News: Igbo Marginalization: The Alternative Route To Fre...

News: Igbo Marginalization: The Alternative Route To Fre...: The Igbos have severally cried out against apparent marginalization by the Nigerian federal authorities. The cry which is manifest in th...

Igbo Marginalization: The Alternative Route To Freedom

The Igbos have severally cried out against apparent marginalization by the Nigerian federal authorities. The cry which is manifest in the allocation of scarce resources to the region by the Nigerian nation is borne out of a lopsided balkanization of the country during events leading up to  the civil war. This balkanization now put them as a minority in a nation where they were a majority prior to that exercise. Having lived and cried with this for the past forty years, is it not time an alternative route is taken to self-release themselves from the shackles of this internal imperialism? 

By Chukwudi OHIRI

“The Yoruba-predominating west, headed by Chief Akintola, its new premier is nearly evenly divided among Moslems, Christians and pagans and embraces the federation’s capital, Lagos. It is perennially rivaled by the Ibo-populated Eastern region under Premier Michael Okpara, former health minister. EASTERN NIGERIA IS THE COUNTRY’S MOST ADVANCED” (emphasis mine). The above quote is an excerpt from a national newspaper published in the early 60s. For clarity, the quote above suggests unequivocally that within the period of its publication, the Eastern Region comprising of the present day South East, (home to a majority of the Igbo-speaking Nigerians) and of course, most part of the South-South region of today’s Nigeria was the most advanced region. The advancement touted in the above quote encompasses academic, technological, infrastructural as well as economic advancement. Truly, this was evident at that time leading to some kind of ‘healthy’ rivalry that almost catapulted Nigeria into one of the biggest economies in Africa and the entire third world until the later discovery of oil on one hand, and the balkanization of the country into States on the other hand.

The advancement credited to the Igbo then is now history as it can no longer be said of the people of the Igbo-speaking South East. Through what many have termed, a well calculated ploy by the powers that be from other ethnic nationalities to ensure that the region remains perennially underdeveloped, the advancement was reversed while successive leaders of the region even worsened the situation with bad governance.

A popular Nigerian musician once said “if a white man oppresses a black man, it is termed apartheid (or imperialism) but when a black man oppresses a fellow black man, it is christened ‘politics’. This has been the plight of the Igbos since the cessation of hostilities in 1970 following the three years civil war (1967-1970) between the Nigerian federal forces and the defunct Biafran forces despite the declaration of ‘No victor, no vanquished’. The aphorism that “politics is the continuation of war by other means” became very pronounced in the dealings with the Igbos under one Nigeria. The people of the region have continued to allege marginalization since after the war that saw the decimation of over three million people and destruction of properties worth millions of naira. Today, other regions of the federation have joined in the foray of ruing marginalization, apparently in a bid to taunt the Igbo people.

By definition, and according to a good number of dictionaries consulted, the word “marginalize” could mean “to treat someone or something as if they are not important.” It can mean “to take or keep somebody away from the centre of action” and can also be defined as the act of “relegating someone or a group of people to a lower or outer edge of a community or society”. According to Prof. Samuel Okoye in a treatise titled, ‘Marginalization in Nigeria: the way out for Nd'Igbo’, “marginalisation by nature is relative, but nevertheless a perception that may or may not be based on objective reality”. The question now is: Are Igbos truly marginalized and how?

Historians are almost unanimous that the origin of Igbo marginalization can be traced back to the time when 12 states were created out of the then existing four region in Nigeria. According to Prof. Okoye, “Indeed, marginalisation actually started when Nd’Igbo (who on account of their large population in the East, where they were by far the dominant majority ethnic group), were suddenly relegated to only one out of the three states created by Gowon out of the old Eastern region, and by a stroke of the pen, Gown rewrote demography and made Igbos a minority in their region in which hitherto they were in overwhelming majority. Since then the Igbos have never been able to get out of this minority status or to get this injustice reversed and as more states and local governments were created across the country, Nd’Igbo of course got more states and local governments but the original demographic and political relativities of the 1963 census as well as the former four-region federal Nigeria were irretrievably lost”. Explaining further, he said: “Indeed, according to the 1963 census, one out of every four Nigerian was an Igbo and if things were done equitably in Nigeria, Nd’Igbo should expect something like 25% representation in all federal institutions as well as 25% share of all states and local governments created after independence. This marginalisation became institutionalised when the principle of federal character was further enshrined in the Nigerian constitution.”

