Someone, from one of the states in the North confronted me recently. He said that he was worried with the way Igbos react to national issues with too much hate and aggression.
I reminded him that in 1943, long before Nigeria had independence, in the city of Jos Plateau State, the Igbos were killed in unprovoked attack by the Hausas, Fulanis and the locals. The accusation was Igbo domination.
Eight years later, in 1953, in the city of Kano, an anti independence riot broke out and the Igbos were once again target of horrific ethnic cleansing for mainly supporting immediate independence from Britain. At the end many bodies of Igbo men were found dead on the streets.
In 1966, another round of ethnic cleansing by the same Hausa/Fulani group targeted the lives and properties of the Igbos due to the fallout of the January 1966 coup.
From 1967 to 1970, the whole Nigeria fought the Igbos for asking for independence from a country where they were loathed. At the end of hostilities that lasted for 3 years, more than 3 million Igbos were slaughtered.
After the war, there was no reconciliation, no integration, no rehabilitation but outright hatred, loathsome economic policies, infrastructural ostracisation, political disenfranchisement, etc. against the Igbos.
To make it worse, the civil war actors discouraged the study of history in Nigerian schools in order to cover up their crimes which they extended till date while they continued the war against the Igbos in various government policies till date.
The Igbos, their lives and properties have remained target of attacks since 1970 in Northern Nigeria. The Bonkke riot of Kano also took lives and properties of many Igbo in 1991.
We also live in fear in every election cycle. When Muhammadu Buhari lost his Presidential election in 2011, he unleashed his people on the lives and properties of Southerners in the North. Many Igbos lost their lives and properties in that attack.
During Miss World riot in 2002 that broke out in the North, we were also targeted for elimination and our businesses destroyed.
The Igbos also paid with their lives and properties during the Sharia riot of 2000 led by Buhari and the Northern religious terrorists.
Very worrying is the fact that once Buhari attained his lifelong ambition of becoming the President of Nigeria, he did not pretend about his hatred for the Igbos and till date has killed more young Igbo men than any post civil war President of Nigeria.
Buhari’s hatred for Igbos carries generational support from his kinsmen and their leader Ahmadu Bello who said in an interview that he will not consider any Igbo for appointment in the North unless there are no foreigners to take the position. His fear which still ricochets across the nation was “Igbo domination”
I asked my friend: “Are these events I mentioned not enough for the Igbos to remain reactionary and live in mistrust against their neighbours?” He was silent.
I asked him if his tribe is subjected to the same cruelty and experience the Igbos went through and are still going through in Nigeria, what do you think would be their reaction? Embrace and kiss Nigeria? He began to mutter those wasteful words on how peace can reign within the country. The type of empty rhetorics we have been subjected to for several years yet things keep getting worse.
The point of the matter is that an average Igbo man hates Nigeria. We know that we are just being merely tolerated, thus we don’t want to be part of Nigeria. I don’t want to be part of Nigeria either.
Majority of Southerners don’t want to be part of Nigeria. The only reason Nigeria exists today is to enable the crooks that run this country unrestricted access to the oil in Niger Delta, a commodity that turned the people to base animals.
If you can understand the reason why the Jewish people bond together and react against anti-semitism and why they treat the holocaust as a very important aspect of their history then you would understand why the Igbos always bond together whenever they feel threatened within Nigeria.
It will also help you understand why we react against any Igbo slur from others and why millions of Igbos across the globe treat Biafra like a cult.
The difference between the Jewish holocaust and the Biafran genocide is simply an issue of colour. The holocaust is white while the genocide is black. Black lives and issues don’t matter else Biafran genocide would have been a global yearly reminder of man’s inhumanity to man.
The Jews lost an estimated 6 million Jews to Hitler while the Igbos lost an estimated 5 million Igbos to Gowon who were mostly children and women.
Nevertheless, it is the duty of this generation of Igbos to make Biafra trend and place her in global consciousness wherever we find ourselves until Nigeria is sufficiently embarrassed into extinction because in truth Nigeria does not deserve to exist nor attain the status of a nation. She is an embarrassment both to God and man.
Marvelous Marvels Nnatu is a UK-based scholar.