KWENU! Our culture, our future

THE IMPARTIAL OBSERVER

The paradox and blithe cruelty of Igbo individualism

HANK ESO

Thursday, 19 May 2005

One of the greatest challenges of a pundit is being sufficiently disciplined to find time to read what others write and grapple with their assessment of issues. When met, this challenge is an invaluable asset. In Nigeria, being aware of the divergent views on any national issue, allows one the liberty to fully engage, and perhaps fairly, in the critical introspective analysis of the subject. And it is on that premise that I embarked on the writing of this piece.

Of late, there has been a surfeit of write-ups on the challenges and bane facing Ndiigbo. The recent revelation of a surreptitious attempt to redact the Igbo language from the Nigerian Constitution via the ongoing National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) as expected raised a justifiable ire. It has also elicited expressions of profound concern about the motive behind it, and rightly so. The reported redaction effort brought once again into sharp focus, the moral ambiguity of the current Nigerian leadership when it comes to the treatment of the Igbo nation. It also gives unalloyed credence to the views held firmly by most Igbo people, that the civil war, which formally ended in 1970, is still being waged psychological and through executive fiats against the Igbo nation.

But if we were to acknowledge the truth, we have as Igbo people, not collectively given impetus to our language. Like Latin, the Igbo language is reportedly dying. So, why the hue and cry when other mess with the language. As an eminent Igbo scholar, Professor Agu Ogan reminded me recently (not that I needed to be told), Igbo children at home and in the Diaspora are all Igbo challenged. I must admit that my wife and I are as guilty as hell on this account, less so our parents, who though all well educated and literate, continuously agonize and remind us that we have failed in our parenting responsibilities in this regard. Our weedy excuse that the kids understand Igbo, but cannot speak the language has never assuaged their ire. We know too well that it is a laughable excuse and analogous to being “half pregnant”. Hence the Igbo language crisis remains a delicious irony which borders on blithe self-inflicted cruelty. It is utterly incomprehensible, that the Igbo, a people that value their culture immensely, often speak and write English far better than they do their mother tongue. But the language problem is one of the few paradoxes confronting the Igbo nation. This magnetic and self-imposed “cruelty” invariably extends into other realms of Igbo daily life and enterprise.

It’s an uncontested reality that the Igbo nation finds itself in a quagmire. The evaluation of how the Igbo got into the present quagmire and their seeming inability to extricate themselves from real on imagined marginalization, has in itself become another major and everyday focus for the Igbo intelligentsia and leadership. As a pundit, any effort to decipher Igbo politics remains an arduous mix of fascination and frustrations. Some Igbo blame others for their plight and some courageously blame themselves for their fate. So which exactly is it? And where exactly does the cause and effect lie?

Some observers have through empirical and conventional deductions attributed the Igbo quandary to the dogged republicanism persona of the Igbo. Added to this characterization, the Igbo also carry the added burden of not exactly being able to lay claim to either a liberal or conservative pedigree when it comes to their political or ideological leanings. Whilst there are pan-Igbo aficionados, there are hardly any ultranationalist Igbo in the Nigerian context, yet we strive to lead a nation in which we may no longer have a sincere vested interest and in so doing, unmask our collective inner conflict and possible half-hearted patriotism. Some social scientists view these realities as antithetical to conventional political imperatives. Some also attribute the root causes of the Igbo problematique to the lingering economic and political dichotomy and disequilibrium in Nigeria, which in itself, is a vestige of the Nigerian-Biafra civil war. Those in this camp have continued to stress that Nigeria remains a mere geographical expression and an experiment with an indefinite outcome, unless the rationale and basis of the commonwealth is debated, renegotiated and redefined. It is yet too soon to tell if the ongoing NPRC will serve the purpose. In sum, this theory unquestionably ties in with Nigeria being hobbled by the Abilene Paradox; which in essence translates to ending up with a bad consensus or “something we all agree to or get that no one specifically wanted”. In accepting Nigeria as is, Nigerians opted for a model nation-state crafted by the British to their own liking, and convenience.

