Ala, Obodo, and Emigration Among the Igboid: Reflections on the Mass Self Deportation of a Great People (Part 2)
Posted by FactNews | 7 years ago | 2,303 times
Prof. Ikechi Mgbeoji
There is nothing wrong with talented peopled identifying new opportunities in strange places and having the gumption to take risks to conquer those opportunities. But there is something disconcerting about a people whose best and most able talents, old and young, retired and active, have in large numbers self deported themselves from their homeland whilst at the same time making loud demands for an independent homeland.
IBB lives in Minna. Yes, in Minna. He has not yet moved in with his in-laws in Asaba. Abdul Salaam Abubakar lives in Minna too. Minna is a sleepy town with little of the bright lights of Lagos. Were IBB and Abdul Salaam Igbos, they would be living in a gated neighbourhood in Banana Island in Lagos.
Muhammadu Buhari lived in Daura until be became president. Few Nigerians can place Daura in the map of Nigeria, Again, were Buhari an Igboman he would be living in Lagos eating stockfish with his rich and connected pals while mouthing support for Biafra.
If you a political leader, location matters. It really does. As powerful as Jesus Christ was and is, he still lived among mankind to make his messianic mission a reality. He could have decreed salvation into existence from the heavenly heights. He didn't. Rather, he came down here. At least, that is what the Bible says. The short point is that the Igboid elite who, from the safe and comfortable manicured estates in Abuja and Lagos, pretend to speak for Ndigbo need to have a rethink. Ditto, those agitators for Biafra who speak only from London, Brussels, Berlin, New York and Amsterdam. No separatist movement has ever succeeded with its intelligentsia abroad and unwilling to take the pulse of the project at home.
The stabilizing, civilizing, mentoring, and didactic influence of elite folks living side by side with the denizens cannot be over-emphasized. As I had argued in the preceding paragraphs, the mere presence of an IBB in Minna brings huge political benefits to Minna and the people there. I am not talking about political tourism. No. As a resident of Minna, IBB in Minna, is itself a metaphor. Ihu dike na anyu mma nko-the face of a great man dulls the edge of the sword.
Much has gone wrong in Igboid polity by the sheer exodus of the elite. Nature abhors a vacuum. The political space created by the absence of those who only build uninhabited palatial homes in Igboid places is often taken up by those widely considered to be inferior whether in terms of temperament, depth, exposure, values, learning, and love of the common weal.
The preponderant number of 419ers, village urchins, loudmouths, and political jobbers in Igboid polity is a direct consequence of the vacuum created by the serious-minded elements of Igboid societies.
In the same vein, the relative mediocre performance of Igboid states in matters of governance cannot be divorced from the quality of those who have finagled their way into political offices and power. Virtually every Igboid town/community, with the exception of those parts planned and developed by the British in colonial times is a slum, ghetto or glorified shanty.
Look around the Igboid cities and you will notice the chaotic layout of the cities, the unliveability of the townships and cities. With the possible exception of Enugu, planned by the highest calibre civil servants in the 1960s, the Igboid despite their claims to braininess ought to eat the humble pie when they take stock. The explosive lateral growth demonstrates beyond doubt that the Igboid are NOT growing up. Rather, they are growing sideways. An accountant, lawyer, et cetera can work from the 50th floor of a building but if you are semi-literate, governed by your like, chances are that you need to stay on the streets to put food on the table for your family.
Many young Igbos are often astounded to hear or read of long- forgotten who apparently blazed the trail in different aspects of human endeavour. The level of ignorance is unacceptably high and dangerous.
It would seem that the Igboid now confuse an Igbo leader with "leader of Igbo extraction". There is a world of difference between the two categories. There is no Emir who lives in Lagos or even in Abuja. There is no Yoruba monarch who lives in Abuja. It is only in Igboland that some monarchs rule from American cities while sending rat-catchers to fumigate their abandoned palaces. The short point is that those who clamour for an ethnic homeland need to ask hard questions of the political consequences of the mass deportation of the Igboid elite from their own homeland.
In the next segment, I shall examine some of the economic consequences of the mass exodus of the Igboid business and entrepreneurial class from the Igboid areas and how that phenomenon undermines the argument for a separate homeland.
-Ikechi Mgbeoji
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