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Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga - Politics (5) - Nairaland

Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga (54990 Views)

Ijeoma Ozichi Writes Chimamanda Adichie On The Oba Of Lagos Statement To Igbos / Yoruba Politicians Are Smarter Than Their Igbo Counterparts: Oba Of Lagos Saga / Caption This Photo Of Fashola And Tinubu Staring At The Oba Of Lagos (2) (3) (4)

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Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Descartes: 7:14am On Apr 11, 2015
Scatterboss:


Done with you. Ignored.
Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Nobody: 7:14am On Apr 11, 2015
illiad:


...a region that accepted you?
You people live and dine in abject ignorance.

Pls get the copy of the nigerian constitution. Read it and if you don't like its content then just jump in the lagoon and end your misery.

The depth of that ignorance is mind boggling
It is quite pathetic when people demand a thank you that they don't deserve and don't even realize how stupid it sounds asking

5 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Descartes: 7:14am On Apr 11, 2015
Scatterboss:


Done with you. Ignored.
k
Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by slap1(m): 7:16am On Apr 11, 2015
ideykwum:
Hosts? Do you pay their rents and provide their feeding? I'm appalled at this level of craziness!

It annoys me abeg! The reasons are similar in their shallowness.

1 Like

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by iwriterng(m): 7:18am On Apr 11, 2015
My problem with Chimamanda is how she's is always painting the Igbo tribe as a victim of modern Nigerian.

Yes! The oba's statement is full of folly! Yes! No sane human being should utter such silly words, especially when it is directed to a particular set of people. But to ride on the tide of a statement made by an illiterate shows how badly Chimamanda wants to play the "Igbo card" in any of her piece.

She said it herself! There is danger in single stories, they are stereotype and stereotypes are always incomplete. Start the story of Biafra war from how Igbo's were starved to death and you have a completely different story, start with the actions of Ojukwu and you have another story entirely.

The first Nigerian coup (1966) has Igbo written all over it. Maybe we should
start telling the story of Biafra from there.


I respect her works, but I really hope she would stop seeing the 1960 incident from Achebe's perspective and read the story from another angle.

8 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Nobody: 7:18am On Apr 11, 2015
No Igbo person owes a single Yoruba person here a thank you for living in Lagos
Same way they don't owe a berom a thank you for living in Jos
None whatsoever
How else can we say this and end this quickly so you don't keep expecting it

15 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by ideykwum: 7:18am On Apr 11, 2015
Victim mentality? It's so easy to bandy words! Do you have a sense of history? How could you not expect Igbos to find certain things awkward in the light of the so called "One Nigeria"? This is naivety at its best!

tollu:
We are still on "My People" "Your People".

Article is tribalistic from where I'm sitting.
People have complained, people have condemned but it is seen as "impatient condemnation" and makes it all insincere according to the author.
Ngwanu biko, what should be done? I think the Igbos have adapted to the "Victim Mentality" and there's nothing anybody can do to change that anymore. Too bad

Personally, I could not believe an Oba said so when I heard it. Matter of fact, not many people could.
So let's go on, let's milk the Oba talk for all it can yield and let's see how that makes any body better.

3 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by oneeast: 7:19am On Apr 11, 2015
I think you're missing it. Yorubas have been killed severally in the north but your people chose to play it down.

I read a particular news where yoruba traders numbering over 100 were singled out in maiduguri and murdered. The difference between Igbos and yoruba is that the former raises its voice and even respond with reprisal while the later pretend to feel happy even in the face of intimidation and killing

I think yorubas needs the reassessment more than anybody else.


.
cole265:


My friend all this ranting will not help you unless you conduct a re assessment of your self b4 you can move on.
Why are you people so hated every where you go? Why do people harbour anger and hatred towards the Igbos? Surely their must be a reason(s)...

Guess you need to be thankful to the Oba to have let out his dislike to the public. This should be seen by your people as an opportunity to conduct the much needed and overdue self assessment. He is more of your friend.

Guess you have to be more weary of the emir who has perfectly counselled his own resentment towards you. ...sure you know he is more deadly.

7 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Jeffoo(m): 7:19am On Apr 11, 2015
True










but still vote Ambode

2 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by francizy(m): 7:20am On Apr 11, 2015
Waspy:
[b] Important Socratic questions Chiamanda and her folks forgot to answer are;

Have Yorubas not bn good hosts in all forms of being good and being an host?

Is it too much for Yorubas to say that Lagos is a Yorubaland?

He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.... Have the Igbo, all along and "all these while" bn innocent victims?

Are Igbos not just being mischievous since there are other tribes( whose lands are even closer to Lagos than the far East) in Lagos who have never cried like babies and whined like bigots?

