A few days ago, the Oba of Lagos threatened Igbo leaders. If they did not vote for his governorship candidate in Lagos, he said, they would be thrown into the lagoon. His entire speech was a flagrant performance of disregard. His words said, in effect: I think so little of you that I don’t have to cajole you but will just threaten you and, by the way, your safety in Lagos is not assured, it is negotiable.
There have been condemnations of the Oba’s words. Sadly, many of the condemnations from non-Igbo people have come with the ugly impatience of expressions like ‘move on,’ and ‘don’t be over-emotional’ and ‘calm down.’ These take away the power, even the sincerity, of the condemnations. It is highhanded and offensive to tell an aggrieved person how to feel, or how quickly to forgive, just as an apology becomes a non-apology when it comes with ‘now get over it.’
Other condemnations of the Oba’s words have been couched in dismissive or diminishing language such as ‘The Oba can’t really do anything, he isn’t actually going to kill anyone. He was joking. He was just being a loudmouth.’

Or – the basest yet – ‘we are all prejudiced.’ It is dishonest to respond to a specific act of prejudice by ignoring that act and instead stressing the generic and the general. It is similar to responding to a specific crime by saying ‘we are all capable of crime.’ Indeed we are. But responses such as these are diversionary tactics. They dismiss the specific act, diminish its importance, and ultimately aim at silencing the legitimate fears of people.

We are indeed all prejudiced, but that is not an appropriate response to an issue this serious. The Oba is not an ordinary citizen. He is a traditional ruler in a part of a country where traditional rulers command considerable influence – the reluctance on the part of many to directly chastise the Oba speaks to his power. The Oba’s words matter. He is not a singular voice; he represents traditional authority. The Oba’s words matter because they are enough to incite violence in a political setting already fraught with uncertainty. The Oba’s words matter even more in the event that Ambode loses the governorship election, because it would then be easy to scapegoat Igbo people and hold them punishable.

Nigerians who consider themselves enlightened might dismiss the Oba’s words as illogical. But the scapegoating of groups – which has a long history all over the world – has never been about logic. The Oba’s words matter because they bring worrying echoes of the early 1960s in Nigeria, when Igbo people were scapegoated for political reasons. Chinua Achebe, when he finally accepted that Lagos, the city he called home, was unsafe for him because he was Igbo, saw crowds at the motor park taunting Igbo people as they boarded buses: ‘Go, Igbo, go so that garri will be cheaper in Lagos!’
Of course Igbo people were not responsible for the cost of garri. But they were perceived as people who were responsible for a coup and who were ‘taking over’ and who, consequently, could be held responsible for everything bad.

Any group of people would understandably be troubled by a threat such as the Oba’s, but the Igbo, because of their history in Nigeria, have been particularly troubled. And it is a recent history. There are people alive today who were publicly attacked in cosmopolitan Lagos in the 1960s because they were Igbo. Even people who were merely light-skinned were at risk of violence in Lagos markets, because to be light-skinned was to be mistaken for Igbo.

Almost every Nigerian ethnic group has a grouse of some sort with the Nigerian state. The Nigerian state has, by turns, been violent, unfair, neglectful, of different parts of the country. Almost every ethnic group has derogatory stereotypes attached to it by other ethnic groups.

But it is disingenuous to suggest that the experience of every ethnic group has been the same. Anti-Igbo violence began under the British colonial government, with complex roots and manifestations. But the end result is a certain psychic difference in the relationship of Igbo people to the Nigerian state. To be Igbo in Nigeria is constantly to be suspect; your national patriotism is never taken as the norm, you are continually expected to prove it.

All groups are conditioned by their specific histories. Perhaps another ethnic group would have reacted with less concern to the Oba’s threat, because that ethnic group would not be conditioned by a history of being targets of violence, as the Igbo have been.

Many responses to the Oba’s threat have mentioned the ‘welcoming’ nature of Lagos, and have made comparisons between Lagos and southeastern towns like Onitsha. It is valid to debate the ethnic diversity of different parts of Nigeria, to compare, for example, Ibadan and Enugu, Ado-Ekiti and Aba, and to debate who moves where, and who feels comfortable living where and why that is. But it is odd to pretend that Lagos is like any other city in Nigeria. It is not. The political history of Lagos and its development as the first national capital set it apart. Lagos is Nigeria’s metropolis. There are ethnic Igbo people whose entire lives have been spent in Lagos, who have little or no ties to the southeast, who speak Yoruba better than Igbo. Should they, too, be reminded to be ‘grateful’ each time an election draws near?

