I READ an interesting Facebook broadcast by a friend of mine, Ray
Morphy Ugba, the morning just before coming to the office to write this
article. Ray is a journalist, politician, blogger and (from what I saw after
the broadcast) also a musician.
He hails from Cross River State, though he seems quite proud of
the fact that his mother is an Igbo woman, which is why he calls Igbos “my
mother’s people”. Ray referred to a recent controversial statement credited to
the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on a visit to Badagry, where he said
Lagos was not a “colony” but part of the Yoruba homeland (which is true).
He reportedly announced that there was “nothing like Eze Ndi Igbo
again” in the state, stressing his determination to move several markets (like
Mile 12, Ladipo and others) to outskirts of the metropolics. This outing has
been trending in the social media, and some Igbo people believe it is yet
another pointer to the fact that Ambode is an “enemy” of their people.
Ray in his broadcast said: “Just because you have bought a large
parcel of land from a community to build, live, trade and flourish does not
make you an indigene of that place”. I concur. Though it makes you a
stakeholder as a property owner and citizen, it does not entitle you to the
“inner matters” to which only the aborigines of the place are entitled.
However, that you are not entitled to those things does not in any way reduce
your rights, privileges and obligations as a citizen under the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I will expatiate on this presently.
First, let me deal with the issue of “going home”; what it is not
and what it is. What does “Igbos, go home” mean? It does not mean: pack your
belongings and leave the place. It does not mean that you should uproot from
where you currently live and go back to Igboland or your hometown in Igboland.
Why should you? You are a Nigerian, and the Constitution entitles you to settle
and live peacefully and lawfully in any part of the country without harassment.
“Go home” is a very useful piece of advice for any sensible Igbo person willing
to listen. Anyone who tells you “be careful”, “mind yourself” or “be warned”,
is not insulting you. He is your friend, maybe in disguise.
The Igbos are the only group in Nigeria who require this timeous
advice: “go home”. The Yorubaman in the North or any other part of the country
does not need it: he hardly “leaves” his roots, no matter how long he lives
outside Yorubaland (including abroad). The Arewa man does not need it. He
hardly plants down any tap root outside his aboriginal enclave. He never builds
any permanent structure. He lives among his own cultural types, maintains the
purity of his religious culture and is in touch with “home” by radio and other
channels, no matter how long he lives outside Arewa land. It is only the Igbo
man that takes the “One Nigeria” dictum on the surface level. He is like Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe who says: “let us forget about our differences”. But other
Nigerians are like Sardauna Ahmadu Bello who says: “let us remember our
differences”. It is this misguided float of mind that leads the Igbo man to
settle and develop where he lives, forgetting that where he comes from also
requires to be developed.
History once taught the Igbo man a painful lesson when the coups
of 1966 took place and the pogroms in the North led to the civil war. When the
war ended, the Igbos came back and were allowed to reclaim their property in
the North and West, but were denied that right in Port Harcourt, a city built
on the land of the Igbo-speaking Ikwerre sub-national group. Why? Because Port
Harcourt had become the oil booty of the civil war’s winners. The Igbo/Biafrans
were not allowed to be landlords/stakeholders in this city after losing the war
over its oil.
However, the Igbos went back to the North and West and soon forgot
all the lessons that Port Harcourt was meant to teach them: understand how to
live with other Nigerians in this “One Nigeria”. They recovered from the scars
of the war and started ravenously building mansions, markets and even
industries in major cities like Lagos, Abuja, Kano and elsewhere. Not only
that, they totally neglected their own aboriginal homeland. Igboland feels very
little of the famed commercial and technological acumen of the Igbo people. It
is essentially an economic and infrastructural wasteland.
The Igbos became so “comfortable” outside their own homeland that
some misguided elements among them even started setting up some fake
traditional institutions and installing what they referred to as “Eze Ndi Igbo”
in those places, to the utter irritation of the indigenes and those of us who
feel the shame of it all. These hustlers (“Eze Ndi Igbo”) who don’t understand
the implications of their tomfoolery, go as far as conferring chieftaincy
titles on relevance-seeking nonentites who, invariably, are people of
questionable roots and means of livelihood. These fakers have come under
increasing scrutiny by the owners of the land: their commoners, kings and
political leaders. This is long overdue! If Ambode says no more “Eze Ndi Igbo”
in Lagos, he is right.
Anybody whose ancestors did not come from the geo-cultural
boundaries of Lagos cannot be an indigene of Lagos. If you are not an indigene
of Lagos, how can you be a “king” in Lagos? How can you dispense chieftaincy
titles? It is a barefaced usurpation of the “inner privileges” exclusive to
those whose ancestors first established their traditional authority in Lagos.
In any case, what value does “Eze Ndi Igbo” add to Igbos in Lagos? It is not
even a cultural trait of Igbo people.
It was a mere copying of Arewa’s Sarkin Hausawa or Sarkin Zango
system which the Igbos born in the North (like the late venerated Dim Ikemba
Odumegwu Ojukwu) misguidedly copied against the better counsel of some of us.
The Sarkin Hausawa do pay homage to the traditional and political authorities
of places they settle as due deference (though some of them are no longer doing
so but actually making territorial claims which pitches them at loggerheads
with indigenes). If push comes to shove again, Igbos will lose a million times
more than they lost in Port Harcourt. Yet, many of them are supporting Nnamdi
Kanu’s Biafra separatism, believing they can eat their cakes and still have it
back. What naivete! Igbos must “go home”, develop Igboland, build up its
economic infrastructure and make it a destination not only for the Igbos but
also other Nigerians and even foreigners to live, work and thrive. That is the
meaning of “go home”.
Igbos will never live in dignity outside Igboland until they have
done this. Their children will continue to speak English and the native tongues
of their hosts without the ability to speak and behave like Igbos. If Igbos do
not “gome home”, they will be lost! They are already losing their Majority
status, anyway, and their language is rapidly vanishing. It is in the vital
interest of the Igbo people and their children to “go home”. Anambra State is
showing that it can be done. I did not vote for Ambode during the elections but
he is not my enemy. He is developing Lagos State for the common good, and he
needs to remove shanties to do so. Every Lagos dweller (including the
indigenes) has three choices: cooperate, give way or be prepared to go in. But
the citizenship rights of all Nigerians in Lagos MUST always be upheld. Lagos
MUST be developed lawfully. Otherwise, our voters cards will speak for us at
the right time.
Source: Vanguardngr.com
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