In summary, the erudite professor of Physics submitted that: “Since proportional representation in all federal institutions was based on the number of states rather than population, this meant that after the creation of states, representation of Nd’Igbo in Nigerian federal institutions was guaranteed never to reflect the relative strength of their population, but rather the number of states they were arbitrarily allocated, which itself even now fails woefully to reflect their numerical strength. Consequently, Nd’Igbo have always been under represented in the Federal Executive Council, the leadership of the federal bureaucracy, the armed forces and police, etc. Hence there are systemic, structural, and institutional elements to Igbo marginalisation in Nigeria, which is now so deep and pervasive that the only way to correct it is by way of a radical and extensive political restructuring through the much canvassed sovereign national conference of ethnic nationalities.

Only recently, and riled by the recurrent hue and cry of marginalization by the South East geopolitical zone and more especially, in response to the allegation made by former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu when he was a guest speaker at the British House of Commons that Ndigbo are highly marginalised within Nigeria, the presidency produced a document detailing how the South East got 35% of the entire federal appointments even though it controls only about 11% of the national population.

 Dr Kalu had told British MPs that Igbos have the least number of states, local governments and get the least allocation and appointments. “The implications of this”, Kalu said, was that “calculated fraud against my people are so massive and go entirely untold. They include unequal allocation of resources, unequal voice at the Federal Executive Council, unequal representation at the National Assembly, unequal participation in the administration of justice in the federation, unequal participation in the federal civil service and adjunct bodies and unequal representation in the armed forces and para-military organizations”.

According to the data released by the presidency in defense, offices held by Igbos in the current government include those of the deputy Senate President, the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Finance minister, as well as the Chief Economic adviser to the president. Others include the special adviser on project monitoring, the special adviser on the subsidy re-investment and empowerment programme, the chief of army staff, the executive vice chairman of the National Communications Commission and the managing director of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria.

 Other prominent positions held by Igbos in Nigeria include the managing director of the Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Fund and the Ministers of Power, Labour, Aviation and Health. Other high-ranking Igbo officials confirmed by the document include the chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, the director-general of the Bureau for Public Procurement, the director-general of the Debt Management Office, the director-general of the Securities Exchange Commission, the special adviser on the National Assembly and the head of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. The document also indicated that the southeast got a number of strategic ambassadorial postings, including the heads of the missions in Canada, the United Nations, India, Switzerland, Spain and Singapore.

Many prominent Igbos have been reacting to this seemingly ‘shocking revelation’ on social media, public functions and opinion articles. Many were of the view that in fairness to the administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the South East has had a fair share of political appointments more than any other administration since after the Civil war. They point out, however that while appreciating the good gestures from the President, it is of importance to note that as long as there is still the structural imbalance in terms of state creation and fraudulent population data deliberately manipulated to favour other zones, whatever the present administration does to correct the lopsided political structure will remain transient and easily reversed by successive administrations. They therefore call for a constitutional reversal of the structural defects that gave vent to the marginalization quagmire in the first place. Others point the fact that federal appointments are but a single aspect of the cry over marginalization of the Igbos.

Dr Emezue, a public affairs analyst and social critic on his part opined that there is still a lopsided federal presence in the South East in terms of locating federal projects and revamping of federal infrastructure like roads, railways, healthcare delivery systems, federal schools, federal sponsored new electricity and potable water supplies projects, as well as lack of any substantial federal investments in the South East etc. He also reacted to the claim that South East produced both Deputy speaker of the house and the Deputy Senate president saying: “these are but nominal positions that hardly influence decisions in the house where majority will always have their way while the minority can only have their say”. Going on, he said: “politics is a game of numbers. Even if the South East gets the position of the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, as long as they are a minority group in the house, there is a limit to what they can influence, though they might be in a better position to play the politics and gamble”. He also pointed out that “although Igbos have recently been appointed heads of certain ministries and parastatals, it remains to be proven that such agencies have a proportionate number of Igbos working there and even so, the principle of federal character structured around land mass, state of origin and fictitious population figures will still work against the call for equity. “The only thing that will quench this burning cry about marginalization” he said, “is not even the Presidency of the country being ceded to the Igbos, but the total restructuring of the polity in equity, fairness and justice”. “By this I mean, balancing the representation at both legislative and Executive arm of the government,” he concluded.

