BY REV FR GERALD NWAFOR
I felt laid back when people began to shout about the police officer who told a Yoruba man on the road that if he were an Igbo man, he should have detained him. There was a national outcry, but I was not surprised at all since I have been reading in most of the documents concerning the homogeneity of Nigeria,which is based solely on the marginalization of Igbos.
My uncle told me what happened in 1999 at the Jos convention.Alhaji Shehu Shagari organized the Northern leaders to vote for Ekwueme to become the presidential candidate of the PDP (People’s Democratic Party), since the party was an offshoot of G-34, of which Alex Ekwueme was the founding father. Everyone was on board; it took only a word from Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), the former military head of state, to scuttle everything. He went to the elders of the North and told them that nominating Ekwueme as the presidential candidate of the PDP would make a mess of the 1983 coup, which was solely carried out to stop an Igbo man from getting into power in 1987. Now the same Igbo man is being paraded as the presidential nominee. That night in Jos, my uncle cried like a baby. He asked the people what the crime of the Igbo man was in the Nigerian equation? There was no reply to his question.
We all recollect how Buhari, as the head of State in 1983-1985,voted for a man from the Niger Republic to become the secretary of the OAU rather than an Igbo man from Nigeria. The adage said, “How many I would count, how many would I leaveuncounted” (Aga-agu one ghara ibe ya). Although, the enemy will always find brothers and sisters who are gullible to use them to diminish the value of the Igbo people.
In 1913, a place called Igwe-Ocha (white hill/heaven) was renamed Port Harcourt to honor the white man who was the British secretary in charge of exportation of coal from Enugubefore the amalgamation of Nigeria. The people of Port Harcourt are now saying that they are not Igbos simply because their name was changed. Because I was named Gerald, would that make me British or French? I have listened to the opinions of the paid masters and their vassals to prove that they were no longer Igbos. The only lesson I have about history for them is that you do not cover pregnancy with your hands (Ada-ekpu afo ime aka); truth will come out when it is time to come out.
The police officer was in his forties; that is to say he was not there during the Civil War, but the prejudice against the Igbos is so evident in the system that he was very brave to tell someone in his face that if he were Igbo, he could have arrested him. I have told my family and friends to always be calm in front of the man with a gun, especially when they are a uniformed officer. You do not know what they were told about you and your race. I have driven around Nigeria before the advent of Boko Haram. If you drive from Onitsha to Enugu to Nsukka before you go into North-Central, there are over 30 police checkpoints, but immediately you cross the boundary into Northern Nigeria, the checkpoint disappears completely, and you ask the question why? The Igbo territory is still under occupation since after the Civil War. How can you explain that Nigerian police is about 350,000 and 200, 000 are located in 5 states of the east, and the other 150,000 are in 31 states of the federation. What does that tell you if not to police the Igbopeople like criminals?
Our brothers across the Niger, which is Delta State, are claiming that they are not Igbo when it is politically convenient, but when the system wants to create one more Igbo state, they realize that they are Igbo in name, culture, and tradition. They were paid to deny the Igbos before, during, and after the Civil War, but you ask what they have gained from the Nigerian government? He who denied his brother to win an enemy should be a fool to think that the enemy would trust him.
I have listened to the Governor of Plateau State saying that theyapologize to the Igbos because of the part they played during the Civil War. Beat me once, shame on you; beat me twice, shame on me. I do not think any Igbo person should fall for that kangaroo apology. We know what happened during the war, and we know the part all the Nigerian ethnic nationalities played. People were put in a train from Sokoto to be sent back to the east (Enugu, Port Harcourt and Aba). The train crossed all the core-north without any problem, but in the middle-belt (North central) it was stopped and the people massacred and loaded back into the train for the easterners to carry their corpses. How can you explain that in one line? Now it is election time in Plateau State, and you want the Igbos to vote for you, and you were telling them 60 years later that you were apologizing for the part you played in the Civil War. Governor, please stophurting us more.
Finally, I advise my Igbo brothers to be vigilant. Do not expect too much from Nigeria. We are industrious people; we are capitalists by nature. We had democratic institutions before the arrival of the colonial masters; Nigerians are jealous of you. Be careful (Akubuilo); progress and success attract jealousy and envy. In 1983, when the military took over, all the political dramatic personae were arrested and tried. All the Igbogovernors were jailed, and the northern governors were kept in their houses, called house arrest. The climax was the president and the vice president (Shagari and Alex). The military junta put the vice president in jail for 60 years while the president was said to be free of any wrongdoing and was kept under house arrest. It was at this ruling that Fela Anikulapo Kuti asked the pertinent question in the Nigerian context, “If a bus got into an accident for reckless driving, who should go to prison? Driver or conductor?” He concluded that the Nigerian military junta jailed the conductor and allowed the driver to go scot-free. Alex Ekwueme, the vice president who is from the Igbo race, was jailed, and that was the price of being Igbo in Nigeria today. Shagari, the president from the North, was not jailed simply because he is from the North. The Igbo should build and rebuild themselves; we do not wait for the central government to butter our bread or sugar our tea. Thanks to Governor Otti and his likes. Igbos will not die; they will live and take their proper position of the days of yore.
