Professor Anya O. Anya reflected in an interview in April and concluded that Nigeria’s tragedy was the needless civil war. “The tragedy of Nigeria,” he rued, “is really the fact that the war happened.”
But he also admitted that the events of the late 1960s didn’t happen in a vacuum. “The war had to happen because attitudes that were not consistent with building a nation were very much in evidence.”
Anya was emphatic that the bigger tragedy was that the then Eastern Nigeria, which became the major theatre of battle “fought a war it need not have fought because at the point where the movement towards war was unavoidable, the East had no problems with both the North and the West.”
The issue came up because of the letter written by impeached Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, which accused President Goodluck Jonathan of genocide, and another letter written by former Minister of Steel, Paul Unongo.
While the two Northern leaders viciously assailed Jonathan, it seemed their main target were the Igbo.
Just as it happened in the 1960s when the Igbo became the fall guys in a battle of supremacy between the North and West, there seems to be a deliberate ploy by some Northern political elites to set up the Igbo for another vicious circle of ethnic cleansing if the region loses out in the needless war of attrition they are waging against the South South and Jonathan.
Otherwise, why would Dr Junaid Mohammed be so bitter against the Igbo, people who have committed no crime against him? In an interview he granted The Punch penultimate Saturday, Mohammed – a Kano State delegate to the recent national conference and convener of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen – incited the North once again to rise up against the Igbo and perhaps massacre them as they did in the 1960s.
Mohammed, who was invited by the Department of State Security (DSS) over his incendiary vituperations against Jonathan, blamed the Igbo for the inquisition.
Said he: “The order for my arrest came directly from the Director of Operations, an Igbo man. Apparently, he does not like anyone who says anything uncomplimentary about Igbo people and their greed.
“I think he was particularly very unhappy because I said Igbo have taken charge of the economy and that they have also grabbed most of the land especially for estates in Abuja; where they don’t have any historical claims or any other logical claim to even one square foot of land in Abuja.”
Mohammed is livid that “about 42 per cent of the key positions in the economic sector of Nigeria is dominated by Igbo.”
Only God knows where he got the figures from.
Yet, building a castle of hatred and animosity on this voodoo statistics, he bellyached that “Igbo remains one ethnic group in Nigeria that is so devoid of any shame to show their greed, selfishness and contempt for other ethnic groups.”
Then he recounted what he claimed happened in 1966. “The first time Igbo officers staged a coup and assassinated wholesale the political leaders of most other ethnic groups was when we had General Aguiyi Ironsi as the Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
“He was involved in the coup where the entire political leadership, the military and economic leadership of other regions especially the North was decapitated.”
So, Ironsi plotted the 1966 coup? How callous and despicable can someone be just because of prejudice and bigotry? The same old story that has been bandied for decades by people whose stock in trade is to fan ethnic hatred and suck the blood of the innocent.
But why would such an educated man be so narrow-minded? Transferred aggression. Simple!
Mohammed’s outburst against Ndigbo borders on frustration. Of course, his target is Jonathan. His phobia for Jonathan is driving him crazy. He has become melancholic, and since he cannot possibly harm Jonathan, he is venting his spleen on the Igbo. To him, the softer targets, those he thinks he can kick around without repercussion, are fair game.
Mohammed is incensed that Ndigbo are supporting Jonathan in his quest for a second term. For their audacity, he labelled them mercenaries.
“They are there for sale. If the devil were to come today to say, I am the devil about whom the Bible and the Quran have spoken, I am prepared to give money, the Igbo will take the money and vote for him,” Mohammed griped.
Ordinarily, one would have ignored such unprovoked attacks as the ranting of an unhinged mind, but in a hate-riven society such as ours where the mob is ever ready to kill and maim without knowing what the issues are, Mohammed’s antics are too dangerous to ignore. There must be decency in public discourse.
In a multi-ethnic society like ours that is steep in mutual suspicion, there must be high level sensitivity and decency in dealing with others. Virulent rascality or outright psychosis, tendencies often exhibited by Mohammed, cannot be virtue.
If the Igbo decide to support Jonathan, even if his government “is irredeemably corrupt and incompetent,” as Mohammed claims, it is their right and they should not be insulted for that. If nobody is insulting the Hausa/Fulani for supporting any candidate, why must the case of the Igbo be different?
Mohammed is angry that Ndigbo own land in Abuja. Wasn’t due process followed in acquiring such property? Is it a crime for a Nigerian to acquire landed property in his own country? Are the Igbo no longer Nigerians?
Most vacancies in the Finance Ministry, and its agencies and parastatals, are filled through competitive examinations conducted by internationally acclaimed institutions. So, what is wrong if the Igbo do well in such assessments?
In filling such positions, Mohammed would have preferred the use of quota system, the same enthronement of mediocrity, rather than excellence that is at the root of the country’s under-development.
At the heart of the Igbo bashing that has become a big industry in Nigeria is the fear of competition. But making them the scapegoat for other people’s failures is not the way to solve anyone’s problem.
The problems bedeviling the North today, for which Mohammed wants the Igbo hanged, were created by the North.
For instance, Boko Haram could not have been created by anybody from the South, it is a creation of the system in the North. But it is easier to blame the victim, especially if you think you can kick him around and nothing will happen.
But Mohammed and his co-travelers on the boulevard of hate will soon discover that Nigeria has moved far away from those invidious predispositions they are purveying. As Anya poignantly noted, ethnic baiting is no longer sufficient to bring people to war, not even Northerners.
Ndigbo should be left alone to live in peace. They are not Nigeria’s problem.