The incessant cry of the Igbos about marginalization has got to such an alarming stage that a reappraisal of approach and strategic reconfiguration of solution mechanism is not only imperative, but appears to be the only panacea to arresting the situation. The Igbos must begin to relive its ‘think home philosophy’ by massively developing its region without reliance on external help.

The Igbos are not the only people ravaged by civil war experiences in history, but many of such countries rebounded and today, their economies are the envy of the developed world. The United States of America, between 1861 and 1865 went into a civil war, but today, they are a united and progressive country. Japan’s economy and infrastructure were literarily destroyed and left in shambles after the Second World War, but in no time, it turned war factories into other productive sectors and was able to recover and even overtake many countries that were hitherto ahead of it. Currently, the Hispanics and Latinos control a sizeable portion of America’s business to the extent that they cannot be ignored in the American enterprise. As a further step, they have constituted themselves into a voting block that no party wins a general election in the US without block vote from them. In the United Kingdom, the Asians control a large percentage of Britain’s business by just concentrating in running corner shops all over the Kingdom and that is giving them subterranean influence in the system.

Why can’t the Igbos then rally themselves together and form a power block using their ingenuity in commerce and business enterprise which is acclaimed unrivalled in the black race? After the civil war, Ojukwu, the late sage and leader of the defunct Biafra once boasted: "In the three years of the war necessity gave birth to invention. During those three years of heroic bound, we leapt across the great chasm that separates knowledge from know-how. We built rocket, and we designed and built our own delivery systems. We guided our rockets. We guided them far; we guided them accurately. For three years, blockaded without hope of import, we maintained all our vehicles. The state extracted and refined petrol, individuals refined petrol in their back gardens. We built and maintained our airports, maintained them under heavy bombardment. Despite the heavy bombardment, we recovered so quickly after each raid that we were able to maintain the record for the busiest airport in the continent of Africa. We spoke to the world through telecommunication system engineered by local ingenuity; the world heard us and spoke back to us! We built armored cars and tanks. We modified aircraft from trainer to fighters, from passenger aircraft to bombers. In the three years of freedom we had broken the technological barrier. In the three years we became the most civilized, the most technologically advanced black people on earth."  The question is, where is this ingenuity of the Igbos for which the entire world gave a standing ovation to the defunct Biafra? The Igbos can simply re-enact this war time feat to launch itself back into reckoning again in Nigeria and in the entire black world, rather than continue to rue marginalization. The technological advancement recorded then can earn the Igbos some respect if reenacted in the present day Nigeria and less emphasis paid to political power.

Talking about economic power, it is high time Igbos jettisoned the overarching quest for political power. With economic power, getting at political power would appear a lot easier for the Igbos. This is why the Igbos must strive to change their business model. No doubt, the Igbos are recognized the world over for their industry and commercial enterprises but recently, analyst have proffered that there is a need to reengineer the nature of doing business to give room for greater expansion and ultimately, economies of scale. This is the view of Rudolph Okonkwo, a financial analyst, who insists that the present Igbo business model of merely buying and selling is unsustainable in the long run. In a recent publication by Nigerian OrientNews, Rudolph explained that “the Igbo business model of opening stores in markets across city centers is coming to an end. In a generation or two, there won’t be anything like that anymore. It would all go the way Mom and Pop stores disappeared in American cities where Walmart and Targets set up shop.” He further states: “The Igbo business model is simple. At the top is an importer. His job is to import items from overseas and have a chain of wholesalers move the goods across Nigeria. The wholesalers on their own have a chain of retailers who buy from them and sell at markets across Nigeria. In one swoop, the Chinese and Walmart will replace all the Igbo traders on this chain from importers to retailers.”

Our investigation revealed that this is already happening as traders at the popular Balogun market in Lagos who deal on Bags and Leather Wears staged a protest march against some Chinese businessmen, whom they accused of retailing leather products at a very cheap rate, thereby forcing the Nigerian traders to operate at a loss. Presently as reported in the publication, the incursion of such international conglomerates as Shoprite, Africa’s biggest retailer; Spar, Europe’s largest retail network; and Massmart, South Africa’s second-largest retailer, LG, Haier Thermocool, Sony, etc is already a warning signal to indigenous retail businesses. As projected in that report, these big retailers have continued to expand their influence across the country and this may throw the average Igbo trader out of business in no distant time. Unfortunately, the growing distrust over quality of even the imported products by the Igbo importers are already taking a toll on these importers as consumers now prefer patronizing retail shops of foreign manufacturers established in Nigeria even when the prices are a little bit on the high side.