Last April, when I read a proposal on how to go about Igbo leadership by Dr. Ugorji O. Ugorji, (EQUITY 2007-- A People & Bridges Plan for Nigerian president of Igbo heritage) I was enthused. My verve was not so much about the substance of Ugorji’s proposals, but by the creative acumen of the idea that the time has come to set forth a platform that will in the short, medium and long-term, lay out a strategy for the Igbo to pursue vis-à-vis their collective aspirations. What Ugorji did not say, was that the Igbo should stop second guessing themselves and get on with a real reform plan for true Igbo renaissance. As if Dr. Acho Orabuchi had been privy to my thinking, he thankfully offered an added fillip to the debate with his recent piece, titled “Igbo still in second-guessing mode? ” On reading Acho’s piece, I realized, not exactly for the first time, that we as Igbo might have unwittingly allowed our inclination to individualism to become a curse rather than an asset. Invariably, others, especially our compatriots have gone ahead to exploit such Igbo mindset. As Orachuchi correctly noted,

Despite this unfortunate and dismal condition of the Igbo in Nigeria, a condition predicated on systematic and institutionalized marginalization coupled with hatred of the ethnic group, there are some people, particularly from the Igbo race, who either do not have a deep understanding of the plight of the Igbo race or are blindfolded by their venal behavior.

But come to think of it, intrinsic individualism within an ethnic nationality is neither a character blight nor blemish. As James Surowiecki, the author of “Wisdom of Crowds” notes:

The real paradox of group intelligence is that groups are smartest when everyone is acting as much as an individual as possible.

So why has the Igbo fate and disposition proven differently in this context? I believe the cause to be two-fold. Ndiigbo, while desirous and conscious of the possibility of their continued transformation as people, have failed to collectively articulate if their priority is to achieve political or economic power as a critical and integral component of the Nigerian nation. To do either, would require a sea change in focus and policy. Also, the Igbo, if there was really a time when they had the head start on literacy and academics has already lost that edge.

Confounding as it is, what prevails within the Igbo intelligentsia is not so much the triumph of groupthink as it is the dissembling pervasiveness of doublethink, doublespeak, and strategic dissonance. When some who masquerade as Igbo leaders speak, presumably on behalf on Ndiigbo, what one witnesses, is an engagement in endless bouts of incendiary rhetoric, and scurrilous allegations directed against other tribes or the blackballing of their fellow Igbo. This tendency detracts from the real issues and undermines the saliency of any debate or enterprise we engage in. We may not care and may not have noticed –and this is by no means an apologia - but some of our individual conducts, and especially the way some of our politicians and presumed leaders treat each other does make other Nigerians nervous and some to loath the Igbo persona. This could be put in a better perspective with the cliché, which says, “with friends like this, who needs an enemy”.

Let’s take for instance the issue of the Igbo presidency. We need not all agree on the timing or the candidate, but we surely all agree that it is long overdue as it is desirable. While only one individual might emerge as Nigeria’s president at any instance, be it an Igbo or non-Igbo, the presidency in the Nigerian context, has never been about the individual but about what he represents. It should therefore, not be about the individual in the Igbo context. Put differently: An Igbo politico whom the Igbo community might consider a wretched son-of-gun, might also be the person with the best chance to win the presidency. Do we need to shoot or shut him down on account that we detest his political machinations or personal proclivities? I do not suggest here for one second that we mortgage our morality. Neither am I asking for the diminution of the standards and bars of integrity expected of those who represent us. Far from it! What I am hinting at, is that as much as we might loathe the individual, we cannot erase his or her Igbo pedigree. I am convinced, that when Obasanjo ran for the Nigerian presidency initially, he did not enjoy the sum support, friendship, and well wishes of all Yoruba people. Whilst some Yoruba might not have supported him, they did not trenchantly oppose him or attempt to run him down. The same could not be said of us Igbo. The well-known Nwobodo-Ekwueme saga clearly illustrates the point being made here. The foregoing, however, are only bits in the slew of paradoxes confronting the Igbo nation.

It is well beyond the wit of this pundit to say from whence the salvation of the Igbo nation will come in the realization of their collective political aspiration. However, it is starkly clear to me that such salvation will not come from those who nose around for a dreadful whiff of political opportunism and zero in on them for personal gains and aggrandizement, while pretending to be serving Igbo interest. As much as we are in denial, it remains a fact that political and economic savvy warrant -- indeed demand -- skillful and open-minded approach to matters of collective interest especially in societies or communities like ours, where rugged individualism is a well-entrenched culture or acceptable personal traits.

Where is the proof –where is the beef?

Far from being irreverent there is a question that needs to be asked: Using the leadership of six Igbo states as a measure, can anyone show me an example of what Igbo leadership might offer at the national level? The problems that bedevil the Igbo nation can best be gleaned from its elite, who have internalized their inability to lift their people into a gnawing self-doubt masked by endless excuses of marginalization. Having failed in the twin task of building the Igbo economic and political base into the Nigerian mainstream, the elite now resorts to a search for causes where they do not exist.

