New York [RR] IGWEOCHA–Still on Biafra and balkanization of Biafraland and its oil-Wells. According to Maazi Okeadu, RepublicReporters New York gathered from insiders of Biafra/Nigeria war (1967 to 1970) that: ”The Nigeria-Biafra war has occasioned a lot of losses to ndigbo but, today, the more painful aspect of the incalculable damages is the identity crisisstill being suffered by ndigbo living in Edo, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Delta States. Part of the tongue-in-the-cheek expression of reconciliation was the swift balkanization of Biafraland, alongside the de-igbonization of Igbo town names in the oil-rich capital city of Port Harcourt. History is slow but perfect rewarder of men’s acts – good and bad. Just a few hours ago, I shared on this forum the heart-warming words from the Niger-Delta strongman, Asari Dokubo, where he acknowlegded and identified with the cause of Biafra”, he said.

[PHOTO: General (Rtd) Ojukwu....]

“But on another forum (Ndoki People) where I belong – as I embrace every Igbo and Biafran – I chanced on a clear manifestation of worrisome identity crisis I earlier mentioned. I’ll post part of the dialogue between an ndoki (Igbo) man who says he is non-Igbo and another ndoki man, who fortunately has overcome the the federal government-administered poison or brain-washing. On the Wall of the forum ‘Ndoki People, ‘Obichi Ikechi – a Biafran I highly esteem – posted some info on the burial procession of the great Dikedioranma (Ojukwu) and the following reavealing drama ensued. Here we go!

Henry N. Nwambu: I do not see how this concern us here on the Ndoki forum.

Obichi Ikechi: How does it not concern you, are you not an Igbo son? Is Ndoki not igbo? How does the burial of General Ojukwu not affect any Igbo person? DO you lack history?

Henry N. Nwambu: Am not ibo, am Ndoki. Its so unfortunate that we are placed in Abia State. I think if we need to revisit history, certainly not me, then it has to be U. I had no bad feelings in mind when I commented on your post cos I think this forum was set up primarily to discuss & share ideas on how to make Ndoki a better place & not to discuss Ikemba’s funeral procession. The idea of attacking my personality is totally out of place. With ur sudden outburst, you just demonstrated some measure of immaturity….. Let’s be careful how we spontaneously attack people we hitherto don’t know but for the help of FB…. Keep it clean! Godbless Ndoki people.

Kenneth Dinney: @ Vin, read your history. I am not an Igbo man. I am an Ndoki man, an Igbani stock. I ask you is Opobo and a Bonny man an Igbo man? They speak Igbo and anser Igbo names. They also greet Nma nma nu. If we speak our real ndoki you will not understand it.

Obichi Ikechi: The civil war really did a number [of damages] on the psyche of the Igbo man, chai Sorry nnu! That is why an Igbo man will speak Igbo (Ndoki mma mma nu) and then say in the same breathe that he is not Igbo. The Igbani that you so badly want to be are descendants of Igbos. Who do you think King Jaja of Opobo is? You will tell me he is Igbani too right? King Jaja was from Amaigbo in Igboland and was taken to Bonny as a slave and when he grew up to own his own empire he brought a significant number of Igbos to Bonny from where they eventually moved to Opobo where he was forced out of Bonny due to internal politics and power struggles.Those who claim to be Igbani today are descendants of the Igbos that King Jaja brought from the hinterland to help his oil palm empire. Bonny still retains a significant number of Igbo descendants.

He added: “How can people be so ignorant of their own history? Or maybe they are being deliberately mischievous. We have strong links with Ubani (Opobo) because of that oil palm trade and inter-marriages. Igbani is a corruption of ‘Ubani’. The same way they are trying to write out Igbo history from PH by changing all the Umus to Rumus (Umuola to Rumuola, Umumasi to Rumumasi, Umuokwuta to Rumuokwuta etc etc etc). They even tried to rename Obigbo to Oyigbo. So because some idiot who wants to wipe out any trace of Igbo heritage tells you that you are something else you believe it too? I don’t care about states, they are an artificial creation of Gowon to divide Eastern Nigeria at the onset of the civil war with the division of the Igbo paramount in the strategy. It is that same type of arbitrary demarcation that has Ndoki people like Akirika-Obu in Akwa Ibom State created by Babangida in 1987. My own mother from Opobo speaks more Igbo than some from the so-called ‘core’ Igbo folks. Just because your Ndoki is hard to understand to other Igbos does no make you less Igbo. It is a dialect of Igbo with at least 50% common words. My mother from Opobo will be more easily understood by other Igbos than my Ndoki dialect from Akirika-Uku in Abia state. Yes, Opobo land is Igbo land, no two ways about it. I will not spend too much time educating those of you who chose to be ignorant any further. I have spent way more than enough time on you already. Ignorance is truly a disease. Get yourselves educated. Be proud of who you are. You are Nwa-Ndoki. You are Igbo!

However, Chukwuemekam E. Chukwuemeka at 7:41pm Feb 19, 2012 said that the biggest challenge of Ndi-Igbo is what Chinue Achebe called: “THE BURDEN OF LEADERSHIP”. 

