Igbos Should Quit Playing Marginal Politcs

… Prof. Nwala

Professor Tim Uzodinma Nwala is former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nzukka, UNN; acclaimed father of African Philosophy and a founding member of the People’s Democratic Party. He is also the president of Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), a non-governmental organization of Igbo intelligentsia, elders, clergy, and patriotic Igbo figures, whose vision is to rebuild and develop the Igbo nation, and advance the spirit of her culture and civilization. In this interview with Uzo Chikere, he enumerates the challenges facing the Nigerian polity with regard to the ethnic nations in particular.

Excerpts:

What does Buhari administration portend for the Igbo nation in Nigeria?

The election has come and gone, results from various places, irrespective of how genuine they are, have been officially announced and accepted. That installs the All Progressives Congress (APC) into power. That power, I must stress, is the power to manage the affairs of the Federation in accordance with its Constitution and not the power to own the Federation. It means that in terms of resource and power-sharing, appointments and allocations, the APC government has the responsibility to supervise them. In doing so, the APC government shall ensure that every geo-political zone and every state gets its entitlement according to the Constitution, whether they voted for the APC or not.

It is important to underscore the point that resource and power-sharing in the Nigerian Federation is among the geo-political zones and states of the Federation. It is not among the political parties. The PDP is watching to see how the APC government manages the affairs of the country, the masses are also watching. The peoples of the South-East and South-South where the APC did not win much, the people there are also watching. They did not vote for the APC for various reasons. Maybe they voted for the PDP as the devil they know rather than the one they were not sure of. If the APC does the right thing, the South-East can swing to it.

The Igbo nation voted as a result of their past experiences. The Igbo situation is that of utter neglect. Even the Jonathan government which they voted for was not fair to them. Nigeria has six zones and these zones are political units for equity and fairness. We do hope that the APC government will convince the Igbo nation that not voting for them will not give rise to further marginalization. 

The different political parties that constitute the APC are jostling for their shares. Can the Igbo nation use the ladder of the PDP to accomplish their political advancement?

Ndigbo have to organize themselves in relation to other ethnic nationalities and zones. It depends on how they understand the game of politics in a multi-ethnic society, and how strong they are in protecting their own interest. Whether they are in the PDP or the APC, they can play significant roles and effectively protect their interest if they are internally united and focused. I don’t know how strong at the moment they are in the PDP despite that we founded the party. I wrote the first Constitution of the PDP. The PDP was a child of the G-34, of which former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, Prof Jerry Gana and I put together. At a point, it was obvious that Alex Ekwueme would become the party’s Presidential candidate. I remembered that most people within the leadership of the G-34 and the nascent PDP agreed that the Presidency would go to the South-East. But what happened along the line shows that the Igbo nation is very marginal in the nation’s polity.

When President Olusegun Obasanjo came to the PDP, it became his private property. If he did not like your face, he would throw you out, no matter your position. That was how about five chairmen emerged in the PDP when it was the turn of the Igbo nation. The same happened in the Senate Presidency. I was the first to challenge the privatization of the PDP under President Obasanjo leadership when his men rigged out the late SenatorSunday Awoniyi and myself in the PDP party election of 1999. Both of us were on the same ticket; he was running as chairman while I was running as secretary with General Idada running as assistant secretary, and as soon as I discovered that the courts were either too shy or too timid to defend democracy, I felt it was futile to continue waging a legal battle in defense of internal democracy within the party.

 In the APC today, the Igbos may still be playing marginal roles. I don’t know how far the Igbo leadership in the APC was privy to the recent game at the National Assembly. That is where the Alaigbo Foundation comes in. We know that this nation requires the balance of interests, equity and justice and among the federating ethnic nationalities to survive. Instability will continue to reign as long as any one section or combination of sections tries to dominate the others.

The Igbos cannot continue to blame others alone for their weakness within the Nigeria Federal System. But the part of the blame lies with the Igbo themselves. They have not understood the dynamics of a genuine federalism. The trouble however is that there is no genuine federal system yet in Nigeria. The present system makes effective location of political power in one section possible. This encourages Igbo politicians to play second fiddle in order to survive economically and politically. Consequently, each of them is looking towards somebody in the North or in the South-West for appointments. I tell you regrettably that under the APC, nobody outside the South-West will determine what any-one from that area will get out of the various appointments due to them except the South-West leadership. Similarly, nobody outside the North will also do that for the North. But among the Igbo, whatever anybody gets must be through his patron either from the North or the South-West. Good materials in the North are known and nurtured from childhood. The Igbo should learn the art of the game and stop complaining.

