Igbophobia: The virus eating up Nigeria’s development

By Dr. Benneth Joshua

The Igbos, the major ethnic group in the Southeast of Nigeria is a tribe known globally for its industriousness and doggedness to break through the prism of obstacles.

The tribe has blazed several trails in academia, science & technology and in business.

Such names like Professor P.N Okeke, Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, late Dr Chuba Okadigbo, late Professor Ikeajiani Clark, and a list of others, adorn Halls of Fame in Nigeria and far away places across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

It is on record that the Igbos are so technologically gifted that during the infamous massacre of not less than 1 million Igbo children, women, youths and the elderly, now termed the Nigeria Civil War; the tribe made its own bomb, and other military hardwares to protect itself against the Russian and British-backed federal troops.

Its bomb, records show, was so effective that it sank numerous battalions of the federal troop, in such a manner that the corpses of most casualties were too decapitated to be recovered.

Many others which were not irredeemably decapitated, sunk into the belly of the Niger and Imo rivers where they became ready food for marine life.

In fact, the exploit of the Igbos reportedly led to the federal government prohibiting the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN), from operating a department for Chemical engineering, even decades after the civil war.

According to records, the Igbo’s Ogbunikwe was a massive terror to the authorities in Lagos, and a spine chilling wonder to the Western world.

Never was it thought that the black race would invent a weapon of war with such precision and power for colossal damage.

It was no doubt a first grade, world class water and land mine that inflicted such a monstrous setback on battalions and regiments of the federal army, so much so that Lagos came up with an ingenious idea to send herds of cattle as advance parties when federal troops embark on ground assaults.

The result of such creativity was safety for human lives, but losses for the animal kingdom.

One would not be quick to leave out in this piece, the ingenious creation of an airport, or an airstrip if you like, at Ihiala, in present day Anambra State, that ferried supplies into the Southeast.

This was amid land and air embargo imposed by the federal government and its allies.

That the 1967-1970 pogrom against the Igbos lasted for the period it did was a testament to the resilience of a tribe wired for jinx breaking strength even before the creation of the country called Nigeria.

One can only understand the secret behind the never-say-die spirit of the Igbos if the person understands the concept of egalitarianism that propels the tribe to make the best of situations and environments.

Unlike other parts of the country where Monarchy was entrenched, and the people were subservient to rulers, the Igbo society was built along the lines of family trees and clans made up mostly of brothers from the same parent founding their enclaves.

As these enclaves grew in population, the need for a coordinating central figure for dispute resolution, diplomatic engagement with other villages, among others, emerged.

This figure is the Igwe or Eze who superintended over individual villages or communities through the help of a council of elders called Nzes and Ozors.

The Igwe’s powers were not absolute. There were checks and balances that ensured that the Igwe or his cabinet did not abuse their powers, especially in the light of the fact that these powers were somewhat partly surrendered to him/them by the various village, clan and family heads; to exercise on their behalf.

Succinctly put, the Igbos are a competitive people whose believe in a central leadership structure of command and control is way not within their social structure, even though they are a very intuitive people that knows when their collective interests is at stake, and why at that point they must rally-around a well defined central command and control structure.

And even at this, no man, not even the appointed or elected leader in this structure can drive his ideas down the throat of the collective whole. It must be argued democratically to give room for merit, and to allow the brightest idea to lead the charge.

For those who don’t know, the above is the summary of the DNA that points this tribe in the direction of excellence and groundbreaking achievements everywhere they go.

And this same spirit informed their exploits in post colonial Nigeria where they proved their meteors and in return incurred the envy, jealousy, hatred and wrath of some misguided Nigerians who misconstrued the Igbo spirit for one of arrogance, selfishness and dominance.

But it’s not entirely the fault of the antagonists. Misunderstanding arises from lack of proper information, or self-centered biases fuelled by parochialism and un-regurgitated thinking.

In any case, some Igbos, arising from shallow thinking and insensitivity, also contributed to these bouts of hatred.

Granted that the culture in the southeast guarantees competition, egalitarianism and a good dose of clannishness, the proclivity to consider and treat those who don’t share these sentiments in disrespectful manners, potentially opened the door to hatred, bigotry, and all manners of ill-feeling against the Southeasterner.

Accordingly, this is one habit too many, and such that the Igbos as individuals, a group, and the leaders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to say the list, must begin to deculturalize as a way to rebrand the tribe in the hearts of other Nigerians.

More so, Igbo men and women who reside elsewhere in the country must become more strategic and less arrogant and abbressive in their interaction with the host communities, not minding the provisions of the 1999 constitution that confers automatic citizenship to all Nigerians wherever they are found

Having said these, the number one national discourse in our time is hatred for the Igbos which have exemplified itself in the manner of ethnic profiling with Lagos State and its politicians leading the charge in this regard.

Rivers State led by the serving Governor, Nyesom Wike, leads the charge in the South-South, as in the lead up to the 2023 presidential election Wike at different times publicly displayed his resentment of the idea that River State, like some South-South ares, is part of Igbo land.

Perhaps, he deliberately threw away the truth that up until the days before and after the civil war when the federal government balkanized the Eastern region by creating more states in the Southern wing of the region, to weaken Ojukwu’s control of the sea necessary for a naval assault by federal troops, the South-South and South-east was one and same place as the northern region and western region.

It only requires a little research to understand the logic of the then Nigerian government in breaking up the geographical strength of the East, while at the same time, retaining that of the North and the West.

Wike’s position is however an argument for another day, even as it is glaring that towns like Ikwere in the state, among others, bear Igbo ancestries.

And like Rivers, there are people in present day Delta State who do not agree or believe that they are originally Igbos, despite glaring evidence of an Igbo ancestry in names, culture (food included), etc.

Considering these, the one-million Dollars question is why Nigeria, if she so desires to be great in the comity of nations, would chose to alienate a tribe that has the capacity to turn her fortunes around for good, whether in technology, science, commerce, sports, politics, administration, and sundry others.

Without a doubt, the inherent enterprising, ingenious and doggedness of the Igbo race inspires fear in the hearts of other country-men and women.

They observe as the Igbo man turns obstacles to opportunities, oppositions to gains, and oblivion to fame.

How he does this respectfully beats many imaginations. And when laced with the shallow arrogance of a few Igbos, this wonderment turns to resentment and other Nigerians adopt the posture of the black South African who turns against others who have the push to make gold out of trash.

It is instructive to point out that until the man from the Southeast is given a place to turn his ingenuity into value for the Nigerian state, a lot would continue to be missen in the equation, and the country would drag on in its struggle without essence, direction and development.

The point to be made here is that the enterprising, enduring and breakeven spirit of the Southeast is the necessary panacea to the country’s developmental woes.

Tribal profiling and hatred, plus parochial religious considerations will do Nigeria no good, except if her leaders are interested in making the country their stone age cave where their empiristic tendencies finds succuor upon their return from touring climes where well-thought plans and placing of square and round pegs in their right holes find their true meaning.

But again, if the Nigerian state thinks otherwise, then for God’s sake restructure the country or develop the Southeast as done elsewhere to allow its people stay back in their places and develop them.

Otherwise, we’re playing with fire, and it wouldn’t be long before the doggedness and never-say-die spirit of the Igbo man rises against the current ethnic profiling it is been subjected to.

When that happens, your guess is as good as mine.

Make no mistake about it. No country remains the same after two Civil Wars.