Nigeria Cannot Survive Without The Igbo

 By Femi Aribisala
Out of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo have by far the worst politicians. Among the different ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo are without a doubt, one of the most remarkable. So remarkable, indeed, that some have even traced their ancestry to biblical Israel, as the far-flung descendants of Jacob, the Jewish patriarch.

Gad, Jacob’s seventh son, is said to have had three sons who settled in South-eastern Nigeria. These sons; Eri, Arodi and Areli, are believed to have fathered clans in Igbo-land and to have founded such Igbo towns as Aguleri, Arochukwu, Owerri and Umuleri.

Igbo genius Even the bitterest adversaries of the Igbo cannot but admit that, as a people, they are very resourceful and ingenious. Indeed, this has often been the cause of their envy and dislike by others. However, more enlightened non-Igbo Nigerians see this as a cause for celebration.

While today, the centre-point of Nigeria’s manufacturing is situated in the Lagos/Ogun axis, there is no doubt that the real locomotive of Nigeria’s indigenous industrialization lies farther afield in Aba and in the mushrooming cottage-industries of the Igbo heartland. In one of the paradoxes of Nigerian history, the terrible civil war provoked homespun industrialization in the South-East.

Open Letter To Arewa Youths

By Charles Ogbu

Brethren from the north, I bring you greetings from the southern part of Nigeria. On behalf of the peace-loving people of the south in general and millions of Igbo youths in particular, I start this letter by commending you for your recent open letter to the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, where you called on the pastor-turned politician to organise a referendum for the Igbo to enable them to determine their future in line with international laws on self-determination.

*pix: guardian 

By that letter, you proved to be better versed in legal matters and ways of international laws with regard to the right of indigenous people on self-determination than many have given you credit for. Above all, your decision to resort to dialogue by writing a letter as against the option of violence is one I must not fail to commend.

Having said these, let me come to the main reason why I’m here. In your letter to the acting president, I noticed what I’ve been trying to figure out whether to classify as an innocent amnesia-induced oversight or a calculated attempt at revisionism on your part. The aim of this letter is strictly to put the record straight.

You cited the January 15th coup which you mischievously tagged Igbo coup and claimed was the Igbo manifesting their hatred for Nigeria. Quite frankly, when I read that part, I was left wondering whether to pause and die laughing or die crying. Contrary to your assertion, it was not the Igbo who manifested hatred for Nigeria’s unity. It is you and your kind who invented the word “hatred” and even went further to prove that indeed, it is not just a word.

The 1914 Amalgamation Remains Nigeria’s Bane!

By Charles Ogbu 

Every problem Nigeria has ever faced and will ever face can be traced to that demonic event of 1914 when the British merged the Southern and Northern protectorates into one country that is today known as Nigeria.
   

Britain had only one thing in mind while carrying out the amalgamation: Their administrative and economic convenience. Nothing more. The action of the British can be compared to a man who bought both herbivorous and carnivorous animals from the market and chose to put them in one cage to make it convenient for him to transport them home. This man knew that herbivores feed on herbs and are very harmless and easygoing while carnivores feed on flesh and are most times very aggressive and violent. In other words , the herbivorous animals in that cage might end up as meat for the carnivorous ones even before the man would reach his destination. He knew all these but still chose to put both animals together.
  
Do we need the brain of Albert Einstein to figure out the fact that the welfare of these animals was the last thing on this man’s mind? Rather, all he cared about was getting them all home whether dead or alive without spending extra money for another cage and extra  fare for that new cage. 

    

Even my three-month-old niece knows that the North and South have absolutely little in common. Not the same language, not the same culture, not the same religion, not the same ancestry, not even the same worldviews and as such, can’t possibly live together as one country.

Resolving The Crises Of Nigeria As A Nation State

By Felix N. C. Oragwu

Nigeria’s Post-Colonial Crises and the Civil War of 1967-1970 taught the Nation State of Nigeria the following, namely:

*That progress in socio-economic growth, progress, security and prosperity of nations are driven not necessarily by natural resources endowment but more importantly by the developments in modern science and technology (S&T);

*That a Nation State needs real unity and real peace to develop its economy and to make real economic progress; and

To actualise the foregoing, a nation must have (a) Political Stability (b) Selfless Leadership Elite with vision for modern economic development (c) National Political cohesion and (d) Nationalism, Patriotism, Pride and Love of the Citizens for the Nation.

