The gathering storm: Rebuilding Igbo capacity in today's world

KWENU! Our culture, our future

The gathering storm: Rebuilding Igbo capacity in today’s world

CHINEDU MADUABUM

Onicha-Ado – Nigeria

A keynote contribution submitted to Pan Ndiigbo Foundation USA, Inc. (PNF USA, Inc.) on the occasion of the All Igbo Political Summit in Dallas, Texas USA on the 11^th – 12^th of July 2003.

INTRODUCTION

This is not the first time and it is not likely going to be the last time Ndiigbo have gathered to discuss about the Igbo course within the Nigerian political atmosphere. This particular gathering to me is very unique going by the agenda. Thus I would like to call it “The Gathering Storm.” I have no doubt in mind that at the end of this gathering, something remarkable would have been achieved. This gathering is meant to look at how to correct the mistake of the just- concluded general elections and, most importantly, to rebuild the capacity of Ndiigbo in today’s world.

THE LAST ELECTIONS

If it were not of the general elections maybe this political gathering would not have come up. It is only after a mistake has been done that people seem to sit to discuss on the possible ways of correcting it. The last elections to me was a shame to the Igbo leadership, more especially to Ohanaeze Ndiigbo. A writer from Abuja described the organization as a bird that could not fly. The role of the “moneybags” was so disgraceful. All these are now history, and we think we should move forward. I believe we should move forward, but I strongly believe also that for us to move forward, we MUST have to cut the “tree from the root” to avoid any reoccurrence. I do not think any decision taken in this meeting will be favorable to the cheated Anambra State senators and legislators as long as they still pursue their right in the court of law and the person who seem to have single-handedly designed their detriment -- Chris Uba -- is one of the invitees to this gathering. On the presidential elections, it was indeed shameful because Ndiigbo had the highest number of presidential candidates. All efforts made to arrive at a consensus candidate proved abortive. In this particular situation, the problem is far beyond personal interest, which most people seem to ascribe to. I have therefore identified the following as the possible reasons for the poor outing by Ndiigbo in the last elections.

1. EVIL FACTIONS: The Igbo political platform is highly factional. The spirit of factions has so chopped the Igbo society that one can only but imagines. According to George Crabble, “faction is the demon of discord armed with power to do endless mischief, and intent only on destroying whatever opposes its progress. Woe to that state (people) in which it has found an entrance.” I find this spirit as one of the reasons for the dismal performance by Ndiigbo in the last general elections. There are so many small interests groups of “money bags” within the Igbo political terrain that always influence the collective interest of Ndiigbo for their own morbid aggrandizement. These people have always had their ways. I sited Enugu and Anambra above as the two states that suffered a lot under this syndrome. Though there is bound to be political factions, I may ask, how many Hausa or Yoruba factions are working against the collective interest of their kinsmen? One would have expected someone like Chris Uba, who is related to Mr. President, to use that God-given advantage of his for a positive purpose of Anambra and Ndiigbo as a whole. Rather all he could achieve is a long lasting division among his kinsmen. How then do you think Ndiigbo can work together with such a spirit lingering in their midst?

2. AFTERMATH OF THE WAR: The war that was fought in 1967-70 has done a lot of psychological damage to those born within and immediately after the period. Ironically, most of the “moneybags” in the Igbo political arena are seriously affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. The problems associated with war are death and disability; rape, forced prostitution, and displacement of women and children; disruption of social-psychological comfort; division of economic resources; and destruction of environment. These problems were immense during the civil war and have strongly affected the Igbo political/religious/economical life-style. The war caused more division than unity in Igboland. These people saw their loved ones die in their presence; saw their mothers and/or sisters being rapped. These incidences, when recalled create lot of negative impact on the person. Since after the war, Ndiigbo have not been able to politically organize themselves, leaving most of these “moneybags” to capitalize on the loophole. This particular problem will be very hard to solve from the human perspective. Most of those born within and immediately after the war have acquired material wealth more than those born before the war, and with money being the order of the day in Igbo land; I strongly believe we will require the help of our ancestors for divine intervention.