They should unite with the South-West to demand a genuine Federal structure, what many call true federalism. After that they should ensure internal unity and focus to ensure they get what is due to them.

One driving force of the ADF is to encourage investments in the South East. How does the body create a smooth environment for this?

What the various governments in the South East have been emphasizing in their policy statements in recent times are in tandem with the objectives of the ADF. We shall work with them, continue to encourage them, and provide the necessary intellectual back force on a larger scale within the context of a regional setting. We shall work for greater regional integration. Everybody knows that the Igbo land is neglected and the solution has to start from state governments. Unity of purpose and cooperation is imperative for the survival of the Igbo nation. Governor Willy Obiano is doing well in Anambra. The governors of Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi and Rivers are thinking in this manner. ADF will help articulate the ideological and requisite program that will boost the economy and social system in Igbo-land to make the area attractive for both local and foreign investors to invest in Igbo-land.

The ADF launched a two-volume book recently. What is the goal of the book?

He who does not know where rains start to beat him will not know where he dried his body when or how the rain stopped. The person won’t even know what kind of shelter he needs. The book – Igbo Nation: History & the Challenges of Rebirth and Development is an excursion into the chequered history of Ndigbo, showing the challenges they have faced and continued to face, the enormous resources, human and material available to them; their strengths and weaknesses as a nation and race.  It is clear that the problem of the Igbo is a result of the colonial history.

The Igbo nation was in the forefront of self-governance. People do not emphasize the fact that even before the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroun (NCNC), the Igbo women had set the anti-colonial ball rolling. That was in 1929 when they assaulted the citadel of colonial administration. The British called it The Aba Women’s Riot, but it is more appropriately called “The Aba Women’s Resistance against the colonial exploitation. Herbert Macaulay and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe were the doyens of Nigeria’s nationalism, but Zik was the focal figure. Many Igbo leaders were very vibrant in that struggle.

The colonial masters realized that they must pull out, but they planned on how to pull out and still have control of the territories they set up for purposes of continued exploitations. They planned it in such a way that they left the powers in the hands of the people they could work with. The Igbo were not the people they could work with because they felt that the Igbo wanted the black man to be in charge of his destiny. In trying to prevent that in the case of Nigeria, the British tried to make the Igbo look like an enemy and also make other ethnic nationalities antagonize them.

The relationship between the Igbo and the North in the early days was cordial. Most of the Igbo leaders were born in the North. It is only at the political level that tension existed. Remember that Nzeogwu executed his coup with northerners among whom he was born and grew up, and not Igbos. His name is Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. That showed the kind of nationalistic outlook then. Zik and Ojukwu remembered with pride their birth places at Zungeru in the North.

ADF is trying to get our people and their neighbours within the Nigerian Federation understand and appreciate this reality of our history. The British created a structure that fouled the air for their own self-interest. But the military and politicians are the main culprits and forging an inequitable Federal structure that continues to fuel inter-ethnic and religious crises. Nigerians have also not sat down to define the kind of federation they want. The Nigerian military was at a point a Northern military, trying to entrench more inequitable political structures. Look at the local government creations.

The main goal of the ADF is to work towards the rebuilding of the Igbo nation; to advance their culture and civilization; to help them overcome their weaknesses as a people and nation. Till today Ndigbo still believe that politics is a way to overtake one’s brother. In the North, the leadership plays a major role in moderating their collective political actions.

The marginalization of Ndigbo is systematic and deeply embedded in the structure and social consciousness of the other neighbours of Ndigbo. Butchering of Igbos has become a fashion. Igbos were the first victims of the Boko Haram sect. Many Igbos hitherto in the North are in the South East dying. Nobody tries to rehabilitate them, not even our own governments. ADF is a wake-up call for the Igbo to understand themselves and work towards self-governance.

ADF is worried about recent developments where Ndigbo are now treated as strangers in a Federation they have done more than any other ethnic group to build. ADF is also interested in a proper definition of citizenship rights within the Nigerian Federation. To call somebody a refugee in his country he is being urged to embrace as his own is the height of political dishonesty. Lagos was built with the resources of the entire country. Most of the leaders saw Lagos the way Americans see Washington DC or British see London. Until recently, Igbos lived happily with their counterparts in Lagos. Citizenship and indigeneship rights are the part of the major problems of this Nigeria. Former Niger Governor Babangida Aliyu called for its abrogation. During the constitutional conference, I played a major role with others in trying to make this a Constitutional right. Our view was that once a person lived in a place up to five years, the person should have the same rights as the people born there.