What to do about the memories of Biafra brought to the fore, once again, by the current rift in Igboland. The gulf between citizens and the elected leadership and elders widened on May 30, 2018, as 80 percent of the citizens ignored the chiefs of state to sit at home. They insisted on mourning our departed compatriots, across many instances of loss. Only our brothers in Ebonyi State out of the five states did not participate, for whatever reasons.
As stated last week, the SouthEast should place primacy on the internal issues before it rather than the external.
I draw attention once more to the need to heal this breach. It is “urgent and important”, as stated in the Time Management protocol. The fundamental disagreement between the youths (and even the larger citizenry) and the leadership of Igboland creates many complications. It is about BiafraExit or NigRemain. Indeed, there are three views. Restructure Nigeria and move for a six-year single tenure presidency with a vice president from each region other than that of the President, as canvassed in the Awka Declaration of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. IPOB and MASSOB state that Biafra is the only solution. Then the Igbo should wait, support the Buhari presidency and pluck the low-hanging fruit of the presidency by rotation in 2023, as articulated by our brothers in APC.
IPOB dismisses South East governors and elders as traitors and vassals of the ruling Hausa-Fulani oligarchy. The Governors and elders think the youth suffer from combative ignorance. Dissonance and heavy channel noise impede communication.
Playing the ostrich on Biafra would no longer suffice for the South East. Nor would romanticisation that includes uncontrolled sentiments and egbe onu(verbal fireworks) serve the purpose. The old aphorism about discretion and valour applies here, and the South East must be strategic.
Force and the appeal to authority as the governors and chiefs of state have attempted would not work. It mimics the incendiary rhetoric of the Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). I am on record as having condemned this approach (https://www.businessdayonline.com/communication-failure-heating-nigeria-biafra/). To its credit, IPOB forced on the agenda restructuring as an essential conversation for all Nigeria. They then went overboard, spewing hubris and hate.
The Governors lost the plot when they issued commandments to citizens against the observance of the Igbo Remembrance Day. Their message suffered from being read alongside the call of the Arewa Consultative Forum on the Governors of the South East to rein in the citizens. They lost touch with the Igbo spirit. From the slave trade to date, the Igbo spirit is free, independent but communal and untrammelled. You reason with and persuade the Igbo spirit. You do not frighten it into obeisance.
It is critical to ensure there is no descent to a situation of two sovereigns in the South East. Elected officials should ensure they do not become Warrant Chiefs again, holders of titular offices with no real legitimacy over the people. It is the clear and present danger.
A third party must come in to bring both parties together. The political, social and economic direction of Ala Igbo is at stake. Biafra is the elephant in the room. Unfortunately, the youth similarly distrust Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Anyone ready to serve as bridge builder? World Igbo Summit Group? Nzuko Umunna? Aka Ikenga? South East Society of Professionals?
The Awka Declaration provides a plank for the South East to showcase the integrity of its affirmations and its willingness to walk its talk. Ndigbo call for citizenship by residency. Whoever has lived in a state for a minimum of ten years should qualify to be treated as an indigene of that state.
The South East states should lead the implementation of citizenship by residency. Anyone from any of the South East states who has lived in another South East state should obtain a certificate of citizenship from the Local Government or the State Government where he lives. My cousin from Olokoro, Abia State has resided in Onitsha, Anambra State for 32 years. He qualifies. The South East states should put modalities in place for the implementation of that aspect of the Awka Declaration for itself and a step towards regional integration. It would declare to the rest of Nigeria that the region is serious and mean what they say about the imperative of restructuring.
Note that citizenship-by-residency is a double-edged sword for Ndigbo. Because Ndigbo are all over Nigeria, other groups may miscue this decision as Igbo seeking to take advantage of their migratory nature. The paradox is that the South East would suffer a net loss with the implementation of the scheme as it would lose more citizens to the rest of Nigeria. The voter records already show this, as people from the South East register in several other states outside of their states of origin. Hence the reduced numbers for the region in the voters count.
With due respect to the eggheads who canvassed the idea, ten years is too short. A paradigm-shift such as this may need a longer residency requirement such as 25 years. In a quarter of a century, commonly accepted as a generation, a citizen would establish enough roots to qualify for indigeneship indeed.
Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo was the spokesman for the Awka Declaration of May 2018. Soludo also canvassed what I call the Awka Exposition in 2017 as he made a case for the re-election of Chief Willie Obiano for a second term in the Governor’s Office of Anambra State. The Awka Exposition deserves examination, contemplation and action by the Igbo nation.
First, Soludo characterises the Igbo as a global tribe. What are the implications of this designation for the South East? What are the other internal issues that Ndigbo should be tackling at this period? We would continue listening to the South East some more. Next week.
Chido Nwakanma