Is there a way forward and who shld pave way for who?


Are other sojourners laying claims to the "no-man's land as passionately as the Igbos?

I think these and many more questions shld have bn answered by Ms. Adichie and her goons before she concoted her sentimental piece...if truly she did.

It won't be fair, if for the sakes of peace and unity of Nigeria, we continue to, for no sane reasons, undermine, insubordinate, take for granted and make to nothing the culture, tradition,ideology and good will of the numerous pples that make this great country[/b]

You should also ask yourself these questions:

Has there ever been a time after the civil war that a truck load of dead Yoruba people were moved from SE to SW for burial?

Have we not accommodated the Yorubas in our lands, although they aren't that large compared to Igbos in SW?

Haven't you heard of cases were a truck load of dead bodies were brought into the SW from the north?

Have we caused you trouble as our host? Did we rise up in arms against you, like some tribe(s) did in Jos? Have we ever come out en masse to murder/maim the Yorubas in Lagos?

Has the Igbos not paid their dues? Did we disrupt any Yoruba businesses or damaged any Yoruba properties?

If you've asked and answered all these questions, then you can ask yourself this one too..

Then why the hate speech?

17 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by illiad: 7:20am On Apr 11, 2015
MugabeRobert:


Are you minding the ungrateful parasites? We gave peace and they paid us back with constant abuse of our traditional values. Can they try half of what they are doing in southwest in the north? Heck, can they insult Emir of Kano the way they did to Kabiyesi?



Unfortunately you did not know that while the emir of kano is educated, the current oba of lagos is an illiterate tout, which was why he desecrated the throne.

Do you think Oba Oyekan ll would have uttered such words as this oba did?

4 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by ideykwum: 7:22am On Apr 11, 2015
If you can't answer these questions, then you don't live in Nigeria, and have no sense of history! Nigeria turned Igbos into their whipping dog out of jealousy and spite!

cole265:
I am impressed that with the long write up, she did not insult the Oba. It's not about the individual but about the issue. I maintain the Oba bared it all...he spoke out of frustration and anger. this is what I expect that the Igbos should investigate...why the hatred? why the resentment from other ethnic tribe for the Igbos? The Igbos need to do a lot of self assessment.

2 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Nobody: 7:23am On Apr 11, 2015
oneeast:
I think you're missing it. Yorubas have been killed severally in the north but your people chose to play it down.

I read a particular news where yoruba traders numbering over 100 were singled out in maiduguri and murdered. The difference between Igbos and yoruba is that the former raises its voice and even respond with reprisal while the later pretend to feel happy even in the face of intimidation and killing

I think yorubas needs the reassessment more than anybody else.


(quote author=cole265 post=32580939]

You got that right
Isn't it amazing that the slaughter of southerners in northern Nigeria is now slaughter of Igbos alone and someone would dare ask why Igbos are hated and killed when's innocent people are bombed in their homes and churches
The same eediots blaming Goodluck Jonathan for not containing boko haram and the slaughter of southerners in religious riots comes online to blame Igbos for the killings and asking us to ask why we are hated
What crass duplicity

Sometimes I wonder if these folks are being deliberately ignorant
Nobody can be this ignorant I would think

11 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by treasuremi1(m): 7:25am On Apr 11, 2015
For how long do we want this to continue!!! What is happening? Okay, the oba said it and he is regretting ever saying it., but can't we move on?

2 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Godwin10123: 7:27am On Apr 11, 2015
biafranqueen:
Low self esteem has damaged an entire people.
On whose side re u?

1 Like

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Nobody: 7:29am On Apr 11, 2015
The group alleged that the traders were murdered in cold blood by armed Boko Haram insurgents.

Those killed, according to the group, are Seye Adegboyega, Jelili Popoola, Ojo Mosobalaje, Fatai Kareem, Femi Oyetunde, Ninalowo Saheed, Saburu Lanlehin, Lekan Oladokun, Sola Adeoye and Nurudeen Lawal.

The group further stated that the victims were murdered in the most gruesome manner, as they were shot several times and their bodies mutilated with bullets.

“This murder must not go unpunished. Boko Haram is targeting religious and ethnic groups. There is a campaign of terror going on against the Yoruba people in the north of the country," it said.

This is that news
You would never know yorubas had traders who went to other areas of Nigeria when you hear them speak of Lagos and Igbo traders and Igbos being killed
Did they miss this news?

7 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by sethken: 7:30am On Apr 11, 2015
Ymodulus:
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.






