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Promise Adiele
The maxim “live and let live” underscores the importance of peaceful co-existence among people of different racial, cultural and ethnic background. In the modern world, the mingling of different peoples has become inevitable given that human existence is basically sustained by the principles of complementarities. In the same vein, the expression “we need each other” underlines the reciprocal alignment of human relationships especially when they are of a different persuasion, in this case, ethnicity.
Nigeria is a country made of multiple ethnicities whose relationships with one another over the years prove that there is unity in diversity. Every person from one ethnicity is involved with another person from a different ethnicity in one way or another, at best in a mutual relationship. It is, therefore, disturbing that the Igbo man is bashed left, right and centre since the conclusion of the presidential elections. Those who are at variance with my thoughts here would ultimately be betraying their squeamishness in matters of ethnicity. My thoughts here are informed by a totality of the socio-political mechanism which has defined Nigeria’s polity since the conclusion of the presidential elections.
It is a thing of joy that the ominous air which preceded the presidential elections has evaporated. Since the elections, there have been many reactions, some of them insightful while some portray innate mental laziness by those who claim to know. One of such reactions is the ethnic card being played by some people but whom, in the main, manifest a lack of objectivity in their analysis.
In rehashing the ethnic rhythm, these people have taken on the Igbo man as a victim, berating him, and his entire persona. It is in response to such impudence which has defaced social and mainstream media that I have decided to address the issue. I am not writing this essay because I am Igbo. I would have written it if such monstrous confections were hurled at another ethnicity in Nigeria. I reject any kind of biased mentality that fans the embers of ethnic flames because it has the propensity to ignite strife of unimaginable proportions.
Since the presidential elections, many commentators have demonstrated prejudice about the Igbo man. Therefore they have peddled half-truths, propaganda, and composite falsehood large enough to establish an industry of deception.
The political consciousness of the Igbo man is established in his republican nature. He believes in the ethos of collectivism and repudiates the individual power mogul as a symbol of authority. That was why indirect rule did not succeed in Igbo land. Such timid, insincere and pretentious gestures generally known as “eye service” in the Nigerian parlance does not cut ice with the Igbo man. He could be self-serving sometimes but also assertive, which some people misconstrue as arrogance. Every ethnicity has its share of traits, negative or positive. So, why all the ramblings about the Igbo man committing political suicide by not voting for a particular party? How in good conscience does one begin to rationalize such misconception? Politics is a game where there can never be a consensus, where people will always disagree, even people bound by filial ties.
Many Igbo people voted for APC, many voted for PDP and many others voted for other parties while some others remained indifferent, not convinced about Nigeria’s political amalgam. Also, other ethnicities voted for different parties, each man exercising his civil rights. How then did the Igbo man commit any crime by making a political choice? In Katsina state where President Buhari hails from, many of his people voted for the PDP. In Adamawa state where Alhaji Atiku hails from, many of his people voted for the APC. In many other states, people voted for either APC or PDP. So why has the Igbo man’s political choice become a problem for some people who have seen it as an opportunity to malign the Igbo man and call him names?
Those who are ethnic minded and express such retrograde opinions about ethnicity in the 21st century are taking back the hand of time. It is regrettable that some people view everything from the mangled prism of ethnicity, yet we preach One Nigeria and togetherness. While the world is matriculating to various forms of advancement, some people in Nigeria irredeemably wallow in the cesspool of ethnic backwardness which guarantees no progress.
Those who have not travelled around the country need to do so to divest themselves of ethnic bias. Events across the world have collapsed the barriers of ethnicity so that such mundane claims to a place of origin have become trite. The Igbo man is nomadic in nature as a result of his constant pursuit of sundry endeavours. Other ethnicities in Nigerian migrate, settle and prosper across the country. Therefore, it smacks of hate and intolerance for anybody to single out the Igbo man for a query due to his place of settlement.
We live in the modern era where place of origin has become stale. In the US, a person from one state can go to another state and become a governor. There are Nigerians in the UK who are Mayors. There are Nigerians in the US who hold political positions. What is wrong in a person of a different ethnic group aspiring to a political position or holding a political office in another ethnic arena? Those who subscribe to these kinds of ethnic sophistry are living in the Stone Age.
In the forthcoming governorship elections, everybody has the right to support any candidate of his choice across the thirty-six states in Nigeria. The Igbo man has the right to determine who governs him in his state of residence where he pays taxes. Other ethnicities across Nigeria have the right to support any candidate of their choice. We must do away with this corrosive ethnic mentality before it snowballs into an uncontrollable wildfire.
The Igbo man does not need politics to survive or have his place developed. I read in one piece where someone submitted that “while Igbo land is ravaged by poverty, Igbo people are across Nigeria trying to usurp people and take over their land”. Such submissions offend the sensibilities and only activate negative by-ways of the mind.
At the risk of sounding immodest, I submit that no Igbo village has the trappings of poverty like most parts of Nigeria. It is unbelievable the kind of transformation you find in Igbo land in spite of the ravages of the civil war. Such indices of development like electricity, pipe born water, good roads, schools, modern markets and other projects in Igbo land are routinely undertaken by individuals. Therefore for anyone to say that Igbo land is ravaged by poverty is mischievous.
Nigerian ethnic configuration is so intricate that those who fly the ethnic kite will be biting their fingers. All the ethnicities in Nigeria are bound by such ties as marriage, business, education, and friendship. It is this intricate relationship that exists among ethnic groups in Nigeria that should fuel unity, oneness and forever banish the demonic trend of ethnic hate.
Dr. Adiele writes from Lagos via
