When I write about the Fulani, Igbo, and their negative activities against Nigeria, I am flooded with acidic comments. The replies are so juvenile and emotional, devoid of substance and laden with ethnic gobbledygook.
Some say I am Islamophobic, while others say I am Igbo-phobic. These replies are lame and devoid of any scholarship. Debate the key points and spare me the emotional drivel that lacks clarity and common sense.
My interest is to make the amalgam called Nigeria work because, ultimately, Africa will unite as a single or semi-autonomous entity in the future. I believe in E pluribus unum (“Out of many, one”). How can we unite Africa if we cannot unite a small place like Nigeria because of ethnocentrism and religious bigotry?
My discussion aims to make those who are inside see how those outside view them, and vice versa. Self-examination is a very difficult task for those whose perimeter is a unit. We are all Black people on this continent, and our present relationships and views have been shaped by those who conquered and colonised us. This colonisation brought linguistic and religious differences, which have created a great deal of cognitive dissonance amongst us.
The Fulani man thinks he is superior because he is a Muslim, and the Igbo man thinks he is superior because he has a Western education. I hate to burst their bubble. Their claim to fame and arrogance are what have rendered Africa impotent in the greater scheme of things. The education and religious zealotry have only made them mental hostages of their colonial masters. This is why they cannot love and see themselves in each other as fellow Africans who can develop and share common values.
The education and the religions are products of foreign cultures that undermine African civilisation and freedom. These were brought with the sword, and are still being defended with the sword to this day.
Nowhere can you see the battle between these religions more clearly than in the opposing positions between the Igbo and the Fulani. The Fulani used Islam to perpetuate their suzerainty over Northern Nigeria. The Igbo are predominantly Catholics. The schism between these two groups can be seen as a subterranean religious war, fuelled by the headquarters of their respective religions.
The Igbo will attack the Fulani with claims that they are trying to Islamise Nigeria, while the Fulani retort that no infidel will rule over them. What they really mean is that no non-Fulani can rule over them. They use religion as a ploy.
If you can view this in a broader context, you will find that the Fulani project the problems of Nigeria onto the Arab and Islamic world, framing them as conflicts with infidels, while the Igbo project their problems onto the Vatican, presenting them as an Islamic invasion and imposition of Sharia.
Due to good politicking and strong cultural awareness, the Western region tends not to get involved in the politics of extremism. The Fulani and the Igbo consider this position to be too good to be true. In search of allies in this region, both groups attempt to plant seeds of dominance. The Fulani tell Westerners that Islam is superior to culture, and the Igbo take the bait. The Fulani instigate actions in the West that are inimical to the Igbo. The Igbo, unaware of this, lash out in their characteristic bravado, claiming they developed Lagos. A new schism and war front are opened. No one looks further to identify the voice behind the hand of Esau. This is where we are today.
The rush to judgment is one of the drawbacks of group thinking, and there are proxies that make these fictional absurdities the realities that fuel more hate.
I want all the components of Nigeria to come together for restructuring. Restructuring will give us the space to run the affairs of our various regions or zones without interference and manipulation from an overwhelming centre with excessive powers.
The Igbo, who complain so much about the present system, are the ones who destroyed our regional system. The regions we had were semi-autonomous. What the Igbo are asking for today is what they destroyed yesterday. They have a strong proposition for Biafra but a lukewarm attitude towards anything that will restructure our present polity to resemble what we had in the First Republic.
Of all the candidates from Igboland, none has vociferously challenged or worked to develop a system that removes the federal government from the centre of our existence. This is a quality they share with the Fulani. The Fulani openly oppose restructuring; the Igbo remain strategically silent on the matter.
I take this to be acquiescence. The campaign of Peter Obi was that of a man trying to paint a dilapidated building where a structural engineer is needed. Many people were carried away by the flowery prose. I wasn’t. This house has collapsed and needs builders, not painters. They would rather declare Biafra and scuttle debates on restructuring. None of their politicians has shown any commitment in this regard. It can be assumed they are treading on both sides. It is like the case of the politicians who defend a bill by saying they voted for it before they opposed it – a gross attempt to attach meaning to opposites.
The Igbo, in their usual polemics, will claim that the British handed Nigeria to the Fulani. I beg to differ. The British handed Nigeria to Nigerians, and the Igbo handed Nigeria to the Fulani. This is our history. Nigeria became chaotic, and the Fulani took advantage of the chaos to manipulate the levers of power. Since they discovered that chaos benefits them, they have adopted it as a tool of diplomacy and statecraft, using it to achieve the results they want.
Today, it is Boko Haram; tomorrow, Fulani herdsmen. A chaotic Nigeria will find it difficult to restructure. In the old order, they would have resorted to coups by some illiterate military upstart, who would cry “corruption” and empty the treasury in the same breath.
The Western world has also realised that a chaotic Nigeria works to their advantage, and they have joined the bandwagon, developing policies of chaotic interference — supporting the terrorists while simultaneously positioning themselves as the diplomats with solutions to Nigerian affairs. They have the coin: heads, they win; tails, we lose.
Nigeria will never know peace again until we understand that inviting them to settle inter-tribal wars and skirmishes will become the new diplomatic order of the Western world in Nigeria. They will devise a solution that perpetually keeps Nigeria in purgatory. They are not our friends. They are strategic partners whose only goal is the exploitation and degradation of Africans.
Boko Haram has paid them greatly through the precious metals smuggled from Nigeria’s conflict zones. This is why I worry. After Boko Haram, Biafra may become another conflagration. The tone of most Biafrans is anti-Nigeria, and Western intelligence would be foolish not to water the seeds of this brewing chaos.
If the Igbo want peace and progress, they must join the campaign for restructuring. I am an Isoko man from the Niger Delta. There is no right I enjoy in Nigeria that is denied to the Igbo. Nigeria, at present, is built on the plunder of the Niger Delta’s resources. It is intellectually dishonest for anyone to accuse Nigerians of hating the Igbo when the South-East harbours deeply negative feelings towards other Nigerians, especially the minorities in the East.
There is schadenfreude in Biafraland when unfortunate events happen to minorities in the Niger Delta. This was very palpable when Ken Saro-Wiwa was murdered. To the Igbo, his death was the price paid for not supporting Biafra. This attitude is pervasive. They tell the Benue people that the crisis in Benue is punishment for not supporting Biafra. What is the punishment for other Nigerians like us in the Midwest, who pushed back the Biafran invasion? That is a question we should ask, since we were not in support of Biafra. Are they suggesting Biafra would have ushered in an Eldorado?
Biafra was a project of Igbo nationalism in a new nation called Nigeria, barely six years old. The Igbo overthrew the government they were part of. This is the nihilism that could also have emerged had Biafra succeeded. Those of us in the Midwest were not interested in the substitution of tyrants. We simply wanted to be left alone.
The Igbo must ask themselves some tough questions. Why do they believe there is antipathy towards them? No one hates anyone for being successful. I like successful neighbours because they can solve problems. It is lazy thinking to always point the finger at others. Telling us that Nigerians hate you, and in the same breath claiming you own 80% of houses in Abuja, is confusing. This is like a Black American claiming he is the victim of racism, while also asserting that racist whites gave him the opportunity to own the majority of America’s wealth.
They must correct the impression they have created around the world — that Nigeria oppresses them as an ethnic minority. This lie has been used by many Igbo people to obtain asylum in foreign lands. They have a duty to correct this. Nation-building is not for timid souls.
The Igbo in Nigeria are not a minority. Their relationship with minorities has always been fraught with distrust. This is why the minorities did not lend their support to.
