Fifty years after the civil war ended, Igbos do not yet feel a sense of belonging,
acceptance or safety in the Federation
called Nigeria. The sad part is that this
belief is shared not just by the generation
that witnessed the war and its deadly
consequences, but Igbos across all
generations, including the millennials who
have been socialized into believing that
there is a gap between their people and
other Nigerians.
Let us not deceive ourselves about certain
plain truths. The civil war is perhaps the
most remarkable incident in Igbo history in
the last century. The pain, the loss, all about
it, is deeply imprinted in the Igbo
consciousness. Whereas the Igbo nation
has shown great resourcefulness since the
war, and its people have proven to be
enterprising and determined to hold their
own in every sphere of life, including
outstanding contributions to the making of
the Nigerian state, there are Nigerians who
still regard and treat the Igbo suspiciously.
Anti-Igbo sentiment may not be so openly
expressed, but it is usually something
beneath the surface. There are landlords in
many parts of Nigeria, for example, who
will never rent out their property to an Igbo
man. The Igbo tenant is easily stigmatized. I
have heard people complain that Igbo
tenants are too stubborn or that when you
rent a room to an Igbo man, he will end up
sub-letting that one room to all kinds of
persons from his village, putting pressure
on the property’s limited facilities.
Some landlords insist that an Igbo
tenant could even start eyeing the property,
to buy it off the landlord, or if it is a shop,
the Igbo trader would end up renting the
entire street, and could turn the street into
an Igbo neigbourhood. This stigma has
been a source of agony for many Igbos
seeking accommodation, particularly in
Lagos, but it is of course completely
baseless stereotyping. There are good and
bad persons from virtually every Nigerian
ethnic group.
The stereotyping of the Igbo person can
also be found in the political arena. It is
assumed by some persons, and such
statements have been made to my hearing,
that the only reason an Igbo man cannot
be President of Nigeria is because every
Igbo man sees himself as a potential
President, and should the Presidency be
zoned to the South East, the struggle for
the ticket could result in inter-community
strife in Igboland. The name of the group is
Igbo, but when other Nigerians want to be
mischievous, or perhaps out of ignorance,
they refer to Igbos as Ibo, and when you
try to correct them, they may insist you
don’t seem to understand. It is I-Before-
Others (IBO).
Igbos have also been held responsible
for all sorts of things, kidnapping, drug
trafficking, child trafficking, armed robbery
– even when there are criminals from
virtually every community in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, they are one of the most
vertically educated ethnic groups in Nigeria,
and the most enterprising in all fields. A
friend once said that if you enter any
community in Nigeria and you don’t have
an Igbo man running a small shop there, or
engaged in some other kind of business,
then you have no business staying in that
community. Igbos are also obviously the
most integrated ethnic group in Nigeria,
which is why it is ironic that they are also
the most vilified.
I wrote what I considered a harmless
piece recently in which I referred to the
declaration of Biafra in 1967 and quoted
excerpts from the Ahiara Declaration. I got
a phone call from a friend who declared
that I should stop encouraging these
“Biafrans”. Nothing I said made sense to
him.
