THE IGBOS USUALLY INVOKE CERTAIN FEELINGS!!!............... The phrase Ndigbo usually evokes certain feelings amongst other tribes and races in Nigeria and the world over, these feelings can sometimes be that of love, hate, fear, contempt, compassion and threat. This is to be expected because Ndigbo by virtue of their failed attempt to secede from Nigeria in 1967 have therefore set themselves up for such mixed interpretations of their ultimate objectives and intentions in a Nigeria that has increasingly tended towards suppressing and oppressing minorities. It is therefore for reasons of the later, and the resultant consequences of losing in a war of which Nigerians were made to understand had no victor, and no vanquished that Ndigbo continue to search and yearn for their pride of place in either a united Nigeria or in an independent Igbo nation. Because Ndigbo as a people are respected, loved, derided and at the same time hated by other tribes in Nigeria, due mainly to stereotypes which we as a people have not done much to either accept and confirm or dispel, it is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s globalised world to try to fashion, shape or articulate a common agenda and purpose for Ndigbo, which would then serve as mantra in our various dealings and interactions with the other tribes, and such that would serve our wider purpose in the global community of nations. Several issues may have led to this quagmire, one of which is the increasing difficulty for Ndigbo to work as a progressive unit with a common agenda. Though the Igbo states are now five in number, but recurring inter-ethnic and communal divisions and clashes within these states sometimes give-off the impression of complete dissatisfaction of the component units in the political arrangements even though on a local level, an indication therefore of the wider disaffections in the Nigerian macrocosm. There is also the problem of identity and the difficulty of defining Ndigbo, in terms of determining who may be addressed as Ndigbo and who may not, the tendency in the past has always been to claim also as Ndigbo people that are located within and outside the five geographical Igbo states including Ogbaru, Onitsha, Asaba and the surrounding towns, some parts of the Niger Delta region etc, but surely the inhabitants of these areas have been known in the past also to voice out openly that they are not, and do not wish to be called Ndigbo. This ‘a house divided’ scenario plays out politically in the larger context and may have been responsible for the swinging of votes to the ‘other side’ by the dissenting units, who would feel better having a non-Igbo President than an Igbo President as would have been expected for a people purportedly pursuing a ‘common agenda’. In our places of work, business and residence, the Igbo kindred spirit should be re-kindled. The words of wisdom of the ancients should be preserved, promoted and sustained in our interactions using time – honoured proverbs knowing that they have always been, and would continue to be the palm oil with which Ndigbo eat their words. Both aspiring and successive political office holders in Igboland must strive to keep peace within our communities, when we eschew violence, uphold peace and promote tolerance even though we hold differing viewpoints, we may have lived up to our other worldview that Udoka. By Uche Nworah
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 13:16:37 +0000
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