In 
Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero, The ‘man of God’ in one of his
few moments of self-realization, confession and truth said that he, like most of his fellow ‘men of God’ and charlatans
either had followers already or were always looking for followers, this self- confession can not be any truer in
Igbo land today.
Our situation is not only critical, but also pitiful, we have reached
the crossroads or the half-moon junction as some may chose to describe it, signposted in different directions,
there is no get-out clause in our condition, it is like all the options at the moment lead to doom, and even further
crises, a situation Robert Ludlum will describe as the devil’s alternative.
The so called Igbo elites and ‘leaders’ are to blame for our present
predicament, what have they done for Ndigbo? What policies have they Influenced to the benefits and advantage of
Ndigbo? What roads, schools and markets have they built? How many scholarships have they awarded? How many development
initiatives have they birthed in Igboland? We are no better than we were before they began this their leadership
quest and craze.
We are still a people who self –sponsor (through self –help community
projects) the basic amenities we enjoy, this is despite their past and present participation and involvement in
successive governments in Nigeria, as well as their healthy economic and financial standings.
The increasing proliferation and mushrooming of Igbo socio-political
organisations have not helped our
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cause any further, this is because some of these self – serving ‘leaders’ and novices only think about themselves
and their immediate families.
By whichever name they go by, Pan – Ndigbo this, Oha that, World Igbo
this and so on, it is still the same old song, the fancy names of some of such organizations are not enough to
hide their selfish and crafty intentions, which is to use such forums and their alleged Igbo followership as spring
boards and negotiating aces in political appointment round tables, and also to score cheap political points, after
which they will abandon Ndigbo, as always to our miserable fates.
When they make their trademark remarks such as, The Igbos in Nigeria will not …, Ndigbo have had enough…, it is the turn of Ndigbo to…
etc, I shudder in shame because I know that such remarks and comments are not sincere. These our self – appointed
‘leaders’ just need to drive through some of the several villages in Igbo land, to see for themselves the extent
of the ravage, and hunger in the land. Is it any surprise that these Igbo ‘leaders’ are not able to unite and streamline
their assumed efforts?
They can, but they wouldn’t because they all have their different agendas
and also because there can never be two captains in a boat, their pedigree is to keep on migrating from one group
or organisation to the other, they set up and disband such associations at random, of course the Igbo vocabulary
is so rich that they will never lack words and names to call such mediocre groups and associations.
How I wish that those they are selling such dummies to will see through
their lies, and
start dealing directly with Ndigbo on a community level, if such people (the government and aid/donor agencies)
have any development funds or projects earmarked for Ndigbo, they should come directly to the Igbo village of their
choice, and operate rather through community leaders and other grass roots community organisations, such as the
age grades and the community development unions.
The home based community leaders are more in touch with reality, as well
as the plight of their people, and not those Armani and Hugo Boss suit wearing Igbo ‘leaders’, nor the ones that
dress up in fancy native attires, who are able to afford first class flight tickets to attend the several mock
Igbo conventions and jamborees which now take place in 5 star hotels in far away America and in some other parts
of the world, at the end of which communiqués are issued and re-issued, and then what?
How I also wish that Ndigbo will begin to see through some of them, for
what they stand for and for who they really are, when they come to us with their subtle bribe of sweet rhetoric
and cheap bags of Abakiliki rice, we should chase them away with their Greek gifts, we may be hungry but we have
our honour and pride.
When they announce their fake rallies in the market squares, we should
sit at home or carry on with our farming and trading at the square, if we do not subject and surrender ourselves
to the lenses of their video cameramen, they would not have any evidence of followership to show to their accomplices,
and therefore they would not have anything to bargain with.
I ask myself sometimes what really went wrong. What happened to our culturally
rich race? I have read and heard different stories tracing the lineage of Ndigbo to the Jews of Israel, We have
been variously described as the lost tribe of Israel, and as the black Jews, if indeed all these are true, then the Igbos are surely God’s people and
children.
How can a people function without a leader? Better still, Can they function
without honest and credible leaders with vision? Historically, there have always been men and women in the life
of a people who God have chosen to lead and take them to greater heights, we can easily recall the story of Moses,
Abraham, David, Joseph and Jesus in the Bible, and Prophet Mohammed in the Koran.
World history is also full of exploits by the likes of Napoleon, Winston
Churchill, Malcolm X, Dwight Eisenhower, Nelson Mandela, Queen Amina, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Marthin
Luther King Jnr, Obafemi Awolowo and Odumegwu Ojukwu. These great men and women influenced the social, political
and even economic lives of their people.
Why have Ndigbo all of a sudden found themselves at a situation where
we do not have credible leaders anymore?
Could our current leadership crises be traced to our tradition, culture
and language? The Igbos have always prided themselves in the saying that ‘Igbo enwe eze’. (The Igbos have no king),
could this thinking and belief be the main cause of the current crises we are experiencing in Nigeria at the moment? This egalitarian
concept appears to have been stretched too far in Igbo society; it has bred disrespect, disunity, rivalry and even
hatred amongst the Igbos.
The pull – him – down syndrome seem to have found a resting place in
Igboland, We have grown up to value only one thing, our self survival, not caring about the collective good.
This survivalist and machiavellian tendencies are strongly rooted in
our world acclaimed devotion to and worship of money (the ezego and igbu ozu mentality), such that in our society,
respect is now, only accorded to the man who sprays the most money in our highly expensive traditional marriage
and other ceremonies, we do not care anymore where the wealth comes from, we have thieves and robbers now as our
role models, it is like we have since sold our conscience and soul at Ariaria market. It appears also, that the
new wave money culture was influenced by the 419 scourge in Igboland.
