“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important…”
Martin Luther King, Jr

On the 28th of June last, I penned a piece titled Osamuyia Aikpitanhi: 29^th June 2007.Why I would not protest….. In the said essay, I bluntly tried to precipitate a critical debate on our appalling lukewarm ness and obvious nonchalance towards the atrocities being committed on a daily basis by Nigerians against Nigerians in Nigeria. I tried to highlight our grossly indecent penchant for crying foul whenever a Nigerian receives the raw end of a deal from non Nigerians in or outside the country-whether state agents or private citizens but would maintain an eloquent and appalling silence when this happens by Nigerians in Nigeria. I posited that a crime in Spain was the same as a crime in Nigeria and should be treated the same way- i.e. with the same degree of outrage and disdain.

The import of my essay was almost obfuscated by those that were bent on avoiding or ignoring the salient points therein. A horde of villagers came at me with their axes swinging. Some construed my write up to be a call for Nigerians to abandon the cause of Osamuyia since there were also murders in Nigeria. Despite my attempts to the contrary, I was portrayed as unsympathetic and indifferent to the plight of the Aikpitanhis , I was made out to be a kill joy, a wet blanket and a spoilsports of sorts. Some accused me of seeking relevance while unfortunately I was not and could not be. Some insinuated that my article came across as arrogant and disrespectful to the efforts of Nigerians in their quest for justice. One particular fellow, in a bid to out do the rest, went Dutch and called me a dumkopf! The reason for writing that article to coincide with the Osamuyia protest had been achieved. I had succeeded in agitating the numerous intelligent minds that abound in the Village Square with the introspective value of the article and thankfully, the majority of those that saw the article were able to read between the lines and decipher the message inherent-Nigerians were and still are hypocrites! We are at our activist best only when the ‘stage lights’ are on and something urgent and drastic needs to be done about it.

Three weeks ago, I came across an article in the NVS by Chidi Anyaeche in which he tried to arouse our collective consciousness to the almost forgotten case of the Apo six. It was indeed a welcome reminder as the death of those promising young Igbo businessmen- callously gunned down in their prime, by the same security operatives whom we tax fund to help protect lives and property, and the ensuing elaborate cover up- had been relegated to the background of national discourse. If the aim of the article was to awaken us from our convenient national inertia, to call for the prosecution of the Policemen that perpetrated the act, then it did not succeed. All it generated were some half-hearted albeit well-intentioned commentaries. But Chidi Anyaeche needs to be commended all the same and so does Comrade Chinedu Nwobu for trying to put these atrocities and more on the front burner of national discourse. Those that orchestrated the Osamuyia campaign for reasons best known to them had not seen this as a worthy cause to fight for. In my mind, I compared the ‘murder’ of Osamuyia in faraway Spain to the murder of these six young men on our very doorsteps. I compared the outcry against the murder of Osamuyia by Nigerians at home and in the diaspora to the deafening silence surrounding the Apo six- by Nigerians at home and in the diaspora. I then asked myself, what would be the reaction of Nigerians if the Apo murders had happened in Spain? Would we have ranted and raved at Spanish and Nigerian consulates worldwide or would we have waved the murders aside as one of those things mouthing the usual ritual of ewooo or ahh otikuooo as we are wont to do? Your guess is as good as mine.

Nigerians would glibly proclaim a belief in a united and indivisible Nigeria yet remain so apathetic when it comes to issues that border on the lives and liberties of our compatriots especially those living in Nigeria. This indifference, rooted mainly in our ethnic and religious diversity and worsened by the abysmal failure of our leaders to decisively address issues of ethnic integration has largely affected our development as a nation. This has unfortunately led to the trend whereby Nigerians now see their ethnic groupings as the focus of their loyalties rather than the country as a whole thereby rendering us reticent when we are called on to speak out on issues that pertain to the welfare of individuals of, or other ethnic groups as a whole. We are very comfortable and adept at discussing analysing and preaching to people in other climes about issues that have absolutely nothing to do with us while on the home front, burning issues that require our urgent attention are totally ignored. It is said in the eastern part of Nigeria that ‘if hot pieces of coal fall on a parent and child at the same time, the parent would first of all brush off his own torment before going to the rescue of the child’. The extent to which this aphorism is applied in the Nigerian context is embarrassingly in the negative.