No law-abiding Nigerian should be expected to show gratitude for living peacefully in any part of Nigeria. Landlords in Lagos should not, as still happens too often, be able to refuse to rent their property to Igbo people.

The Oba’s words were disturbing, but its context is even more disturbing:

The anti-Igbo rhetoric that has been part of the political discourse since the presidential election results. Accusatory and derogatory language – using words like ‘brainwashed,’ ‘tribalistic voting’ – has been used to describe President Jonathan’s overwhelming win in the southeast. All democracies have regions that vote in large numbers for one side, and even though parts of Northern Nigeria showed voting patterns similar to the Southeast, the opprobrium has been reserved for the Southeast.

But the rhetoric is about more than mere voting. It is really about citizenship. To be so entitled as to question the legitimacy of a people’s choice in a democratic election is not only a sign of disrespect but is also a questioning of the full citizenship of those people.

What does it mean to be a Nigerian citizen?
When Igbo people are urged to be ‘grateful’ for being in Lagos, do they somehow have less of a right as citizens to live where they live? Every Nigerian should be able to live in any part of Nigeria. The only expectation for a Nigerian citizen living in any part of Nigeria is to be law-abiding. Not to be ‘grateful.’ Not to be expected to pay back some sort of unspoken favour by toeing a particular political line. Nigerian citizens can vote for whomever they choose, and should never be expected to justify or apologize for their choice.
Only by feeling a collective sense of ownership of Nigeria can we start to forge a nation. A nation is an idea. Nigeria is still in progress. To make this a nation, we must collectively agree on what citizenship means: all Nigerians must matter equally.

Source:
www.olisa.tv/2015/04/10/chimamanda-adichieoba-lagos/

Cc Seun Lalastica
ikenna351 afam4eva
Pls do the needful.



***modified***
Hahaha... at last i made fp just 6days to my birthday. [jumps and punches the air with my right hand]
Oooh.. Thank you, Jesus.

I dedicate this fp and ftc to my sweetest mum for all her efforts towards my personal success. Cheers mum.
Meanwhile special thanks to lalastica, seun, ikenna351 and afam4eva and all nairalanders...
Better things are coming.

Now to the topic....
I think what binds many tribes in Nigeria is a common hatred for the Igbos. This hatred i believe is hinged on the purported dominance of Igbos. What is it about Igbo dominance? Here is what a fellow nairalander has to say...

Great point. Fear of Igbo domination as my father
would say is a sign of weakness on the part of
the fearer and lack of confidence in their ability. In
other words, for someone to dominate you in a
non physical way whether economically, socially, educationally, in any way, shape and form as long
as they are not holding you hostage physically
from succeeding but solely by intelligence in a
level playing field, then the conclusion is that
person or group of people are smarter than
you...this has been scientifically proven. So any tribe that fears Igbo domination are less smarter
than the Igbos otherwise compete with them. The
reason why Igbos do better in everything that
they do, which is often mistaken as domination is
because they are smarter than the rest of other
ethnic groups in Nigeria. When I mean "smarter" I
don't mean individually as a Hausa man can be
smarter than a yoruba, yoruba smarter than an
ijaw man an ijaw may be smarter than an Igbo,
e.t.c., however as a whole in terms of an ethnic
group, the Igbos lead the pack in Nigeria and
some tribes see it as a domination but actually it
isn't...they are just more smarter and have more
drive than others. Dr. Thomas Sowell detailed this
in his book and actually mentions Igbos as the
most successful ethnic group in Nigeria despite
the civil war set back.

If Nigeria wants to be truly great, we should not trifle with any tribe, especially the Igbos.

Strong words!

Why is this thread still languishing here? Can somebody move this where the blind bigots will see it!

ok

Words can destroy a nation.....Oba u see waiting u cause?

The level to which we are ethnocentric as Nigerians is alarming.

very fierce n clever!!

You're a gift from God to Ndigbo. Just as Ndigbo are a gift from God to Nigerians.