3. POSSESSIVE INDIVIDUALISM: The idea of collectivism is a “by the way” discussion in Igboland. We prefer a situation where everybody will like to make himself a celebrity among his kinsmen. Many people have looked at this problem as merely personal interest but it is not so because in the case of personal interest, the person could easily be said to be selfish but in this case, every one wants to be worshiped as God. Contrasted to having a company and sharing the shares among others, the Igbo man will like to own everything and control everything. One cannot say that the role played by Chris Uba and Emeka Offor were merely selfishly oriented. Rather both of them wanted to be regarded as the god of Anambra politics and, no matter the means required to achieve the goal, they would like to do it. Thus the seemingly dubious act of Chris Uba in Anambra State over and above the collective will of the masses. This particular situation will require a capital punishment from the elders of the land but, now that those who make up the “elders council” in Igbo land are the “moneybags,” one will only have to rest on the Lord for his will to prevail.

4. MISREPRESENTATION: This is one area that is so pronounced among the political elites of Igbo land. If there is one factor that was so visible in contributing to the dismal performance of Ndiigbo in the last elections, then it is hypocrisy. Right before the elections, there have been series of meeting among Ndiigbo towards producing an Igbo president. It wasn’t long after the last meeting held at Enugu by Ohanaeze that Iwuanyanwu quickly took the appointment as campaign chairman in Igboland for Obasanjo. Okadigbo made his kinsmen to believe that running as the vice presidential candidate for Buhari does not mean betrayal. I wander what it meant; maybe to compensate Ndiigbo for having lost out in PDP. At the end of it all, Ndiigbo came out with the highest number of presidential candidates after all effort towards getting a consensus candidate failed. Thus we failed at the polls. I strongly suggest that the leadership of Ohanaeze be dissolved and the organization fused into the proposed Igbo National Assembly because a political body that cannot control its people is not worth existing. It only shows that the body is not capable of controlling and handling the affairs of the people.

DEMOCRACY AND NDIIGBO

Of all these reasons identified and unidentified, one major area that many people seem not to understand as the major problem within the Igbo circle is the impact of democracy in Igbo land and its populace as a whole. The ideas and principles of democracy are so wonderful that one hardly imagine it to be one of the major reasons for social-political unrest the world over. America is gradually converting the entire world into a democratic village yet there is still unrest in virtually all the countries that democracy has been established, including America herself. Democracy has not been able to achieve its basic principles of equal right to all even in the American society. Rather, it has caused long lasting division in every society it is planted. Nigeria, which is one of the victims of democratic syndrome, seem to me the most negatively affected among all the nations of the so-called "Third World."

In Nigeria, Ndiigbo have benefited the least of democratic dividends and there is no hope of any future benefit for these people. Igboland -- just as the African society that was born from a society where western brand of democracy had little or no relevance on their traditional socio-political life style -- now finds itself in a crossroad of western psycho-manipulating, socio-political system otherwise known as democracy. Stocked in this crossroad, the way back became so controversial and the way forward a hard nut to crack. Frustration took the center stage. The story even till date is still “looking for the way forward for Ndiigbo.” It is impossible to look forward without successfully redressing the past. It is the idea of the west to always look at the effect of a contemporary problem without fully redressing the cause of the problem. Let us not be deceived, as long as we continue to practice western democracy, we can never be united to accomplish our dream in this geographical entity called Nigeria and the world as a global village. We must unite ourselves under what Dr. Amaechi Chizota calls igwecracy or theocratic-democracy so as to speak with one voice in Nigeria.

We were never democrats of the western brand and what Ndiigbo practiced was “Theocratic-Democracy,” in other words Igwecracy. The Igwe in this perspective, even though chosen by God, will require the sympathy of the people in order to rule. That is to say whoever must lead, even though divinely selected or chosen, will need the people’s support to lead. There was homogeneity in the Igbo society. All these have been seriously destroyed by the adoption of western democracy.

Democracy of this western sort -- to my judgment -- has caused more harm to the Igbo society than we can imagine and we seem not to understand. I will rather spare us the details of how this brand of democracy has rocked Ndiigbo and African society as whole. I will instead briefly touch the area of gerontocracy, as destroyed by bureaucratic democracy -- which to my judgment has contributed to a very large proportion to the failure of Ndiigbo in Nigeria.