Most of the above attributes seem to be in short supply in the nation-state of Nigeria, particularly, since the end of the Civil War of 1967-1970.

What conclusions can we as a nation draw from the Civil War and the current endemic  political travails of Nigeria to enable us (Nigerians) build a united nation state? :

These, I believe include the following, namely:

*Understanding that in 1914, Nigeria became a nation state, albeit, by forced amalgamation or cobbling together of various independent and disparate ethnic nationalities and entities (Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani, Kanuri, Ibibio, Tiv, Edo, Nupe, Ijaw, Uhrobo, etc.) numbering well over 200 (some with large, some with small populations) but with different cultures, religions, languages, and in specific geographical areas around the River Niger, by the virtue of British Imperial Power and Colonial diplomacy,

*The Colonial Authorities obviously and deliberately did not develop S&T as domestic instrument for modern economic growth and development, prosperity and security of the Nigerian State, possibly to avoid hurting the British home industry and economy or making Nigeria a prosperous modern competitive industrial and politically united nation, which would have compromised the British main objectives of Nigeria’s colonization;

*From 1914-1960, therefore, Nigeria was sustained as a nation state by virtue of British imperial power and colonial diplomacy but remained in fact a poorly structured and an unstable nation state “on paper, a geographical expression and or an artificial creation” whose political unity and economy was sustained by imported foreign developed (mostly British) industrial, scientific, engineering and technological infrastructure and security apparatus;

Remembering Ironsi, Fajuyi

By Amanze Obi

Fifty years after their assassination by north­ern military avengers, the gruesome murder of General JTU Aguiyi Ironsi and Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi has received more than a pass­ing attention in the media. At the time of their death, Ironsi was the Head of State and Com­mander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria while Fajuyi was the military governor of the Western Region.

*Gen. Ironsi

Since their passage, at no time have they been so fondly remembered and elaborately celebrated more than now. Fajuyi, particularly, is being celebrated by his Yoruba kinsmen for his courage and sacrifice. Ironsi is being men­tioned in passing, probably because his Igbo kinsmen did not roll out the drums for him as the Yoruba did for Fajuyi.

Since the celebration began, many have had to wonder why the Yoruba staged such an elab­orate outing for Fajuyi. The perceived impres­sion in some quarters is that there is more to the celebration of Fajuyi than meets the eyes. I am, however, not persuaded by such suspi­cions. What makes sense to me here is that 50 years is a landmark. It is worth celebrating in the life and death of persons or institutions. Perhaps, the Yoruba may be saying through their celebration of the death of Fajuyi that 50 years of his passage is significant enough in underlining the undercurrents that brought down one of their own, who rightly deserves to be recognised as a national hero. No one should begrudge them the right to tell their own story, as it concerns one of their icons.

Perhaps, what we should question is the loud silence of the Igbo about the death of one of their own whose assassination signposts the endangered position of the Igbo in Nigeria. Why are the Igbo not talking about the murder of Ironsi on July 29, 1966, by northern military officers?

The most immediate reason for this is not far-fetched. The Igbo hardly celebrate any­body. They may recognise you for who or what you are, but they are not interested in symbol­isms. They have never celebrated any one of their greats, be it Nnamdi Azikiwe or Chinua Achebe. Whereas the Yoruba place Obafemi Awolowo on the same pedestal as a demigod, the Igbo are hardly bothered about whatever Azikiwe represents or does not represent in the pantheon of the great.

Perhaps, the only Igbo man the people lion­ise is Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra. The reason for this is simple. Biafra means a lot to the Igbo. The passion flows in their blood veins. It matters to the Igbo that Ojukwu was more than committed to the Biafran cause. He never wavered in his belief in and fight for the cause until death. The Igbo revere him for this. He is their war hero for all times.

