An Additional Azikiwe’s Asset
Extract from the paper presented during Zik’s Symposium organized by Anambra State Association, Dallas/Forth Worth, Texas, USA
Saturday, February 28, 2009 by Dr. M. O. Ene
M. O. Ene
@kwenu.com: 3/3/09
GREETINGS
First, I congratulate members of Anambra State Association, Dallas/Forth Worth, Texas, USA, especially those who organized this tribute to the Great Zik of Africa and Owele Onicha, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. Tulu nu ugo!
Deeje nu.
Déémé dèèmè nu.
Daalu nu.
Jide nu ka unu ji!
The Symposium is coming four years late, when we should have celebrated Zik’s centenary, yet it is highly commendable; it is always better late than never. I hope that this gathering will continue as an annual pan-Igbo event during the Black History Month, and I propose that we should remember other Igbo heroes past and present. They include but not limited to: Olaudah Equiano (aka Vasa Gustavius the African—the father of American autobiography), Jibuno n’Opobo (Jaja), Eze Onyeama n’Eke, Eze Nwaiboko, Aba market Women, Dr. M. I. Okpara, Ezeogo Akanu Ibiam, Dr. S. O. Osadebay, Dr. S. E. Onwu, Maazi Mbonu Ojike, Chief K. O. Mbadiwe, Mrs. Margaret Ekpo, Mrs. Janet Mokelu, Chief Z. C. Obi, Justice Daddy Onyeama, Justice Mbanefo, General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi, Chief C. C. Onoh, Mrs. Flora Nwapa, Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, Colonel Tim Onwuatuegwu, Professor Kenneth Dike, Ikemba Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Dr. Sam O. Mbakwe, Francis Cardinal Arinze, Mrs. Oyibo Odinammadu, Professor Chinua Achebe, and so many more.
PREAMBLE
I was a bit surprised that the organizers of this event did not include prominently the “real root-owners” of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe: his maternal grandparents of Enugu State. We must always remember that, as is said in Onitsha urban speak: “Ife kwulu, ife akwudebe ya.” My point: Maazị Obed Chukwuemeka Azikiwe did not make Nnamdi at Zungeru single-handedly; it took two: Elder Azikiwe and his wife, Chinwe—a wonderful woman from Nsukka in present-day Enugu State. Therefore, my coming here is both to pay tribute to the memory of a great man and to inject into the discussion his maternal connections. Of course, it is also worth noting that his surviving spouse, Professor Uche Azikiwe of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, is also from that neck of the wood I call “Waawalandia”—that contiguous part of Igboland between Awka in Anambra State, through Enugu, Enugu State, to beyond Abakaliki in Ebonyi State.
We are here to celebrate Zik. Besides, a relocated chicken stands on one leg. I know; but, if a snake does not showcase its serpentine self, children will use it as a rope for firewood. If you do not watch your yam in a communal fire, someone will either push it aside or push it further into the fire and convert your carbohydrate into charcoal. Yes, the mother hen is not screaming to stop the kite from preying on its chicks; it merely wants the world to take note. If we do not stop rats forcefully from biting people, lizards will sharpen their teeth.
ZIK: A TRIBUTE FROM YORE
In
the December issue of KWENU (Vol. 1, No 2), I penned a brief,
space-constrained, special tribute to Zik of Africa titled: Ọkaibe,
meaning “first among equals” or, as Latin has permanently printed, primus
inter pares. I wanted to reproduce, revive, or review the publication for
this occasion, but I decided against it. There is no point recasting old
material. Luckily, the decade-old publication is still available. The piece
listed some of Zik’s many firsts:
· The first Premier Western Nigeria never had!
· The first Premier of defunct Eastern Nigeria
· The first to build an indigenous bank in West Africa
· The first to build a Nigerian university
· The first to build an off-campus housing unit–Zik’s Flats
· The first President of Nigerian Senate
· The first indigenous Governor General of Nigeria
· The first President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
· The first Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces
· The first head of state to oversee an election
· The first and only head of state to earn a college degree in the last century (not counting the IBB-Abacha void-filler, Chief Ernest Shonekan)
· The first and only Nigerian head of state to die a natural death
The 1997 publication caught many eyes in New Jersey and beyond. Someone in New York sent me a May 28, 1996 facsimile from faraway London, England, from someone who knew Zik, someone who contributed to his legacy, someone whom Zik had reason to rebut publicly later when he overstepped his boundaries. I hope we still recall, “No condition is permanent”? The publication also attracted the attention of someone in New Jersey, USA, who provided me with a Newswatch publication about yet another person who contributed to another controversy that has refused to die. Surely, we still remember the “ranting ant” brouhaha.
