By Obi Nwakanma
Culturally, the East of Nigeria has two things going for it: one is a contiguous and compact geography that is very culturally connected, and the second is a very enterprising and driven population, with no sense, until very recently, of a domineering monarchical spirit.
I mean the Igbo, the Efik, the Ogoni, the Ibibio, the Ijaw, and all the clusters of the cultural archetype and peoples that were once known for what European anthropologists wrongly described as “acephalous” communities. They were not acephalous. They were conciliar. They governed themselves by guilds and Councils.
They did not make
kings, although they found themselves, strangely under pseudo-monarchs, mostly
created by the British colonial administrations, only in the early beginnings
of the last century – the 20th century; and of course, the federal government
of Nigeria, following the unified Local Government Decree (now an Act of the
National Assembly) of 1976. This change happened following the reports of the
Dasuki Panel reports. Of course, there has since risen as a result, thousands
of pretenders to the throne, many ancient kingdoms, and very colorful titles,
that sometimes feel like great theater.
Like the man who took as his “royal title,” “Agbara-ahuru-gbuo okuko!”: that is, “the spirit who appeared and a fowl was slaughtered.” Think, dear reader, how corny or mawkish this actually is! His imperial majesty: he who appeared, and a fowl was slaughtered the first, of the ancient kingdom of Ogwumabiri! Just the other day, the Aro gathered in Arochukwu to crown “his imperial majesty,” the new Eze Aro of Arochukwu.
It was
amusing for many, even among the Aro today have truly forgotten who the Aro
truly are. Forget about the revisionism that now tries to invent an Aro
monarchy, there is no “ancient kingdom” in Arochukwu. The Aro in fact proudly
told the British that the Aro did not make kings, even when following the
Anglo-Aro wars, the British went to kidnap a young Kanu Oji and made him the
first Eze Aro in history.
The making of an Eze Aro by the
British was an act of conquest which imposed the Eze Aro as a native informant
and proconsul for the British empire on the Aro after their defeat. By
1901, the Aro, as those two Aro historians, Kenneth Dike and Felicia Ekejiuba
had told us the Aro were at the verge of creating a vast West African republic,
because the Aro are settled in every part of West Africa, conducting and
directing a network of trading stations and exchanges. To this day, the Aro
male still addresses himself and his male peers as, “Mazi,” which roughly
means, “first among equals.” No true Igbo bows to another, because it is
considered a sin against one’s “Chi.” It is considered abominable!
That is why it is both
violation of an ancient sanctity and a violation of the self for a man like
Peter Obi to go before the Asgaba-na-Asaba, to kneel before him. His excuse is
asinine, if you all pardon my language! Peter Obi lost me at that moment. I
have the greatest respect for Professor Epiphany Azinge. But I do not care,
being an Igbo man, about the institution he now promotes. Ahaba makes no king.
Ahaba has that sacred conclave of the Nze or “Ndi Oli Nzele” The creation of
the Asagba, as a monarchy is not only ahistorical, it is one of those
inventions that makes the Igbo increasingly confused and hybrid.
Of the greatest expressions of
this heresy, the most striking is the elevation of the “Eze Nri” to some kind
of “imperial majesty.” Again, the current Eze Nri is a heretic. Why?
Because, he has turned a priestly office, into a monarchy. The Eze Nri is
a high priest, not a king. He has no political power. He is the guardian force
of Igbo moral and spiritual authority; just as the pope is to the Catholics.
His power was spiritual and theological. He was an ascetic priest, and as we
who are reverts to Odinala know.
The point for me in all this is,
much as there has been a sustained attempt at the creation of the monarchy and
the peasantification of the East, where no peasants ever existed, until now, it
is imperative that the cultures of the East, where the human – mmadu, as the
Igbo describes them – are at the core of their values; and the idea of
individual freedom, liberty, and equality, have been established long before
Athens, rekindle their ancient values based on the idea of the Republic. This
shared cultural vision is what holds the old East together. It calls for a new
kind of mental freedom as a prologue to the revolution that must redeem the
people. The East must restore itself as a political and economic force. To do
that, it must dismantle the current local government system, and return to the
Eastern Nigerian Local government Act of 1954/6.