But more importantly every investor expects some return in terms of dividends or equity. Those who are called upon to support Igbo leadership at the highest level inevitable will look at certain trends before making their decision. There will be individual and collective assessments. Just as we sometimes suggest that the bane of Nigeria is the poor leadership offered by Northerners over time, we conveniently forget that there is no ironclad guarantee that the same might not happen with an Igbo at the helm? If we choose to gloss over this possibility, others don’t. All the recriminations as to why Biafra failed suggest that this trend cannot be totally discounted. Moreover, there are more recent parameters. On the business plane, I won’t venture into details, but will offer some pointers here: Progressive Bank; Orient Bank; African Continental Bank; Oriental Airline, Triax Airline and Post Express. These are Igbo enterprises that floundered. Whilst private enterprise continue to flourish in Igboland, in the five Igbo states there are hardly any discernable or tangible legacies from recent leaders, safe for those from the era of Akanu Ibiam and Michael Okpara. So, where is the proof; and the beef, that were current Igbo leaders to be entrusted with the challenge of running the Nigerian enterprise, they will not do exactly what they have done at the State level?

In the governance realm, I presume that events in Anambra State are shining examples of the basis on which we should be entrusted with national governance responsibilities. On the cultural and traditional levels, does the ongoing willful demolition and harm the reputation of the Obiship, (the only thing of value left in the Onitsha Kingdom) connote progress? When last did succession matters relating to the Oba of Benin, Ooni of Ife, Alaafin of Oyo, Emir of Kano, Sultan of Sokoto or Obong of Calabar descend to such sorry plebian and caustic conduct as we are witnessing from the most learned and affluent personalities in the Onitsha Kingdom? I fully accept that the issue at hand is exceedingly a matter of principles. If only it were that simple. The Obiship crisis has only arisen, because some Onitsha well to dos has jettisoned principles and time-honored norms in preference for expediency. Such grossly incautious dispositions are rife in Igboland and we are now all living witnesses to their destructive consequences. But then, events like these only happen, because of unbridled Igbo individualism and the arrogance of conviction of the Igbo personalities involved.

It’s been said that the Igbo are their own worst enemy. This is no longer a disparaging cliché, but a troubling affirmation of our collective fate. The saddest part of this problem is that as much as we the Igbo have a tendency to blame the Hausa and Yoruba for nepotism and favoring their kinsmen in the sharing of the “national cake,” Igbo leaders by a wide stretch do not help their own once they assume power; rather, they reap for themselves and their families what ought to be our collective dividend and thus perpetuate the “onye ube luru, ya ralama” syndrome.

No balance of strategy with aspirations

Given the vagaries on Nigerian politics, one could take a starry-eyed view of the legion of issues the Igbo nation must grapple with. As Mark Twain said once, “History does not repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes”. As such, our past politics should naturally help in explaining our present circumstances. Unfortunately, it hasn’t. And that is one of our major dilemmas as a people.

We the Igbo currently hold the senate presidency –the number three position the nation. But in less than eight years, we have had five Igbo politicians on the post. None of the preceding four holders of the office left due to natural attrition. The nutshell of the matter, sad as it is to admit, is that in each case we made a bad choice of whom should represent us in that exulted office. Our foray and failings in the senate presidency clearly reflect our collective inability to balance our strategy to match our aspirations. Moreover, some Igbo politicians act as if they are destined to reinvent the wheel of politics. Many more subvert the truth by manipulating memory either to obfuscate their own shortcomings and role or to gain undue ascendancy and score cheap points. This disposition is often compounded by an unholy conspiracy of silence by the Igbo elite. When an Igbo politician publicly calls on the transgressed Igbo nation to apologize for defending itself during the civil war, one begins to wonder if the person is not truly certifiable.

During a recent discussion with Prof. Agu Ogan, one of the great scientific minds that sustained the research and productions arm of the Biafran military-industrial complex, Ogan (whom I’ve known for nearly four decades) bemoaned in disgust, the self-serving claims by some Igbo about their contributions to the scientific efforts that sustained Biafra. This same sentiment runs through General Philip Efiong’s memoirs, “Nigeria and Biafra: My Story, wherein he stated “ Some have written to prove their innocence and helplessness in the roles they had played even if in the event they wielded considerable influence and power on issues of the time. Some have written to show how they won or lost the war, some have written to make quick money because they had a good story to tell….,” But Ogan’s main annoyance was that not only have some of the real heroes of that effort remained unsung, some the real stories of ingenuity, service and selflessness have been left untold, and he feared, might die with those who are aware of them.

