Why Igbos are not united -Ugo Finian

Ugo Finian wrote:

Igbos are not united!
Igbos are not united!

It was the same people who sell you the stereotype that Igbos are not united that came out, to fight the unity of Igbos at Okota/Ago, other parts of Lagos and Igbo land in general.

Seeing that their narrative is failing, they are now selling another narrative. They are saying Igbos are putting all their eggs in one basket.
How can the whole of the Igbos vote PDP?
Now we are being accused of not being divided enough to spare some votes for APC. Olee ihe emere ya adi uwa mma?

A little history will suffice. We are an egalitarian society. Indirect rule didn’t work with Igbos. It worked well with the North and the South West but not with Igbos. Warrant Chiefs didn’t help matters either. So really, Igbos are not political lots. Same reason voter aparthy is highest in Igbo land.

But when we take a political stand, we speak with one voice. That is who we are.
We have always done. We did it with Shagari, Obasanjo, Ya’radua and Jonathan. We are doing it against Buhari.

Make no mistake, we have always put our political eggs in one basket and that is who we are. That is why we don’t entertain dynasties. The likes of Saraki and Tinubu and Mohammed won’t last a decade in Igbo land.
We are decisive and courageous. If that is what you call arrogance, then so be it. But we will never stand on the fence.

I write this because of the young generation of Igbos in Nigeria. Go home to your fathers in the villages and ask questions. Learn how to be Igbo without being apologetic. The first thing people notice about an Igbo man is his enterprising spirit. It is not found anywhere else. Ihe agwo muru aghaghi ito ogologo.

We can’t apologize for who we are. But what we do not have is the spirit of Nigerian politics. We don’t play the politics of “Master say! Alhaji say! Everyone is a master in Igbo land. Onweghi onye na akpanye ibe ya nri.

The Igwe of my community has no more stake in the affairs of my community than I do. He is more of a representative of the people to the government and the custodian of our tradition than a “ruler” in the real sense of it. That is why we have the cabinet and elders in council.
Igbo amaghi eze.

It is not a bad thing in a sense that decisions are collectively taken, from the household, through the hamlets to the community. It does not make us lawless lots. The consultative mechanism is our strength. Igwe bu ike.

This is the singular reason why the Ohaneze Ndi Igbo has not been able to evolve into that rallying point for the Igbos like the Arewa People’s Congress for Northerners, Oodua Peoples Congress and the Afenifere for Yorubas.

Let us all brace up for the times ahead.
Someone who will dislike you will not always need a reason to. Add the ingenuity and hardwork of the average Igbo man to the mix, and dislike quickly turns to hate.

And I understand it. I perfectly do. Its not easy to like someone who comes back to your land, after being sent packing just a few decades ago with just some two pounds and all his properties confiscated by his hosts.

He comes back and acquires them back hundred folds, marries your daughters and prospers with them. Then goes ahead to not only carve settlements in Sabon Garin, Surulere, Ojodu and Ojo for themselves, but is about to become a determinant to your political future in a dispensation where you have been promised a second place.

What they may never know is that the ordinary Igbo man is not interested in your presidency. We thrive wherever we go. So when you say we are not strategizing enough for the presidency, we don’t see it how you see it.

The average Igbo man simply wants a good environment for his business, and good infrastructure for a decent life. The things which “presidency” has not bestowed on any ethnic group in Nigeria.

The five Igbo states have since 2012 almost consistently occupied the best positions in WAEC and produced the highest number of medical and engineering students in Nigeria.

Check the Igbo business in Lagos, Kano, Maiduguri, Portharcourt. Most are not based on government patronage. We make things out of nothing. Presidency means nothing to an average Igbo man. The ten poorest and educationally backward states in Nigeria are within the regions that have held the presidency within the last two decades.

A good example is the very primary school where President Buhari cast his vote. It was the closest to his ancestral home. A “successful” Onitsha business man who has made money from his trade will know that the church and the school closest to his home is the very yardstick to measure his success. He needs not become president to refurbish them. Ana esi na ulo mara mma puo ama.

To the young generation of Igbos, I say to you today, Quit trying to impress anyone about how hospitable or detribalized you are!
Nnamdi Azikiwe did it and failed, Jonathan did everything imaginable, things he did not do for his native South South and yet failed. If you think you can please Nigeria, then you have another thing coming.

Look at Benue people, they received the greatest visit of deaths from this government. But they’d rather die some more than let an Igbo man smell the Vice Presidency. And tomorrow, they will also tell you Igbos don’t know politics. And you will want to engage them in an argument.

Do not be disturbed when you hear them say we are not united. We have never been that kind of united people. Read our history. Even as Igbos were dying in their hundreds during the pogrom, Gen. Ojukwu, one of the first Igbo men who realized that this “forced marriage” can never work was only “permitted” to embark on the war against Nigeria by seeking the voice of every hamlet, every village and every community. He did not take unilateral decisions.

That’s how decisions are taken in Igbo land. We do no alienate those who are in dissent. We do not allow one Tinubu to make decisions for some and another Saraki for others, so that our two eggs are comfortably placed in two baskets. No! We rise to the occasion wherever we are, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, sokoto. Our spirits communicate with each other and not with any leader figure and decide what is best for us. Either you respect us for getting it, or you respect us for trying. This is who we are, and we are not changing it soon. We are Igbos.

Deal with it.