More tales out of Lagos By Obi Nwakanma Last week, I drew the attention of readers of the “Orbit” to theunconstitutional action of the Lagos state government in deporting sixty-seven Nigerians to Onitsha. That action in my view marks the lowest point, since the end of the Nigerian civil war, in the effort at nation-building. The Lagos state government under the ACN Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, seems to be highly charged and fueled by a strange form of paranoid xenophobia; a need to cleanse the streets of Lagos of “strangers.” These “strangers” amount to no more than scum in the serious, executive minds at work in Lagos. They are dangerous foreign bodies; vermin sucking out the lifeblood of Lagos. That is what we have been told, and that is why you hear the word “nuisance” frequently thrown about in justification for their forced removal to Onitsha. The most cynical of these statements contend that the Lagos State government had merely “rehabilitated and resettled” these deportees by “reuniting” them with their families. Various official and unofficial spokesmen have been pressed to the service of the Lagos State government to retail this bogus doctrine, among them, Joe Igbokwe: engineer, businessman, politician and spokesman for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the political party in power in Lagos, and under whose government this policy of deportation is now perfected and taking shape. Joe Igbokwe certainly knows where his bread is buttered and he wrote this past week in glib praise of Lagos as a welcoming and tolerant place under a “detribalized” Governor Fashola; a place where every graduate to higher callings runs to for jobs at graduation, and where he has been resident himself since 1986, apparently very satisfied picking his crumbs.Until Joe wrote, I had no inkling of the more sinister side to this development – that “deportation and resettlement” is a cardinal policy of the ACN as a political party and that it is considered humane. Hell, no! Joe: Lagos is neither welcoming nor tolerant of the over two hundred street beggars transported to the North in 2009 and the sixty-seven sent to Onitsha in 2013, among them, a hardworking and legitimate trader, picked up arbitrarily by Fashola’s brownshirts, on his way to his shop in December 2012. It was no “resettlement and rehabilitation,” it was a forced march at 2 a.m. out of Lagos. How on earth do you “reunite” people with their families by dropping them in darkness after the Onitsha Bridge? The Lagos State government should be made to bear the burden of emotional injury suffered by this poor folk made unwelcome in their own land. If indeed the government of Lagos state were about “rehabilitation and resettlement,” it would be talking about establishing soup kitchens, group homes, half-way homes; accessible housing for the disabled, and transitional facilities for the city’s homeless, as well as serious modern mental health programs in cases that demand it and a serious process of re-integration into the social and productive fabric of the city; all aimed at re-dignifying the city poor, beyond the crude disregard of their human rights. That is what civilized societies do. That is part of the reason citizens pay tax too. But the Lagos program of deportation seems clearly driven by a dangerous impulse. It is the kind of impulse that might sooner, if unchecked, lead to the introduction of the “pass” – government assigned papers to determine who is “indigenous” and who is an “alien” in Lagos, and who thus gets what, lives where, does what, and has what in Lagos.What Lagos is doing is certainly nothing more than cleansing the ethnic poor, and it does seem obvious to any discerning mind who the real targets are at this point. I am guided to this thinking by another development which must be brought to the glare of public scrutiny: a piece of news last week in the Sun newspaper tells the story very succinctly with its headline: “Igbo Traders asked to Accept Yoruba Leadership or Leave.” It is the unfolding story of the Ladipo Automotive Spare Parts Market in Mushin. There the mostly Igbo traders in the market have continued to resist the imposition of Alhaji Oladotun Abibu-Oki as the leader of the Market. Abibu-Oki claims to have been “installed” as the “Baba Oloja” – that is “royal father of the market” crudely translated, by the late Alhaja Abibat Mogaji, the late mother of former governor Tinubu, and former “Iya-Oloja” of Lagos. We note duly that Tinubu’s daughter is now, we are told, the new Iya-Oloja of Lagos, appointed by her father on behalf of the Lagos State government, in the place of her grandma. So, with this imprimatur, Abibu-Oki claims leadership of the Ladipo spare parts market. But the Igbo traders will have none of that. In fact, a leader of the market, Chief Nwosu did say very clearly, “99% of the traders at Ladipo Market are Igbo. To be fair to all, he (Abibu-Oki) should come and contest; if elected he will be accepted.” It is a fair and reasonable demand. But what does the Lagos State government do? “They asked us to go back to our villages if we are not ready to accept the leadership of Alhaji Oki…we pay our taxes in Lagos and we have every right as Nigerians to buy and sell anywhere in the state.” What is at stake really is the clash of values: one is essentially monarchical and closed, the other is open and democratic; one values governance by conclave and patronage, the other values transparency, equal opportunity anda freedom of choice.In a way, it might prove providential afterall, that Lagos in its program of deportation and selective harassment brings to the fore-front the constitutional debates about democracy, federalism, citizenship and nationhood. To a certain category of politicians, all the talk about “true federalism” is nothing more than revanchism and crude nativism, all of which have no place in a modern national republic such as Nigeria. Igbo traders in Lagos have been intimidated and serially harassed by the Lagos State government. They have borne the brunt of selective ethnic humiliations. A most telling picture that circulated worldwide recently is of Igbo traders in Ladipo forced under arms to lie on dirt at Ladipo market by government agents. No elected government should treat hardworking citizens demanding their rights like war criminals.The two events – the deportation to Onitsha and the harassment of Igbo shopkeepers in Ladipo – seem too closely tied to be ignored. The Igbo traders in Ladipo insist on democratic choice. What they lack is adequate representation. No one speaks for them in the State Assembly or in the Executive chambers at Alausa. But there must be no taxation without representation. These traders and their allied interests are in part to blame also. They have thus far failed to effectively use their power reserve. In legal theory we say, “Equity protects the vigilant.” Since the end of the civil war in 1970, the Igbo and various minorities in Lagos have been wallflowers in the political landscape in Lagos, and Lagos has been run like an ethnic patronage system in spite of its breathtaking diversity. Moreover, the “indigenous” poor have also been left out of the so called prosperity train in Lagos, and have been recruited mostly as “Area boys” to harass other poor Nigerians out of Lagos. Enough of whingeing – all those who feel their interests not fully and adequately protected at Alausa must organize and use every means necessary – legal methods, defiance campaigns, street protests,petitions, and other countermeasures to seek the protection of government. The Igbo in Lagos must rise and participate fully in municipal and statewide elections in Lagos. They must vote with their wallets. Resist taxation without benefits. Organize, raise funds, and back their own candidates who must speak for them as clear stakeholders in the affairs of Lagos.The Nigerian constitution fundamentally guarantees citizenship over indigenous rights. This must be made consistently clear.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 12:08:49 +0000
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