But the true scientist that he is, what Ogan deems most reprehensible is that that scientific foundation laid in Biafra was never really tapped into, due to political expediency. Clearly, Nigeria is worse off for it. But then, affluent Igbo entrepreneurs have also not really made any discernible effort to sustain Igbo scientific and industrial wherewithal, through individual, collective or private sector academic and scientific research endowments. To this point of view, I will merely add that whilst the Igbo nation coverts the idea of becoming like the Jews, an assertive global tribe, they have woefully failed to articulate the complimentary strategy or muster economic and political will needed to actualize such and aspiration. Hence, whenever the Igbo gather for a common cause or collective purpose, the din of disagreement that consequently ensues can only be compared to the proverbial Tower of Babel.

Having said this, it also need to be asked whether in reality, industry and science are the exclusive preserve of the government as we tend to treat it. In industry and business, the Igbo are not indolent, which is not to say that they are in politics or public service. What we have failed to do is collectively empower ourselves and leverage our contributions and economic clout. Market forces and laws of supply and demand drive innovation and productivity so long as the products are needed and marketable. Hence, it is our collective lack of focus and promotion of knowledge-based industries – the keystone of the economic strategy of any developing nation that has led to the slippery slope for the Igbo in Nigerian politics. In sum, when we talk or engage in political or power sharing bargains with our compatriots, their first consideration, which ought to be ours too is; what do the Igbo bring to the table?

Debunking the Comparative Advantage

It is no secret that we have managed to somehow turn what should be our strength to adversity. Hence, our competitiveness has unwittingly become an added burden. For starters, we no longer recognize or respect competitive edge or advantage even amongst ourselves. In so doing we stultify the expansion of our industrial base. What obtains now is that Okoye must own a beer brewery because Okafor owns one. Rather that establish a cottage industry for chemicals used for cleaning toilet bowls, Nwankwo would rather have a larger toilet roll making plant that dwarfs the one established by Nwoye two years ago. We do not really compete fairly as much as we aim to run our fellow Igbo out of the market.

The same is true in politics.

Some Igbo who have the prospect, talent, and capacity for public service never run because they lack the necessary financial resources. Some, who have the wherewithal but clearly lack the bona fides, as well as acumen, skill, and intellectual capacity, invariably will always run, if only to showcase their clout and prove that they are in charge. Individually, people in both groups won’t self-actualize. But were they able to pursue a middle ground policy of joining forces, they would come off better and might even prove a formidable force. But then again, like all things Igbo, the desire to collectively pursue the middle ground policy has been rendered useless and adverse by what we now know as the Godfather syndrome, which goes to affirm the dictum of Igbo ama eze - the Igbo is royalty or superiority averse.

While we ought not to put all our eggs in one basket, at critical junctures and under the pretext of diversity, some Igbo leaders have continued to play proxy for other ethnic groups in effort to derail prospective Igbo leaders, especially those who may truly represent our collective interests. What this proves - which increasingly does not seem to matter to us- is that individually we may be good, but not as good as we are working together. There’s an added paradox here; the Igbo aspire to achieve collectively, what they are clearly unwilling to sacrifice for individually.

The looking glass self

It takes a certain degree of self-confidence for a group or an individual to publicly admit their limitations and foibles. Anyone deconstructing the psychological profile of the Igbo persona would readily discover that the Igbo find their show of rugged individualism to be therapeutic, as if it was a pathological necessity. While appeasement is never a critical tool of visionary politics, there are visible as well as covert perils inherent in our political disposition to engage in repellant and extreme politics. In a nation awash with competing visions of history, such political tendencies are ultimately defeatist.

In Igbo politics as we now have it, the true villain is political extremism of either shade; those Igbo who no longer see Nigeria as the repository of Igbo aspiration and advancement and are therefore inclined to go it alone and those Igbo who would have us believe that the Igbo are finally on the precipice of a change in their fortune, just because a handful of them have been allowed into the other ethnic camps, where they continue to play nothing but subservient roles. In trying to reconcile the two extreme ends, which the Igbo now occupy in of the broad spectrum of Nigerian politics, consternation is inevitable. Given the realities on the ground, it could well be argued that collective Igbo power – if there was ever any such thing- has already encountered its limits.

