Editor’s Note: Tracing back to the mid 1960s,
the piece basically highlights the various
aspects that the Igbos have been
marginalised. Regrettably, as it is, the few
privileged people who have touched power and
happen to be Igbos, tend to negate the hope of
the ordinary people by sidelining them thereby
getting saturated in absolute exploitation. To
this end, it is believed that the Igbos are
responsible for their own decline. Douglas
Anele has written on how Ndigbo
underdeveloped Igboland.
The views and opinion expressed here are
those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the official policy or position of
Naij.com.
Story highlights:
— The civil war provided haters of Ndigbo
within Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s cabinet
— From the administration of Ukpabi Asika to
the present governments of the five South
Eastern states, corruption have remained
leitmotifs in Igboland.
— People of Imo still remember with nostalgia
late Chief Sam Mbakwe for his laudable
achievements in the old Imo state
— The Igbo not only fight themselves in
Igboland; some of them for selfish reasons
exhibit excessive competitiveness in other
parts of the federation.
In our discussion last Sunday, I made the
point, which was almost distorted by
editorial pusillanimity, that ideally, in order
to render justice to Ndigbo Nigerian leaders
who participated in genocide against them
during the civil war should be prosecuted
at the International Court of Justice. But I
also argued that given the very low level of
political maturity and moral consciousness
in the country presently, that would never
happen.
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Now, the major motivation for the two-part
series entitled “Ndigbo and the burden of
history” is to draw attention to how
members of the ruling elite dominated by
Northerners had, especially from 1966 to
1999, contributed to the underdevelopment
of Igboland.
The civil war provided haters of Ndigbo
within Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s cabinet and
the Nigerian army to execute their
genocidal intentions against Igbo people.
And even afterwards, the same
misanthropes insisted on maximum
punishment for the former Eastern region.
Accordingly, the Gowon administration
adopted a banking policy that nullified any
bank account operated during the war by
the Biafrans. Each Igbo depositor of the
Nigerian currency could only access a flat
sum of twenty pounds, irrespective of the
deposit. In addition, the military
government promulgated the Enterprises
Promotion Decree of 1974, or
Indigenisation Decree, ostensibly to compel
foreign holders of majority shares of
companies operating in Nigeria to hand
over a larger percentage of stocks, bonds
and shares to indigenous Nigerian business
interests.
But the real targets of that decree were the
war-weary Biafrans already impoverished
by the conflict, the wicked banking policy
mentioned earlier, and ban on importation
of second-hand clothes (okirika) and stock
fish. Of course, the Igbo in general did not
have the financial wherewithal to benefit
from the Indigenisation Decree. Moreover,
most of the jobs and positions in virtually
all the sectors of the economy previously
occupied by Easterners were taken over by
those from other parts of the country. In
my opinion, scars of the civil war and its
aftermath are still visible in Igboland.
For instance, as I have stated severally in
this column, of the six geopolitical zones in
the country, theSouth East has the least
number of developmental projects from the
federal government. It is very likely that
marginalisation of Igboland would continue
under President Muhammadu Buhari’s
government, because his party, the All
Progressives Congress, is dominated by
political shylocks who would want to exact
revenge from the South East for voting
massively for former President Goodluck
Jonathan.
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(Photos)
It is patently false to lay all the blame for
the underdevelopment of Igboland on
Igbophobic Nigerians from other ethnic
groups. The desperate situation there has
been worsened by the blizzard of
incompetent leadership in different Igbo
speaking states. Specifically, with very few
exceptions, top political office holders in
the states that comprise the defunct
Eastern Region have been grossly
incompetent, selfish and corrupt.
From the administration of Ukpabi Asika to
the present governments of the five South
Eastern states, financial rascality,
nepotism, indiscipline, corruption, and petty
jealousies and visionlessness have
remained leitmotifs in Igboland. Governors,
commissioners, top civil servants, highly
placed judicial officers, traditional rulers
and members of the clergy have sacrificed
core values of truthfulness, hard work,
honesty, integrity, regard for good name,
humility and brotherly love embedded in
Igbo culture in the pursuit of power and
wealth.