Take the case of the ‘Jena six’ for example, while we are here in Nigeria arguing about a mere legal procedure in the United States albeit tainted with a hint of racism but which has absolutely nothing to do with Nigeria, we are faced in Nigeria with the worst kind of injustice. Nine southerners butchered in Northern Nigeria, Ten shops belonging to Igbo traders burnt to the ground, a youth Corp member serving in the state is also murdered! Their offence? Nothing! The so-called reason for the massacre? A cartoon with origins in faraway Bangladesh. The reactions of Nigerians? Ahh, e don happen again! These Igbo sef why dem no go siddon for their states, thereby negating the very essence of one Nigeria. Even in the NVS, the much-touted bastion of Nigerian Diasporean intellectual discourse, the champion of the call for the prosecution of Osamuyias Spanish killers, not even the feeblest mention is made of this atrocity against a segment of Nigeria by Nigerians. While I would refrain from using the word hypocritical for fear of ruffling more feathers, our conduct as Nigerians is not far from it.

With the increased rate of human migration in the world today due to globalisation, war, poverty etc, no society can be said to be completely free of multi religion and its attendant frictions. But the difference between most societies and our Nigeria is that when crimes are committed in the name of religion or race, the perpetrators are promptly brought to book. In Nigeria, the reverse is the case. I am yet to know of any of the perpetrators of the incessant pogrom like slaughter of easterners in Northern Nigeria that has ever been brought to book. What the government is doing or has succeeded in doing by not prosecuting these religious criminals is to embolden them. They now know that they can kill at will and absolutely nothing will be done about it.   Will the rest of the country cry out against this injustice? No! We would rather pretend that all is well and organise carnivals to celebrate forty-seven years of injustice, murder and manslaughter. Where then is the one Nigeria, united and indivisible?

Someone recently propounded a solution to this incessant killing of NdiIgbo and other southerners in the north. Reprisal killings. An eye for an eye. For every Igbo person or Southerner killed in the north, take down two or three northerners in the east. The sight of body bags flowing in the opposite direction might make them think twice about these senseless killings. While that may sound appeasing to the bereaved, the unfortunate reality is that while the Northerners will be killing the cream of our society, the victims of any reprisals will be the shoe shiners, maiguards, cattlerearers that represent northern Nigeria in the South. But be they highflying businessmen or ‘ordinary shoe shiners’, human beings and Nigerians they all are. Parents, siblings and relations of other people they are. They will be mourned and missed just like their victims.

A Nigeria devoid of acrimony and frequent ethno religious crisis would be as beneficial to the Northerners because of their high migration as it is to NdiIgbo and other Southern Nigerians. Ironically, the same northerners that kill southerners resident in the North at the drop of a pin are the second most migrated ethnic group within Nigeria after NdiIgbo. You see them in their Hausa quarters in practically every town in the South. I remember the Hausa quarter in the town I grew up and how well the children were integrated into the Igbo society. Most of their kids spoke Igbo like their mother tongue and an observer would not know an Hausa kid from an Igbo one. We went to the same schools and shopped at the same places. At times we even attended the same churches. Their parents dominated the jewellery, currency, suya and cattle trade. It was almost their exclusive preserve. They were so much integrated that they were regarded as one of us. To that extent, reprisal killings in the long run would hardly be a practical solution. It will be tantamount to fratricide! What of the solution that calls for all Southerners to move back to their States and be resettled by their state governors who would have a scheme in place for such homeward migration? We might as well call it a day in Nigeria and have everyone go his or her separate ways.

