Enough Of Stereotyping The Igbo Ethnic Group, Please!

It is not an exaggeration to opine that there is hardly an ethnic group on earth that has never been subjected to stereotyping, hence, it is not surprising that the Igbo ethnic group has always suffered from it, and maybe even more than other ethnic groups in Nigeria.

In fact, it is expedient to disclose that the inspiration to express this view in this context became expedient as the spate of stereotypes against Ndigbo has reached a ridiculous and intolerable notch where people who are least knowledgeable about Igbo history, culture, traditions, and behavior, have mischievously coalesced into one, and in unanimity concocting a generalized image, often false, of every one of Igbo descent.

For instance, an element of the campaign of calumny that was orchestrated against the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP). Mr. Peter Obi ahead of the 2023 presidential election were insinuations that he was primarily in the race to ensure that the dream of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was achieved, even as not a few of his traducers were mischievously calumniating his personality by saying that his aspiration was an extension of the IPOB Agenda.

It will be recalled in this context that as the negative campaign was dangerously carried out against him that the LP Presidential Campaign Council Spokesperson, Tanko Yunusa, was compelled to organize a press parley where he issued a press statement as a way of correcting the wrong and damaging impression that was widely held by a wide spectrum of the electorates. In his address, Yunusa clarified that Obi has no links with the IPOB. His clarification followed allegations by a civil society group, Concerned Citizens Network (CCN), in a petition to the European Union (EU), the USA, and the UK, alleging that the proscribed group was supporting Obi for the 2023 elections.

The group claimed that Obi has received tactic support from IPOB since he indicated interest to contest the 2023 presidential election.

Yunusa, in the press parley that was given generous reportage, said there was no iota of truth in the allegation, adding that it was made up to pitch Mr. Obi’s supporters in the South-East region against him.

Yunusa said, “It is a total lie, the allegations are completely false. This is like saying Atiku Abubakar of the PDP is receiving tactic support from Boko Haram terrorists or Fulani herdsmen, or that the OPC and MC Oluomo’s group are giving tactic support for Bola Tinubu of the APC.

“The truth is that Peter Obi has never been associated with any such organization, be it OPC, IPOB, or Boko Haram. He treats issues holistically as a nationalist and as someone who wants to come into power to treat issues accordingly.

“The records are there from what he did as Anambra governor for eight years. When the IPOB issue started in Anambra, Obi treated it as every other crime perpetrated in his state, and that was why throughout his tenure there was no single robbery in Anambra. That is a pointer”.

Also expedient to be made reference to in this context is the unprovoked attacks against Igbo interests in Lagos in the wake of the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections.

Without any iota of exaggeration, continuous ethnic profiling and hate propaganda against Igbo in Lagos State were recorded in the pre and post-electoral period so much that not a few people unanimously observed that it appeared that over 50 years after the civil war, non-Igbos were still having reprisals against the Igbo ethnic group. The rationale behind the foregoing line of thought cannot be farfetched as the coup staged by Major Nzeogwu and other young Nigerian soldiers in 1967 was termed the Igbo coup. To be fair and just to the Igbo ethnic group, there is no denying the fact that the genocidal treatment meted out to them led to the civil war that lasted from 1967 to 1970.

As if to add salt to injury, former Niger Delta agitator, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, recently fired a shot at the leadership of IPOB for calling him a freedom fighter turned bunkering militant and political thug.

Dokubo was seen in a video that went viral addressing the Igbo people as slaves who would have continued to be sold if not for the British government’s intervention.

The ex-militant said, “The Igbo people do not know their roots. They don’t have respect for who bought their father. Do you think every Kalabari man is a Kalabari man?

“See how the Igbo people are dying. They keep saying that I have run away. Look at me; I’m here,” he said.

Dokubo, while displaying an AK-47 in the video, added that the Igbo people are just seeking attention.

In as much as this piece is not set to vilify anyone over the stereotyping of Igbo descent, it is expedient to clarify in this context that an ethnic stereotype is a simplified generalized image of an ethnic group built on prejudice, emotional evaluation, and with the lack of sufficient knowledge. Such images are often false and offensive to the representatives of the stereotyped group.

In fact, as gathered, people are taught to stereotype other people even as stereotyping is a learned form of classifying and labeling others based on inaccurate information or assumption rather than on factual knowledge. Without a doubt, there are numerous factors that help create stereotypes, such as misunderstanding of the customs, traditions, behavior, and world outlook of a person, state policy, and the type of relationship between the government and a particular ethnic group. In fact, the art of stereotyping is often carried out through literature, cinema, and mass media. Those and a few other factors are, in fact, the reason for the appearance of a stereotype, which symbolizes with the greatest expressiveness, as a rule, an image of a particular person, a whole nation, or some other phenomenon with its characteristic traits and determinative ideas. However, no image can be once and for all invariable; it inevitably transforms in the course of time, like life itself.

As gathered by virtue of being a Journalist, the treatment being meted out to people of Igbo descent is nothing but racial profiling; which occurs when a person is erroneously believed to be affiliated with a racial or ethnic group is seen to exhibit a certain pattern of behavior or seen to commit certain kind of crime.

The essence of racial profiling is the erroneous judgment that the targeted person or group is more prone to commit crime in general, or to commit a particular type of crime, than other racial or ethnic groups. A case in point is the ongoing controversy involving Mmesoma Ejikeme, who was accused by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) of forging her result, even if she has denied the allegation there are some ethnic jingoists that are literarily nodding their heads, and alleging that because she is of Igbo descent that she is not innocent. In my view, other tribes should eschew the erroneously held impression that an average Igbo man or woman is a criminal. Enough of stereotyping the Igbo ethnic group, please!