•Ralph Uwazurike
Former President of an Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazurike, in this interview, says it has become an official policy to marginalise the Igbo in Nigeria. Tínubu simply followed suit.
Excerpts:
What was the reasoning behind the decision for Ndigbo not to participate in the #EndBadGovernance protest, despite the widespread discontent with the current state of governance in Nigeria?
Well, let me give you a straightforward answer; Ndigbo are not really part of this government, and this neglect started from former President Muhammadu Buhari.
And I remember saying that it does not matter where we are, but Ndigbo would progress more and more. And that has happened. When Tínubu came, he continued from the nepotism of Buhari.
For example, in the latest appointments the President just made, seven crucial appointments, not a single person from South South/South East made the list. So Igbo are feeling disenchanted and untouched by this government and as far as they know, whether the government is doing well or not, it is not their business.
To put it bluntly, it is the business of the North-West and South-West. How many Igbo are in the Federal Executive Council? We have five ministers from the South-East but only one has a real ministry.
The others are what I call attachments. The same applies to the president’s advisers and so on. So, isolating the Igbo from the government is a state policy. After all, they have a special adviser in charge of disinformation of Ndigbo in this country.
He is there, enjoying all the accoutrements of office. He was appointed for that purpose. Bayo Onanuga is there dishing out disinformation, dishing out misinformation unchecked and you want Igbo to come and stand and carry placards.
For what? For who? For a man who will never, never look in the direction of Ndigbo? So, the Igbo have every right to be disenchanted. Nnamdi Kanu is there and we have made requests to release him but the answers have not been positive.
I was part of a delegation that visited Buhari and the man was shocked at the situation in Ala Igbo. Under Tínubu, the situation has not improved. We have military or police checkpoints every one-quarter of a kilometre from Tuesday to Sunday. However, on Monday, when we have criminal parading everywhere, those security men also withdraw. We have more security agents than criminals but the security men do not do anything, so the Igbo feel abandoned but we shall survive.
Again, those who argued that participating in the protests would have been an avenue to massacre innocent Igbo youths were right. You see, they tried to rope Peter Obi into what he knows nothing about.
The leaders of the protests were well-known and were speaking on TV, so they were visible. No Igbo person was among them. Why then accuse Ndigbo? So we knew it was a trap to rope in Peter Obi.
How do you respond to critics who argue that the decision not to participate in the protest was a missed opportunity for Ndigbo to join forces with other Nigerians in demanding better governance and holding leaders accountable?
Missed opportunity for what? For a system that’s already skewed against Ndigbo? For an organised system designed to marginalize us? Those who voted for Tínubu, let them go ahead and enjoy the fruits of their victory.
Remember that we had an election last year and up until now people are wondering whether those results reflected the actual voting. And when Obi and Atiku went to court, and INEC refused to release the results, what did the court do? Because Peter Obi and Atiku paid for the certified true copy but Obi never got his own up till today.
When he complained to the Supreme Court that his right to receive the result had been breached, what did the court do? Nothing!
In what ways do you think Ndigbo can effectively advocate for their rights and interests within the Nigerian polity, if not through participating in nationwide protests like #EndBadGovernance?
The position of Ndigbo is like a pregnancy. Why? You can hide pregnancy for the first three months but if it must get to nine months, then people will see it. We are officially marginalized. When Zik came out in 1979, it was because of it. When Alex Ekwueme came out in 1998, it was the same thing.
Now, when Obasanjo was in office, he knew the worth of the Igbo person and he made sure he brought the best brains because when discussing with an intelligent person, he’s not going to start praising you. Sycophancy is unknown in Igbo land. So, Yar’Adua and Jonathan also knew and they continued but as soon as Buhari came, it became an official policy to marginalise the Igbo.
Tínubu followed suit. Today, as it was under Buhari, there’s no Igbo person in the kitchen cabinet of the president of this country. And you know, it’s the kitchen cabinet that determines what happens. The discussions he holds with the kitchen cabinet are what he carries to his official cabinet. So, when you want the best you go for the best.