In the light of this development, one of the analysts admonished the Igbo businessmen, to restrategize now saying: “It will be great if ten-year and twenty-year plans for transition are put in place. I believe that a plan to transition into manufacturing, turning Aba and Nnewi and Nkpor into manufacturing hubs will greatly keep the Igbo in play as the Chinese and Walmart take their places in Africa.”

Another hornet’s nest was steered by one Victor Aguku on the social media thread that was meant to respond to a post by one Adeyinka Grandson, a Yoruba who was lambasting the Igbos for alleging that they were being marginalized. Aguku called on the Igbos to disregard the post borne out of tribal ‘sentiments’, but pick on the hard facts contained in the post. His long and frantic response read thus: “. I know as a fact that many of us always claim we know better and are better than other tribes, many of us even claim that we are better businessmen and women etc etc and I have always pointed out that though we put in our best in business we are however largely misguided in our business approach. Those who would disagree with me should have at least lived in Lagos and if so they should tell me how many industries Igbos own in Nigeria. We are good in one man, hard labour business. We believe that no one can do it better than us but what results do we have to show for it. We have many business men and women with business set ups that if well organised as a corporation would go places and employ more people etc but what do you have, they remain largely one man business and moribund and once the founder dies the setup dies. Take a look at Dangote, Otedola, Mike Adenuga, the Baloguns, the Okoyas, Jimoh Ibrahim etc etc and give me their Igbo equivalent in terms of their organisational setup and the businesses they own. It is only in Banking that you see some Igbos trying to play catch up yet those are the Igbos from areas where some of them still deny their Igboness.

We have long used these as excuse but that can no longer hold water my dear. Take a close look at the style Dangote adopted and made a kill. The Yorubas realised Dangotes style and adopted it, where are our Igbo brother(s)? A few who make money by that style whether planned or accidental soon become misguided and begin to seek political office even though it is very clear they are not professional politicians. If you look closely at Dangote’s style which many Nigerian business people did not know, you will agree with me that he was not successful essentially because he was a Northerner. Author Eze adopted it with Abacha and made a killing but he could not sustain it or maybe he did it by accident and not as a business policy hence he could not sustain the tempo. What about the Ubas. Then you talk about politics. Tell me sincerely if we Igbos know how to play Nigerian politics. Just tell me and give me examples using current events in our political space”. This honest assertion ought to be food for thought for our Igbo businessmen. They will need to restrategize to take over the economic power of this country as a gateway to political power that has eluded them over the years. They can. In the words of Prof. Okoye, “a common Igbo agendum appropriate to all the possibilities above is that Nd’Igbo should empower themselves to decide and steer their future social and economic welfare”. Barring the use of the barrels of a gun, the sure route to political power in the modern world is through financial power. Consequently Nd’Igbo must strive to become big players in the financial game and in the Nigerian economy.

In the quest to attain the above, Prof. Okoye said: “Nd’Igbo should be able to enjoy the freedom, to develop and maximise their collective and individual potentials through unfettered access, use and exploitation of their God-given resources - human and material. Thus, they should be able to create opportunities for every lgbo son and daughter to develop their individual talents to the maximum extent possible for their own good and the general good of Nd’Igbo”. He observed that “before the civil war, Nd’Igbo believed strongly in industry, hard work, and education (rather than money) as the tool for social upward movement and personal economic progress, to the extent that communities will even raise funds to jointly sponsor their sons to acquire the “golden fleece..”  In colonial Nigeria where merit and excellence held sway, Nd’Igbo were thus able to bridge the generational lead of the Yorubas in education very quickly”.