The only irony being that while Ndigbo love you Chimamanda, nigerians hate Ndigbo.

And the result of their hate is that Ndigbo kept moving from height to height.

Who would have imagined that after what we went through during the civil war ndigbo would come to be the tribe with the highest GDP per person and the north still remains the poorest region.

Let them continue to hate but who God bless no man can curse.

i didn't xpect such words 4rm an oba, a traditional ruler of d most populous city in nigeria. Ok now what if ambode losses dis election? Does it mean dat igbos ar responsible 4 dat? Is agbaje an igbo man? How would he(oba) knw d people who vote 4 ambode or jk?


oba should answer me

make i read am na.

***MODIFIED***

A rather enlightening post...here's a reply I gave to someone who was promoting tribal inequality..I hope it gives some insights too.

ekiloui:


I'll just correct a mistake u made above..Lagos belongs to the Lagosians and not to YORUBAS...same way Ekiti doesn't belong to those from Ondo state. An Anambra man has as much right to Lagos as a Kano man and also as an Osun man. The only similarity between the later mentioned and a lagosian is their language and maybe one or 2 traditions.

2ndly Lagos is the former country Capital built with Nigeria's Money and not the money of lagosians, infact it has been developed with the money of Igbos, Yorubas and Hausas. So being a Yoruba man doesn't give u rights to lagos, I won't even pay u attention except u're a full indigene.

I stay in Abuja now and I've witnessed the development here, just like lagos it's being done by both Igbos, Hausas and Yorubas. Mind u Abuja Indigenes aren't Hausas but it's in the North. Does that mean that if the Capital moves the entire Hausa tribe will claim Abuja and chase the Yorubas and Igbos out? Ofcourse jugding by your post they should have the right since it's in the North.

Saying Lagos is no man's land isn't meant to disrespect anyone, infact the only people that should feel disrespected are it's indigenes and not the entire Yoruba tribe.

Let's put this tribe issues aside in Lagos state and move on..unfortunately Lagos has the history it has and you can turn back time or try to re-write it. The population of "Non-Indigenes" in lagos is as a result of it being a state capital and just like Abuja is no man's land atm, u can't change the history of Lagos

Meanwhile...while we say calm down and move on, if Agbaje wins then we shall see the effects of the Obas words today. And mind you, if violence starts because of those words all in Lagos will be affected. Let's pray for a peaceful election

Nigeria is not a country, here is just a battleground for ethnic and tribal supremacy.

North voted Buhari they are reasonable voters.
East voted Jonathan they are tribalist.
The vultures are always in the middle

chimamanda as usual, is on point!!!! i have said repeatedly,that nigeria has not moved an inch from 1967. the nation has been on 'pause'.

nigeria is not a nation!! we are just a group of people 'existing'.

Nigeria is a marriage of convenience

I guess this thread was created and, Seun suddenly got blind.