Let me put it bluntly, Ndigbo are very versatile in business even beyond Nigeria, and we’ll continue to be. All we are asking for is a level-playing ground. Up till now, most people didn’t know that Nnamdi Kanu’s quest is the freedom to decide. Give us a level playing ground and the agitation will stop. If they continue what they are doing, we’ll one day overcome.
Were there any specific concerns or fears that led to the decision not to participate in the protests, and how were these concerns addressed or mitigated?
Well, I don’t think we ever met anywhere to make that decision. Personally, I was not part of any such meeting. Two things happened. The politics of this country isolated Ndigbo. Two, few people understood the game at hand which is to give Ndigbo a bad name and hang us. Yesterday, the deputy governor of Lagos was on Arise TV.
They were asking him questions, expecting him to condemn the propagators of Igbo Must Go, but he did not. All he said was that the state government would decide on it. So, in this country, we know we are a people who are always targeted for one thing or the other. The targeting has to stop. And we’ll make sure it stops.
So looking forward, are there any plans or strategies in place for people to engage in collective action or activism on issues of governance, economy or social justice and if so, what forms might this take?
Well, the engagement of other people is on, because nobody will be president of Nigeria in a free and fair election unless he’s ready to engage others. Igbo have never cocooned themselves, waiting for the presidency to be given to them, never. I will not do that. There is nobody who is more nationalistic than the Igbo person. It is the Igbo man who goes to the North and the West, settles down, builds and invests.
In Igbo land, who and who from outside that are investing in Igbo land? Nobody is stopping them. Igbo have no such intentions to stop anybody from investing in Igbo land. Igbo are people who accept others and are only asking for acceptance.
We’re not asking for favours, we are not asking for handouts. The average Igbo man is a hustler and hardworking. It is not in our culture or blood to be lazy.
Are you worried about the ‘Igbo must leave Lagos’ campaign, especially in view of the fact that those behind it haven’t been brought to book?
No, I’m not worried, no shaking. Let me tell you why. The organizers of that campaign are not even Lagosians, that’s what I would tell you. None of those organizers can point at their grandfather’s grave in Lagos State.
You cannot come from Ado-Ekiti to Lagos and say “Igbo must go”, why? You cannot come from Ogun State or Kwara and say “Igbo man must go”. Let me tell you one small secret; the Lagos communities actually prefer more Igbo people to come and invest.
I found out during my interaction with them, they said if you sell your land to one Igbo person, he will bring a second Igbo and before you know it, the place becomes developed. So, it is the Igbo man who develops all places.
So, the Indigenes of Lagos have no qualms about accepting Igbo. The troublemakers are people who come from different states. So, all they know is how to scatter, they don’t know how to build.
Let me tell you the other thing about the characteristics of the Igbo man, he’s a builder and not a destroyer. Today, the landscape of the Lagos has changed. Let me just name some areas. If you come to Okota, there’s a place called Ago.
If you go there, there are so many estates. How did these estates come about? I’ll tell you. After the war, if Igbo wanted to rent a house, they would say Igbo not wanted. They would write it boldly: “House to let, room to let, Igbo not wanted.” So, most of the Igbo congregated around Ajegunle and Olodi-Apapa and started trading because government employment was out of the way.
So, what happens in the end? In the end, they were able to gather enough money and went to a place like Ago and build. As Emeka was building, Okechukwu joined him. Before you knew it, they had built an estate and they walled them. When they built a wall around the estate, they also took care of the roads and made sure that there was electricity.
The only thing the government has to do is to wait for them to pay. So, they earn revenue for the Lagos government and they are living a comfortable life. What about the enemies who said Igbo not wanted? They are the fathers and mothers of the present people who are campaigning ‘Igbo must go’.
Indigenes of Lagos have no problem with Ndigbo, they look forward to Ndigbo coming because the Igbo man is the person who modernizes a place, builds, and contributes and yet, at the end of every year he must go home because he doesn’t forget where he comes from but he must also take care of where he lives. That’s the psychology of the Igbo man. So those who are against the Igbo can go to hell.