Rightly or wrongly, the Igbo feel that they continue to get the short shrift in Nigeria. No one can be dismissive of such concerns and still be honest. But there may be some plausible explanations of the current state of play. First, in the ethnic potpourri that is Nigeria, no leadership will ever totally satisfy sectional interests and the elementary rules of equity and fairness; not an Igbo president or King Solomon reincarnated. This is the Nigerian reality. Second, one good explanation as to why the Igbo continue to wallow in self-doubt and the attending failure to realize their collective aspirations, is that we have allowed our political methods to betray our goals. Whether we like it on not, we will continue to be defined by our choices. Needless to say that we can never erase or overcome the choice we made to defend our posterity and ourselves by opting for the Biafran option. It would be foolhardy for anyone to think that the Igbo if pushed again to the same extent will not fight back. As General Efiong cautioned, “Let us not deceive ourselves that there could not be a recurrence if we fall back into our bad, old political, socioeconomic, nepotic and inter-tribal habits”.

Not from here to eternity

Brinkmanship and zero-sum game in politics are often ad hoc measures. They may yield the desirable results, but not without the immense cost of political capital. In an ethnically diverse country like Nigeria, with its unique political antecedents, the situation is even more compounded. This is a reality, we as Igbo people must live with. We must also with the reality that our destiny is in our hands and not presumably in the hands of those with whom we compete for power and revenue sharing in corporate Nigeria. Finally, to make headway, we must have a full grasp of the paradoxes we face. In this context, it is all the more noteworthy, that political or ethnic paradoxes unlike their mathematical counterparts, are more difficult to grapple with. Their quaint, emotive and fungible nature makes them largely inexplicable on many accounts. The only way, therefore, to deal with such situation is to resort to pragmatism, while taking into account all existing variables at play. Inevitably, practicality will often call for political realignment, but such realignments should not be based on personal whims and interminable banalities, as is now frequently the case with some Igbo politicians and leaders.

While I do speak for anyone but myself, I presume that a preponderance of the Igbo nation is committed to peacefully co-existing with other ethnic nationalities in one Nigeria. If this sentiment is correct, then the false-hearted and over-the-top histrionic politics which seems to be making a surreal comeback among the Igbo needs to be critically rethought if not abandoned totally. I remain mindful, that the current rage of people power revolution, which recently swept several governments out of power has its tempting allure. But changing government is one thing, dissecting or disemboweling a nation is another cup of tea altogether. In this context, Nigeria is already a case study in lessons learned.

So is there a panacea? What we should strive for is a more egalitarian society, starting first with our own Igbo communities and then extrapolating such values to the national level. Only such as society, such as was proposed by Karl Popper, will allow us to overcome the various contradictions we face, which by extension hamper our truly collective participation in national politics as well as limit the attainment of our collective aspirations. It is indeed presumptuous, to continue believing or assuming that the collective Igbo wellbeing would be best served by the symbolic and psychic reward of electing and Igbo president, without throwing up deep resentments from the other ethnic nationalities. In reality, except under distinctly despotic and fascist regimes, ethnic groups tend to fare better under the leadership of a president who is not from their stock, merely on the basis ensuring equity or compliance with constitutional dictates guaranteeing such rights and protections. Non-compliance is to invite chaos.

The fate of the Igbo in Nigeria is inextricably linked to the longevity of the nation, which is by all account in its infancy, despite being forty-five years old. Despite the dissonance of the past, concerns of the present and challenges of the future, I see that for the Igbo nation and Nigeria, the state of play which in the words of Churchill, “is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning”. Hence, in democratic nations such as our, as Samuel Brittan once put it, “ultimately what matters, is not counting heads but a society where people are free to lead their own live without fear of either the government or what their neighbor will say”. When we as Igbo people achieve this standard in any of the five Igbo states that is wholly ours, only then, would we be truly ready for prime time on the national stage, and not because we covert it, but because others will ask of such leadership from us.

Meanwhile, in a world of differences that is Nigeria, we must navigate by sight the uncharted terrain of our national politics and the attending imponderables. We must also strive to stay the course, for I believe that as Churchill once said, “we shall reach the end of our journey in good order”; perhaps not in my time, but certainly, in good order. Despite the problems created by our individualistic traits, I am convinced that the fulfillment of our collective aspirations and finding our niche in Nigeria will not linger from here to eternity.

With neither anger nor partiality, until next time, keep the law, stay impartial, and observe closely.

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Hank Eso, is a columnist for Kwenu.com. His commentaries on Nigerian politics and global issues have appeared in The New Times (Lagos), African Profile International (New York), The Nigerian And Africa Abroad, (New York), African Market News (New Jersey) and in Gamji.com.

Email: hankeso@aol.com