By Chike Obidigbo Ph.D
Recently, President Bola Tinubu appointed chairmen of 42 boards and parastatals of the Federal Government (FG). As has become usual with such federal appointments, the list of appointees had only few names of people from the Southeast geopolitical zone.
Last month, the President ended the year 2024 with similar appointments. That was the selection of Chief Executive Officers for the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), the Solid Minerals Development Fund/Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative (SMDF) and the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD).
In the statement released by President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu, was appointed as the Executive Secretary of NUC, while Prof. Salisu Shehu was made Executive Secretary of NERDC.
For NEPAD, the President appointed Jabiru Abdullahi Tsauri as the National Coordinator of NEPAD and announced Yazid Danfulani as the Executive Secretary of the SMDF/PAGMI.
As has become customary after every such federal appointments, Nigerians were eager to see a semblance of balance or federal character in the distribution of positions and responsibilities among the composite nationalities of the country.
While people of other ethnic nationalities noted the imbalance against Igbo with quiet disappointment, the Igbo have long taken their continuing marginalisation as part of their contribution to Nigeria’s search for survival as a country.
It was the former South African President, Nelson Mandela, who stated that “Part of building a nation means building a spirit of tolerance, love and respect amongst the people of the country.” But, in his great work, Nigeria’s legendary writer, Chinua Achebe, contended that Nigerians will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo.”
Some commentators believe that Igbo’s problems in Nigeria began with the civil war, during which they sought a separate country called Biafra Republic as their own. Yet, at the end of that war in 1970, the then military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, had proclaimed a verdict of ‘No Victor, No Vanquished’.
The Federal Government under Gowon also embarked on the programme of three Rs, that is, Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Reconstruction; for the former Biafran enclave of South East region.
Although Ndigbo constitute one of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, they are peculiar, because they were never subject to powerful caliphates or kingdom, unlike the other two- Hausa and the Yoruba- who operate monarchical leaderships, namely, the Sokoto Caliphate and Oyo Kingdom, respectively.
It could be argued that the non-acceptance of undue domination by Ndigbo opened them up to antagonism by other tribes. However, it is impossible to analyse the pace of socio-political and economic development in Igbo land without factoring in the challenges and damaging effects of continued marginalization.
To this end, every objective and rationale observer has been asking the same question: Has the war actually ended? Available indices suggest otherwise.
Take for instance, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, which is meant to infuse a sense of patriotism and unite young Nigerians into nation building. Young graduates from South East are usually posted to the north, where they are exploited through strenuous jobs in various establishment, especially in schools. At the end of the service year, they are made to roam about, because of systemic unemployment that denies them appointment in Federal Government agencies.
Even in admission into universities, Igbo applicants are denied slots due to quota, catchment area and other considerations that do not align with merit or fair competition.
You come down to political leadership, it is obvious that leaders are imposed on Igbo as governors and legislators from outside to ensure that the real yearnings and aspirations of our people are not expressed. That also partly explains why insecurity in the South East has proven intractable, due to the ruse of unknown gun men, who litter the region as criminal mercenaries.
To worsen matters, there is a concentration of military personnel in the South East with road blocks at every square metre unlike in the North, where insurgency and banditry have become the order of the day.
Another evidence of siege on Igbo land revolves around the growing calls for referendum by various ethnic groups. But, while the likes of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Simon Ekpa have been incarcerated, nothing has been done to citizens of other tribes who had openly called for Nigeria’s division through self determination or referendum.
You find that a silent genocidal war is being waged against Igbo as young people are mowed down in the guise of fighting IPOB separatists. This silent war is extended to the economic front by way of infrastructure neglect, dilapidation and isolationist policies.
Supported by the British, successive Federal Governments in Nigeria made sure that Eastern Ports remain comatose, while roads are in their post-war state of disrepair. All these are in a deliberate bid to entrench the economic strangulation of Igbo and expedite the massive exodus of able-bodied youths in their productive ages to other Nigerian cities and states.