Professor Sam Okoye equally advocated a redirection of the thought and belief system of the average Igboman who seems deeply engrossed in the notion that “to make it in life” and to achieve success and importance in today’s Nigeria, one must have money at all costs”. He submitted that “revolutionaries in societies have always sought to change things by the power of thought, not action, because they know that thought produces action, and that to get a person thinking in a certain way is to get that person to act in the desired way. The crucial point being that any action is based on belief”. He called on Igbos to aspire for self help and begin to loathe dependency theories that lead to enslavement. To change these mentality and belief systems, the education system (from both primary and secondary), the church, the nuclear and extended family systems, pan-Igbo groups as well as town unions and associations must be mobilized for action and reorientation under a well focused leadership based not on a single charismatic leader (like Awolowo or Sarduana), but on a personality cult anchored on collective leadership. The proliferation of Pan-Igbo groups such as is the Aka Ikenga, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, MASSOB, Igbo Ezue, Njiko Igbo, World Igbo Assembly etc without a harmony of opinion and interest in their operations will remain antithetical in result.

In the vanguard of the so called Pan-Igbo movement is the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB whose ideology, sequential program, clear modus operandi are not known. There is therefore the need to reengineer the operations of this group using ideological and social mobilization tactics rather than being confrontational with or without arms. Biafra and its founder at least had a manifesto which represented its ideology enshrined in the book—‘Ahiara Declaration’. This appealed to some while others detested it, but at least, there was a focus.

Today, the mere mention of MASSOB sends jitters down the pines of the federal government who immediately unleash the venom of hatred and animosity in clamping down on the group like traitors. As at press time, their leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike and many faithful are still incarcerated and awaiting trial for treason while the entire Igbo race fold their arms in indifference. In the light of the above, changing the name and tactics could turn the fortunes of this group around. Terrorist tendencies may have worked for other ethnic groups, the fact of the day is that unless the tempo is raised high above the current insurgency in the country (which is not advisable), any attempt to adopt brutality will always elicit greater brutality in response by the federal might. That the sit-at-home protest organized by MASSOB was a near success does not confer legitimacy or acceptance of it. Modern political and democratic tools such as a referendum can be adopted to test the popularity and give credence to the group.

The unfortunate thing is that when the Niger Delta militants revolted with arms, its leaders were called to a round table where, rather than incarcerate them, they were pacified with Amnesty package. The likes of Asari Dokubo are now in the payroll of the federal government for taking up arms against the FG.  If Boko Haram had accepted the carrot dangled before it by the Federal Government, today, they would have been deified as national heroes too. Billions of Naira would have been expended on them to pacify them too, but when an Igboman as much as attempts a peaceful demonstration, hell is let loose. These are clear signs that what is good for the goose in Nigeria is not good for the gander. But the Igbos, who claim to be the wiser tribe in the country ought to show maturity and great wisdom in knowing that once the rhythm of a song changes, the dance steps must equally change. It is time to apply superior fire power other than guns, bombs, mortars and other physical weapons of warfare. This superior power lies in the control of the economy which is intrinsically innate in the veins of the average blood. Igbos are known for industry, hard work, commerce etc, but there is the need to take it to the next level.

  As the famous American diplomat, Henry Kissinger once put it: “The Ibos are the wandering Jews of West Africa… gifted, aggressive, Westernized; at best envied and resented, but mostly despised by the mass of their neighbours in the Federation.”

While the Igbos continue to allege marginalization, how have its own directly elected leaders fared in governance and representation? The Igbos must hold their leaders accountable for developing the South-East through people-oriented policies that will affect the lives of the citizens positively. If the region excels in governance over and above other regions in Nigeria, chances are that other regions will begin to take them serious.

In conclusion, as Prof Okoye put it, “Igbo marginalization today is real, as well as being all of systemic, structural, institutional, extensive, and deep , and it is this marginalisation that spawns the divergent stance of MASSOB. For that reason, changing the political captain, be it one of Igbo extraction, on the Nigerian boat is unlikely to provide immediate succour or more importantly, a permanent solution to Igbo marginalization”. If this priority is continuously misplaced or unaddressed, “Nd’Igbo will then realize sooner than later and to their utter consternation and frustration that without changing the constitutional/political system, any changes they may wish to make to their present lot will only be temporary and cosmetic”.  And since it is not entirely in their hands to change this situation, alternative tactics of seeking economic power will enforce the desired change. As a popular saying goes: “In the past when men made fortune out of war, war was business. But nowadays when men made fortune out of business, business is war”. Let the Nd’igbo try ‘business war’ strategy.