See where hate leads?

 Hate does not bear good fruits. I said so in my last piece. Sensible people try to work through their differences and negotiate with their perceived oppressors. Some of us choose the laziest option which doesn’t need much intellection – hate peddling. Like Adolf Hitler who reduced all the problems of Europe to the existence […]

 Hate does not bear good fruits. I said so in my last piece. Sensible people try to work through their differences and negotiate with their perceived oppressors. Some of us choose the laziest option which doesn’t need much intellection – hate peddling. Like Adolf Hitler who reduced all the problems of Europe to the existence of Jews, a pattern is emerging in Nigeria where one part thinks all its problems is caused by another part and the compliment is promptly returned in reverse order.

We are now trading in hate, fighting to outdo each other in hate-mongering. My hatred is more legitimate than yours. I don’t want to have anything to do with you. By the way, how did I manage to tolerate you for this long?

The nation was aghast (but superficially so) when a coalition of youth groups in the North issued an ultimatum ordering Igbos out of their region within three months. This was a direct response to all the resurgent Biafra agitation. I say, ‘superficial’ because one did not require special cerebral equipment to know that a backlash would follow the Igbo agitation, especially the primitive insults so recklessly broadcast on Radio Biafra and in subsequent media releases.

“Our first major move”, said Yerima Shettima of AYCF, “shall be to reclaim, assume and assert sole ownership and control of these landed resources currently owned, rented or in any way enjoyed by the …Igbo in any part of northern Nigeria.” 

Another ‘abandoned properties’ saga in the offing? That was how the 1966 wahala started as a boil, then wound and then a cancerous ulcer. Déjà vu?

If the Biafran agitators were wrong in the acrimonious way they went about their campaign, the Arewa youths are equally wrong in decreeing a ban against bona fide citizens in defiance of the country’s constitution. You don’t cure chesty cough by eating coconut nor do you heal headache with a tumbler of ogogoro. What is bad is not good! We can’t disclaim Biafra and prevent Igbos from enjoying the benefits of citizenship in Nigeria at the same time.

In the same vein, Igbos can’t be campaigning for a country of their own and insist on enjoying prime political positions in Nigeria. You have to decide exactly what you want. Nigerian positions and resources are for Nigerians, not Biafrans.

Governor Nasir El Rufa’i was one of the first political leaders to react to the Arewa ultimatum. He ordered their arrest. They had chosen to use his state to launch their centrifugal campaign. Northern governors and many responsible northerners sided with Rufa’i. That was one development that was missing in the Biafra agitation. South East governors had kept mum. 

So are we making progress? Not quite, as evidenced by Prof. Ango Abdullahi’s incredibly narrow intervention. Ango Abdullahi, who claimed to be speaking for the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), expressed “disappointment” with the Northern Nigeria Governors’ Forum for disowning the youth groups, wondering who the governors of the nineteen northern states are representing.

“Recently, people from eastern part of this country, specifically Igbo, were busy calling for the Sovereign State of Biafra and from all indication their leaders including governors are behind them.” According to him, whoever feels Nigeria “is not conducive for him” let him quit, adding that what the northern youth groups did “was not a sin”.

Recall that Prof Ango Abdullahi, an Agricultural Scientist,  was Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University between 1979 and 1986. I heard some stories of heroism and decisions of revolutionary proportions during his tenure as VC. I can’t reconcile those stories with the Ango Abdullahi that is now endorsing the banning of millions of Igbos from Northern `Nigeria and the forfeiture of their assets. 

If Igbo leaders could not call their own children to order, that does not justify your refusal to call yours to order. The reason God gave us elders is so that they can show us the pitfalls and caution us when we’re heading for the precipice. No nation is happy whose elders behave like children.

Thankfully, the deputy leader of the NEF, Chief Paul Unongo, was able to rise up to the statesmanly requirements of the crisis situation. “If Professor Ango Abdullahi is backing those ignorant youths, then he is speaking for himself… Igbos are welcome in the North, they are welcome in Yoruba land and my own village in Tiv land and they have right to pursue their daily bread and own property… So, if the young men cannot build a nation, they should not destroy the one we put our lives on the line to build for them.”

The future of Nigeria does not belong in the hands of village bards whose panegyrics adulate only their own ancestors, mores and customs. As the cerebral Ohaneze President, John Nnia Nwodo says, “Every part of Nigeria can survive as an independent country. The North with its mineral and agricultural potentials can build a strong nation. The West with its cocoa, oil, indomitable intellectual knowhow and commerce can build another Britain. The South-South with its oil can transform before oil ceases to be a major foreign exchange earner. The East with industry, outstanding innovation and little oil may still emerge as the African wonder. But none of these little enclaves will rival the capacity of a united and reconciled Nigeria.”

So, be careful what you wish for on whichever side of the divide – you might just get it!