All this brings back to memory the very strategy that informed past state creation efforts, which ensured the dichotomy between Igbo and their brothers in the old Eastern Region. By creating an amorphous and nondescript South/South region to ring-fence Igbo land, it requires no rocket science to know why a former President described Igbo land as a Dot in a circle. They have readied the Igbo for easy suffocation and blockade.
Over the years, Igboland has been in the vanguard of agitating for a fair share in the distribution of the national cake. But, it is like there is a determined effort to keep Igbo down.
In a study titled, “The Marginalization of the Igbo People in Nigeria’s Political and Economic Sectors: What Is the Way Forward?”, Ezeakukwu Emmanuel Nsoedo National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Abuja, Nigeria, gave historical overview of the pre-civil war era of 1967, and post-civil war with regard to the economic and political status occupied by the Eastern region when compared to the Northern and Western regions.
The research showed how the Eastern region was positioned as a leader in economic advancement beyond the shores of Nigeria. Politically, it played pivotal roles through the political leaders of the regional powerhouse, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) which was later changed to the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens.
After the civil war, successive military regimes introduced series of decrees which ushered in policies that did not accommodate the interest of Igbo people. These included the unfulfilled reconstruction of the devastated Igbo land, 20 pounds’ flat refund policy, indigenization decree, etc. The promulgation of the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree of 1972, also known as Indigenization Decree, did not accommodate Igbo interest. The government enacted the policy when it was obvious that Igbo people were at their weakest economic standing, having just emerged from the civil war.
The direct implication was that the other ethnic groups were able to participate actively by massively purchasing shares of those blue-chip companies that the Nigeria government decided to appropriate.
As it is, the punitive economic measures appear to have persisted years after the civil war. For instance, the Akanu Ibiam Airport designated as “International” lacks quality infrastructure despite having very significant Igbo travellers dominating the aviation sector.
Ndigbo in reality still experience an overwhelming level of disadvantages based on public policies that were roguishly crafted to undermine their ability to maximize political and economic potentials. The restructuring of Nigeria to create more states for the northern states to the detriment of the Southern Nigeria, especially, the Southeast was not only an impediment politically. Britain orchaestrated that simply to restrain the economic potentials of the Igbo people negatively.
There are several instances of the Nigeria census exercises found to be less than desirable. The need to maintain a very high population figure advantage by certain regions over the others was intense. That notwithstanding, even the demographers found the 1973 population census incredibly manipulated. The census exercise confirmed that Nigeria’s population grew by 44 percent in 10 years, while, Northern Nigeria’s population jumped to 64 percent compared to 53.7 percent in 1963.
The bloated population advantage has consequences for the creation of states, local governments, and the sharing of accrued revenues at the center since in practice, Nigeria runs a unitary system as against the federal system on paper. Consequently, Southeast is the only zone with the least amount of revenue allocation in the Federation, having just five states.
Of serious concern is the skewed implementation of the Federal Character Principle as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
Indeed, it is widely held in Igbo enclave that there is a well-considered perception that the seaports within the Igbo axis are deliberately underused when one considers the fact that Port Harcourt port was a bustling port prior to Nigeria independence, up until Nigeria Biafra civil war.
The Port Harcourt port was the second largest port in the country commissioned in 1913 as with Lagos port. The Calabar port was equally busy handling exports and imports. But, currently, the Lagos seaports are fully congested leading to congestion and confusion.
The question is simple: Why the delays by the Federal Government to dredge the River Niger, improve the Calabar and Warri ports, etc., or make it friendly to use Port Harcourt to ease the economic waste arising from the concentration of shipping activities in Lagos ports?
It does not make good economic or political sense for Nigeria to keep marginalising Igbo in the mistaken belief that such uneven handed approach is the best way to punish them or avoid a repeat of the civil war.
Abundant evidence continues to show that the more the powers that be tries to undermine and oppress Igbo, the more Nigeria slides into worse economic chaos and political instability.
