by Kingsley Onuoha
Almost forty years after the end of the Nigerian civil war, Ijaw to a greater extent, still see the Igbo as their number one enemies even without any cogent proof or explanation for such unfounded political disposition. Other Eastern Nigeria minority groups do not exhibit any obvious hostility towards the Igbo as much as the Ijaw and, seem to have even commenced a journey towards rapprochement and reconciliation with the Igbo. Ijaw through their so-called ‘leaders’ such as Chief Edwin Clarke, continue to poison the minds of young innocent Ijaw men and women about the Igbo, in particular, and the Yoruba, as well, to the extent that whole generations of Ijaw people, have grown up with the perception that the Igbo are (were?) their mortal enemies, while the Yoruba are not free of guilt in the estimation of average Ijaw. Even the obvious fact that the Ijaw were no match, no disrespect intended, for the Igbo let alone the Yoruba, appear not to have registered in the consciousness of the Ijaw ‘leadership’ and nation. This divisiveness fit comfortably into Northern political designs against the South.
The Igbo are well aware that almost ninety-eight percent of so-called ‘Abandoned Properties’ in Port Harcourt, Rivers state were appropriated by the Ijaw to the total exclusion of other minority groups in old Rivers state, including, even the Ikwerre Igbo, on whose land Port Harcourt is located. And current Ijaw aversion to reconciliation with the Igbo is borne out of unfounded fear of eventual Igbo vendetta against them over the abandoned property issue. This posture is dangerous especially in a country where both groups face herculean obstacles. The Abandoned Property policy was not instituted by the Ijaw; however, they are the major beneficiaries of it. So Igbo anger, if there’s still one, should rightly be directed towards the beneficiaries, not the policy-makers. Being Igbo myself, I highly doubt any existence of plans to visit vengeance on the Ijaw nation over the Abandoned Property issue.
However, since the 1967 creation of old Rivers state, successive Ijaw regimes, whether military or civilian, has made conscious efforts to erase any traces of the Igbo nation within Port Harcourt and environs. It may surprise readers to learn that one reason for persistent threat to peace and security in Port Harcourt, more than any other part of Rivers state or the entire South South zone, result from inability of some sections of the Ijaw nation to accept and swallow the bitter pill of the reality of a new Rivers state (Port Harcourt specifically) whose majority nationality, was no longer Ijaw. The creation of Bayelsa state led to the Ijaw ‘losing’ coveted Port Harcourt to its natural and original Ikwerre Igbo owners who, previously, and for decades, were dispossessed of their land and removed from the corridors of power in old Rivers state.
Since the Ikwerre Igbo and other upland peoples, as they are known in old Rivers state, now constituted a commanding majority in Rivers state, Ijaw ‘leadership’ resolved to make it ungovernable for the new “owners”. If anybody is in doubt about the above assertion, why is it that during the time Ijaw people were ruling old Rivers state agitations for resource control and true federalism did not degenerate to a threat to peace and security in Port Harcourt, especially? How is it that when non-Ijaw such as former governors Dr Peter Odili, Chief Celestine Omehia, and the present chief executive, Chief Chibuike Amaechi, assumed leadership of the new Rivers state, agitation for resource control etc became a source of insecurity in Port Harcourt? What do these three individuals have in common? And why is the nature of insecurity in Port Harcourt occasioned by agitations for resource control, not replicated in Yenagoa, a wholly Ijaw city and capital of oil-producing Bayelsa state? Is such attitude and action demonstrative of good neighbourliness by the Ijaw particularly in a Nigeria where ethnic groups often celebrate the misfortune of others? Does this augur well for political liberation and progress of Southern Nigeria?
The attitude of the Ijaw towards their majority Igbo neighbours, in particular, and their fellow minority groups in general, is unhealthy for the overall long-term economic and political interests of the Ijaw, in particular, and any other nation or tribe in Eastern or Southern Nigeria in general. It is as a result of Ijaw attitude towards their immediate neighbours that accounts for the reason they are fighting this “resource control war” alone even as what they are fighting for, if eventually acceded to, will be in the general interest of other nationalities within and outside the Niger Delta region. The only ‘support’ they receive from other Niger Deltans and the entire Southern Nigeria is “newspaper support” plus Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo declarations of ‘full’ support to their cause. Why have the Urhobo, Bini, Isoko, Annang, Efik, Ibibio, Esan, and Itsekiri amongst others, for instance, not shown a willingness to offer blood for the interest of the Niger Delta?
Ijaw penchant for declaring “ownership” of the Niger Delta region can only be counter-productive to their aspirations for fair treatment within the Nigerian state. Rather than seek support and understanding with fellow Niger Deltans, they embarked on their struggle alone. For a fact, the Ijaw, in particular, and other Niger Delta oil-producing nationalities, deserve unreserved apology and compensation from the Nigerian state over the condemnable manner they had been treated. Is it fair, for instance, that Ijaw sons and daughters and other Niger Deltans, on whose land Nigeria’s wealth resides, pay tuition to attend universities in Nigeria and overseas while Northerners, on their part, go to schools free of charge?
There’s no crime in paying tuition to be educated! However, it assaults one’s intelligence and sensibilities to see people who contribute almost nothing to the national coffers, obtain scholarships and grants from the three levels of government to attend schools whereas, individuals whose natural resources endowments, contribute more than eighty percent to the national wealth, struggle with tuition. Where are the fairness let alone justice in such a situation? Is this not the case today in Nigeria?
