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KWENU: Our Culture, Our Future |
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On the Helm of History
M. O. ENE New Jersey, USA
Saturday, May 30, 2009
[T]he traumatic bitterness of the war is rich with lessons for toleration and understanding. ~ Arthur A. Nwankwo (1970)
January 12-15, 2010 will mark the 40th anniversary of the end of Nigeria’s 1960s hostilities. All parties in the conflict must conclude that Nigerians can no longer sweep the dirt of disgrace under carpets of convenience. Nigerians have failed to reflect on what happened, as evidenced in the belated but discarded or misplaced Oputa Panel report. Nigerians have lost the rich lessons of their turbulent times.
It is no longer news that there is a virtual civil war in the Niger Delta, that the Middle Belt ethnic entities enjoy an edgy calm, and that the “wild West” near-reincarnated in Ekiti rerun election. These zones boil because Nigerians did not stop to learn the lasting lessons of Biafra. The writings of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, whom President Yar’Adua has reportedly short-listed for Governor of Central Bank, bring home the sad situation:
The Igbo people were responsible for the first military coup in this country. They were responsible for the first attempt at ethnic cleansing. They were responsible for the first violation of constitutionally laid down succession procedures. They were responsible for the destruction of the federation and the creation of the unitary system of which they are now victims (since the initial objective was for the [Igbo] to dominate the other groups). They were responsible for Nigeria's first civil war. http://www.dawodu.com/sanusi.htm
In other words, the Igbo woke up one morning and decided to dominate other Nigerians! This is from a man who writes in the same piece that “Abacha was a corrupt, ruthless dictator - period. Where he was from is immaterial.” Why then should the origins of the principals and perpetrators of the first coup, which included non-Ndiigbo, be “material”? In what history book is it written that the Igbo declared a war against Nigeria? Has he heard of Aburi Accord? Any Nigerian with a modicum of mental motion knows that the above-quoted paroxysm is the product of a jaundiced psyche stewed in ethnic bigotry and embellished with evident disgust.
The inability of Nigerians to hold individuals responsible for their actions, and not the group to which they belong, is the foundation of mayhems and massacres suffered since 1970. The inability of the system to create model Nigerians makes mockery of the concept of “Nigerian nationalism,” which remains false and futile. Every Nigerian is of some ethnic extraction. Even where unnecessary, people are forced to identify more with an ethnic group… especially for political survival.
The Igbo are not responsible for what is wrong with Nigeria, not as individuals and not a people. On the contrary, the Igbo are the thread that holds Nigeria’s national tapestry together. Take them out and the country will unravel. The British knew this to be a fact and prevailed on General Gowon not to secede in 1966. Gowon himself asserted many years after that his prime motivation for prosecuting the war was to make sure the Igbo (or what remained after his criminal, Enahoro-parroted use of hunger as a weapon of war) stayed in Nigeria. There would be no Nigeria without Ndiigbo.
Today marks the 42nd anniversary of the declaration of Biafra. I doubt many ex-Biafrans noticed. In USA, they are either involved in a shameful struggle for the sorry soul of comatose and contentious World Igbo Congress or every eye was focused on ten tedious years of the Fourth Republic. Not many notice that Nigeria is on the verge of repeating 1960s history. No one knows exactly how it will unfold; unfold, it will.
Believe it or not, Biafra was not about ethnic, ideological, or geographical separatism. The plain truth is that no ethnic entity, no matter how small, should be savagely subjugated to persistent persecution without rebellious reactions. This is the main lesson of Biafra. Whatever else Nigerians gained from Biafra, they threw out of the window of pathetic postwar policies. Whatever was not wrecked, they strangulated with policies designed to “punish” Igbo people needlessly for a crisis they did not initiate, a war they did not start, and for what Sanusi called their “foolishness”!
Biafra was a bloody and senseless sixties fraternal fracas. It would have made some sense if Nigerians did not go through the nineties nightmares and current crises. The souls of millions who died in the misty mayhem of a wanton war would have slept in peace. They do not rest because those they left behind do not appreciate their supreme sacrifices. Not even the Igbo learnt much from the death of their heroes. The conditions of ex-Biafran soldiers at Oji River and the souls of millions not mourned are indicative and instructive.
Each day under the clouds of political paralyses, Nigeria grinds ever so close to the precipice. All attempts to retreat from this precarious path and pursue progressive paths have been blocked by crises and corruption. It is still not late to learn from the traumatic experiences of Biafra.
In Nigeria today, the only true Nigerians are the Igbo; the same Igbo of breakaway Biafra. They are the only ethnic entity that truly wants a united Nigeria, a nation where every person is equal before the law and free to pursue happiness and wealth. It was true before independence, true before the war, true after the war, true today.
In spite of all the water gone under the bridge since the calamitous civil crises, the Igbo have steadfastly worked hard to keep the wobbly wheel of one-Nigeria unclogged. The Igbo are practical one-Nigerians; the others are theoreticians who mouth “Nigerian nationalism” but fail to practice same. The immensity of Igbo investments and habitats outside their inherited territory is yet to be matched. If only other Nigerians could meet Ndiigbo half-way, if only other ethnic entities could half-adventure outside the comfort of their natural zones, the targeted “one nation” would have emerged.
It is now slowly dawning on Nigerians that the Igbo are not their problem, that there is nothing like “the Igbo problem.” On the contrary, Nigerians have failed to see the solution in Igbo worldview, educational endeavors, economic entrepreneurship, and social sophistication. None of Nigeria’s ethnic groups has reached the economic El Dorado—out of which the Igbo were supposed to have kept them. Those who uploaded onto anti-Igbo bandwagon no longer have the Igbo to blame.
The Igbo cannot wait out the total breakup of postwar alliances to revamp their spirit of solidarity. The absence of a representative leadership does not allow for pre-planned approach to natural nationalism. The Igbo have everything to gain from a peaceful and equitable one Nigeria; the Igbo would have crafted Nigeria had the Brits not beat them to it. Nonetheless, as long as Nigerians chase the elusive enchantment of nurtured nationalism, a wrong mix of events could take Nigeria back to costlier crises.
The deep divisions between Nigerian nations are covered by a thin oily coating of convenient calmness, the calmness of a cemetery. It will not endure because far longer and stronger unions have crumbled. Just think about it: The two superpowers that fought against Biafra to keep Nigeria one are no longer one! United Kingdom is unraveling with separate Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland; and former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has unknotted… bar blazing Muslim-majority Chechnya.
Ndiigbo must utilize the proven positive attributes of their rugged republicanism to further natural nationalism within Nigeria, ECOWAS, or African Union. Call it true federalism or confederation, the important thing is that every ethnic entity is comfortable and free to progress within the precincts of present political permutations.
Everything else is embellishment. |
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