Ordinarily, hunger, hardship, injustice, and deprivations should be a unifier for the downtrodden but in this context, they have become a divider with surgical scalpel. The root of the rare ahistorical dissensus lies at the pomposity of those who parade superiority in Nigeria. They feasted without empathy while others, especially Ndigbo, cried of pains and serial injustice. They were boisterous during the 2012 anti-Jonathan, anti-fuel subsidy removal protests. But many of them relapsed into docility during the 2020 #EndSARS demonstration. They perceived it as targeted at undercutting the Buhari presidency. That was how unfounded suspicion bordering on mindless ethnic solidarity destroyed unanimity in challenging the incessant human rights violations perpetrated by the notorious arm of Nigerian Police.
Strangely, the extroverted Ndigbo of Southeast Nigeria refused to join the 10-day street protests, and compliance was total. For the first time in recent history, the Igbo political class led by the governors and parliamentarians, the intelligentsia, Ohanaeze-Ndigbo, the business elite, traders at home and in Igbo-dominated areas across the country, the informal sector, as well as youths and women groups, spoke with one voice. The action signposted the dawn of a new era in strategic thinking. The pull-back was not that the protest does not have some merits, after all, everybody is in the boat facing the same risk of capsizing, but it sent a signal that “When an idol becomes too powerful and arrogant, we tell him the wood it was carved from.” The message is clear: Those who think that they own Nigeria will not always have their way. The ploy of those who insulted the sensibilities of others with reckless abandon while they held sway, has come to a dead end. Their boasting as if God takes permission from them to give political power, is now moderated by noiseless strategy.
The boys lured into street protests against cost of living crisis resorted to hooliganism. The roof of Nigeria must be brought down because one of their own is not in charge. By hook or crook, power must return to the ‘real owners’. They called for violent regime change; hoisting Russian flags, a metaphor of new-found romance between Moscow and the coup plotters in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Hence, an international relations expert, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa stated that “all those who are carrying Russian flags are basically from Niger.” Another contradiction of our national identity!
Objectively, there were other well-meaning Nigerians who exercised their constitutional rights of free speech and peaceable assembly. They ventilated their grievances responsibly. They were neither faceless nor called for unconstitutional change of government. They were committed to making Nigeria work without destroying public and private assets. Ndigbo were in the spirit with the clear-headed protesters. However, having gone through their travails alone with uncommon resilience, Ndigbo opted for a sit-at-home, which they have been used to. Ndigbo had been scapegoated through terror-framing, disproportionate use of force, economic strangulation, and treatment as second class citizens, coalesced into hewers of wood and drawers of water in the nation’s political economy.
What Ndigbo feared most, by benefit of hindsight, almost happened. Ethnic bigots in Lagos played up the #Igbo-must-go slurring sensation to counter the protest. The condemnations that however ensued was a face-saving measure when Ndigbo backed out from the protest. As such, the intriguing call for its probe by Southeast Caucus of National Assembly is more of populism. It will be pigeonholed and nothing will come out of it.
Nowadays, Igbos are wiser and more strategic. This year’s hunger protest is an interesting coincidence. The every Monday sit-at-home in the Southeast clocks three solid years. It is reported that Anambra State alone loses N19.6 billion any day the sit-at-home is observed. Ironically, other sections of the country that wanted Ndigbo to join the nation-wide protest moved on as if nothing was happening despite the economic losses. They mocked Ndigbo for cutting off their nose to spite their face. Although the every Monday sit-at-home does not enjoy the buy-in of all Igbos, it has been forced down on them by the separatists. It is comparable to Rosa Parks bus boycott in Montgomery, and Mahatma Gandhi hanger strikes in India that changed the course of history.
Unfortunately, the pleas and last wishes of statesmen like Chief Mbazulike Amaechi and Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife (both of blessed memories) for Nnamdi Kalu’s release, in order to restore normalcy, were brushed aside. To Ndigbo, the cold treatment solidified the impression that they are endangered species. The veteran musician, Eedris Abdulkareem captured the true position thus, “Let’s assume that the Russian flag was found with an Igbo man. Python Dance will be a joke.” This mindset fuels separatist sentiments as repression radicalizes.
Beyond the Igbo question, the protest occasioned by hunger and high cost of living presents an ample opportunity to address the underlying issues that breed centrifugal tendencies in the country. President Tinubu has a responsibility to institutionalize a system to hear out the cries of marginalized peoples, minorities and communities in Southern Kaduna, Middle Belt, Niger Delta, and other states of the federation. The internally displaced persons (IDPs), people with disabilities (PWDs), vulnerable groups, and the poorest of the poor should by law and policy enjoy economic and social rights, and not eleemosynary tokenism. The almajiris, children on the streets, aged persons without caregivers, as well as those living in shanty ghettos and under-the-bridge households, deserve an intentional policy of inclusion and rehabilitation.
The vexed issue of indigene-settler dichotomy and the attendant ‘quit-notices’ should be resolved through a stronger legal framework. The true brotherliness of the Muslim cleric, Imam Abubakar Abdullahi, who in June 2018 shielded over 262 Christians in his mosque from the coordinated attacks of killer-herdsmen in Barkin ladi area of Plateau State, should be mainstreamed to advance national values on religious tolerance. Ultimately, a tangible improvement in the material conditions of the “bottom heavy” and a deliberate attention to the marginalized voices would be the antidote to a flak of mass anger.