Evang. Elliot Uko is the founder and President of Igbo Youth Movement, IYM. He is also the Deputy Secretary General of Igbo Leaders of Thought. In this interview with DAILY POST’s Emmanuel Uzodinma, he insists that Ndigbo had remained greatly marginalized in Nigeria.
During his first media chat last month, President Muhammadu Buhari stated that Ndigbo are not marginalized, what is your take on that?
The world was shocked at the assertion by Mr. President. But Ndigbo were not surprised. They have his record as a young Lt. in the army, a Captain and Major during the war till date. Majority of our people believe he is an ethnic irredentist with a passionate hatred for Ndigbo. His friends deny that. But, clearly he doesn’t seem to care how Ndigbo perceive him. The world saw his emotions at the tail of the interview, it was clear to all if he loves Ndigbo or not. But the situation is that we don’t need any body’s love. We want equity and justice. That has been denied us for decades. Any oppressor can pretend he doesn’t know Nigeria is built on injustice.
How far we will continue to pretend is unclear. Those who are afraid of enthroning true federalism and those who allow envy to rule them are stubbornly toying with our collective future. Injustice and peace are incompatible. Equity and justice ensures peace. Since Mr. President believes there is justice and equity in the land, who am I to disagree with him? Only a particular section think Nigeria is great the way it is. Everybody else wants true federalism.
But Sir, how exactly are Ndigbo marginalized?
Ndigbo are not marginalized. We are oppressed. The deliberate unjust structure of Nigeria oppresses many ethnic nationalists, especially those of the middle belt, south-South and of course the South East. The case of the South East is about envy really. Everybody else believes they should be checked, they should be held down else they move on top. The attitude is; “Hold them down by all means”. This decades-long attitude is being rejected by the younger generation of Ndigbo. Apart from Ndigbo who are in government and the very wealthy, the other 98% of Ndigbo feel unwanted in Nigeria. Nigeria makes it difficult, if not impossible for Ndigbo to feel proudly Nigerian. Everything is deliberately designed to keep them out.
Firstly, there is an un-discussed fear of Ndigbo and a desire by certain other people to dominate others politically. This cocktail of passions produces a huge dislocation in distribution of resources and projects. Since 1970, Ndigbo have been left with the short end of the stick, strangely, everybody seems not to mind, maybe because we seem to succeed in other areas of the economy. This mindset of “don’t let them climb the political ladder” held on to for so long by enemies of Ndigbo gave the younger Ndigbo the impression Nigeria is better off without them. “If you don’t want us, then let us go”.
Justice, equity and fair play keep countries like Ghana peaceful and admirable. Those responsible for the bitterness in Nigeria know it, it’s just convenient for them to subdue others and pretend about it.
Can you in exact terms state how Ndigbo are marginalized?
You want me to repeat myself; I have been vocal for two decades on these issues. Pretending won’t solve the problem. OK. Nigeria’s amusing and impossible census figures are not designed to enthrone peace. Those short changed by these truly amazing figures will remains very bitter until they are corrected; people believe Calabar seaport is made inactive to stagnate the economic growth of Eastern Nigeria. So everybody is forced to use the Lagos ports. The deliberate and humiliating exclusion of Ndigbo in the current security architecture of Nigeria is deliberately designed to rub it in that they are not part of Nigeria. Ndigbo dwell in all of 774 Local governments of Nigeria. Issues of security affects them most, do you know that if the Federal Government is about to declare war today and Mr. president summons an emergence meeting of over two dozen heads of security agencies to take the decision together, with the Vice President, Senate President, Speaker House of Representative, Service Chiefs, Police I.G., NSA, Defense Minister, Chief of Defence Staff, Dg DSS, DgNIA, Dg DMI etc there will be no Igbo man there. Somebody deliberately designed it that way to push Ndigbo out of Nigeria. Can the Yoruba be excluded that way? There are over 45 million Ndigbo and somebody pretends he does not know that Ndigbo are completely excluded from the Security Council. This fact cannot encourage unity.
