The last vestiges of our identity as a people are what the likes of Joe Igbokwe are commissioned to extirpate under some nebulous mantra of mendacity bandied as One Nigeria
By Oladoyin Odebowale
“Nobody has any right whatsoever to stop any Nigerian or Nigerians from going to any part of Nigeria, be it the East , West, North or South to do business or play politics. Trying to stop anybody is an attack on Nigeria as a political entity.” Joe Igbokwe
I must not allow this audacious provocation from an agent provocateur pass unchallenged. The statement above is credited to the pseudo pan Nigerian advocate, Joe Igbokwe, who is indeed an Ibo irredentist. It is our abounden duty to join issues with him and his handlers at Alausa anytime he ventures to bring forth his dubious thesis of oneness not applicable to his people.
The fact that he is becoming more brazen in the classification of our collective heritage as belonging to “everybody”, while his Nnewi belongs to his people, should make us treat anything concerning him with circumspect. He is the typical treacherous guest, who settles in to compromise the internal security of his host, while pretending to care.
This man will always jump to tell anyone of his sojourn in Lagos. He came in the early 80s. He had NOTHING. His duplicitous posturing, however, ignores this notorious fact anytime he chooses to embark on the itinerary of mendacity. He is quick to remind you that he has joined others to “build a city” which attracted him from his village with no special expertise beyond mercantilist cunning and ruthless rapacity to grab and dispossess.
He claims an 86 year history of “civilising mission”, when Nnamdi Azikiwe, Daddy Onyeama, Aja Nwachukwu, Ex-convict Nwafor Orizu and others joined Herbert Macaulay and other notable Saros, returnees from Sierra Leone, who sought protection under the British colonialists in Lagos, to “develop” Lagos. Joe Igbokwe must be reminded that many of the descendants of ex-slaves, the Saros, chose to remain in Lagos because they could not return to the hinterland. Iboland, Anambra, Imo and Enugu, were specially hostile to Ibo returnees.
What Igbokwe claims is not only the rights to vote and impose a political leadership on us. He struggles with the owners of the land on matters of privilege and representation. Meanwhile, his place remains closed
These ex-slaves stayed in Lagos with their Yoruba counterparts who had returned from Brazil, Cuba, Sierra Leone and the Caribbean. Unless Joe Igbokwe is able to mention, in specific terms, how refugees and peripatetic hustlers “developed” a city with established traditional kingship system, wide networks of socio-economic interactions with Europe as far back as the 15th century, while his ancestors were still in the forests of Equitorial Guinea and the Congo, any further acts of provocation from him will be met with intensely acerbic responses.
It is understandable that his people need Nigeria more than any other ethnic group in the country, despite the pretensions to some especial qualities, presumed to place them above the rest of the society. The unity of the geographical space known as Nigeria is of immense benefits to the importers of all manner of finished products, genuine and counterfeit, into the country.
Igbokwe’s shared space with the Igala in Anambra State is landlocked. It is erosion-ridden. It is packed. There is indeed a little promise of meaningful advancement for anyone who stays behind. We did not invite him. He escaped to meet us in prosperity.
We must correct an erroneous impression which seems to suggest that the colonial administration used the country’s money to develop Lagos. A significant chunk of the resources, ploughed into the administrative activities in the colonial capital, came from the Western Region on account of contiguity. Revenue from Cocoa encouraged the colonial government to choose Lagos as the seat of Government, apart from the sea.
With the above statement credited to him, Joe Igbokwe declares, unabashedly, that every part of Nigeria belongs to everyone, except of course the South East, which has remained impregnable. His region enjoys generous and disproportionate distribution of Vat revenues collected from other regions. No business can thrive in the South East at the moment. He ignores this fact to concentrate on Lagos, “the promised land” of the forest dwellers. He wants Chinedu Vivour and others to do as they wish in Yorubaland, a conquered part of his Nigeria.
They must vote to impose leadership in our land. They must build palaces and establish kingdoms on our lands. They must continue to kill our people through fake drugs, beverages, kidnapping, robberies and organ harvesting. They must control all local local markets. They must displace the indigenous ownership and insist on One Nigeria. They must be allowed to destroy all local industries to launder drug money. And if we must have a State Police, we must recruit 50% from IPOB or Yorubaland will starve from the patronage of the wealthy merchants of death. What Igbokwe claims is not only the rights to vote and impose a political leadership on us. He struggles with the owners of the land on matters of privilege and representation. Meanwhile, his place remains closed.
And gradually, Owa ni be, Owanbe, a popular Yoruba culture of egregious celebrations is becoming “Owambe”. Aso Ebi transits to Ashebi. Our popular delicacies such as Akara and Akamu have been appropriated. Apon is being wiped off by the Almighty Ogbono in a dominant-servient relationship. “Okele” is bowing to “swallow” in a subtle but relentless onslaught aimed at erasure. Some buffoons even claimed that the Ibo popularised Amala and Ewedu. Our distinctive cultural festivals and activities are rechristined “Nigerian cultural festival”. Notable events are repackaged intentionally to distort our history. It is not assimilation that they crave but conquest.
The last vestiges of our identity as a people are what the likes of Joe Igbokwe are commissioned to extirpate under some nebulous mantra of mendacity bandied as One Nigeria.
Voluntary servitude finds expression in passive indifference or active conivance by those who contemplate the impossible, namely an imagined situation of individual prosperity supported and assured by criminality, sycophancy and stupidity mistaken as liberalism.
The likes of Joe Igbokwe must be checkmated, vigorously.
•Opinions, positions or thoughts expressed here are personal and strictly of the writer/author and do not represent the views of The Daily Crucible.