Apart from the inherent disposition of the Igbo, which does not encourage the celebra­tion of anybody, there are also remote rea­sons for the non-celebration of Ironsi by the Igbo. The Ironsi story is not an isolated one. It carries with it a myriad of sub plots which, when woven together, define the Igbo story and situation in Nigeria. There is no story of Ironsi without the story of the organised mas­sacre of hundreds of Igbo military officers by their northern counterparts. The story of the murder of Ironsi also necessarily dovetails into the story of the pogrom visited on the Igbo in northern Nigeria. One pogrom followed the other. In all of this, there was no whim­per from the federal military government led by General Yakubu Gowon. The government, which was supposed to protect the life and property of its citizens, as a primary responsi­bility, merely aided and abetted the organised massacres. All of this eventuated in the birth of Biafra. The Ironsi story is, therefore, a complex tapestry, which can hardly be unravelled and understood without making Biafra the subject matter.

What Is Fueling Demand For Biafra?

By Chris Enyinnaya  

The word Biafra has been a taboo to successive governments in Nigeria simply because Republic of Biafra was defeated by a coalition of Nigerian Armed Forces and forces deployed by Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to join them in 1970. The first thing the government of General Yakubu Gowon did was to outlaw the word Biafra, and gazetted it; which is why any mention of Biafra got any Nigerian government angry. Yet, the Igbo cannot do away with the word Biafra. Why? Biafra is a spirit. You can kill the body but not the spirit. That is why the word Biafra keeps recurring like a decimal. To the true Igbo man, Biafra means freedom from operation in this country called Nigeria. The Igbo man feels, and events seem to justify it, that he is oppressed in Nigeria nation. The Igbo man believes in fairness and level playing ground in a competitive environment. Like all competitions, it is winner takes all. The corollary is that the Igbo man believes in merit-driven, just and egalitarian society. Nigeria is not providing the Igbo man the platform to freely express himself.

When the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) was established by the Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe-led Eastern Nigerian government in 1960, it was widely criticised as a glorified secondary school when compared to the University College Ibadan, which was actually University of London, Ibadan Campus which was established in 1948. UNN was awarding her own certificates to pioneer graduates in 1963, when University of Ibadan, established was still awarding the certificate of University of London.

Because the Nigerian nation is denying Igbo man merit in the scheme of things, and in the right sense of the word, Igbo man feels short-changed with Federal Government policies like federal character, state of origin, catchment area, and equality of states principle applied in admission to Federal Government owned secondary schools and tertiary institutions. That was why my daughter, born in Lagos and classified as an indigene of Abia State with a higher cut off mark than Lagos State (72% post JAMB) was denied admission to read Economics at the University of Lagos whereas her classmate from Ogun State that scored 65% was offered admission.

 The irony here is that my daughter was born in Lagos like her classmate. But when it comes to admission to Federal government college or university, she is classed as indigene of Abia State where my father comes from, and get knocked out by higher Abia cut-off mark being classed as an educationally advantaged state instead of Lagos State which at the time was lower.

Atiku’s Prognosis And The Prospects Of A Restructured Nigeria

By Olusola Sanni

I must confess I am not one of those who were excited by the call for restructuring the Nigerian federal system by former vice president, Atiku Abubakar. Anyone who knows the former vice president too well will understand that he is a passionate promoter of what has become a cliché of true federalism in Nigeria.

*Atiku and Buhari 

As a student of politics, I cannot pretend to be oblivious of the fact that federalism is more a system of government of itself, than in itself. By this I mean that a system of government can be unitary (or anything) in structure and remain federal in purpose, likewise it is possible for a structure of government to be federal in outlook and unitary in purpose.

Nigeria has had a long walk to its current state of governmental system and it can safely be said that the debate about how the Nigerian state should be structured is as old as the country itself. Right from the 1954 Constitutional Conference to the 2014 conference, Nigeria has spent the last sixty years asking the same question of how best it can be governed.

It may appear that perhaps something is intrinsically wrong with the political system in Nigeria, otherwise why should it take a people so long a time to find a solution to an easy puzzle and yet cannot crack it. Or, it may be that our Sisyphean experience is in the nature of federalism itself. In order words, no federal arrangement of government is ever perfect, and thus every federal system of government continually seeks perfection.

Therefore, we can say that while fiscal federalism was the bone of contention between resource-rich states and Abuja during the Obasanjo/Atiku dispensation, same way is conflicting judicial pronouncements currently the bone of contention between Washington and the state of North Carolina in the United States of America over LGBT rights. That means that even the world’s bastion of democracy and federation, USA, is still asking the same question of how best to be governed after more than 200 years of its being.

