By Emeka Alex Duru
(08054193327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)
The recent stance of South East chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in debunking the allegations of marginalization of the zone under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, brings back the memory of the ignoble position of the Administrator of the East Central State, Ukpabi Asika, during the 1967 – 1970 Nigerian Civil War. Asika, a political science lecturer in University of Ibadan, was appointed administrator of East Central State, one of the states hurriedly created out of the Eastern Region in the wake of the war by General Yakubu Gowon, to weaken the newly proclaimed Republic of Biafra. Apparently excited by his new found office and in a bid to demonstrate his loyalty to his benefactors, he chose where it hurt most to do so.
In a televised World Press Conference, Asika dismissed the allegation of genocide against the Igbo by Nigeria. Against the global outcry that trailed the economic blockade on Biafra, the mass murder of civilians, bombing of churches, hospitals, markets and other acts that clearly ran against established rules of engagement by the federal forces, Askia maintained straight face in asserting that whatever allegations of untoward actions by Nigeria, were taken out of context. His odious outing earned him applause by his cheer men strategically positioned in the conference hall.
But out there, the world knew that he was lying. If anything, he was merely acting the modern version of the domestic (house) slave whose interest was more in keeping his job, even at extreme dehumanizing situation. In the history of slavery in America, there were the house slaves and plantation slaves. A house slave was a slave who worked, and often lived, in the house of the slave-owner. He had many duties such as cooking, cleaning, serving meals, and caring for the master’s children. He sometimes was allowed to travel with the owner’s family. His situation sharply contrasted that of the plantation slaves. Plantation slaves lived under grueling conditions, often in sugar plantations where they worked from dawn till dusk under the orders of a white overseer. Because the House Slaves considered themselves privileged enough in comparison with their brothers and sisters in the field, some of them did not support the move for abolition of slavery.
Here in Africa, at the height of demand for independence and the campaign against colonialism, some traditional, economic and political elite, who were afraid of losing their privileged positions with the exit of the colonial masters, engaged in many underhand activities to sabotage independence struggles in many countries. In the French and Belgian colonies, they found comfort in a special class referred to as the Évolué – a French label to describe a native African or Asian who had “evolved” by becoming Europeanised through education or assimilation and had accepted European values and patterns of behavior. They were often employed in white-collar jobs (although rarely higher than clerks), and lived primarily in urban areas of the colony. A major attribute of an évolué was the ability to break social ties with his group, and appearing to have entered another system of motivations and values.
Celebrated Essayist and author, Chinweizu, describes them as “Comprador Bourgeoisie”, in his brilliant work, The West and The Rest of Us. The comprador bourgeoisie comprised middlemen who exploited their kinsmen while serving foreign capital in both political and economic relations. For them, everything was normal, as long as their interest was protected.
It is perhaps against this backdrop that the position of the South East APC leaders can be fully understood. As far as they are concerned, everything must be done to protect their privileged positions in the Buhari administration, even if it entails groveling or dancing naked in the market place. But that is where it ends. The truth is that whatever attempts by anybody or group to dismiss the exclusion of the Igbo in contemporary Nigeria, cannot find accommodation anywhere. For senior members of the ruling party from the zone to be the ones making the push, rankles mostly. I am not sure that the President would be excited by their sheer advertisement of hypocrisy. When the issue of marginalization of the Igbo is being discussed, it is not peculiar to the Buhari administration. The Buhari government has however amplified the piteous culture, in various degrees, especially by its copious sidelining of the area and its people from key decision making layers of the governance structure. Attempts by the image makers of the government to fly the kite of carrying the South East along, have rather ended up confirming the allegation. In a recent statistics from the government, it admitted that out of 190 appointments made by Buhari, the South West received 64 (33.7 per cent), North West 37 (19.5 per cent), North East 29 (15.3 per cent), South-South 24 (12.6 per cent), North Central, 21 (11.1 per cent), and South East 15 (7.9 per cent).
The figure assigned to the South East remained the lowest. Even then, it merely represented a basket of Bronze Medals that cannot come close to a single Gold in a competition. There is no better way of explaining the contemptuous attitude of the government towards the zone than its copious exclusion from the entire strata of the country’s security leadership structure. Not even in the Police, nor the para-military has any person from the zone been found competent to head. As my colleague, Ikechukwu Amaechi, remarked in his bold intervention recently, “It will be highly duplicitous to claim that the position of a Service Chief is on the same pedestal with an inconsequential Special Assistant who does not know the way to the President’s office”.
These are facts known to the former President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani, Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Labour and Productivity Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development, Uche Ogah, Minister of State, Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, and others at the Owerri meeting. But why they chose to play the proverbial Ostrich, continues to baffle. Of course, the hackneyed argument of the government rehabilitating the Enugu-Onitsha highway and Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, constructing the Second Niger Bridge and other projects, can no longer stand as manifestation of government’s love for the region. It therefore does not make sense throwing them up at every forum.
How for instance did it not occur to these APC elders flaunting Federal Government’s benevolence to the Igbo that in discussing arrangements for managing the ever increasing menace of insecurity in the country, there is no single soul from the military or para-military to bring the South East perspective and peculiarities to the table? Why are they not bothered that their people are not well represented at the commanding heights of the nation’s economy, despite their entrepreneurial skills? Could it be that because of where they have found themselves, the South East APC chiefs have gladly accepted their underdog status in the party and the government they contributed in bringing into place? That seems to be the likely explanation. But the problem with such resignation to fate is that in accepting the underdog position, it places one under the table where he scrambles for the bones, while the owners of the house share the juicy parts of meat among themselves, sitting on the table. This cannot be the lot of the South East