OF OWELE, OYI & AJIE
Of the two new materials, I published the latter on October 8, 2003 in “Of Owele & Oyi.” I have not seen the former on the Internet, especially after the death of its author, Dr. Ukpabi Asika, Administrator of defunct East Central State. I weighed whether to share the material or not; I decided to err of the side of more rather than less. The piece is not about Asika or the Nigeria-Biafra War, and it is not about yours sincerely: It is about collating and archiving all pieces of information about a great man so that, a hundred years hence, another generation will know and position Zik in his proper historical perspective—just as Americans today hail 200 years of President Abraham (Honest Abe) Lincoln for preserving the union and emancipating its African citizens.
My contribution to the continued discussion on the legacy of Azikiwe is an addition to his many assets. The letter in question was faxed from London, and it was probably culled from a “FOREWORD” to a tribute that is not in wide circulation. It is reproduced here just for the record. Please take a read:"ZIK: A Tribute from Ukpabi Asika."
COMMENTARY
We all have our individual take on that dark period of our history, so I will not join issue with Ajie Ukpabi Asika. We have our heroes and our villains, and someone’s villain may be the other’s hero. Hero or villain, future generations will properly position Asika’s place in the history of Ndiigbo. Nonetheless, I must agree that “there is nothing… my generation can offer [Zik].” Therefore, this symposium should not be so much a tribute to Zik but a continuation of the harvest of ideas begun last month in Igboland and in celebration of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
Zik’s legacy is set as “Mr. Nigeria Numero Uno.” No one else comes close. With his leadership, Nigeria emerged as a country of nations. He could have chosen to chart a completely different course and handed over two nations to entrenched ethnocentrists across the Rivers Niger and Benue. Maybe, just maybe, in the words of a friend, the Igbo would still be fighting a civil war!
The Igbo were the least ready for separate nationhood in 1960; Ten months to 2010 and 20 months to Nigeria’s golden jubilee, nothing has changed. The North had its “Moses” in Sarduanan Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello. The West had its “Moses” in Obafemi Awolowo. The Igbo had no “Moses,” and they are yet to get one—even as the other two await their Joshuas. Zik must have noticed the disconnect, especially with the infamous carpet-crossing chaos in Ibadan, Western Nigeria—which led to his return to Enugu, Eastern Nigeria, a part of the country with which he was least familiar. Regardless of the huge blow to Zikism, he persisted on an emergent one Nigeria. Nigeria emerged independent, making him the George Washington of Nigeria. With his role during the war, he could somewhat wear the Abraham Lincoln hat. All that is now water under the bridge of history.
The question to address is: “Quo Vadis, Ndiigbo”: Ebee ka anyi na-eje? The answer is located where it started raining on us: We followed Zik’s lead in forging one Nigeria. It was a great idea, but the fundamentals were flawed. Regardless of alarming signs of rejection, mainly Igbo Nigerian nationalists in the mold of Majors Ifeajuna and Nzeogwu forged ahead with building “one Nigeria” by force. It backfired badly. We got the military massacres of 1966 and the Pogrom, “an anomie” according to Asika. Aburi came and collapsed. Then followed what the same Asika called “the present holocaust.” We did not have to fight that war, but Nigeria needed a war. The war came to us, and we fought the war with disastrous consequences and shed the blood of salvation so other nations may see the light. The disaster is not mainly in the war itself--though that was bestial, bloody, and brutal; it is primarily in the overlooked lasting lessons of the war.
Nigeria needed and needs Ndiigbo to survive as a sociopolitical setup, or the government of General Yakubu Gowon would not have continued a brutal and bloody war after it had captured the oil fields and controlled the air traffic. This much we know: Nigeria cannot survive without Ndiigbo. Love them or loathe them, the Igbo are the core threads of Nigeria’s colorful tapestry. You take out the Igbo thread, and the tapestry will unravel and lose its color. Nigerians know and acknowledge this much, which is why the “hatred” or “fear” of Ndiigbo is both ironic and senseless—unless the others do not really want “one Nigeria.”