Nigerians from all spheres of life should unite and speak out for an end to inter ethnic and religious killings. We should call on the government to live up to its responsibility and ensure security for Nigerians anywhere in Nigeria, if not, where then is the One United and indivisible Nigeria that we shamelessly celebrated all over the world last week? We travel the world to different climes that offer us peace and security but lack the same in our own Nigeria. We send our able-bodied men and women to other countries to help install peace democracy and the rule of Law, all of which we lack in our own country. How on earth is it possible to impart what you do not have? The nemo dat rule must surely have a different interpretation in Nigeria!

The incidence of religious killings in a peacetime society is higher in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world. It is estimated that over a hundred thousand Nigerians of southern extract-mainly NdiIgbo have been massacred in Northern Nigeria in the name of religion since the end of the Nigerian hostilities in 1970 and successive Nigerian governments have done absolutely nothing about it.

It is rather ironic that the same government that has woefully failed to protect the lives and property of Nigerian citizens from these Northern Nigeria religious zealots- who incidentally shout ONE NIGERIA the loudest and would slit your throat for a cartoon published in faraway Denmark or Bangladesh- would readily truncate any attempt by these victimised ethnic groups to seek self-determination. Is this a tacit approval for systematic annihilation?

Chief Ralph Uwazurike, spoke out and has been languishing in jail for upwards of two years. Yet Nigerians see nothing in this gross violation of his fundamental human right. We see nothing in his predicament worthy of speaking out against. The self-determination he was calling for is no different from what the Flemish is doing in Belgium or what the Scots are contemplating in the UK or what was tried in Canada. These people, with all they have going for them in their current circumstances still want to take their destiny into their hands. What Nigerians should understand is that Chief Uwazurikes campaign is not just for the Igbos alone. He is calling for the enthronement of peace, equality, justice and the rule of law in Nigeria and as such Nigerians from all walks of life should unite in calling for his unconditional release but unfortunately in Nigeria we have our priorities all over the place. I cringe to think of the riot that would take place in the NVS and in Nigeria if Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson were to be incarcerated by the US government just for giving voice to their convictions.

We owe it to ourselves and future generations of Nigerians to re evaluate our priorities as a Country. We have to rid ourselves of the ethno religious flotsam and jetsam that abound on the ocean floor of our national psyche and work towards peaceful coexistence in order for our country to survive as a united entity. Nigerians should speak out loudly and unequivocally against injustice and these ethno religious murders no matter where or when it rears its ugly head. Outright condemnation and not half-hearted justification is what we need to gradually pull our nation back from this precipice of disaster.

Those imbecilic religious and political leaders that stoke the fires of injustice and mayhem in Nigeria and who incidentally, are backboned by our sycophancy and reticence should be made to ‘walk the plank’. Enough is enough! Nigerians should also be warned that in this fight for the enthronement of peace justice and equality in our society, there is no room for complacency or nonchalance. What befalls Mr. A today could tomorrow bedevil Mr. B . The massacres in Odi and Zakibiam, the mayhem in Port Harcourt, the recent murder of a Yoruba school teacher in Gombe, the recent atrocities in Kano including the murder of a youth corp  member etc  are clear pointers to this cyclic nature of nature. We should ask ourselves if there were any sane society in the world where such whole scale slaughter would go on in peacetime. Unfortunately, it is the acquiescence of injustice by the majority of Nigerians that have made atrocities like this possible. Nigerians should extricate their heads from the sands of ethnicity and self-deceit in order to take care of our overexposed national rump that has for decades borne the brunt of ethno religious crises and drawn the subdued derision and disrespect of the International community. We should for once rise above religious and tribal politics, which, take it or leave it, will ensure our destruction as a united entity.

Eche Chidume

Email: echechidume@gmail.com

“I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don’t believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn’t want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I’m not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn’t know how to return the treatment….” Malcolm X   December 1964.

Robot  # 1 | 12.10.2007 09:36

“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me...Read the full article.

truthsayer33  # 2 | 12.10.2007 11:03

NVS please launch a campaign against governors who fail to protect the lives of fellow Nigerians..start with the governor of the state in which a female teacher was lynched by muslim pupils.