However, an Ijaw ‘leadership’ peopled by men such as Chief Edwin Clarke, no disrespect to him, will achieve little for Ijaw aspirations, political and economic, as compared to one headed by young Ijaw such as Chief Timi Alaibe, for instance, within the Nigeria ‘Federation’. If for no other attribute, Chief Alaibe and other illustrious and progressive Ijaw like him, have a pan-Nigeria perspective to issues whereas men like Chief Clarke, still cling to a pan-Ijaw disposition whose agenda-setting is focused and fixated upon centrifugal leanings. In the context of Nigeria, such strategy, in the short-term, may seem advantageous to Ijaw cause but, in the long-term, it always backfires with terrible fallouts for the proponents.
The Northerners, in exhibiting their political sagacity, instituted the abandoned property policy with the sole aim of permanently and perpetually put a wedge against any form of rapprochement between the Igbo, Yoruba, Ijaw, Efik, Ibibio, and Ogoni etc. after the civil war. What could be more potent and humiliating than denying a man a roof over his head thus rendering him destitute through the action? How much more when such a development was fully supported by one’s own immediate neighbour! The legal definition of who’s a neighbour attests to this.
The Northerners implemented this policy because they realized, and rightly too, that it was the only effective measure with the potential capable of inflicting long-term damage in relationships amongst Southerners, with the additional advantage of diverting Igbo attention and energy from national issues towards searching for shelter through house building. Did they not succeed with it? The abandoned property policy has achieved its objectives in full. Must Southerners continue to nourish its psychological effects and sociological implications to the detriment of their collective interests and future in Nigeria?
For instance, since the end of the civil war, the Ijaw, in particular, to prove to the Hausa-Fulani that they remained loyal servants, continue to fight the Igbo and have not even stopped to ask themselves certain pertinent questions such as: Why was it possible that no Igbo man lost any property in the entire Northern Nigeria after the civil war, especially as the war was deceitfully portrayed as a supremacy struggle between the Hausa-Fulani and the Igbo, on the one hand, and between the Igbo and the rest of Nigerians, on the other? Could it be that the Igbo had no property in the entire Northern Nigeria prior to the outbreak of hostilities? Or, why was the abandoned property policy implemented only in Southern Nigeria? Instead the Ijaw remain cocooned in pyrrhic triumphalism!
Finally, the Igbo have forgiven all peoples of former Eastern Region, in particular, just as they have forgiven Southern Nigerians and Nigerians, in general, for the crime of abandoned property and other post civil war policies directed against them; but the Igbo will not and cannot be expected to forget the effects of that challenging period in the annals of their history. Both the civil war and post-civil war experiences of the Igbo was a watershed in their evolution. The Igbo are still transitioning from it. They are almost at the last leg of the transition. However, demanding that the Igbo forget about the civil war is akin to asking the Yoruba not to mention June 12 in discussions of their political development in Nigeria. What the Igbo could do, they have done. They have forgiven. Forgiveness is within their powers to offer but forgetting, clearly is beyond them.
In conclusion, despite the vexed issue of Abandoned Property and other post-civil war punitive measures against the Igbo which, included constriction of their territorial space, deliberate short-counting of their numerical strengths, and instigating some misguided Igbo people to renounce and denounce their well-known Igbo roots for ‘material gains’; the Igbo are still high-spirited and forging ahead in every area of human endeavor even beyond what their detractors could ever fathom.
The Igbo are open, ready and willing to work within the parameters of mutual respectability and equality with any Eastern, Western, Southern and Northern Nigerian peoples for the progress and sustainable growth and development of the long-comatose Nigerian project. It is especially the responsibility of Southern Nigerian peoples, in particular, and Nigerians, in general, to reach out and reconcile with the Igbo in a genuine manner devoid of grandstanding so that the journey towards formation of a formidable Southern political force could begin in earnest. This rapprochement is long overdue.
The longer this proposed or suggested process is delayed, the slimmer any chances of genuine reconciliation will become for Southern Nigerians and the bleaker their future: young Southerners are being brought up to see their fellow Southerners as opponents and enemies. The earlier this dangerous and retrogressive development is stemmed, the better for Southerners and Nigerians. This is the cardinal solution to current Nigerian dilemma, for it approaches the issue and/or problem from its very root. It must be tackled and resolved in a statesman-like manner devoid of pride and brinkmanship on either side. Such positive developments will jumpstart the process by which Southerners can begin to speak with one voice for collective interest within the Nigerian state.
For this proposed process to be effective and achieve desired objectives; it must be midwifed by the Yoruba, being the more fortunate amongst the Southern peoples and a long-time political and economic rival of the Igbo, in consultation with other Southerners. Whether or not we admit it, Southerners face the same problems within the Nigerian polity! It’s the inability of Southern Nigerians to confront the North as one body that gives rise to mutual suspicion and acrimony between and amongst their (Southerners) peoples. Failing to outwit the political North, they vent their frustration on fellow Southerners. But it’s still “morning yet on creation day”, according to Chinua Achebe so it’s not late to begin a rescue mission.
Before I sign off, I must submit that whatever I had written here does not imply intolerance, hatred, or love towards Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, Kanuri, Yoruba, Tiv, Igala, Ijaw, Efik, Ogoni or other Nigerian peoples. However, it is my personal interpretation of the Nigerian Situation, and its debilitating effects on Southern Nigerians, in particular, no offence to Northerners, who due to decades of myopic political ‘leadership’ are faced with a condition of near-servitude and second class citizenship in a country they have made the most sacrifice to nurture and sustain.
(Continued from Part 1)
Kingsley Onuoha, White Plains, New York, USA; kingsley@inbox.com
NB: Part 2, concludes the essay on the genesis of the Southern Nigeria quagmire and the Nigerian condition. Subsequent essays will dwell on the solutions and would be approached from sector-to-sector.