ARE THE IGBO’S TRULY DISUNITED?

The major issue identified by scholars and the general public as regards the progress and development of the South East is the disunity that exists among the Igbo’s. I am an Igbo, born in Igbo land three decades ago and spent over a decade of my life in Northern communities where Igbo’s gather to do their businesses and as a good student of History I will state the facts as they are so as not to distort historical facts.

Before 1900 most Igbo communities existed in patches. While there were similarities in their mode of existence, there was no identifiable kingdom headship as it existed in different clans such as Benin, Oyo, Kano, Timbuktu and Songhai. However each community in Igbo land had a well-organized and peaceful means of administration that differentiated the roles played by different groups. In fact when the British came into the territory that they later named Nigeria, they saw one central system of administration in the North and West, hence they were easily conquered. To get the Igbo people they organized the Aro Field Force (a military formation), this was largely because most communities then usually go to Arochukwu to settle conflict, and thus the British reasoned that if the Aro people are conquered, the Igbo tribe will surrender.

Before the arrival of the Europeans and partly after they came, most of our communities existed in peace with little or no conflict, we were our brother’s keeper. Everybody in the community was known by everyone, thus it was a community project to bring up citizens of such communities, and hence an intelligent child is sponsored by the entire community to go acquire better education abroad. This attitude continued till when the British brought the Europeanized form of Christianity that removed the attitude of the early Christians and their communal lifestyle which was replaced with European individualistic culture.

Even with the Indirect Rule system introduced by the Colonial masters, Igbo’s still maintained their traditional heritage of living in unity among themselves. It was the unity of the Igbo’s that led to the Aba women’s war of 1929 which most anti-feminist writers wrongly refer to as Aba women’s riots because they feel that women are incapable of organizing a war.

Before and immediately after Nigeria’s independence, the Igbo’s spoke with one voice and made tremendous contributions in the move towards the nation’s independence and it was due to the efforts made by men like Zik that Nigeria was able to gain her independence. At independence the Igbo’s occupied major seats of government and did very well in such positions. The first Vice chancellor of University College Ibadan was Prof. Dike, same also was the case in Yaba Tech. In the Military, Ironsi was the first African to head a UN peace keeping operation ever in the history of that organization. The Igbo’s were everywhere in the public service and they did very well promoting the unity of Nigeria as one united nation.

 The seed of Igbo disunity started during the Nigerian civil war of 1967 which destroyed the social fabrics that held Nigeria together as a united nation. During the war, Gowon began the process of weakening the Igbo unity when he created the 12 States, thus giving attorney to the minorities within the Igbo territory and as means to win the war his government empowered some men of questionable characters within most Igbo communities. Again, after the war, the average Igbo man was given only twenty pounds to begin life afresh, thereby creating poverty in the land. That administration also deceived the international community when it came out with nebulous three R’s policy (reconstruction reconciliation and rehabilitation). Thus the average Igbo man or woman was left alone to survive on his own with little or no assistance from government. This led to massive migration of the Igbo’s to different cities, towns and nations of the world seeking for a better life.

 It was this quest for survival that led to the disunity among the Igbo’s as we currently see in the political land scape of Nigeria. It is a natural human behaviour for someone to eat or perhaps take care of themselves first before seeking for that of another person. For instance if you take Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump  or perhaps any other person into a room, lock them up there without food for weeks, the natural selfish interest of a man will grow, hence if someone throws a loaf of bread inside that room there will be commotion. This was the condition of the Igbo’s after the war.

In spite of the above, the Igbo’s have maintained some elements of peace at the astonishment of the system that desired their disunity. Perhaps it is only at the political sphere that this disunity is conspicuous. Even as a child in Gembu, Taraba State, I noticed the unity among the Igbo’s which other tribes envied, hence in most situations they are accused of been over domineering. Then a police officer cannot arrest an Igbo boy without attracting the attention of the Igbo community. This does not only happen in the North or within Nigeria but outside this country, as one of my friends in Brazil told me that that he wouldn’t have survived in Brazil without the assistance of the Igbo people in that country, who had a very formidable association that stands as a human right group promoting the interest of their members. He said that if one has a problem in such societies that there was no need approaching the Nigerian embassy because they will never come to your aid.

I have spent a substantial number of time in the North, South West and some other parts of this country but can hardly see a tribe that gather together to build a common heritage as we see in the lives of the Igbo, for instance we have a electricity in my community today because everybody gathered their resources to make it available, the same thing happens in the area of market and road construction. Sam Mbakwe International Airport became a reality because of the collective efforts of the people of the old Imo state. I am yet to see any tribe in Nigeria that train the upcoming generation as the Igbo’s does. Every strong Igbo business man has boys under him; if an Igbo man identifies a good line of business; they introduce such business to persons from their community or any other interested person.

Another sign of unity that is seen among Igbo people is that every August our women gather to achieve a purpose, in what is generally referred to as August meeting. This is not just a mere social gathering as some people try to portray it, rather they meet to identify their community’s  area of needs in order to bring a solution to it.

It is wrong to assert that the Igbo’s are disunited; the only aspect of disunity among the Igbo’s is in the area of politics, which is caused by elements within the Nigerian political cycle. They prefer individuals who can sell the collective interest of the people over their own personal interest. This was part of the British philosophy when they appointed men of questionable character as warrant chiefs to create disunity in most communities they visited to introduce the indirect rule system. To attain overall unity cum development therefore, the Igbo’s should strive for political unity.

Uwakwe, Roland C.
PHOTO CREDIT: INTERNET