By Gozie Irogboli
I did say in one of my earlier essays that Buhari’s revanchist attitude towards the Igbo is not just about his professed hatred for the Igbo but about the policy of the All Progressives Congress (APC) dominated by the Southwest people that live in perpetual fear of the Igbo man. And sadly, I have been proved right. Tinubu and his kinsmen’s attitude toward Ndigbo since he was sworn in as president has confirmed my position. The nefarious agenda of the APC regime against Ndigbo is that of continuous molestation and intimidation aimed at destabilizing the region. Under the APC regime Igbo land is treated like an occupied territory with military siege that culminated into the exportation of terrorism into the region that is considered the most peaceful part of the country before now.
With the coming of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, after Buhari’s disastrous administrative interregnum, many who are ignorant of his mindset had hoped for a relief for Ndigbo but the assault against Ndigbo has increased in intensity and in fiercer dimension. The unprovoked onslaught against Ndigbo began in Lagos in the build up to the February, 2023 general election. But the attack has increased in intensity since the swearing-in of Bola Tinubu as the president in May, 2023.
In Lagos you have wanton destruction of property belonging to Ndigbo, state organized arson looting and extortion. In the last ten months since the end of the 2023 general election property belonging to Ndigbo in multiples of billions of Naira have been destroyed by the Sanwolu government in Lagos for ridiculous reasons with the open and tacit approval of Mr. Tinubu. The most painful thing is that the assets being destroyed were legally, not forcefully acquired, and some with the approval from the state government. After destruction, they will reacquire and reallocate them. The ones they don’t find reason to pull down, they will set on fire mostly on weekends when the traders will not be on ground to salvage their wares. In the last ten months Igbo-dominated markets have burnt down and wares belonging to Ndigbo looted by the Lagos area-boys.
As expected, Tinubu has not said anything concerning the assault on Ndigbo in Lagos, fueling the allegation that he is culpably involved in the plot. Clearly, no government in the history of Nigeria has marginalized and oppressed Ndigbo like the Tinubu’s. Under Tinubu, Ndigbo are less represented in Federal Executive Council (FEC) with only the mandatory 5 minister, two of whom are women and junior ministers. The few Igbo appointees under Buhari has been swept out by the vindictive Tinubu. It is insinuated that the current travail of Mr. Godwin Emefiele the erstwhile CBN governor who is being victimized for implementing a policy of the government to which Tinubu is supposed to be part of is because of his Igbo affinity.
The cruel state of mind of Tinubu’s men was actually exhibited when after the election in Lagos that was marred by violence wherein many Igbo were killed, maimed and many disenfranchised by hooligans working for Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga, one of the Tinubu button boys rather than condemn the violence said to the amazement of sane minds that what happened will teach the Igbo a lesson not to meddle with Lagos politics. Exercising one electoral franchise to a twisted mind is meddling with other peoples’ politics. What is happening to Ndigbo under Tinubu is like a double-pronged attack. While the paranoiac Sanwolu is destroying the assets of the Igbo in Lagos, the dim-witted Wike is being used to do the same in Abuja. The purpose of the latest onslaught against Ndigbo is to punish Ndigbo for voting against the APC. It is also aimed at intimidating and weakening the Igbo economically in order to bring them to subjection. It is terrifying situation!
As I have always said, this act is perpetrated by those who live in perpetual fear of the Igbo man; those who erroneous feel that destroying Ndigbo is all that they require to occupy and dominate Nigeria. Some people think that the Igbo owe them a note of gratitude and should do their bidding.