GERONTOCRACY

Gerontocracy as we are aware is the scientific study of old age or in order words and in the Igbo cosmic cosmological philosophy is an elder-centered society or gerocentricism. In pre-western democratic Igbo society, the roles of elders were mainly to provide leadership, guidance, and control. Loss of gerontocratic rulership is one area that I so much regret whenever I am to discuss it. This aspect has been replaced today by the western option “bureaucracy.” The roles of elders have been replaced totally by the rule of offices. Take a terrible situation where a lady of maybe 30 years is an inspector and the father a recruit. The man comes in and salutes her and calls her “Oga madam.” These are some of the absurdities we have been able to achieve under democracy. Everything has been turned around and we seem not to see it, how young materially influenced people in our society are fast taking away the role of our elders. Our elders have been pushed to the dying bed. Thus in Igboland today the “moneybags” have become the elders of the land. This area is one we MUST seriously look into if we have to move forward.

The mode of selection of the Igwe in Igboland is no longer divinely oriented as the case before, except for some few areas like Agu-Ukwu Nri that still maintains the old tradition. The selections of traditional rulers are now a do-or-die affair characterized by violence and antagonism. Thus, the questionable-character leaders we produce today. How do we expect to move ahead when the root is porous? If we must move ahead, then we will have to come down and address these issues from the grassroots and not mainly the national level. Thus, the roles of the elderly ones are very essential. I have therefore in my conclusion submitted a few proposals that will go a long way towards assisting us build a formidable Igbo society around gerontocracy.

CONCLUSION

In my conclusion, I would like to submit the following proposal as a way to moving Ndiigbo forward:

(a) I strongly believe and advocate that we MUST have to return to the rule of elders; a society that is centered on gerontocracy rather than a materially influenced one, which we find ourselves today. We can make this bold step by forming a 24 man elders’ council that will reflect the defunct Biafran Republic. I advocate they serve as the highest ruling body in the proposed Igbo National Assembly or any other body that will engulf Ndiigbo into one fold.

(b) On the area of our constitution, we are indeed a unique people and as I stated in one of my articles; “our culture is the first dictionary of the bible” there is nothing visible or invisible that is not embedded in our customs and culture. All we need is to constitute a body of elders, fused with some scholars to review our culture in all aspect of life. By so doing, we would have written a constitution without knowing that will bind us for good.

(c) Having an Igbo parliament is a wonderful idea and I praise all those who had suggested such a wonderful innovation. I believe when our culture is fully reviewed for our collective interest, it will serve as a constitutional guide to a propose 300 man parliament that will reflect the entire Igbo speaking people and to Ndiigbo as whole.

Of all these suggestions, the one area I have not touched and which most people see to be very complex is on the leadership, which most people within and around us have made mockery of time without number. We need some one to speak as a leader and without being told, it is going to be the most difficult aspect in whatever decision we wish to take. I believe the position of the Igbo leader is squarely divine and no matter what we do, we cannot get a leader by our human effort. I have no doubt in mind that the Igbo leader must be an Igbo and he is presently among us: authoritatively I speak. The Bible even confirms that “I will raise among you, someone who shall be your leader.” Let us therefore not be in a hurry but allow the Most High (Chukwu) to unveil to us that person who will lead Ndiigbo into the Promised Land. All we need is to do our part as humans by setting the platform for the emergence of this anointed leader of ours and so far, having an Igbo Assembly and an Igbo parliament and a possible 24-man elders' council will be a grand step taken towards achieving this goal. I also want to say strongly that any day Ndiigbo will cry for a leader, they shall see one who is already in their midst; so says prophecy.

All these may sound unreasonable to some and reasonable to others, but I tell you my brothers and sisters of this our great fold that “all it takes to form an ocean is a small source of water.” Returning to our roots to redress and find solution to our predicaments is the most perfect means towards “Rebuilding the Capacity of Ndiigbo in Today’s World”

I wish you all a wonderful conference, and I hope it will one day come down to the East so as to have more interesting participants who cannot afford traveling to America, which to me is just unreasonable to discuss a family issue like such in a foreign soil.

Thank you all

Umuigbo, ekene m unu

Our culture is our identity