KWENU: Our Culture, Our Future

Dropping Igbo as a national language:  A mistake or insensitivity

Acho Orabuchi

Dallas, Texas

aorabuchi@netzero.net

Thursday, April 28, 2005

With all the cynicisms surrounding the past administrations, and to some extent this one, any action or inaction of the government is viewed with suspicion. Distrust, unfortunately, precipitated by lack of faith in government, including perceived or real years of marginalization of a segment of the country. When the news about the exclusion of Igbo as a national language in the draft constitution broke, it definitely heightened the people’s skeptical feelings of the government.

Section 55 of the 1999 Constitution provides for Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, and English as languages for conducting business in the National Assembly. The draft constitution to the on-going National Political Reforms Conference conspicuously left out Igbo as one of the national languages for conducting business in the National Assembly. People, particularly the Igbo, are not taking it as a joke; they are taking it seriously. In fact, the omission of Igbo language in the draft constitution has the potential to destabilize the country.

On April 24, 2005, Pan Ndi Igbo Foundation USA, Inc. issued a press statement entitled, “Ndi-Igbo in the Diaspora, under the auspices of Pan Ndi-Igbo Foundation USA, Inc. (PNF USA), strongly demand an explanation for excluding Igbo as one of the national languages” that captured the sentiments of many Nigerians in the Diaspora. The excerpts:

“Ndi-Igbo in the Diaspora, under the auspices of Pan Ndi-Igbo Foundation USA, Inc. (PNF USA), strongly demand a thorough and honest explanation for and an immediate reversal of the alleged moves to drop Igbo as a national language. We are incensed about any attempt to dehumanize us by relegating Igbo to the bottom of all bottoms! The alleged move to drop Igbo language as a national language is an affront to the entire Igbo nation; it amounts to declaring a war on the people of Igbo decent. This war by the federal government is regarded as a war to exterminate the Igbo by obliterating their heritage, culture, history, and their language from the national scene. It cannot stand!”

“The provision of section 55 of the 1999 Constitution has Igbo language as one of the languages for conducting business in the National Assembly. Meanwhile, the purported draft constitution to the on-going National Political Reforms Conference did not include Igbo as one of the national languages. Rather, it included Yoruba, Hausa, and English as languages for conducting business in the National Assembly. This move or attempt has to be fully explained and corrected. We cannot let this happen!”

“This action is divisive and a disservice to the country that is already plagued by religious and ethnic clashes. Our collective focus should be on fight against corruption and not on taking divisive actions.”

“This capricious act, whether commission or omission, to further marginalize the Igbo will be resisted with all we’ve got. It will be met with a stiff resistance. Make no mistake about this!”

“Sadly, it is our understanding that Ojo Maduekwe was on the committee that drafted or reviewed the document to drop Igbo as a national language. If this is true, he has a lot of questions to answer to Ndi-Igbo. If he did see the document and did nothing to correct it, his action is tantamount to treason against Ndi-Igbo everywhere.”

“We beckon on all Nigerians to join Ndi-Igbo in ensuring equity in this country. Whatever the motives of the government were, it should be advised that the Igbo should not be used as pawns any longer.”

In another press statement, signed by Dr. Chris Aniedobe, the author of "Do Not Let Us Die" and dated April 20, 2005, enunciated the following:

“Fellow Nigerians: We consider, as tabloidal, the alleged proposal to relegate Igbo language as one of the principal mediums of discourse in the National Assembly.  We give it no credence whatsoever. Such a proposal, if true, could only have come from the minds of mischief-makers eager to tweak the pressurized nerves of the Igbo immersed in Obasanjo’s hyperbaric political space.  It is an affront which accosts the sensibilities of any reasonable Igbo man for the mere fact that it was even contemplated, even as a comic interlude, at a time when the Nation is engaged in a futile effort to find her hopelessly lost self.”

“The institutionalized marginalization of the Igbo has reached its nadir and let it go forth today, that acts by any persons further directed at marginalizing the Igbo will be deemed hostile and will invite adverse consequences.  The Igbo will further deem such acts as amounting to constructive eviction from the Nigerian state and will take whatever steps necessary to preserve our sovereignty.”

“It has become increasingly clear that the hastily convened National conference was calculated to foist one man's hidden agenda on the rest of Nigerians. It is an unhelpful exercise and the collective will of progressive Nigerians will repudiate attempts to erase the gains of 44 years of growing up.  Because 44 years is a terribly long time to waste, we ask all Nigerians to remain vigilante.  We ask the Igbo to brush off that insult, as the product of a few misguided wishful thinkers, who struggle daily to come to terms with the irrepressibility of the Igbo.” 

“We further ask the Igbo to continue to relentlessly pursue the ideals of a united and progressive Nigeria, for which countless Igbo men and women lost their lives, for so long as the other ethnic groups in Nigeria see those ideals as worth aspiring for.

It is so stated.”

Ethnicity is a volatile issue in any pluralist society. In an environment such as Nigeria, caution should always precede action.