Opinion

Rebuttal to Ahmed Bako’s narrative

By Pat Onukwuli

The words of an intellectual, especially one withprofessorial authority, carry a lot of weight. This weight is the responsibility of truth, balance and rigour. Upholding a commitment to veracity is the cornerstone of academic discourse, which guaranteesthe integrity of academia. When this sacred trust is violated, facts are twisted to fit false narratives, and intellect becomes a weapon of division. It becomes not just an error in judgment but a moral failure.

Professor Ahmed Bako’s recent lecture, “The Igbo Factor in the History of Intergroup Relations and Commerce in Kano: Opportunities and Challenges Revisited,” at the 50th inaugural lecture of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, is a witness to an ethical failure. His lecture, dripping with ethnic bigotry, pushes a dangerous and narrow-minded agenda that seeks to stigmatise a group, their perseverance, and their legitimate pursuits of education and progress.

In his lecture, Bako attempts to paint the Igbo as schemers, suggesting that their pursuit of education abroad from the 1950s was not for personal or national growth but for domination. He further weaves a narrative linking the Igbos’ quest for economic empowerment to criminality, claiming it is what has engendered hostility from host communities. This is more than a false narrative; it is a threat to national unity, an insult to the dignity of a people, and an affront to the ideals of scholarship.

At the heart of Bako’s argument is a distorted and dangerous assumption: that an ethnic group’s success and perseverance inherently signal a desire for domination. In making such claims, he does more than tarnish the image of these people; he degrades the integrity of academia and positions himself as a purveyorof divisive rhetoric.

Education is the most potent tool for individual and collective progress worldwide. It is a bridge between potential and actualisation, a ladder that lifts the person and the community. However, in Bako’s world, the Igbos’ pursuit of knowledge becomes a tool of domination. He contends that sending their sons and daughters to Europe and America for higher education in the 1950s was a calculated move to control the country eventually. This is not just historically incorrect, it’s malicious.

When has the quest for education ever been subversive? Pursuing knowledge has been celebrated across all cultures and civilisations as the highest form of aspiration. Parents who sacrifice to send their children abroad for better opportunities seek to elevate their families, communities, and nations. What Bako deliberately ignores is that the Igbos, much like other ethnic groups in Nigeria, have sought education as a tool for upliftment, not for oppression. Mischaracterising this effort undermines the very essence of progress and development.

Bako goes further, claiming that the Igbos’ search for economic power has made them desperate and aggressive, forcing them into criminal activities and inciting the resentment of host communities. This is an attack on the Igbos and an indictment of hard work, ambition, and perseverance. The narrative that success breeds criminality is not only false but dangerous. It is the same narrative that has justified marginalisation, violence, and even genocide against thriving communities across the globe.

Bako’s lecture lays bare the perils of ethnic profiling, a danger all must be vigilant against.He jettisoned scholars’ duty of care and highlighted a thorough moral failure. Through his convolution and sophistry, he paints an image that is not one of a people striving to better themselves and their nation but of a machinating group obsessed with power and control.

The Igbos, like all ethnic groups in Nigeria, have worked tirelessly in the face of historical adversity. They have endured marginalisation, displacement, and even genocide, and yet they have continued to build, grow, and contribute to the very fabric of Nigeria. The notion that economic success must inherently lead to resentment or criminality is an oversimplification and a dangerous generalisation. Hostility towards the Igbos is not the result of their success but of the biased narratives like the one peddled by Bako, which poison the minds of communities and justify xenophobia.

It is deeply troubling that such a narrative would be espoused in academia. This space should be dedicated to truth, intellectual rigour, and the promotion of understanding. Bako’s lecture represents a betrayal of the ideal universities are meant to uphold. Instead of fostering critical thinking, he perpetuates harmful stereotypes that divide, rather than unite. His words are not a contribution to historical scholarship but a dangerous foray into ethnic prejudice.

Scholars are responsible for seeking and presenting the truth without bias or malice. The consequences extend beyond the lecture theatre and society’s framework when they fail in this duty. By presenting his narrative as a scholarly argument, Bako lends credibility to his falsehoods. This is not just an intellectual failure; it is a moral one. The academic community must call out those who seek to smear them.

The history of ethnic profiling is a dark one, riddled with violence, injustice, and suffering. From Rwanda to Bosnia, from apartheid South Africa to the streets of America, there have been devastating effects of racial and ethnic stereotyping. In Nigeria, the Igbos have been victims of this kind of profiling before. It was their dehumanisation that justified the horrors of the Nigerian Civil War and the massacres that preceded it. To engage in such profiling again is not just irresponsible, it is dangerous.

Bako’s lecture does more than mischaracterise the Igbos; it opens the door for further marginalisation, violence, and division. His language is the language of exclusion, casting the Igbos as outsiders in their own country, a people whose ambition and success are framed not as assets but as threats. This kind of thinking does not belong in today’sscholarly space; it belongs in the annals of the past, where the worst of tribalistic tendencies have been consigned.

Like all Nigerians, the Igbos deserve to be celebrated for their contributions to the nation, not vilified for their success. Pursuing education and economic empowerment is not atransgression but the foundation of progress.Well-meaning Nigerians must reject this dangerous rhetoric of ethnic profiling and reaffirm a commitment to building a united Nigeria. They must oppose those who seek to divide rather than unite.

Scholars like Professor Bako must seek and speak the truth, not propagate harmful stereotypes. Nigeria’s future depends on its ability to move beyond the narrow confines of ethnic jingoismand embrace the diversity that makes it strong. Only in this way can Nigeria rise above the poisonous narratives of the pastand build a genuinely inclusive, prosperous, and united future.

Onukwuli ,PhD, writes from Bolton, UK

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