do we have to kill a goat first before this is moved to the frontpage

ControlX:
A few days ago, the Oba of Lagos threatened Igbo leaders. If they did not vote for his governorship candidate in Lagos, he said, they would be thrown into the lagoon. His entire speech was a flagrant performance of disregard. His words said, in effect: I think so little of you that I don’t have to cajole you but will just threaten you and, by the way, your safety in Lagos is not assured, it is negotiable.
There have been condemnations of the Oba’s words. Sadly, many of the condemnations from non-Igbo people have come with the ugly impatience of expressions like ‘move on,’ and ‘don’t be over-emotional’ and ‘calm down.’ These take away the power, even the sincerity, of the condemnations. It is highhanded and offensive to tell an aggrieved person how to feel, or how quickly to forgive, just as an apology becomes a non-apology when it comes with ‘now get over it.’
Other condemnations of the Oba’s words have been couched in dismissive or diminishing language such as ‘The Oba can’t really do anything, he isn’t actually going to kill anyone. He was joking. He was just being a loudmouth.’
Or – the basest yet – ‘we are all prejudiced.’ It is dishonest to respond to a specific act of prejudice by ignoring that act and instead stressing the generic and the general. It is similar to responding to a specific crime by saying ‘we are all capable of crime.’ Indeed we are. But responses such as these are diversionary tactics. They dismiss the specific act, diminish its importance, and ultimately aim at silencing the legitimate fears of people.
We are indeed all prejudiced, but that is not an appropriate response to an issue this serious. The Oba is not an ordinary citizen. He is a traditional ruler in a part of a country where traditional rulers command considerable influence – the reluctance on the part of many to directly chastise the Oba speaks to his power. The Oba’s words matter. He is not a singular voice; he represents traditional authority. The Oba’s words matter because they are enough to incite violence in a political setting already fraught with uncertainty. The Oba’s words matter even more in the event that Ambode loses the governorship election, because it would then be easy to scapegoat Igbo people and hold them punishable.
Nigerians who consider themselves enlightened might dismiss the Oba’s words as illogical. But the scapegoating of groups – which has a long history all over the world – has never been about logic. The Oba’s words matter because they bring worrying echoes of the early 1960s in Nigeria, when Igbo people were scapegoated for political reasons. Chinua Achebe, when he finally accepted that Lagos, the city he called home, was unsafe for him because he was Igbo, saw crowds at the motor park taunting Igbo people as they boarded buses: ‘Go, Igbo, go so that garri will be cheaper in Lagos!’
Of course Igbo people were not responsible for the cost of garri. But they were perceived as people who were responsible for a coup and who were ‘taking over’ and who, consequently, could be held responsible for everything bad.
Any group of people would understandably be troubled by a threat such as the Oba’s, but the Igbo, because of their history in Nigeria, have been particularly troubled. And it is a recent history. There are people alive today who were publicly attacked in cosmopolitan Lagos in the 1960s because they were Igbo. Even people who were merely light-skinned were at risk of violence in Lagos markets, because to be light-skinned was to be mistaken for Igbo.
Almost every Nigerian ethnic group has a grouse of some sort with the Nigerian state. The Nigerian state has, by turns, been violent, unfair, neglectful, of different parts of the country. Almost every ethnic group has derogatory stereotypes attached to it by other ethnic groups.
But it is disingenuous to suggest that the experience of every ethnic group has been the same. Anti-Igbo violence began under the British colonial government, with complex roots and manifestations. But the end result is a certain psychic difference in the relationship of Igbo people to the Nigerian state. To be Igbo in Nigeria is constantly to be suspect; your national patriotism is never taken as the norm, you are continually expected to prove it.
All groups are conditioned by their specific histories. Perhaps another ethnic group would have reacted with less concern to the Oba’s threat, because that ethnic group would not be conditioned by a history of being targets of violence, as the Igbo have been.
Many responses to the Oba’s threat have mentioned the ‘welcoming’ nature of Lagos, and have made comparisons between Lagos and southeastern towns like Onitsha. It is valid to debate the ethnic diversity of different parts of Nigeria, to compare, for example, Ibadan and Enugu, Ado-Ekiti and Aba, and to debate who moves where, and who feels comfortable living where and why that is. But it is odd to pretend that Lagos is like any other city in Nigeria. It is not. The political history of Lagos and its development as the first national capital set it apart. Lagos is Nigeria’s metropolis. There are ethnic Igbo people whose entire lives have been spent in Lagos, who have little or no ties to the southeast, who speak Yoruba better than Igbo. Should they, too, be reminded to be ‘grateful’ each time an election draws near?
No law-abiding Nigerian should be expected to show gratitude for living peacefully in any part of Nigeria. Landlords in Lagos should not, as still happens too often, be able to refuse to rent their property to Igbo people.
The Oba’s words were disturbing, but its context is even more disturbing:
The anti-Igbo rhetoric that has been part of the political discourse since the presidential election results. Accusatory and derogatory language – using words like ‘brainwashed,’ ‘tribalistic voting’ – has been used to describe President Jonathan’s overwhelming win in the southeast. All democracies have regions that vote in large numbers for one side, and even though parts of Northern Nigeria showed voting patterns similar to the Southeast, the opprobrium has been reserved for the Southeast.
But the rhetoric is about more than mere voting. It is really about citizenship. To be so entitled as to question the legitimacy of a people’s choice in a democratic election is not only a sign of disrespect but is also a questioning of the full citizenship of those people.
What does it mean to be a Nigerian citizen?
When Igbo people are urged to be ‘grateful’ for being in Lagos, do they somehow have less of a right as citizens to live where they live? Every Nigerian should be able to live in any part of Nigeria. The only expectation for a Nigerian citizen living in any part of Nigeria is to be law-abiding. Not to be ‘grateful.’ Not to be expected to pay back some sort of unspoken favour by toeing a particular political line. Nigerian citizens can vote for whomever they choose, and should never be expected to justify or apologize for their choice.
Only by feeling a collective sense of ownership of Nigeria can we start to forge a nation. A nation is an idea. Nigeria is still in progress. To make this a nation, we must collectively agree on what citizenship means: all Nigerians must matter equally.