Hatred as a virus is unhealthy to a heterogeneous and multi-cultural country as ours. Add this to the mother of all injustices: unworkable structure of 36 (mostly unviable states) created principally by one section of the country and deliberately skew against us with Eastern region making absolutely no contribution to their creation. 774 LG preponderantly created to favour and disfavour some regions. The stubborn refusal to restructure Nigeria along the lines of true federalism is the biggest disservice those who hate equity are visiting on all of us. The wicked, heartless and unhealthy delineation of federal constituencies in such a lopsided manner continues to generate bitterness. Campaign of hate and calumny, designed to ridicule and ostracize a particularly envied people in order to justify the scorched earth policy and war of attrition visited on them. The killings of easterners for over 60 years now, without any hopes of punishing the perpetrators, from the Kano riots for of 1953, to reactions over cartoon in far away Denmark, Ndigbo are usually slaughtered like chicken. Deliberate denial of constitutional citizenship rights of Nigerians wherever they may reside. Ethnic and religious sentiments rule the land. Dichotomy in school fees and rights to tuition-free opportunities in some states. The painful disparity in cut-off mark for UTME scores. Deliberate appropriation of the top echelon of the judiciary by one region, age long domination of the military and security outfits by the same region. Display of air of superiority and born to rule mentality by the same region. Politics of exclusion and nauseating nepotism in all arms of the civil service and Federal parasatals. Decades old deliberate denial of old Eastern region of needed infrastructure, just because they lost the Biafran war. Horrific killings and rape by the wicked Fulani herdsmen. The total manipulation of the electoral system to enforce predetermined outcomes that would only continue the decayed and offensive format of carpet baggers always influencing the political leadership of our region. The belief, that the East should be perpetually oppressed and held down politically so that some other region would eternally dominate us politically, the list is endless.
What is the Solution? Simple: A new constitution built on equity. Regional autonomy, true fiscal federalism, everybody knows that is the way to go. It is just that some people love dominating and oppressing others. They think that restructuring Nigeria will cost them certain advantages they are enjoying already. They therefore conveniently pretend they don’t know that Nigerians is sick and desperate for justice and equity. The truth is: the FG is underestimating the resolve, the strength and the bitterness of large number of young people who are completely tired of Nigeria.
How do you rate the South-Eastern governors, some people believe they should be held accountable?
Well, the governors have constraints. The current political structure makes it impossible for Nigeria to grow. Our economic growth is strangulated by an unworkable political structure that has a very powerful center and very weak and dependent states. Inspite of these difficulties our governors are doing good. Ugwuanyi in Enugu is consolidating on the impressive record of former Gov. Chime, Obiano is trying to catch up with Peter Obi’s record, Abia is sitting up. Imo’s heavy debt profile and agony of workers owed for months on end isn’t inspiring. Ebonyi is a great story of giant stride amidst little resources. Gov. Umahi is poised to transform Ebonyi. There is massive transformation going on in Ebonyi, very laudable projects are ongoing there. The East is yearning for an industrial revolution that can only happen if Governors come together and work as a team, we plead with them to do so. We are forward looking though.
How do you appraise State of the Nation? Our position is to continue to pray for and support the government; from May 29th this year, we will be in a better position to appraise the government holistically. The political need to revert without delay to true federalism is being strongly amplified by the economic realities of the time. 20 states cannot pay salaries. Now there are political and economic reasons why we must enthrone true federalism without delay. It is becoming increasingly clear that those opposing true federalism do not wish Nigeria well. Aside that, we would like to give the government one full year before we appraise its direction. I agree that all is not well with Nigeria but there is hope only when we accept the truth which is that this unitary structure is not working.
Let’s look at the anti-graft war; do you think the President is getting it right? Corruption should be fought relentlessly and drastically reduced, but the war on corruption must be holistic, unbiased and geared towards public good. We support an anti-corruption war that is not selective.
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