Who will save the Igbo race?

By Ejike Anyaduba( writes from Abatete)

It took resistance from Rosa Parker, a 42 year old tailor's assistant, for African Americans led by Martin Luther King Jnr. and Ralph Abernathy to rise against the "separate but equal" discriminatory law of segregate America. It took the Sharpeville shooting of 67 Black South Africans by the White minority government in South Africa for Nelson Mandela to lead the Umkhonto we Sizwe resistance movement in the Apartheid enclave among others.

History is replete with similar examples. Groups struggle for power dates back in time. It has been, and still is, a factor of human existence. Behind every struggle for power is the suppression of the weak by the strong. In one of his rousing speeches to the oppressed people of African American descent Martin Luther King Jnr. once said that "freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed". In essence the yoke of oppression is broken only when the oppressed expresses willingness and determination to extricate themselves from subjugation. This, however, cannot be achieved without recourse to decisive and responsive leadership.

The Igbo nation is in dire need of a leadership that is both responsive and decisive. Leadership vacuum among the people, especially in a country that has scant regard for equity and justice, is beginning to take its toll on the race. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Ndigbo to survive the rat race that has come to define the country's approach to political and economic power. The political gust unleashed by better organized groups in the country buffets Ndigbo and leaves them groping for direction. The void exposes them to all manner of denials and gratuitous violence. The number of deaths recorded by Ndigbo via sectarian crisis in the country is enough to compel serious introspection.

The situation deteriorates with successive governments in Nigeria. It will be trite to chronicle afresh all the denials and cheap deaths the people are subjected to. It equally sucks to think the end of the humiliating experiences may not be in sight yet. The descent to political irrelevance appears hard and fast. Besides manifest disparity in the distribution of political and economic favour, the latest treason trial of the leadership of MASSOB bespeaks of Ndigbo as a people whose political fortunes have reached the nadir. Though I do not subscribe to the group and its style of agitation, it does not make sense that more violent groups elsewhere in the country are wooed with amnesty while MASSOB leadership is arraigned on treason charge.

I recall that in 2005, as a result of upsurge in violent eruptions among ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, the Obasanjo administration ordered the arrest of the leaders of OPC, NDPVF, and MASSOB. Consequently Fredrick Fasheun, Ganiyu Adam, Asari Dokubo and Uwazurike were all thrown into detention. Curiously, of the lot, only Uwazurike, the peaceful agitator, is yet to regain full freedom years after. The grim reality of his current treason trial, alongside some of his unfortunate colleagues, is that he risks long jail term and or death sentence should the trial be allowed to run its course. It rings a note of blatant discrimination, if not barefaced humiliation, to arraign MASSOB for trial while Boko Haram, NDPVF, MEND, OPC, etc are courted with contract offers.

Today the reluctant Boko Haram has the state chasing it with amnesty offer, MEND, NDPVF and other amorphous militia groups in the creeks of the Delta have oversea skill acquisition program lined out before their members while OPC members have oil pipe line protection contract signed with the state. As was wont MASSOB has treason trial hung on its leaders. If the trial is meant to serve as deterrent - its discriminatory application is indeed shocking. But more disgusting is the attitude of Ndigbo themselves to the erosion of ground under their feet. No doubt an average Igbo man in the street is apolitical. He thinks less of political development around him than he is interested in his business. The elite do not fare better. Few, if any, politician from among the people care what denial the race suffers insofar as his needs are well taken care of by Abuja. Any wonder only one or two voices have spoken out against the discriminations. The individuality of the Igbo man has blinded his vision and denied him the knowledge that a fowl must worry over the fate of a partridge.

For some reason some of the elite view MASSOB members as waste of space. However, it will be an unpardonable folly to do so at a time like this when insurgency has taken over the land. While, even without better credentials, such groups elsewhere are regarded by political leaders of those nationalities. At some point the OPC in its quest for relevance had its factional leader, Ganiyu Adams, declared wanted by the police. He went underground for a period of time, but when he emerged eventually from hiding, over 200 Yoruba lawyers went to court in his defense.

What Ndigbo lack is decisive and responsive leadership that will rouse the people from political inertia, and refocus them in the fiercely competitive political environment. The effort of Ohaneze in this wise has been relatively marginal and cannot be relied upon to lead the people out of political wood. It was in view of the consistent loss of relevance in the polity that once made the late Professor Chinua Achebe to charge them to decline every political appointment and look inward for self determination. It is regrettable that among the ethnic nationalities, Ndigbo appear the only one which cannot win and do not also know how to make the price of the enemy's victory exorbitant. 

To date Ndigbo still see appointment to positions as a big issue. They put advertorials thanking whoever that made such appointment possible while their more astute neighbors would be making more demands. This may not be without reason – apparently they are still woozy with hunger for lost positions since after the war. But to what extent such positions are utilized to advantage still remain a problem. The disparity in infrastructural spread among the zones suggests that Ndigbo are still behind their neighbors. The zone has the least number of states, has no seaport, no international airport, no viable industries, worst portions of federal roads, among others.

For as long as the leadership of the Igbo nation is peopled by relevance-seeking, profit - oriented political office holders so long will the people continue to play second fiddle to their neighbours. For a people set on survival now is the time for a bold and courageous leadership to emerge and point the way forward in a country that is already mired in violent ethnic eruptions.