A Revolution In The East

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.

These hardy republicans, driven by the idea of individual freedom, liberty, justice, the equality principle in which no one is king of the other, and a lack of fear of their destiny and destination, as well as an openness that allows them to cross borders easily; embrace and accept difference even as they preserve what is best in them is the key cultural trait that makes the East of Nigeria very dynamic. 

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