WHAT THE IGBO WANT

The best approach to Igbo revival following the Nigerian civil war of 1967-70 has always been a hotly debated topic. General Gowon following end of the war introduced his rehalbilitation,reconstruction and reintegration but hardly seem to have succeeded in its quest for there still exist divide and antagonism as we see today. There is still what people call Marginisation.The Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Emeka Ojukwu believed in Igbo unity everywhere and brought us the Eze Igbo concept establishing an authority body everywhere to supretend vital igbo culture and values on the people. Some how this concept has not been wholly successful in the sense that Igbo cultural erosion had gone too deep and therefore instead of unifying, this concept often has tended to diversify concepts of the Igbo value system. Some people have even come to summarise value as money instead of Self respect,love and justice.This may be unfair but it points us to the level of decay. This undue diversity may have led Former President Obasanjo recently to demand that the Igbo look inwards for their own emancipation while the sitting President, Muhammad Buhari was reported to have enquired as to` what the Igbo want`. The above may only serve as background to the following emerging debate:

Reactions have been received on the Igbo Rebirth Facebook page concept. Some say it is a good idea but what the Igbo want is separation from Nigeria. Some call it Biaexit or something like that. So let us address these issues. In those days before the civil war the Igbo had unique identity that gave them pride and they never wanted to exit anywhere nor did they feel oppressed nor inferior to anyone. Infact the Igbo was known for always ejecting its bad eggs not by killing them but by separating them from herself. The Igbo were hospitable to strangers and as far back as 1930s Hausas were settled in igbo land following the boom of trade and railway . There was no feeling of neglect because our culture was supreme and gave us sovereignty by connecting the Igbo to his maker (Obasidinelu or Orisa)through the smaller deities or belief systems. If we feel cheated we supplicated to the Creator through those we saw as His servants.

Soon we began to do away with the old belief systems arising from the deepening of Christianity which used an approach of destroy before up building. So instead of the early missionaries to confirm that our native practices were right and stands in the will of the higher God,out of power seeking motives for political and commercial gains, they sought too destroy the beauty that attracted them in the first place. They made the people subservient by creating internal lack to break that self sufficiency that engendered the self confidence of the Igbo race. In achieving this temporary control and access,they created an artificial approach to the big God that required no obligation or responsibility. They ended up unintentionally creating a lazy generation that needed to be fed from outside rather than via self reliance. This change affected gender greatly. Women's role began to change until it was distorted beyond recognition and the sacred roles as keeper of social sanity was lost. The men were wore hit. The men were no longer providers and lost respect and support of women and instead of joint working there was disjointed function in the family. For Chinua Achebe,things fell apart.

So the new Igbo woven by colonialists and accentuated by their successors and worsened by the civil war and never understood by present leaders who only expresses the worst in us,became a complaining one unable to solve its problems but prefer to get out of it rather than confront it. Indeed you cannot solve what you cannot understand or grasp. So the escapist tendency grows unhindered.It starts with finding everyone else to blame without looking inwards. So here comes the marginaIisation story. We Igbo brought the idea of Nigeria so who can marginalise us except ourselves?. It is because we let our culture gô.!! So wherever we go we shall remain marginalised since we have lost the true igbo interest or position and we now pursue outside interests because we think that all we need is money. So we have substituted our relevance with those who can give us money and so we now feel marginalised and want to secede or sèpèrate but without addressing the root cause of our present challenge. That is why Igbo rebirth for some amounts to distraction instead of the real deal.That is why the present crop of Igbo political leaders appear unable to unify around what the igbo want outs side representing outside interests for transitory financial gain while shooting marginalisation to high heavens. That is why the Igbo need to restore old socio cultural practices as a way to rebuilding unity and identity and as the best route to tackling her present challenges.