Mazi Chukwuemeka said:”Since Biafra crumbled in 1970, Ndigbo has been burdened with finding a central leadership. Igbos lost sense of common identity, got scattered and everyone was on one’s own. Self-centeredness and hubris trailed those who resuscitated their economic lives, either through hard work or sheer fortune, after being mangled by 20 dollar, and abandoned property policies, and other vindictive policies of federal government meant to punish the Igbos. These attitudes about oneself diffused across generations and bred all sort of leadership crisis that hindered Ndigbo political progress.

“Catalogue of leadership crisis in the post war pan Igbo organizations is a pointer to this fact. Ohaneze Ndigbo has been riddled with concatenation of leadership crisis. All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, popularly described as Igbo party, is often heated up with crisis in her leadership. In 1999, when this present democratic governance was reestablished again, after long period of military junta, predominantly controlled by Hausa/Fulani, Igbos got a big shot into the controlling power of the Federal Government, a rare opportunity since 1966. Igbos got the slot of providing the Senate President. Evans Enwerem got the shot and became the Senate president. It was within few months that crisis took over the leadership. He was accused of forgery and impeached. Chuba Okadigbo came as replacement in the same 1999. In another one year, Okadigbo went down on allegation of penury. Anyim Pius Anyim came on board and held on until 2003, when he decided not to return back to the National Assemble for reasons best known to him.

The next regime that began in 2003 produced Adolphus Wabara as the senate president. He was again rocked by crisis and got impeached in 2005. Ken Nnamani was elected to replace him. Ken held on again to 2007, when the configuration was changed and senate president went to Middle Belt. Within a space of two tenures and one political configuration, Ndigbo had profusely produced five (5) senate presidents, instead of one (1) as we are seeing from the Middle Belt since 2007 to date. To anyone who knows our crisis of leadership, it is not surprising that Igbos were behind the plots to dethrone brothers repeatedly, even when it has turned to be ridiculous.

I first read about the problems of Ndigbo in a book written by Chinua Achebe, published when I was just 3. Achebe devotes a chapter titled “The Igbo Problem” in his book, “THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA” to discourse problems associated with the Igbos. He writes, “But this kind of success can carry a deadly penalty: the danger of HUBRIS, over-weening pride and thoughtlessness, which invites envy and hatred; or even worse, which can obsess the mind with material success and dispose it to all kinds of crude showiness.

“There is no doubt at all that there is a strand in contemporary Igbo behavior which can offend by its noisy exhibitionism and disregard for humility and quietness. If you walk into crowded waiting room at the Ikeja Airport on one of those days when all flights are delayed or cancelled for “operational reasons” and you hear one man’s voice high over a subdued and despondent multitude, the chances are he will be an Igbo man who “has made it” and is desperate to be noticed and admired.”

Achebe is apt in the above capture of contemporary Igbo behavior, which has grounded effective leadership in almost all pan-Igbo associations. I belong to a pro-Igbo forum on Facebook. The forum is a collection of Igbo professionals, young and aged, well educated, and some of whom, very wealthy. A good percentage of them, if not majority, are brushed with western civilization by virtue of professional practice, education or business. But it is surprising that all are victims of hubris. It is well reflected on the posts and comments in the platform. You can read such statements like: “It will take you 10 years to be where I am”; “These riffraff and never-do-well”; “those who will tremble when they meet me”; “How much can you contribute to ….”; “ those low-lives”; and et cetera.

The situation becomes more worrisome when the leadership caves in to the whims and caprices of those displaying these over-bearing prides. In so doing, justice is denied and peace breaks down. The consequence being that those who feel humiliated by those presumptuous behaviors becomes defensive and unmanageable. In order to preserve their self-respect, they grow anxious, restive, caustic, and sometimes virulent and disruptive. Leadership crisis follows, and if not tactfully handled, eventual collapse. That, I suppose, has been how Igbo leadership at different levels had been collapsing. They follow similar trends – hubris, presumption, talking down, defensiveness, crisis and break down. It is worthy to note that hubris begins the cycle.

It is therefore advisable that those who found themselves at a commanding height in Igbo associations should try hard, even if strenuously, to do away with hubris. They have to start from themselves, friends and close associates. They must learn how to assuage the heart of the offended by administering justice appropriately and dispassionately. This will create a cordial atmosphere filled with respect for human dignity. It is in such atmosphere that purposeful leadership blossoms.

Finally, it is imperative to understand that respect is earned and not ordered. A subordinate obeys you out of fear of your power over him/her. You are deified and worshipped, depending on the level of pains you can inflict when you are dared or disobeyed. But it is not applicable when you are a leader with followers. A follower can decide not to follow you again and there is nothing you can do about it. A follower can challenge you and hold you accountable for your actions. Therefore it becomes important that you conduct yourself so as to earn respect, instead of trying to assert power. Even modern management has proved that a subordinate is more productive when you relate with him/her as a leader than when you boss like a maximum ruler. Ndigbo must learn how to be good leaders in their respective organizations, especially now we are jostling for presidency in Nigeria come 2015.— To be read by Igbos only.

Culled to RepublicReporters’ Facebook by Barleycorn Vin Iheukwumere Okeadu, and Chukwuemekam E. Chukwuemeka

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REPUBLICVREPORTERS….standing between civilization and anarchy….

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