Ndiigbo, The Biggest Losers In Case Of Nigeria’s Disintegration.
In my humble opinion, I think if the Igbo or the Biafran people secede from Nigeria, those who are calling for the breakup of Nigeria would have been proven right. I doubt the Nigerian nation would survive it. The most likely scenario is that if the Biafrans go, there will be some hot blooded Yorubas who might want to pull Yorubas out of the union as well, which I think would be absolutely unfortunate. I pray it never happens. The rest after that will be history.
Is it really to our mutual benefit that the Nigerian nation splits? I don’t think so for the reasons I have mentioned in my preceding articles. Who losses in the worst case scenario? I want to beg my brothers and sisters from Biafra not to view this as prejudice. Please take your time to read through my arguments and reason them out first.
In the case that Nigeria breaks up, the northern people are going to be well covered contrary to the arguments of some. First of all, most of the northern states are Muslim states. The Islamic countries of the world will gladly take them into their embrace. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, will gladly pour money into the region. Incidentally, most of the northern neighboring countries are Islamic too. Countries like Niger, Chad, on top of them are countries like Tunisia, Mali, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia, that will automatically extend the presence of Islamic Africa down to the territory of Nigeria. It would be total dominance. They would push the whole Christian Nigeria down towards the Atlantic Ocean including the Igbo nation. That scenario is not a good one by any means, especially for the Christians in Nigeria. Right now Nigeria is acting as a buffer zone for the rest of southern Nigeria and the middle belt, the present of Nigeria is protecting in a big way the christian population of the north, middle belt and the southern Nigeria. Without a United Nigeria, the whole of Northern Africa would be Islam pushing down the weaker and smaller south, it’ll be a hell for the Christians of the south.
So what happens to the Yorubas? The Yorubas are one of the most widespread ethnic groups in the world, surely in black Africa. If Nigeria should break up, the Yorubas also have people to embrace them. They will be readily embraced by countries like Dahomey, the present Republic of Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso. These are all countries where there is a significant presence of indigenous Yoruba people. The Yoruba people, no matter where they live see themselves as Yorubas still, speak the language and come back home to pay homage to their Yoruba roots in Ile-Ife.
Apart from the countries in Africa where there is a significant presence of Yorubas as indigenous citizens, the Yoruba nation is also well represented in the western hemisphere. Yorubas constitute a good number of citizens in such countries as Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States of America. In these countries, the Yorubas living there are not the recently migrated Yoruba diaspora, these are people who have been there for centuries, yet not losing touch with their Yoruba heritage. They would be willing to spread their arms to get back into a united family with their fellow Yoruba people. Though they too will remain an insignificant another African nation with little global relevance, in the categories of Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana etc
What then would happen to the Igbo people? The Igbos would indeed be the ultimate losers and this is not sentiment at all. First of all, If Niger Delta South-South states don’t go with Biafra, the Igbo nation will be landlocked. The Igbo nation will have to depend on Lagos, Calabar or Niger Delta to even trade. Remember those nations will not be a part of Biafra, meaning that it’ll become so difficult to transport their goods across the borders of south south, or nigeria as the case maybe. Igbo nation will have no access to the sea, neither will they have direct access to the outside world by road without going through another country. Friends if Igbos claim to be different from Nigeria as a whole or from other nationalities in nigeria, it’s like God is saying the opposite, even geography is telling us we are all lock up together in fate and destiny. The Biafra nation will be forced to again rely on Nigeria to gain access to the sea, because it is only Nigeria and Cameroon that will border the Igbo land.