The Parable Of The Madman (1)

By Dan Amor

In his short story, "The Madman", Prof. Chinua Achebe (of blessed memory), easily Africa's most celebrated novelist of the twentieth century, ventures into a poetic realization of a disturbing irony. The consuming paradox centres on the protagonist, Nwibe, a wealthy farmer who has so distinguished himself that he is about to be initiated into the select, dignified society of men who hold the highest and most venerable title in the land- the Ozo title holder.

*Chinua Achebe

Returning from an early morning work on his farm on a fateful Afor Market day, Nwibe stops to have a bath at the local stream. Meantime, a desperate madman comes along to quench his thirst at the stream; he sees Nwibe's loin cloth, gathers it and wraps it over his nakedness. Angered by the sordid affront, Nwibe runs after the madman in obvious nakedness thereby turning himself to the original madman.

Symbolically, this involuntary but tragic exchange of identity between a sane person and a madman is registered by the jeering, ironic laughter of a taunting madman. Nature, which seems to be participating passively in this tragic irony, solemnly echoes the madman's mocking laughter: "the deep grove of the stream amplifying his laughter." Nwibe, who has been appropriately compared to Okonkwo of Things Fall Apart as a man of "fierce temper whose judgement deserts him when he is under its full sway", fully recognises not only the outrageousness of the madman's affront, but more significantly, he understands the ominous import of the sacrilegious challenge. The words Nwibe screams out to the madman: "I will kill you ... I will whip that madness out of you today", convey, in fact, more than the obvious threat.

They also carry the veiled desperation of a man who realises that his precious life is about to take a certain tragic turn if nothing is immediately done to save the situation. The condition in which a stark-naked sane man pleads through a threat with a clothed madman for, of all things, clothes to cover his nakedness, is rife with a sweeping irony. In his stark nakedness, Nwibe pursues the fast-retreating clothed madman who is "spare and wiry, a thing made for speed." In a short while, what Nwibe has dreamed, swiftly becomes a merciless reality in the irony of mistaken identities. The involuntary transfer of clothes which only threatens possible disaster which, in fact, is still laughable, while it remains a private matter between Nwibe and the madman, suddenly assumes a tragic dimension the moment the first witness appears on the scene: "Two girls going down to the stream saw a man running up the slope towards them, pursued by a stark-naked madman. They threw down their pots and fled screaming."

The Trouble With Buhari's Approach To National Security

By Onyiorah Paschal Chiduluemije

The recent massacre of scores of fellow Igbo and brethren in our homeland by the invading and marauding Fulani herdsmen and the seem­ingly implicit endorsement of their cruelty by the government (judging of course by what could arguably be regarded as a mere formality condemnation on the part of the Presidency that reluc­tantly had to speak on this nas­ty development following public condemnation of almost notori­ous indifference and/or taciturni­ty on matters concerning increas­ing Fulani herdsmen bestiality under this administration) is not just heart-rending, but also it is an indication that there is indeed a deliberate and desperate attempt by this inept administration to generally provoke Ndigbo with a view to compelling them to de­but with their worst case scenario panacea to containing litany of of­fensives against them so far.

 

*Buhari

Just a couple of weeks ago or so, the Directorate of State Securi­ty Service (DSS) under the seem­ingly malfunctioning leadership of Alhaji Lawal Daura – a Fulani man – roundly surprised all sane minds, when it reportedly told the public that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) allegedly mur­dered no less than Fulani folks in Abia state and readily buried them in a mass grave. Undoubt­edly, while many reasonable peo­ple across the globe still await to hear the last from the DSS in this regard and/or see proofs to sub­stantiate this preposterous asser­tion, it is increasingly crystal clear, as it were, that the only logically ascertainable prima facie intent of the leadership of the DSS under the watch of Muhammadu Bu­hari’s kinsman is to simply crim­inalise the IPOB in order to cre­ate and convey the impression to the international community that Ndigbo and Biafrans alike now parade their own wing of terror­ist group like the Hausa-Fulani Is­lamist terrorist Boko Haram sect. Indeed it is most unfortunate that under President Muhammadu Buhari, the DSS, a hitherto high­ly respected institution of the state, has abysmally become rid­iculed, compromised and relegat­ed to be serving the interest of the migrant Hausa-Fulani in Nigeria at the expense of the larger inter­ests of the real indigenous people of other nationalities of Nigeria.