How many governors in Igboland, both past
and present, can give satisfactory account
of how they spent the monies that accrued
to their respective states during their
tenure?
Why is it that governors, federal and state
legislators and other top political office
holders become stupendously rich after
leaving office? In large parts of Igboland,
the roads, health facilities, educational
institutions, etc have deteriorated despite
the revenue accruing to both the states and
local governments.
People of Imo still remember with nostalgia
late Chief Sam Mbakwe for his laudable
achievements in the old Imo state, which
should have been emulated and improved
upon by governors that came afterwards. It
is deplorable that many prominent Igbo
sons and daughters who could have
deployed their influence to attract
developmental projects from the federal
government to their respective states
merely use their positions to enrich
themselves.
Another cause for concern is absurd and
pernicious discrimination within each South
Eastern state and between the five states
as well. For example, in the civil service
and educational institutions up to the
university level, people from different parts
of the same state discriminate and fight
among themselves. Sometimes, an
application for employment or promotion is
rejected because the person is from Imo
state rather than Enugu state, and vice
versa.
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Former governor of Abia state, Theodore
Orji, committed a very serious blunder when
he sacked employees from other Igbo
speaking states in a misguided attempt to
ameliorate the unemployment problem
there. Although he later reversed the
decision, his irrational action demonstrates
that sometimes Ndigbo are their own worst
enemies.
The Igbo not only fight themselves in
Igboland; some of them for selfish reasons
exhibit excessive competitiveness in other
parts of the federation. In the North and
South West, there are incidents of
unhealthy rivalry between Igbo individuals
and groups, each trying to outdo one
another using Machiavellian tactics,
generating unnecessary animosity in the
process.
Certainly, within reasonable limits,
ambitiousness and competitiveness are
psychological triggers for self-discovery,
self-actualisation, and societal progress.
But in the long run, it is better for Ndigbo
wherever they might be to work together in
solidarity for the benefit of one another. It
is betrayal of the highest order that
prominent sons and daughters of Igboland
create socio-cultural and political
associations purportedly to promote
collective Igbo interests, whereas the real
intent is to use such bodies for getting
favours from government. Some of them
even collect mobilisation fees from
government without executing the
contracts meant for their states.
More than anything else, there is urgent
need for moral and ideological
reorientation in Igboland. Well-placed
Ndigbo should see themselves as role
models for the young ones to emulate.
Right now, the lifestyles of many Igbo VIPs
tend to promote excessive preoccupation
with primitive accumulation and hollow
ostentation. Now, the average Nigerian
generally believes that Ndigbo love money
too much, more than members of other
ethnic groups. There is a pernicious cliché
that if a purportedly dead Igbo man fails
to rise up at the clanging of coins near his
ears then he is truly dead.
The fact of the matter is that different
people have different levels of pecuniary
attachment, irrespective of their ethnic
origins. The Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba, the
Nupe, the Isokoand so on want to be as
financially comfortable as much as the
Igbo. Remember, Ndigbo, because of
hardships of the war and the need to
survive extremely daunting post-war
challenges, had to struggle harder than
other Nigerians just to survive.
Even before the civil, their gregarious can-
do-it attitude compelled them to leave their
homeland in search of livelihood
nationwide. And because jealous
Igbophobic Nigerians unnecessarily
concerned by the relative successes of
Ndigbo in their midst, misinterpreted the
single-minded determination of the latter
by creating the myth of excessive money
mindedness referred to earlier.
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I submit that Igbo political office holders
who steal funds meant for the development
of Igboland are a complete disgrace and
should be treated as enemies of the
people. For Ndigbo to occupy their rightful
place as primus inter pares within the
Nigerian federation, they must begin to live
according to the moral principles
encapsulated in the concept of ezigbo aha
kariri ego(good name is superior to
money). Prominent Igbo indigenes,
wherever they might be, must set aside
their ephemeral egoistic interests and work
for the good of Igboland as a whole.