Without mincing words, what Sanwolu is doing to Ndigbo in Lagos is pure acts of terrorism and economic banditry. We know that terrorism is the use of violence on individuals or groups to create an atmosphere of fear for the purpose of forced political compliance. Banditry is economically motivated armed violence primarily undertaken by an individual or a group to extort, dispossesses, grab or plunder individuals or groups. Thus, when Sanwolu and his team of destroyers use state power to demolish the property of the Igbo and then reacquire it, it is economic banditry. When he uses violence to prevent Ndigbo to exercise their civic franchise or forced political affiliation, it is terrorism. When the area-boys of Lagos and the governor’s button boys set fire to a market at night, when the traders are not around to salvage their goods, and then plunder their wares, it is economic banditry. When an elected government formulates and implements a discriminatory policy against a particular people, it is apartheid and an act of terrorism. When the government unleashes thugs, knaves, pyromaniacs, recidivists, hooligans, reprobates, touts against a people to oppress and suppress them, it is xenophobia and pure act of terrorism.
Ironically, while all these oppression are going on, many kept quiet and pretended as if nothing is happening and those who spoke seem to blame the victims as if they have committed a crime by investing in a country they called their own. They are screaming Ndigbo should go and develop Igbo land as if it is a crime to invest in ones country. It is erroneous to assume that Lagos was developed by the Yoruba or that Lagos belongs to the Yoruba alone. The history of Lagos is available for all to learn…The development of modern Lagos began in colonial era when it was made the capital of Nigeria. The colonial administrators invested our common resources in developing Lagos. And after independent the Nigerian government continued to invest our common wealth indiscriminately in Lagos following the colonial centre-periphery anti-development template, to the detriment of other parts of the country snowballing into explosive population migration into Lagos. Almost every facility you find in Lagos is built by the Nigeria government from the oil revenue scooped from the Igbo Southeast and South-South Nigeria. And after the Federal establishment, over 70% of other private investments in Lagos are owned by the Igbo who have always taken every part of the country as home unlike the Yoruba. And those who claim to own Lagos don’t even have up to 30% of what is in Lagos. Moreover, a huge swathe of the federal government budget is wasted annually maintaining these federal facilities in Lagos that attracted people to Lagos and yet some people think it is theirs and we should go and build our own. This is unfortunate!
Indeed, it is most strange and shocking to me that while these acts of unbridled hostility and xenophobia against Ndigbo is going on that nobody seems to condemn the act. Those who managed to speak tend to blame the victims rather than the oppressor. The Lagos Press as is characteristic of it has kept the people engaged and distracted with the fog argument about who owns Lagos instead of condemning the economic crime and brigandage being perpetrated by Sanwolu against Ndigbo, as if the ownership of Lagos is in contention. The state government’s propaganda team and media hirelings would show pictures from Lagos demolition and caption it that Soludo of Anambra State and Mbah of Enugu State are also destroying property in the South East.
The current violence against Ndigbo in Lagos began before the February 2023 General Election and it was incited by Tinubu and his political thugs. The attack against Ndigbo is premeditated and many believe that it had the open and tacit approval of Tinubu whose hatred and disdain for Ndigbo is public knowledge. For instance, during his tenure as Lagos State governor (1999-2007), he destroyed the businesses of Igbo people, destroyed some Igbo-controlled markets and acquired them without paying compensation. He changed the popular Eleke Crescent in Lagos to Walter Carrington Street without renaming another after Eleke…Before the elections, he was reported to have called Ndigbo ingrates because according to him, he accommodated them in the Lagos that he claimed he built. His cantankerous wife Remi Tinubu was caught on video saying that they will drive Ndigbo away from Lagos and acquire their property.
Before now the Igbo traducers have been trading on propaganda and hate speech, manipulating stories in the press pushing out wrong and misleading narratives about Ndigbo aimed at portraying Ndigbo in bad light just to induce hatred and brutalize the psyche of the Igbo man. But they seem to be frustrated for the more they try, the more the Igbo who are apparently too busy to pay attention to them seem to prosper and grow; and hence the recent outburst of xenophobic attack on Ndigbo in Lagos. I have noted this elsewhere that if the current hostility against Ndigbo in Lagos is not checked, it could lead to pogrom or genocide. This sounds very alarming but the tension is building and the signs are palpable. The Lagos area-boys, omoniles and ogberos are now in overdrive intimidating, molesting and extorting people with impunity.
Gozie Irogboli, An economist, a novelist and a public policy analyst and can be reached at goziei@yahoo.com
