Challenge of Igbo Unity

The Challenge of Unity Among Igbo Political Leaders

Unity seems a strange word among the political class in Igboland, as many seem to confuse the term with uniformity. Indeed, the word seems also to upset our new political helmsmen as well as their acolytes. They all need not wear the same political cap to know what the interest of the Igbo is.

In the USA — champions of free thinkers and radical individualists — a Reverend was asked to say an opening prayer at the Kansas House of Assembly not too long ago. The Reverend Joe White in his opening prayer intoned as follows:

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask for forgiveness and to seek for direction and guidance. We know Your Word says: “Woe to those who call evil good”, but that is exactly what we have done. He continued:

We have lost out spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values

We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your word and called it Pluralism

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare

We have killed the unborn and called it choice

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem

We have abused power and called it politics

We have embezzled public funds and called it essential expenses

We have institutionalized bribery and called it “sweets of office”

We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment

“Search us oh God, and know our hearts today;cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen”.

The Minister praying for the American legislators was at the same time praying for all leaders of the world, for “we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God”. America is not the only country where anti-clericalism is in the upsurge.

With slight modifications here and there, our South East leaders at all levels should not only adopt this prayer as a daily meditation; they should make it a memorial and celebrate it. The perception in the final analysis is that we have not only failed our people politically and spiritually; we have also failed ourselves morally. Very few will beat their chests and say, “I have done it”. For all, it is truly ‘morning yet on creation day”.

We can do with some success stories from our governors who all applied for the job to govern well. They should look at their peers in the other zones and judge themselves. They will discover that unity pays. I predict that the future Igbo generations will not overlook the seeming cavalier attitude of most of these governors on matters that define their future and their rights, what to look forward to as they grow up and where they stand in comparison with their compeers in this land of disputed destiny.

The last South East Governors meeting was held October, last year, 2023. It gladdened the hearts of every Igbo man and woman, in great expectation. Great speeches were made, great papers were presented; our travails and the Igbo existential conditions were thoroughly analyzed and appreciated, and the way forward was set out. I also sent a paper, titled “Igba Boy, as a Valent Wealth Creation Model”.

A meeting took place in Government House, Enugu, with a communique issued on the 10th of August, 2023. It stated, laconically, that there is “a resolve to fight insecurity with the collaboration of the Federal Government and other stakeholders. It (also) resolved to hold a security and economic summit on a date to be announced later”. That, said the communique, represented “the summary of the long hours of the meeting”. And we ask: was that really all that transpired in a meeting that cost our tax payers millions of naira to hold? No matter.

The Owerri Summit finally held in the capital of Imo State between September 27 and 28, 2023 and resolved to end insecurity for good. Insecurity has not abated in the region. Rather, it is increasing, especially the imported type, in which some Igbo youths have been caught in the sinister web, working and collaborating with the “invaders”, and the enemies within.

The point is that people are yet to see the implementation of the resolutions of that highly-publicized Summit. Did it devolve into a mere media event? Why the delay for a zone that is expected to be in a hurry to regain its place of pride? A zone that was once credited as one of the fastest developing centers in Nigeria, if not in Africa? Our predecessors, I mean our forefathers were credited with that rapid and focused development. They did it. Are we not their heirs? Post-war Japan and Germany recovered from humiliating defeats in a record time. Can we not learn from them by putting aside elite political squabbles, individualism, consuming self-interests, rabid corruption, and local champion syndromes? Can we unite against centrifugal forces dragging Ndi Igbo to an ideologically-deceptive and nebulous centre?

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the World Trade Centre, in her contribution to the summit said, inter alia: “We have lost focus. We have lost sight of our biggest community assets. We are fragmented as a people. We don’t support each other. Instead, we attack and undermine each other. We are too individualistic”. She intoned these maledictions as a zoom participant.

I can move from reality to fiction as Iweala’s cry of agony recalls this haunting and memorable passage in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”:

“It is already too late, said Obierika sadly, “our own men and sons have joined the rank of the stranger. …if we should try to drive out the white man in Umuofia we should find it easy. There are only two of them. But what of our own people who are following their way and have been given power?”

“Does the white man understand our custom about land? How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”. (See TFA, Heinemann edition, page 124).

Yes, serious intellectual and philosophical thoughts, with consequential political relevance for contemporary Igboland. Utopia, dystopia and dysfunctionality in a blessed land where the falcon can no longer hear the falconer. Those who do not know their history will never learn from it. They die repeating its mistakes. We can still fight, if we retool our strategies.

The remonstrations from Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, a developmental economist and accomplished intellectual in her own right, are serious charges by one who knows what should conduce to sustainable development. Many other political juggernauts and some eggheads spoke with passion and pain in their voices, identifying the problems confronting our people and offering valent solutions. As I have argued severally, individual survival cannot ensure group survival. As the Igbo adage says, “Ubiam di na-obodo ebe otu onye nwere aku”.

The Uncoordinated Fight Against Terror

Similarly, the massification of banditry and the daily abduction of persons in the South East zone is a haunting, exasperating existential reality, an aspect of a failed state. The fact is that nobody is secure in our zone today and insecurity in any part of Igboland is insecurity in all parts of the land. Our landmass is perhaps the smallest in the country and we should be able to protect it all.

Our approach to fighting insecurity has remained haphazard. It lacks not only the sharing of intelligence-gathering, but the use of modern technology, the harmonization of efforts ,and the necessary political will to consolidate a group strategy.

Ebebeagu, South East Zonal response to these abnormalities have failed. Like the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, insecurity in our climes has become the ”new normal”. It need not be. The agony of our people has been excruciating and as long as these inequities persist, our Think Home Policy will fail. Economic insecurity impedes development in various dimensions, and affects people’s freedoms and rights. The presence of military checkpoints all over Igboland is enough to inform the wary that all is not well and the ubiquity of that presence may be a deliberate effort by the Leviathan to keep the Igbo in check. To the triumphalist, it is a patriotic duty; but for the visioner, like the Reverend Joe White of Kansas City, it is a clear violation of human rights, of the right to move about lawfully, without harassment bordering — especially — on economic disempowerment. Why not challenge this inhuman policy in the law courts of the land?

Our political elite, which is less than two percent of the population, may be basking in the deceit of self-aggrandizement and opulence for themselves and members of their family, but they must remember that these are illusory. Self-survival is not as enduring as group survival. State failure is like the Frankenstein monster. It leaves itself vulnerable from all sides. Our cognoscenti must stop being on the sidelines or being used to perpetuate bad governance, seeing evil and calling it good. They must stand up to be counted, and stop being enablers of bad governance.

May the prayers of the Reverend Joe Wright, the wisdom of fictional Obierika, the clairvoyance of the illustrious Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, and the sagaciousness of the late sage, Chinua Achebe, inspire and guide our leaders.

Prof. Ihechukwu Chiedozie Madubuike,
Educationist, Public Intellectual and Author, The Igbo Challenge in Nigeria (without recrimination and rancor)

Abuja, July 1, 2024