The feud between the Igbo and the Yoruba ethnic groups
is contrived, just like the feud between the Igbo and the Ikwere. Whenever
these feuds take centrestage, the impetus is invariably traceable to the
divide-and-rule imperative, which inevitably profits the oligarchy of northern Nigeria . Every
other explanation adduced in the explanation of the phenomenon can only be peripheral.
It is important to make this point from the outset, before going about the
business of explanations – for the benefit of those who may genuinely be ignorant
of a crucial factor in the continued inability to resolve some of the more critical
of Nigeria ’s
contradictions.
Femi Aribisala, one of the more perceptive of the
motley coterie of columnists currently on the national stage, discussed the
origins and manifestations of this feud in an incisive article entitled Time
To End The Bad Blood Between The Yorubas And Ndigbo (Vanguard January 12, 2016). “What is the basis of all this hate?” Mr.
Aribisala asks. “In the sixties, the Igbo
were slaughtered in pogroms in the North. However, the principal exchange of
hateful words today is not between Northerners and Easterners, but between Easterners
and Westerners. Why are these two ethnic groups so much at loggerheads?”
The straightforward answer is that it serves the
interest of the “core” North to keep the South permanently in mutually assured
destructive contention on largely immaterial issues. It happened between the
Igbo and the old Rivers
State in the wake of the
Nigerian civil war. It was suddenly and conveniently “discovered” that the Ikwerre
were not and had never been Igbo. The people went into a flourish of
re-spelling: Umuomasi became Rumuomasi; Umukrushi became Rumukrushi; Umuola
became Rumuola; Umueme became Rumueme. In truth, all these represent no more
than distinct dialectal spellings of Igbo root names typical to the areas
around Port Harcourt .
But the re-spelling exercise was used to manufacture an entirely new ethnic
group.
The acclaimed writer, Professor (Captain) Elechi
Amadi, who led the group that lent intellectual weight to this fad, went
further to celebrate in fictional terms the political marriage between Rivers
people and Northern Nigeria. Yet, he did not see fit to change his name to
Relechi Ramadi. Of course, the contrived ethnic dissonance achieved its purpose.
While the fight raged relentlessly on “Abandoned
Properties”, mostly mud houses over three decades old, the “core” North
moved in and harvested the oil rewards. Their members became instant
millionaires by being allocated shiploads of crude, which they sold off at the
Rotterdam Spot Market. Further, they appropriated 99 percent of the oil
blocs. Then they seized Professor Tam David- West, a Rivers man, “tried” him
for causing the country “economic adversity” and handed him a tidy prison
term.
But the picture is becoming clearer. Had the black
gold been found in the “core” North, would the Rivers man have been allocated
even one percent of the oil blocs? It was not the Igbo that killed Major Isaac
Jasper Adaka Boro. It was not the Igbo that killed Ken Saro- Wiwa. It was not
the Igbo that banished Delta nights with the interminable flare of gas. The
Igbo was accused of desiring nothing but the expropriation of Delta oil and
gas. But science since proved that the entire Igbo country sits on oil, and
holds in its bowels the largest concentration of gas on the Africa
continent. That is the way everything goes and turns round.