KWENU: Our Culture, Our Future

The primacy of political or economic power The Igbo dilemma  (3)

ACHO ORABUCHI

Dallas, Texas, USA

aorabuchi@netzero.net

Sunday, October 30, 2005

In this entrancing concluding part of “The primacy of political or economic power: The Igbo dilemma”, Professor Anya O. Anya summarized pragmatic solutions that would ascend the opportunities for the re-emergence of Igbo prominence in today’s Nigerian socio-political environment. The excerpts.

The Challenge of Nigerian Economic and Political Development

The challenge of development remains how to provide the basic necessities of life for the citizens.  Since 1980, the poverty level has been increasing – from less than 40% of the population to the current figure of over 70% of the population.  Food, shelter and education have been unaffordable for the majority of our citizens.  The statistics have been much worse in some cases in the Igbo heartland.  It has always been paradoxical that a country so richly blessed with natural resources can be as desperately poor as the figures indicate Nigeria currently is.  Mismanagement and corruption have often been held out as the reason for this sorry state of affairs.  Given the fact that the industry and drive of our people has not been translated into good economic opportunities for all our people, including non-Igbos in the present climate of discriminatory policies engendered by our lack of access to political power, what must we do?

It seems attractive to suggest that the answer lies in bulldozing our way into political power in the expectation that once there, we can use our new found access to redress the political injustices.  This is the premise of the implicit but unstated logic of those who clamor for a “Nigerian President of Igbo extraction”.  But in my view, this is an overly simplistic reduction of a complex issue.  First of all, politics in Nigeria is driven by access to money.  So, economic power is what drives Nigerian politics.  In the current state of impoverishment of the generality in Igbo land, it is obvious that the economic basis for the political drive for power does not at present exist.  Additionally, we must remember that politics is not only a game of numbers but also the art of the possible.  In the light of the unstated but real hostility to Igbo interests by the rest of Nigeria, Igbos, without extraordinary help in extraordinary circumstances cannot on their own and under existing realities generate the momentum for such a momentous breakthrough.

The answer would seem to lie in our willingness to develop and pursue a long-term strategic plan that will systematically address the obstacles to our political ascendance and relevance.  The generation before ours achieved such relevance in thirty years – 1934-1964.  We can in this age of globalization achieve the equivalent in 15 years of careful planning and fastidious execution.  In this regard, a major obstacle that we have not dealt with is the fact that the population of Igbos are dispersed throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria and this massive numbers have not been organized into a coherent and effective political force nor have we put in place the machinery to exploit the advantage.  What is more, the authorities in Nigeria have deliberately denied us the opportunity to utilize our large numbers for effective political advantage by refusing ethnic affiliations to be reflected in the census data of Nigeria.  Those who clamor for a “Nigerian President of Igbo extraction” have not even started to think through the political consequences of this deliberate and undemocratic approach to national planning.  Obviously, what is called for is a strategic plan that is anchored on the need to build and repair relationships with our non-Igbo Nigerian compatriots starting from the people of the old Eastern Nigeria and beyond.  There is an overriding economic reason why building or restoring these bridges are vital at this point.  The Nigerian economy is currently built on the oil and gas resources found in the Niger Delta including Igboland.  Indeed, it has been claimed that much of the gas reserves onshore in Nigeria are in fact in Igboland.  Thus, in unity with our compatriots, we can address together the anomalous and unjust situation where those whose contributions to the resource base of the nation have been excluded from the political benefits of those resources and have deliberately been ignored in the political calculus can be settled once and for all.  In a different context, I had referred to this area centered on Port Harcourt within a radius of two hundred kilometers as Nigeria’s circle of development.  I had then suggested that until this area is developed to drive Nigerian development, Nigeria’s economy is unlikely to go anywhere.  Indeed, the search for a “Nigerian President of Igbo extraction” would be infinitely easier if a political cooperation pact existed between the peoples of what is now South-South and the people of the South East.  And we must not forget that true blood Igbo are also bona fide citizens of these states.  They, indeed, can be the vehicle for a “Nigerian President of Igbo extraction.”

Globalization, Culture and the Igbo Future

In our plans for the future, we must take into account a number of issues of relevance in any effort to evolve a long term strategic plan.  The first is the factor of globalization and its impact on the global economy and consequently on the Nigerian economy.  Second is the existence of highly trained and competent professionals of Igbo extraction scattered in the Diaspora - in North America and Western Europe.  The third is the progressive abandonment of the cultural roots of the Igbo nation by the new generation of educated Igbo and its possible consequences on the future of the Igbo in Nigeria and the world.

One of the factors responsible for the progressive impoverishment of the Igbo heartland is the fact that the Nigerian Federal authorities developed no economic infrastructures in the Igbo heartland and did not encourage any other initiatives in that regard.  Under the impetus of globalization Nigeria has been forced to pursue a new economic reform agenda in which privatization, liberalization and the attraction of foreign investments are key planks.  The agenda aims to make the private sector the engine of growth.  It is therefore conceivable that with good planning, honest and good governance structures and a vibrant private sector, a new start can be made in Igboland.  Given the industry, drive and enterprise of the Igbo, an economy driven by the private sector will be anchored on the tenets of entrepreneurship and this can only be to the advantage of the Igbo nation.  To that extent, the future for Igbo empowerment is secure but this should be anchored on the productive cohort of the population – the youth as well as on the professional expertise and experience available in the Diaspora.  You, our compatriots must now be the drivers of a new effort to build and run world-class productive firms oriented towards world export trade.  The Taiwanese and Singaporean models come to mind.

In this regard, it must be remembered that the successful Asian tigers except Malaysia have been built on Chinese cultural formations.  Thus, in our drive to re-engineer the development of Igboland, we must be cognizant of the fact that persistence of our cultural roots could be an important factor in economic development.  Just as the network that subsists among the Chinese have been used to build new economic networks and initiatives, the Igbo have the challenge to repeat the Chinese feat within an African context.  Unfortunately, two characteristics emerging amongst the modern and educated Igbo can militate against the effort.  The first is the facility with which we are wont to imitate the habits of other cultures without effort to adapt them to the corpus of Igbo cultural usages.  We are presently bringing up a younger generation of Igbo by name only since they are not by sensibility Igbo.  We know that while we now have Igbo households where the parents do speak Igbo language, their children cannot speak a word of Igbo and this is often regarded as a sign of progress!  This is unlikely to happen in a Chinese household or in an Israeli household or to come nearer home, it will not happen in a Yoruba household.

Concluding Remarks

There is backbreaking work to be done in the management of our politics within the Nigerian context.  There is grueling wok to be done in the economic empowerment and redirection of our people. The Igbo in the Diaspora hold the key.  However, the padlock remains firmly locked in the Igbo heartland.  The key can only function if those of us back home build on the basis of sincerity, competence and integrity a new framework of cooperation and diplomatic engagement with you and with our other Nigerian compatriots.  It is the challenge of our generation.

Thanks to Prof. Anya!

The primacy of political or economic power The Igbo dilemma  (1)

The primacy of political or economic power The Igbo dilemma  (2)

The primacy of political or economic power The Igbo dilemma  (3)