Isn't "Igbo leader" idiotic?

KWENU! Our culture, our future

Isn’t “Igbo leader” idiotic?

Friday (EKE) June 7, 2002

The responses I got after "The gods are naked (1)" would make a sizeable book. There were kudos and there were the usual area-boys e-emoting. The debate continues between two Yoruba brethren and myself. These brethren, while condemning the unnecessary southern, west-east bashing, contend that I misspoke and embellished or over-killed in parts. I admit that the mind is like a bag; everyone carries his own. One of the neither-kudos-nor-condemnation emails asked me a simple question: "Who is the Igbo leader?" In "The gods are naked (2)," I reproduced an embellished form of my respectful response.

It was really amazing and amusing to read that Ndiigbo did this or that, yet it is agreed that they are republicans. Those who roam the land chasing contracts cannot in any way be tagged "Igbo leaders." :::: We know our leaders; when we need them, we shall delegate them. We won't identify them; if we tell you, you will kill them. So stop searching for "Igbo leaders." Ndiigbo are not Nigeria's problem, or the other 249 nations would have allowed them to squeeze themselves into their supposedly small space without oil, without access to sea, without water, and without air!

It is therefore surprising that some should still be searching for "the Igbo leader." In "The Igbo leader -- Myth or Reality" of Thursday, June 06, 2002, Dozie Ikem Ezeife, Esq. raised very valid questions, especially when he wondered if there was a void yearning to be filled. Myth, my brethren, can never be reality. If I were a juror, that's reasonable doubt right there. However, when the learned gentleman tagged the hearsay "leaderless" situation a "fatal flaw" and ascribed Igbo leadership to certified contract chasers and chiefs in comic costumes, he unlocked the armory from which Igbo detractors fetch their munitions and high-fived the greatest Igbo basher writing. This made the day of one of the Yoruba brethren, who forwarded the piece immediately with a see-I-told-you e-glee.

Basically, the attorney handed it over to Igbo bashers that chiefly charlatans carry cans of clout in Igbo political affairs. I don't think so. I have no problem with thrashing these pretenders, but the problem here is that others will pick it up in their nebulous and nugatory obsession with Igbo political affairs. Also, we tend to go into the so-called self-destruct mode of Igbo elite that we so often magnify and condemn. Attorney Ezeife wants Ndiigbo to emulate some Nigerian nations… not that there is nothing about Ndiigbo to emulate but who is writing. Maybe the Igbo should start with not thrashing their own and not exaggerating the little that is perceived wrong in their national character while glorifying the little that is good about neighboring nations. So this piece is more an expanded and depersonalized publication of a private exchange than a rebuttal of Ezeife's piece.

The piece in question speaks of relevant vexatious issues, but "the penchant for destroying their rivals" is NOT an Igbo disease. Remember the Ladoke Akintola-Obafemi Awolowo fraternal fracas before some misguided military men of mostly Igbo extraction stepped in to help sort it out and brought down on their people the house that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe built. I never heard that these men were paid to remove Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and to release and install Chief Awolowo. Who would forget that Joseph N. Garba (may he peacefully rest) betrayed the highest trust of his own Plateau person? Has the death of Chief James Ajibola Ige not exposed the height of political self-destruction, literally?

The BIG question: "Who is THE Igbo leader?" I smiled the first time World Igbo Congress embarked on an annual pilgrimage in search of answer(s). Five years and conventions across the Great Pond (New York, London, Chicago, Dallas, New Orleans), the answer remains elusive because it is an invalid question and therefore a quixotic quest.

The irony is that all the people to whom we ascribe Igbo leadership had at one point or the other disavowed any interest in such a label. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was not even the leader of Onitsha; he was the Owele, which, I understand, is lower in the Onitsha royal rung than say the Ajie (Tony Ukpabi Asika). Who would forget the brouhaha that drowned the alleged crowning of General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu as Ezeigbo by Adama Nri. The Ikemba Nnewi would later say to my hearing that he never asked anyone to call him "Ezeigbo Gburugburu" (Global King of Ndiigbo). In the TSM's 2nd Diamond Lecture on February 22, 1994, he drove it home:

"Let me first and foremost make this very clear: I am Igbo. I am a full-fledged citizen of Nigeria. What I say today in this Forum, I say as Dim CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU OJUKWU, IKEMBA NNEWI, DIKEDIORAMMA NDIIGBO. I speak only for myself. I don't speak for any group in Nigeria. I am not an Igbo leader."

Recall that the Great Zik had frowned when the Ikemba took the pan-Igbo but otherwise pleasant title of Dikedioramma (Beloved Hero of the Masses). Zik never took a pan-Igbo title; Ndiigbo do not have Aare Ona Kakanfos or Sultans or Khalifas. When Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme (Ide Orumba) summoned Ndiigbo in Owerri for a post-1999 thank-you, sponsored giant killers misread him and poised to pull him down with anonymous letters. He vehemently stated that he was not interested in being "Igbo leader" -- which Dr. Joe Nwodo had stopped short of offering him. Yet, here is the man that was nod-delegated to represent Ndiigbo at the Jos wrestling match. The rest is history.

Inside Igbo communities, the story is the same. As per Chief Christian Chukwuma Onoh (Okaaomee Ngwo), only non-Waawa people ascribe Waawa leadership to him. The man is a legend, no doubt about that, and "his Enugu people" and many others rightly respect him for his tenacity and foresight in pushing for more states in Igboland. However, he has never once claimed "leadership" of Waawalandia -- loosely those Igbo communities from Awka to Abakaliki that use "wa" (an Igbo dialect for "no" -- as are "mba," "oolo," etc.). Farther east, the last time I listened to revered elder Dr. Akanu Ibiam (Ezeogo Uwana), he was more interested in the spiritual wellness of humanity, for which he fasted every Wednesday, and the cultural cum political progress of "his Ebonyi people."