Strangely enough, while the same leadership of the DSS un­der Alhaji Daura had never and still does not seem to care about disclosing to the public the actu­al number of lives that have been wasted under his watch by the marauding Fulani vermin in Ag­atu community of Benue state, among other places, and the level of damage done so far by his wan­dering kith and kin on the prop­erties of their host community, it is somewhat unbelievable that the DSS appears nowadays to be only “good” at and “alive” to its respon­sibilities whenever and where the interest and affairs of the Fulani/Hausa-Fulani become a fact in is­sue or are likely to be adversely affected vis-a-vis the competing interest and affairs of other folks.

What is more, it is by no means less disturbing, disappointing and, in fact, highly suspicious that despite early warning signals, in­dices and reports that reported­ly went viral within and beyond the Uzo Uwani L.G.A of Enugu State clearly pointing at the fact of the impending attack by the Fulani herdsmen, all the secu­rity agencies, including the sus­pect in the minds of many called the DSS, were understandably docile and as such most proba­bly inclined to treat the pre-at­tack concerns of this Igbo com­munity with near absolute levity, thereby invariably paving the way for the Fulani herdsmen to first carry out their dastardly and eth­nic cleansing act (perhaps in line with an already existing script) so as to later on avail President Mu­hammadu Buhari – their broth­er and patron – the opportunity and the much needed platform to broach and articulate the so-called “priority” of his “adminis­tration’s agenda” and “readiness to deploy all required personnel and resources to remove this new threat to the collective security of the nation”.

Presidency Denies There's Jewish Symbol In New N100 Note

Press Release 

Our attention has been drawn to a press statement issued by the Muslims’ Right Concern (MURIC) in which its Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola made a number of allegations against the President Goodluck Jonathan, including the mischievous and false claim that there is a Jewish symbol in the new commemorative N100 note which will be officially issued on December 19.

 

(pix:nigeriatell)

President Jonathan is certainly not anti-Muslim as Prof Akintola alleges. As we have often said, the President knows very well that he was elected to office by a representative majority of all Nigerians and he continues to deal with all Nigerians fairly and equitably irrespective of their personal or group religious beliefs.

The allegation by MURIC that President Jonathan is using the highest office in the country to promote Zionism and the state of Israel is completely spurious and unfounded.

Chinua Achebe: 'Peaceful World My Sincerest Wish'

 Professor Chinua Achebe In Conversation With Iranian Journalist, Nasrin Pourhamrang

 -----------------------------------

          *Chinua Achebe

Recently, the classic African novel Things Fall Apart by Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe, was translated into Persian by Ali Hodavand and released in Iran. Nasrin Pourhamrang, Editor-in-Chief of Hatef Weekly Magazine interviewed the author on a wide range of topics from Art, culture and literature; politics, cultural and linguistic preservation; to the legacy of colonialism and his forthcoming book, There Was a Country-A Personal History of Biafra.
Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. He was raised in the large village of Ogidi, one of the first centers of Anglican missionary work in Eastern Nigeria, and is a graduate of University College, Ibadan. His early career in radio ended abruptly in 1966, when he left his post as Director of External Broadcasting in Nigeria during the national upheaval that led to the Biafran War. Achebe joined the Biafran Ministry of Information and represented Biafra on various diplomatic and fund-raising missions. He was appointed Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and began lecturing widely abroad. For over fifteen years, he was the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College. He is now the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.

Chinua Achebe has written over twenty books – novels, short stories, essays, children’s books and collections of poetry. His latest work There Was a Country – A Personal History of Biafra will be available from Penguin publishers in September. Achebe has received numerous honors from around the world, including the Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as honorary doctorates from more than forty colleges and universities. He is also the recipient of Nigeria’s highest award for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian National Merit Award; the Peace Prize of the German Book trade (Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels) in 2002; the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction in 2007; and the Gish Prize in 2010.