What lies? You make no sense. Chimanda is on point. Sometimes the truth can be bitter. She laid it out the way it is. On the issue of Biafra, Achebe has never been wrong. Achebe lived in Lagos during the pogrom. He saw, and heard what happened to Igbo first hand. To attack Achebe for stating the facts as he saw them, is disingenuous on your part. If you have bones to pick with Achebe pick it elsewhere, and not on the issue of Biafra. He had a front seat during the Biafra war theater.

The average Igbo was massacred all over the North, and in Lagos just for being Igbo. The sin of a few Igbo officers became the sin of the entire Igbo Nation or anyone that had the Igbo semblance. Analogously, one can see the same pattern in the Oba's comment. Because the Igbo States voted overwhelmingly for PDP, therefore, every Igbo in Lagos will drown in the Lagoon if PDP wins Lagos. By direct implication every Igbo irrespective of who they voted for is guilty if PDP wins. Like in 1967 where every Igbo was painted with the same brush, the Oba is doing the exact same here in 2015.

I have seen tons of comments here and else where alluding to the fact that Lagos belongs to the Yoruba. The questions of our place and citizenship in the Nigerian polity continues to rear its ugly head. What's wrong with an Igbo taking a Yoruba Oba to court for making inflammatory and inciting comments? I think we all have to be honest with ourselves. This forced colonial union is not working.

God knows if we are forced to ever seek refuge again in Igbo land. Nigeria will have to ethnic cleanse the entire Igbo Nation, anything short of that will be a birth of a new Nation. I think we are ripe for a referendum in the South East/South South States.

14 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Descartes: 7:30am On Apr 11, 2015
treasuremi1:
For how long do we want this to continue!!! What is happening? Okay, the oba said it and he is regretting ever saying it., but can't we move on?
It seems that you're among those Chimamanda was referring to in that article. The Oba should face the music should anything happens to any Igboman in Lagos.

7 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by ideykwum: 7:32am On Apr 11, 2015
It is not convenient for them to see this truth you are highlighting! You see, the need a basis for relating with the perceived dominance of the Hausa-Fulani...they must make someone a whipping dog! Yes, they must look for a mutual enemy that will help ingratiate themselves to the North! It's crazy, but very real! Don't expect a Yoruba man to change from this chameleon attitude.


francizy:


You should also ask yourself these questions:

Has there ever been a time after the civil war that a truck load of dead Yoruba people were moved from SE to SW for burial?

Have we not accommodated the Yorubas in our lands, although they aren't that large compared to Igbos in SW?

Haven't you heard of cases were a truck load of dead bodies were brought into the SW from the north?

Have we caused you trouble as our host? Did we rise up in arms against you, like some tribe(s) did in Jos? Have we ever come out en masse to murder/maim the Yorubas in Lagos?

Has the Igbos not paid their dues? Did we disrupt any Yoruba businesses or damaged any Yoruba properties?

If you've asked and answered all these questions, then you can ask yourself this one too..

Then why the hate speech?

4 Likes 1 Share

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by blym4real: 7:33am On Apr 11, 2015
ideykwum:
How did she get it wrong? You are the one reading this article through a tribalistic haze! How can you then see right? She rebuked the conduct of supposed leaders in a very diplomatic way! Asking Igbos to move on without any attempt to ask Akiolu to apologise is an insult! Get that simple logic into that head!

In as much as I have a lot to say to you but due to the tribalistic nature of the content been discussed, I wouldn't want to further the argument.

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Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Nobody: 7:33am On Apr 11, 2015
Ymodulus:
[b]



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.





This is a disappointing statement from a lettered person.

So you mean to tell us, that if you pay for a house, and your landlord threatens your life, you'll do nothing about it?

What exactly do these igbos do that you seem to be so bitter about? What?

And you, in the deepest of your heart, believe that your own people are perfect?

5 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by mya1: 7:33am On Apr 11, 2015
OreMI22:


[size=13pt]My concern with the Igbo youths of today is they are too nice or too naive.

If Yoruba threatens violence, they should not only secretly prepare to inflict heavy casualty on anyone who dares to attack them in Lagos, but should also quietly track where Yorubas live in Enugu,Onitsha,Asaba,Port Harcourt or Aba and simply keep quiet and wait for action time.

Since they started the principle of reciprocity against northerners in the south for every riot in the north, anti- Igbo riots in the north have become rarer.
[/size]

Your proposed solution would spell more doom for Igbos in Lagos than all the Yorubas in the South East.
At this stage, it's better to let sleeping dogs lie than propose to start what you cannot finish.

All in all, one Nigeria is all we clamour for, while at that, every tribe should abide by the law and order of each state they habitate(especially but not restricted to non-native states).

After all , when in Rome, you are expected to act like the Romans.

