Ndigbo didn’t oppose protests against bad governance and hunger in Nigeria
By Uche Onyeagucha
My attention has been drawn to numerous articles that Ndigbo are opposed and do not support the present national protests against bad governance and hunger in Nigeria.
This view is wrong and it is tainted with ignorance. Ndigbo support the ongoing national protests. Ndigbo more than any other ethnic group in Nigeria are opposed to bad governance in Nigeria.
Ndigbo are a politically dynamic ethnic group in Nigeria. Look at the records. Ndigbo have five States in the South East Region. Abia is Labour Party, Anambra is APGA, Ebonyi is APC, Enugu is PDP and Imo is APC. No other zone is as politically dynamic as the South East. This clearly suggests that Ndigbo struggle to have elections in the South East more than any other region in Nigeria. No other group has this record.
Several zones are already one party zones. Most zones have not witnessed any real election since 1999.
Ndigbo have shown a huge capacity for resistance in Nigeria at least in recent times. Here is the record.
Buhari as military or civilian leader in Nigeria disliked Ndigbo. In his Supreme Military Council of 1984 to 1985, no Igbo man was accommodated. He didn’t hide his dislike for Ndigbo. In return Ndigbo denied him votes in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2014. As a sitting President Buhari refused to make peace with Ndigbo. In 2019 in his second term bid, Ndigbo denied Buhari votes to balance the mutual dislike.
No ethnic group in Nigeria battled a sitting President the way Ndigbo battled Buhari. To crown the resistance Ndigbo voted against Buhari’s candidate and political party in the 2023 elections. Ndigbo are never afraid of resistance. Ndigbo were victims of Indirect Rule during colonial rule.
They contributed massively in the struggles against colonial rule. Records have it that the British resented Igbo opposition greatly. When NPC governed Nigeria, Ndigbo supported NCNC. When Gowon and his military gang committed genocide against South East people, Ndigbo fought back for about three years.
From 1979 to 1983, when NPN governed Nigeria Ndigbo voted NPP. When the South West in 1999 voted against Obasanjo by supporting Olu Falae, Ndigbo voted massively for Obasanjo. The records are there.
Ndigbo have never shied away from resisting bad government and oppression. They naturally support the present protests in Nigeria against hunger and bad governance through other means.
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The only difference is that they have been involved in the protests against bad governments longer than all other ethnic groups in Nigeria. Ndigbo have developed a more civilised form of protests against bad government and hunger in Nigeria. The model is called SIT-AT-HOME.
They have observed this Sit-At-Home model of protests for more than nine years while the rest of Nigeria looked the other way.
On August 1 when the protests against bad governance and hunger in Nigeria started, the five states of the South East observed one hundred percent Sit-At-Home protest.
The advantage of Sit-At-Home is that it protects lives and property. It exposes the weaknesses and emptiness of a dictatorial government. It helps the protester to clearly take back the power given or stolen by the government.
I appeal to the rest of Nigeria to copy, emulate and join the South East in adopting the Sit-At-Home approach as a Nigerian national model of protest. It is excellent and effective if properly organized and executed.
I support the protests. South East supports the national protests. Ndigbo sat at home and protested with their absence from the roads, markets, businesses, offices and worship centres.
We denied our detractors the opportunity to kill, injure, arrest, detain, and imprison us. We denied them the opportunity to destroy and loot our stores, shops and businesses using hired thugs.
On August 1, detractors and oppressors of Ndigbo joined the mass of Ndigbo to support and celebrate ‘sit at home’ by shouting that everywhere in the South East was calm, quiet and peaceful. It was a peace of the grave yard. It is the new model of protest in Igboland. This is the cool and lovely method of Igbo protests.
The sit at home of August 1 was a sweet victory for the genuine people and leaders of Ndigbo not their detractors who oppose sit at home. Governors, ministers, national and state assembly members who opposed sit at home embraced it as their success on August 1. No!
It was the vintage mass of Ndigbo. Forward with sit at home as a model for protests in Nigeria.
- Hon Uche Onyeagucha, a former federal lawmaker and also former Secretary to the Imo State Government, wrote in from Umuagam Obinze