As for the option of going through Cameroon, if you know the history of Cameroon both in the past and present, you’ll remember that the western Cameroon used to be a part of Nigeria. However, soon after our independence the Cameroon was given the option to either join Nigeria or Cameroon. The norther part of Cameroon decided to join Nigeria, while the southern part of Cameroon decided to go away and join French Cameroon. You want to know why? As sad as this may sound but the reasons they give even now is that they don’t want to be under the domination of the Igbo people, same reasons that was given by our present Niger Delta as to why they don’t want to be a part of Biafra. They southern Cameroon were already a part of Nigeria, under the same administration of eastern Nigeria where Igbos were the majority. They claim to have experienced the same kinds of injustice and marginalization that Igbos are now claiming against Nigeria, while the same Cameroonians in the north rather prefer to remain in Nigeria, because they didn’t have the same experience in the north as the southerners claim against the Igbos. (Go and do your research friends before coming to hate on me). Even now that the same southern Cameroon is dissatisfied with the main Cameroon and want to break away, they say they won’t like to join Nigeria because of their past experiences in eastern Nigeria when they were there. I have personally spoken with the leaders of Ambazonia, they still have the same sentiments till today.
We know the attitude of countries in Africa to the Igbo people. To say the least, it is very hostile. Even now when they are in Nigeria, Africans often say, “you Nigerians are a trouble to us especially you yellow Nigerians” referring to the Igbo people. In countries such as Ghana, South Africa, Ivory coast, Gabon, Southern African countries, Central African Republic, Congo, etc. It is a common saying by people there that “we used to know black Nigerians and live in peace with them until the yellow Nigerians began to show up for business.” What I am saying is that the Igbo nation will not find it as easy with Cameroon as it is with Nigeria. They will still need to come back to Nigeria to gain access to water and to the rest of Africa by road.
As you can see, other countries also have their grudges against the Igbo people. It is not just the Fulani or the Hausas that have grudges against the Igbo people as they have been accused. I know my Igbo friends say it is because of jealousy. Well, if you say the rest of Nigerians are jealous of Igbos that is understandable, but how can the whole world be jealous of the Igbos? Let’s face it, the Igbos also have their own issues that they have to deal with. As much as the wonderful qualities of the Igbo people have been praised by me, the Igbo people must also face the fact that they need to address the issues of values in their people just like all Nigerians have to do. So instead of our Igbo brother’s only pointing accusing fingers at other nationalities, I suggest they should rather look inside and try to improve their values. It’s not enough to say everyone is simply jealous of Igbos, all 370 tribes in Nigeria, then all Ghanaian tribes, all Cameroon nations, South African nations, all nations of south east Asia, Chinese, British, America the whole world is only complaining against Igbo attitudes because they are jealous? Please hold it, such claims are simply insanity. All our people in all tribes need to re-examine our values. There has been a terrible erosion of values among our peoples and we must address the situation, it’s not enough to only blame others. We need to come together as Nigerians and fight our demons collectively.
Recently, the Nigerian government was involved in a diplomatic dispute with one of the countries of Southeast Asia, where an official said the Igbos are the “biggest curse of Africa.” When queried about his statement, the officer involved said he had evidence for what he was saying. In defiance, he uploaded a video onto YouTube where he repeated the same statement showing a number of Igbo people to back up his claim that 99% of all drug pushers they caught from Nigeria are of Igbo descent. The video is still there now for anyone to see. Nigeria as a whole is in trouble until we stop and address the issues of values and virtues in our peoples, right now as we speak the Southwest is engulfed in cyber crime, but instead of addressing this malice some of the Oduduwa agitators rather called for their protection, madness everywhere!!!
I am sure my Igbo brothers and sisters remember that at their first attempt to declare independence from Nigeria, they never really had any major world power supporting them. They had sympathy from a few countries, but all European countries were mainly against the idea. America stood on the side of Nigeria and so did Britain. Though France was sending some humanitarian help, yet they never officially stood with Biafra. Even Russia took sides with Nigeria. What I’m trying to say ladies and gentlemen is that, I am afraid that the Biafran agitators could drive the Igbo nation into total isolation as well as into political and economic oblivion if not to a total extinction in case of civil wars. A word they say is enough for the wise, hate me or love me, I’m documenting my thoughts for the whole world to see that at least there’s a person out there who dared to call a spade a spade. Finally, I’m wring not for the acceptance of anyone, but for the records in history so when the conversation arises about the nation of Nigeria, and all her nationalities it shall be recalled that these points were made.
For The Love Of God, Church And Nation,
Dr. Sunday Adelaja.