3 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by ideykwum: 7:33am On Apr 11, 2015
She has eaten the mess of porridge, and been compromised! Her self esteem has nose-dived!

Godwin10123:

On whose side re u?

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Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by luvmijeje(f): 7:34am On Apr 11, 2015
ideykwum:
[s]Read more, and get your beak out of tribal pettiness, and you'd find that the only revisionism being done, is by poorly-trained Internet maggots like you! Poo![/s]


Any Yorubas that apologise on behalf of the Oba after today is an OMO ALE...... Let them do their worst. The Yorubas will be waiting for them at the ICC.

3 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Nobody: 7:36am On Apr 11, 2015
francizy:


You should also ask yourself these questions:

Has there ever been a time after the civil war that a truck load of dead Yoruba people were moved from SE to SW for burial?

Have we not accommodated the Yorubas in our lands, although they aren't that large compared to Igbos in SW?

Haven't you heard of cases were a truck load of dead bodies were brought into the SW from the north?

Have we caused you trouble as our host? Did we rise up in arms against you, like some tribe(s) did in Jos? Have we ever come out en masse to murder/maim the Yorubas in Lagos?

Has the Igbos not paid their dues? Did we disrupt any Yoruba businesses or damaged any Yoruba properties?

If you've asked and answered all these questions, then you can ask yourself this one too..

Then why the hate speech?

You are even going far
Ask him how many times Igbos in Lagos or any part of Yorubaland have attacked yorubas?
Yet there are countless stories of Hausas fighting them,killing them and Fulanis raping and killing their men and women in every part of Yorubaland yet their hatred is towards Igbos
Don't these people think?
How spiteful can this group be towards people that have done them no harm whatsoever
Hausas kill you and you want an Igboman to thank you
Sorry you ain't getting none
Let them go and collect their towel where they took their bath

16 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Godwin10123: 7:38am On Apr 11, 2015
Scatterboss:


You and your people are the one with low self esteem. Is it not a shame that you leave your own house to insult other people and call there land, no mans land. Can you try it in the North? Are you the only tribe in Lagos. Why are the Hauss not calling it no mans land. You guys should learn to thread carefully, the Yorubas silence and humility is not cowardice.

Enough is enough.
Common sense should tell u dat every nigerian have the right to reside in any part of this country and Lagos is not in exception.if u don't like it do your worst!!!

3 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Nobody: 7:39am On Apr 11, 2015
iwriterng:
My problem with Chimamanda is how she's is always painting the Igbo tribe as a victim of modern Nigerian.

Yes! The oba's statement is full of folly! Yes! No sane human being should utter such silly words, especially when it is directed to a particular set of people. But to ride on the tide of a statement made by an illiterate shows how badly Chimamanda wants to play the "Igbo card" in any of her piece.


She said it herself! There is danger in single stories, they are stereotype and stereotypes are always incomplete. Start the story of Biafra war from how Igbo's were starved to death and you have a completely different story, start with the actions of Ojukwu and you have another story entirely.

I respect her works, but I really hope she would stop seeing the 1960 incident from Achebe's perspective and read the story from another angle.

A threat is a threat, especially when it comes from someone in authority, who in in the capacity to carry it out.

And believe me, this isn't a single story, there's so much pretence going on.

What the oba blurted out is an emotion shared by majority of the people, save for a few. No one could just say it, but good thing the oba spilled the beans.

Now it is clear that nobody is falsely playing the victim's card.

1 Like

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Nobody: 7:40am On Apr 11, 2015
luvmijeje:


Any Yorubas that apologise on behalf of the Oba after today is an OMO ALE...... Let them do their worst. The Yorubas will be waiting for them at the ICC.

About 8 Obas have apologized
Looks like there are many omo ales already

6 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by Nobody: 7:41am On Apr 11, 2015
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/
I am proud of you thanks for this wonderful article. this is to show that we the igbos have people
#proudlyigbo#

5 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by ayindejimmy(m): 7:41am On Apr 11, 2015
Nice article, however you goofed where you wrote Lagos was the first National capital. The first capital of Nigeria is Zungeru (Niger State) followed by Lokoja (Kogi State); 3.
Calabar (Cross River State); 4. Lagos (Lagos
State); then 5. FCT Abuja respectively.

4 Likes

Re: Chimamanda Adichie's Article On The Oba Of Lagos Saga by sethken: 7:42am On Apr 11, 2015
luvmijeje:


Any Yorubas that apologise on behalf of the Oba after today is an OMO ALE...... Let them do their worst. The Yorubas will be waiting for them at the ICC.

Internet war lord...coward...You will be the first to kiss the dust, Pal...stupid idiot.

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