mongering lords of iniquity.  Enough of the threat, which is not so subtle, but which should be overwhelmed by the surge of the Common people. 

Nigerians, including the Igbo who are still Nigerians, should step out of their comfort zones, keep the streets agog with their songs of freedom, night and day, until this government accedes to changing the course of the evil that has befallen Nigeria: bad government. 

 Nigerians must show the oligarchs peoples power, because that is the only power in a democracy. That is the only power that can save this sad and fractured republic. 

Yes, we protest. 

*Nwakanma is a US-based academic and poet