Source:
www.olisa.tv/2015/04/10/chimamanda-adichieoba-lagos/

At the bolded, nobody is responsible for that but the Vultures here in the South who keep fighting internet wars on behalf of their masters.

Hmmm!

ControlX:
Landlords in Lagos should not, as still happens too often, be able to refuse to rent their property to Igbo people.

Source:
www.olisa.tv/2015/04/10/chimamanda-adichieoba-lagos/

Not only in Nigeria abeg, are Liberians Yorubas too? Even in Ghana...
No single tribe is free from the cankerworm of tribalism; this gives credence to the salient fact that this country is sitting on a barrel of gun powder.
Abeg blow the damn thing...

Chimamanda my role model.
God bless you for this article

Absolute Truth!!

The words of Oba Akiolu will be remembered even in 20 yrs to come whether Nigeria exists or not. It will be passed down from fathers to Children,and it will shape the way Yorubas see Igbos,and vice versa...Except...

Front page please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oba is an ex-policeman, one wonders why making such threat now.

I think I will start by trying to be Anthropomorphic, as it will bet express my heading.
Its really sad when insanity realizes that he has a mental disorder then he is as good as cured. The moment a people come to terms with their complex problem which often place them at loggerheads with their host communities the better for them.

I seem not to fathom how a tribe claim to have suffered humiliations and deprivation from other ethnic nationalities. This allegation should be consider very weighty even though it was not substantiated. Nonetheless, this aggrieved ethnic nationality needs to ask herself what is about it that could be responsible for the purported hostile acts of other ethnic nationalities toward it.

One problem I have with Chimanda is all her articles tends to quote Chinua Achebe, even when its evident chinua actions are wrong. The sane mistake she made, about his book "there was a country". Now she is trying to say that the Igbo's were murdered in early 1960's for political reasons? Who started the war? Was it the Nigerian Arny or The late Ojukwu ? I see Chimabda is biased. And she is just a staunt re-echoer of Chinua Achebe's belief.


I liked the fact that she related the massacre of the Ibos in different parts of the country before the civil war. However what I do like to ask her is this,

1. chimanda was there nothing that led to the massacre?

You can't deny that the tendency to dominate in another man's land which is being exhibited now by taking the Oba to court is what led to such. Tell me when you come back from court if the people of Lagos will still have a good relationship with the Ibos.


Chimanda while trying to play a neutral ground at the surface, is been biased deep down. I am sorry to say but if Chimanda spent her time writing this, she wasted that time. As this just further lowered NY respect for her as an internationally recognised writer. Novel is her thing not politics.

Just imagine how shez is spreading lies about 1960s massacre. Posterity Judge you.

Thank you Ngozi for speaking out.I don't know why some people thinks they can dictate to others who to vote for iin a national election and later they will claim the most civilized and most accommodating.Thie.fnubu want to turn Nigeria into north Korea.

well said
please let all stop this religious and tribal hatred we are all one, i know there is still a long way to go.
let call a spade a spade it is not proper to call Lagos a know mans land and No law-abiding Nigerian should be expected to show
gratitude for living peacefully in any part of Nigeria.

morbeta:
Oba is an ex-policeman, one wonders why making such threat now.

And you will think an ex policeman should know better. Only in Nigeria will they make a common street urchin an Oba and you expect him to make a sensible comment...Na Awka!
Adding the fact that the rogue,Tinubu made him Oba!

The late Oba Oyekan would never speak such filth...He was a gentleman.

I don't agree to all her articles BUT this one is PERFECT......

Truely opined.

Now these are the kind of people who should be given be given awards,that's a true daughter of the soil.... Nna see dissection.. Proudly Igbo..