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Ndigbo has given enough to Nigeria but it is not certain if the power manipulators in the country since independence have reciprocated the gesture. After Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe was the prime leader in the struggle for independence but he didn›t make the presidency as happened in other countries. He still stood tall insisting no secession clause should be inserted into the country›s post-independence constitution at a time leaders from the other divides wanted it put in the grundnorm. Azikiwe got virtually nothing for his sacrifices. He is hardly nationally celebrated beyond the tokenism of his portrait on national currency and street naming.
Ndigbo even before independence lived and carried out their business in every part of what was to become Nigeria. They still do in far greater numbers than any group in the Nigerian Project but they have not enjoyed peace that should naturally be theirs as citizens of the country. It is either they get killed for no fault of theirs or the locations of their trade and businesses come under frequent but very severe scrutiny of various state governments hiding under different subterfuges that present themselves as noble and for general good; after all, evil can have the face of good.
Let›s talk pure economics, not tribe now. Predictability is the hallmark of an ideal business climate. No investor will venture into any environment where he is not certain of the future of his investment. This is the truth. Now a tribe associated with commerce gets land and develops it, but years later gets told that the space is closed for whatsoever reasons and that they have been penciled for relocation to a virgin land very far away from the city periphery. Think about the pangs of sudden relocation. Think of the uncertainty of losing your shops and or paying afresh through the nose for a new one if the opportunity would be there at all. Think about no compensation or official assistance of any kind. Just imagine you being an average trader with a very low capital base. Just visualize.
The constitution prescribes federal character but for the Igbo getting into a federal job is something worth huge celebration because it doesn›t come easy. It is far easier for a cow to pass through the eye of a needle than for Igbo youths to find very reasonable employment in the federal civil service. South East remains the area with the least federal impute or presence in any form. It harbours the worst road networks, the rail line the colonialists built has been excavated as we speak and carted away even while uncertainty surrounds talks of the new line. It is worse that while the west and north regions gloat over standard modern railway gauges, the Southeast is left in limbo as already observed.
With no international airport, from which to fly abroad, the people must travel to either Lagos or Abuja. Must! If you want to study about epileptic supply of electricity, South East is the best place to do so. It offers the best data on the subject matter. There is very minimal federal presence in the zone. A look at what has happened to Kaduna State would bring out the picture very clearly and what you will see would make any fair-minded person wonder about the kind of country we intend to build. You are likely too to question if ours is truly a federation or something else.
In Kaduna alone, you find all these federal institutions, a situation that is unbelievable and very unequal:
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
National Open University of Nigeria, Kaduna Study Centre
Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Palladan, Zaria
Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna
Air Force Institute of Technology, Mando Kaduna
Federal College of Education, Zaria
Federal Training Centre, Malali, Kaduna
National Institute For Hospitality and Tourism, Kaduna
National Teachers Institute (NTI), Kaduna
Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis Research (1951) Kaduna
Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology, Palladan Zaria.
Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Kaduna. Division of Agricultural Colleges (DAC) Zaria
Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria
National Research Institute for Chemical Technology, Basawa, Zaria
. Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology, Samaru Zaria
Nigerian Army School of Military Police, Basawa Zaria.
Nigerian Military School, Zaria
Military Training Centre Parade Ground, Mando, Kaduna
Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji.
Nigerian Military Training School, Kaduna.
Federal Cooperative College, Kaduna
Federal School of Statistics, Kaduna
Institute of Certified Geographers of Nigeria, Kaduna
Nigeria Army School of Legal Services.
Income flow from these alone can keep people on top. Patriotism doesn›t sprout from the blues, it is carefully nurtured and produced in time. A person or even animal held to the ground definitely must struggle, each will release a shout and cry all in the bid for freedom. Igbo have mouthed secession yet they are not the first in the country to have done so. The North at one time pressed for secession and when their plight was considered and remedies found their positioning changed.
The Nigerian stakeholders have tended to handle the Igbo secessionist bid very differently. It has been hostility, denigration and annihilation all combined. Nobody is talking about dialogue and consensus. It has been hunt and kill them. Recently, gunmen invaded the region and began attacking people randomly, a culture not in sync with the culture of the people of the area. Till tomorrow the people can›t believe what they are seeing and passing through – Igbo on Igbo violence.
Igbo leaders are on record to have met former President Muhammadu Buhari to plead for cooperation to handle the deterioration in the security situation in their area. Buhari indeed received them, heard them out but remained adamant. That negative disposition rather than help went a long way to dampen the spirit and slow down, if not kill off, genuine efforts at restoring normalcy. Salt was rather rubbed on the festering injuries. Today, in many parts of the South-East, Igbo commuters on major roads are humiliated, they are ordered to step down from transport vehicles and walk over 100 yards across various military checkpoints. In some cases, they do so with their hands raised.
The propriety of such an act against citizens is self canvassing and one need not waste limited space rehearsing matters that are obvious. Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe brought up this matter before the Senate not long ago yet no official reaction has proceeded from it. It won’t come because the act fits existing stereotypes of first and second citizens. If it had happened elsewhere definitely the response would have been quick and telling. Kill a cow in the South East and see.
Nevertheless, since the desire is to build a country it is important that those in power put their ears down and detect anomalies that can hinder the great country we crave for. The military high command in particular if at all they read, should see this and do the needful, stop it with immediate effect. This is the military style. Put a halt to this inhumane treatment of citizens immediately. For governors of the South East, this is the kind of « matters when identified and engaged make the people shout praises to high heaven.
Finally, someone spoke sense when he said power is not needed where love is in operation. This could be called the golden truth. If we agree we belong to one country with one destiny, and if we have resolved to build the country, the option of «killing» to have peace should be the most displeasing thing; no alternative at all. We can talk ourselves to great peace and the government has a responsibility to lead.
We are in a deep economic mess but we cannot get economic Eldorado unless we fix our politics, and one way the president can start is to give every section a real sense of belonging. Ndigbo, South East and section of the North need this. One way to return peace in the South East is to release Nnamdi Kanu. The Federal Government can effect this seamlessly after a court of competent jurisdiction has thrown away the case of state terrorism against him filed by the federal government.
Seeing Igbo leaders trotting the whole place begging to be seen and received as Nigerians offends our sensibilities. Elder statesman, Mbazulike Amaechi, one of our founding fathers exhausted himself, stripped of dignity begging his junior for peace and the release of Kanu. He died with regret yet nobody cared to honour him with his most cherished wish even in death. Callousness! It is either we want the Igbo or let them go. If we want them we must demonstrate it in action.
How? Welcome them. Take deliberate actions to give them a sense of belonging. Put an end to the acts of negative stereotyping. We saw much of it during the last general elections. It was so bad in some places they were prevented from voting. Rabiu Kwankwaso has a party that drew much of its support base from sections of Northwest yet he has not been labelled a tribalism or religious irredentist like they have done to Peter Obi, who has provided a much-needed and talked-about Third Force. We must build a country where citizens› rights have preeminence. It can be done.