CONCLUSION
It should not take another Azikiwe or Odumegwu-Ojukwu to show us the way forward. It should take all of us gathered here to put to practice what Nigeria needs from Ndiigbo: an exemplary entity worthy of emulation. It is all good and great to aspire to have “one nation, one destiny,” but the achievement of that destiny may hinge on just a pilot nation taking the lead for others to follow… just what Arewa tried to achieve with “one North, one people, one destiny.”
How do we achieve this exemplary entity? Simple: Follow Zik’s lead. When he realized that he could not show the way from Ibadan, he returned to Enugu and took care of business [first Nigerian university, Hotels Presidential, Phoenix Hotels, cement factory, cottage industries, farm settlements, rural development, mass education, etc.) When he returned to the center, with Dr. M. I. Okpara taking care of the base, the system was working and set for greater heights without a single drop of oil… crude oil. In essence, when the center can no longer hold, things do not have to fall apart; a functional component can crank up its base to show the way. It is not cowardice to backtrack and pick up the pieces; after all, he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. Anu gbanaa taata, echi bu ntá.
Ndiigbo should stop trying to remake Nigeria in their own image or, even worse, trying to copy decrepit pseudo-feudal systems within Nigeria. Ndiigbo should zero in on creating an enviable entity within the Nigerian federation with an eye to playing major roles not only in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) but also in the emerging African Union. With Nollywood, the Igbo can be to all Africa what Hollywood is to all America. The blacksmith that does not know how to forge a gong should look at the tail of a kite. Just as the Scots, the Welsh, and the Irish mapquest their future with England within the United Kingdom paradigm as well as in the European Union (EU) setup, the Igbo should forge a functional, natural nationalism in its contiguous territories east and west of the lower Niger irrespective of the geopolitical gerrymandering and skewed structures.
The University of Nigeria Nsukka is a great metaphor for my proposal. If Zik had not founded the university amidst scorns and jeers, we would still be struggling to go to Ibadan, a college of an English university. The universities in Lagos, Zaria, Ife, Benin, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Jos, Kano, Sokoto, etc. would not have popped up when they did. Governor Jim Nwobodo would not have introduced the first state university in Enugu, which delivered Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka/Nnewi, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, and Anambra State University, Uli. Father Emmanuel Ede would not have started the first private university, Madonna University, Okija, and later Caritas University, Enugu. Today, Lagos-Ibadan axis is steaming with private universities... and Ndiigbo are still streaming across the Niger and Benue to get education!
Let us do what Zik did when the going got tough: Go back to Igboland and build an enthralling economic entity. I have called this entity Aladimma, a successful setup driven by social sophistication, educational endeavors, and convincing capitalist competition with Arewa, Middle Belt, Niger-Delta, Oduduwa, and Mbammiri—the eastern riverine minorities. Only the Igbo can forge such a federation in Nigeria. Regardless of federal policies, politics has never stopped stellar successes. On the contrary, the Igbo are at their best when challenged.
Zik had major plans and ideas for both Ndiigbo and Nigeria: he created a large market. Somehow, we have managed to run down those we could not destroy: banks, media houses, farms, hotels, political gains, diplomatic dealings, etc. The story of African Continental Bank (ACB) baffles; it died because Ndiigbo love Nigeria more than they love Igboland. Ndiigbo need changes, just as Nigerians need changes. We need fast and furious changes that are both sufficient to snap us out of social stagnation and powerful enough to empower economic exploits and cultural renaissance.
There are four paths to revamping Igboland as a place where future Ziks could resurrect, where future Obamas could blossom, and where African Union can be defined:
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Raise blocks of democracy and transparency
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Revive rugged republicanism and consummate capitalism
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Roll back encroaching influence of pseudo-feudalism and revealed religion
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Reorganize town unions into purposeful community councils
We can cripple the unending Abuja corruption with credible elections starting from town governments or community councils. We can grow good governance, accountability, and transparency. We can replicate the affirmative attributes of Biafra without wars, in a functional federation, without dragging averse or apprehensive minorities, and without disturbing the fundamentals of other neighboring nations. Dedicated democratic leadership is the greatest tribute we can pay to the Great Zik of Africa.
Everything else is embellishment.