Our traditional rulers, the so called Ezes and Igwes are sadly caught
up in this tragic cycle of decadence, the ancient Nze na Ozo traditional titles are now being sold to the highest bidders,
chieftaincy titles are also freely given in dozens to vagabonds who can pay for it, every Okafor, Okorie and Okeke
can now be a chief in Igboland.
We now see motor park touts and political thugs, graduating to become
political kingmakers and ‘godfathers’ with chieftaincy titles as grandiose as Ochi Agha (defence minister/war lord), these fools later turn against their own people and wage political
and economic war against them.
Can these fools not see that even the shiny and freshly knit red cap
(symbolising their chieftaincy and newly bought ‘status’), which perch incongruously and in protest on their empty
heads are not in sync with them and with the whole charade?.
Where were most of these Igbo socio-political organisations when the
Anambra crises broke out? Where were they when the people of Umuleri and Aguleri were killing each other? Which
crises have they resolved in Igbo land? How can they go to bed and sleep comfortably when touts hold their people
to ransom? Even now, as Nigerian security operatives continue to detain some of their kinsmen under trumped up
charges of treason, what are they doing to help these helpless boys and girls, whose only crime is playing a game
of football organised in the name of Biafra?
Is it not a shame that even with all their education and claims to being
representatives of Ndigbo, men like Chris Ubah with no formal education, and Emeka Offor before him continue to
hold Anambra state to ransom? What are they doing to curb this growing menace and siege mentality? What kind of
‘leaders’ are they?
In the 60s, the Igbos were known to be enterprising in business and commerce,
today we are known as enterprising fraudsters and political gangsters. Just like our proverb that when the she
- goat chews grass, its baby watches and learns, we have infested the new generation with the money ideology. Patience
is gone, even the zeal to follow the known commerce tradition is gone; the roller coaster fast lane life has now
become more appealing.
Igbo names no longer appear in greater numbers at university matriculation
and convocation booklets; the spin off effects show our decreasing numbers in private and public sector organisations,
what does the future hold for us in Nigeria when we don’t have people in these institutions and organisations?
Are we going to be condemned to a life of policy taking from our Yoruba and Hausa brothers and sisters who will
continue to make the policies in Nigeria, even though some of the policies are not in our political and economic interests?
Where will our salvation come from? I can still remember Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe,
the widely acclaimed Igbo and Pan –African leader and statesman; he did enjoy great prominence and respect in Igboland
and was to Ndigbo what Obafemi Awolowo and Sir Ahmadu Bello were to the Yorubas and Hausas respectively. However,
it seems that since the Owelle died, the vacuum he created and his shoes have been too big for successive aspiring
Igbo leaders to step into.
I also recall all the sinister campaigns and staged efforts at succession
by some Igbo men at the period leading to the Owelle’s death, including the premature announcement of the Owelle’s
death, burial arrangements and the alleged handing over of the mantle of Igbo leadership to the late Chief R.B.K
Okafor, which turned out to be a fluke as the Owelle survived and lived longer than those involved in the conspiracy.
There have been others who have tried but did not come close, most of whom have tried to naturally
succeed the Owelle based on their age only, but the issue of leadership goes beyond one’s age, the most important
characteristic is the desire to serve the people, and the willingness to make personal sacrifices for the good
of the people, for this reason, there have been stories of leaders in the Bible and also in world history who set
their mark and established their leadership potentials in their teens and twenties. The most age can accord someone
is the title or position of elder in the community, leadership does indeed require more.
From the present lot in Igbo land, who aspire to be our leaders, I am
trying hard to
pick one person that has demonstrated a genuine desire to lead and serve Ndigbo, I know that many people always
think about Dr Alex Ekwueme, but I really do not think that he fits the bill, he is a politician who has been there
but didn’t do much for Ndigbo, more so he seems to always belong to the ‘wrong’ political party (NPN, PDP), these
parties are not particularly ‘party Ndigbo’. There is also Emeka Anyaoku, while he is a fine and distinguished
gentleman, he seems to have been away for a long time and may not ideally appeal to all sections of Ndigbo, but
he can be propped up if he starts taking radical stand on issues affecting Ndigbo, at the moment he seems to want
to please everybody and that is not acceptable.
Prof. Ben Nwabueze does not appear to be cut out for this role; time
therefore is not on his side to convince Ndigbo. Emeka Ojukwu fits the bill based on his background and visible
pro- Igbo exploits but he is now a politician and will be a hard sell, he can however continue to speak out on
behalf of Ndigbo on important issues, at least the support he received from Ndigbo during his ‘wahala’ with the
SSS should assure him of his high status and regard in Igboland. I think the Ikemba will serve Ndigbo better as
a statesman rather than a politician.
I also think that the present generation of aspiring Igbo leaders whose
only constituency are the several internet forums they belong to do not come close, if anything, some of them have
only succeeded in undermining the issues at stake and have reduced Igbo leadership to a thing of mockery by their
antics, is it not a shame that some of them want to lead a people of over 30 million population and the best places
for them to declare their intentions and do their politicking are in yahoo internet groups with usually no more
than a thousand members? Makes you wonder if they indeed understand the magnitude of the tasks at hand.
I don’t want to talk about the several Igbo states governors, who desire
and aspire to be Igbo leaders, like Ndigbo will say, charity begins at home. What have they done? and what are
they doing for their people at the moment with the mandate given to them? Where do all their monthly allocations
go to? They are not even anywhere near. What a shame.
The stable therefore seems empty and open at the moment, and I want to
believe that the challenge is to the present generation of Ndigbo to start anew, we should no longer look up to
these our so called ‘leaders’ for redemption and salvation, we have tried them and they have failed us. We should
start in our different capacities as individuals and as Ndigbo to help and serve our people in which ever way we
can.