A little background is crucial here: the current local government system is an imposition on the culture of the East which disavowed the Emirate system of the North and the Native Authority model of the West, to create the “County Council” model which Azikiwe, arguing in the Eastern Nigerian parliament in 1954 said was closest to the republican culture of the people of the East. It was a careful and revolutionary choice, which within ten years, made the East of Nigeria, the most modern, and the most prosperous in West Africa.
Under the federalism principle,
the East reserves the right to design and adopt its own local government
system, for as long as it conduces with the general protocols of the
federation. It can opt out of the “unified” local government system, and create
or return to a model that works for it. I say this because part of the problems
of development in the East is the crisis of municipal government and organization.
Today, the East has nearly buckled under the weight of a failed nation. But the
East of Nigeria need not be like the rest of Nigeria.
The failure of Nigeria, of which
the East is now mostly like a silent part, has led to both ennui and
disenchantment among Easterners, who have long allowed themselves to be divided
by various divide-and-conquer moves by those who seized Nigeria, and whose
goals have been to contain the insurgent East, since 1970. As a matter of fact,
two points of view now dominate the thinking in the East, but most especially,
the South East, where the Igbo predominate: one view is the idea that the East,
particularly led by the Igbo, must complete the secession of the East which
started in 1967.
Those who push this position contend that Nigeria is
a big millstone on the neck of the East, particularly the Igbo, which has
continued to suffer marginalization and exclusion. The Igbo are alienated from
Nigeria. More than half of the population of the Igbo hardly see themselves as
part of the Nigerian project these days. In fact, for many the Nigerian project
is no longer viable. This feeling has grown over the years, and since 1987,
starting with the removal of Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe as Chief of General Staff,
has assumed the center stage of Igbo politics and identity.
A majority of the Igbo hoped
that the restoration of democracy in Nigeria would heal the fissures of the
civil war. But since 1999, the Igbo have seen strategic actions formulated to
continue to isolate them and keep them from participation and from engagement,
as well as from the benefits of Nigerian citizenship. Buhari, as president
widened this feeling, and most recently, Ahmed Tinubu by his radical exclusion
of the Igbo and folks from the East now called the South-South, in his
appointments, and his investments, continues to exacerbate it. It has given
even greater armor to the Biafran movement.
The Nigerian nation fails because the Igbo fail; and it is because Igbo industry and genius is Nigeria’s vital force. Every act enacted to contain the Igbo is an act against the progress of Nigeria. Now, Nigeria lies prostate: a tired and failed state, unable to defend itself or create lasting value. The current situation of Nigeria gives the East, particularly the Igbo, urgent concerns, but also the opportunity to establish Biafra, without firing another shot.
But this time, it
must be Biafra of the mind. The East can create a nation within the nation. It
can do this by establishing the Eastern joint Commission – a joint services agency
– which must recruit people on merit and circulate them in a new Eastern Common
Services that would encompass teaching, medical services, forest services,
Homeland Security Services; Marine Services, etc.
The Eastern states must come
together to create the Eastern Nigerian Economic Commission, reconstitute the
Eastern Nigerian Development Corporation; revitalize the industries of the
East, the common infrastructure of the East: the Eastern Rails; the Eastern
Boat services; the Eastern bus services – a transportation grid that would make
exchange faster, easier, and more efficient in the East. The East has the most
vital component of all development: the human factor. A highly educated, highly
skilled population. The data does not lie. People with skills do not beg
for work.
They are encouraged and
incentivized to work. But the situation of Nigeria is driving highly skilled
people away or forcing them to the margins. That is the basis of the collapse
of Nigeria. That is the reason for the agitation for self-determination in the
East, particularly among the Igbo. It will only grow because a revolutionary
spirit has already been unleashed in the East with these agitations. In the
long run,it will lead to the dismantling and abolishing of all these proconsular
anachronisms – the Igwes, the Amayanabos, the Ezes and all what not, and the
establishing of the true republic, in which a politically and economically
engaged people will be central.
*Nwakanma
is a US-based professor of English and literary studies
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