In Nigeria today, merchants of violence and disharmony have taken the centre stage for strange reasons. A reflection on the recent South East Infraction would tell more. Irate Igbo youth in their own land recently killed, maimed, and humiliated tribes other than their own. For reasons best known to them, they specifically targeted Northerners for execution and mortification. They threatened fire and brimstone against the unity of Nigeria and destroyed social infrastructure for dissemination of justice, maintenance of social balance, and furtherance of democracy, mostly belonging to the federal government.
While these were happening, we expected pristine leadership from their elders. It never came. They were silent. Dead silent. The ones who spoke on television seemed afraid to condemn the acts. They spoke from both sides of their cheeks. They were incoherent. What went wrong? It is still not clear what went wrong. Why did it have to take the “speak to them in the language they understand” speech from Mr. President for the Igbo leaders to rediscover their eminence and find their voices? Were they complacent? Only the Igbo leadership could answer these questions.
Recently, working as part of a national committee, I had reason to vote on how Nigeria should zone the leadership of this country. The question was: from which geopolitical region should the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria be nominated for the 2023 general elections? I recommended that the next President should come from one of two regions, the North East or the South East. I am a Northerner, but I had the Igbos in mind and recommended their region and the North East as the regions that least served Nigeria in that capacity.
It was only President Namdi Azikiwe from the Igbo extraction that presided over this nation during the first republic, if you include the military era, then they also had General Aguyi Ironsi. The North East, on its part, had no one except Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who served as Prime Minister to President Azikiwe. It produced no military leader in that capacity. The North East has also been bedeviled by Boko Haram terrorism for more than 12 years. My thoughts in their respect were that an indigenous President from the region would be duty bound to help the North East and Nigeria overcome this unnecessary menace, which has defied two, possibly three, Presidents.
My views about the South East region producing the next President was totally devastated by the actions of the Igbos in their region and the apparent complicity of their leaders. My concern now is how my recommendation of an Igbo President would be viewed by lucid thinking Nigerians against the backdrop of recent happenings in the South East. Would any rational Nigerian feel comfortable handing over the reins of leadership of this country to a region that is threatening secession with reckless abandon? One that does not see any good in the unity of the country as it is currently constituted?
On further and deeper reflections, I now think, perhaps, the Igbos should be listened to. If they want to leave this country, maybe they should. No partnership is worthy of unnecessary blood shade. We already have enough carnage across the country to warrant another one perpetrated by a people who think holding the country to ransom is what is needed to set them free from a union they willingly accepted and participated in for decades. No region has the monopoly of violence. It is one subject that one needs not go to any school to learn. It can be mastered overnight. A counter reaction from other parts of the country is best not imagined. An involuntary union, like a forced marriage, is an ill wind that blows nobody any good. No country grows in the midst of violent infraction. We need peace to grow and prosper as a nation, not war or intolerance.
The Igbos, as a group, should make up their minds if they want to remain as part of Nigeria or not and find a way of separating peacefully. The North is not its enemy. Northern Nigeria has been a natural ally of the Igbos for years, but the recent violence against Arewa is a manifestation of a deep animosity that is growing in the South East against the North, which constitutes a wedge in the relationship serious enough to change history.
In fact, violence will not yield a desirable result for them or anyone else. They have a lot at stake. They live in glass houses and cannot afford to throw stones, just as with the EndSars riots, Arewa was able to restrain its youth from taking the law into their own hands. It is our hope that the carnage stops here, and remorse be shown to Arewa by the Igbo youth and their leaders. Like it is commonly said, enough is enough.
May the Igbo leaders, after finding their voices following the President’s speech, think and act appropriately, make the Igbo youth take a longer view of life, eschew violence, and stop beating the drums of war. Those who ride on the back of a tiger, end inside. Their silence is not golden.
Abu Maryam writes from Kaduna