Some people have made feeble attempts to define "Igbo leadership." Note: The toga of "top politician" does not make a pan-Igbo leader. Any semblance of rigid royalty with monarchical makeup is the reverse of republicanism. It is therefore understandable if Anambra State Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju (Oderaa Uli) screamed "Eureka" when he thought he had figured it out. As reported in the media last year, he had this to say:

"We have only one Igbo leader who can speak for all [Ndiigbo] and that is Hon. Justice Eze Ozobu, who is the Chairman of Ohanaeze Ndiigbo by election. When he talks, all [Ndiigbo] are talking. When I talk, I talk for Anambra State. Now, I am the Chairman of the five governors of the East, when I talk in some circumstances, then I represent five of them. But I cannot talk from my own state, running around and saying that I talk for [Ndiigbo]. You are courting trouble if you do that."

Good idea! Why are we still searching for the Igbo leader? The main trouble here is that there is little "oha" (the masses) "na" (and) more "eze" (the kings) in Ohanaeze. Who has not heard that "Igbo enwe eze" (the Igbo have no king) -- a "nebulous concept," according to our friend Dr. Ihechukwu Madubuike, that "encapsulates the concept that there is a royal blood in every Igbo person; in other words, that every Igbo man is as good as another. This belief promotes the spirit of long life competitiveness, robust individualism, and the desire to excel." Apparently, those who cast Ohanaeze Ndiigbo in Afenifere or Arewa Consultative Forum mold forgot this simple dictum. The simple lesson that Aba Women taught us all in 1929 is that there cannot be a popular taxation without proper representation. A leadership that springs from perceived elitism is soon subjected to the vagaries of the elite.

In the paper presented to the Orient Club in Abuja, the two-time former federal Minister Dr. Madubuike put it succinctly thus:

"The republican nature of Ndiigbo need not make them leaderless. In traditional Igbo society men of achievement and substance commanded the respect of their peers. But they did not dictate to their societies because of their achievements. Rather they listened to the council of the elders and functioned within defined areas of operations." [ See http://www.kwenu.com/lectures/madubuike_orient.htm ]

Is anyone still searching… really searching for THE Igbo leader? Do we really need an "Igbo leader" because others have so-called "leaders." Whom did the Yoruba tell that Senator Abraham Adesanya is their leader? Do the Ooni of Ife and Alaafin of Oyo also feature in the hierarchy of Yoruba leadership? Where do Sultanan Sakwatto's leadership of the Muslim North stop and Alhaji M. D. Yusuf's political leadership start? Who is the leader of the Edo's Kukuruku? Omo n'Oba n'Edo Uku Akpolokpolo? No one is asking the Tiv to name a leader in Iyorchia Ayu, Victor Malu, Atom Kpera, etc. Who leads the Hausa, Ijaw, the Ibibio, the Efik, the Ilaje, the Nupe or the Jukun?

We should stop preoccupying ourselves with "Igbo leadership" and comparing Igbo sociopolitical setup with those of Igbo neighbors. Those who want to serve should step forward. Whomever God wants to lead shall progress. ["Onye Chi mere eze, o gaa n'iru."] The Igbo do not have to hate what they have to admire what others have. If Ndiigbo must ignore the obvious "fatal flaws" and admire the Oodua and Arewa nations for perceived political cohesion and establishment of El Dorado and Shangri La in their respective lands, let them also not denigrate the imperfections or perceived "fatal flaws" of their own setup or doubt the possibility of a political paradise in Aladimma, the Igbo socioeconomic and political El Dorado.

I will end with a quote from the 200o Ahiajioku Lecture titled "Igbo enwe eze" by the distinguished and erudite Professor Cyril Agodi Onwumechili: "The legacies of various cultures in a country tend to remain ingrained as they are transmitted from generation to generation. .... "Igbo enwe eze" is a reference to the characteristic traits of the Igbo. It should not be taken literally as a total denial that any king ever existed anywhere in the entire Igboland. .... There was at least one exception. .... Despite this, most Igbo communities had no kings. Oha na eze: Let us proclaim Igbo enwe eze. Let us say it loudly. Let us say it proudly."

Everything else is embellishment.

POST SCRIPT: In these days of enhanced ethnic sensitivity and political correctness, we must watch the terms we use. Professor Sam Aluko has told us that there are no "oil-producing" states in Nigeria; rather, they are "oil-endowed states." Though it does not begin to address the raping of Niger-Delta peoples, I can live with the term. Some call it semantics. It works. One of the reasons why Nigeria changed the 'though tribe and tongue may differ' anthem was to expunge the insulting colonial term "tribe." In that vein, the term "Igbo president" should be expunged from common usage. Transport Minister Ojo Maduekwe has said there is no such thing. To say so, he reasoned, would be "idiotic." So, if we now understand the man from Ohafia, isn't the term "Igbo minister" also idiotic? Never mind. The point here is that no one should expect a "leader" amongst a ruggedly republican and socially sophisticated people. Therefore, it could be considered equally "idiotic" to expect an "Igbo leader." Let me ask: Who is the leader of the Hebrews, the Arabs, the Afghans or the Uzbeks? Who is the leader of the English, the Welsh, the Scots, or the French? Who is the leader of the Kikuyi, the Xhosa, the Masai or the Ndebele? Who is the leader of the Ashanti, the Burkinabe, the Ewe, or the Wollof? Huh? Yes, in 2002…. Exactly my point!

I rest.