Nigeria vs the South East

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1. From pre-independence ethnic dog whistling, to pogroms, a civil war and the systemic socio-political ostracization that has since followed, the Igbo are the most discriminated ethnic group in Nigeria and ethnic bigotry against Igbo people has been on full display in the 2023 election.

 

When Peter Obi first declared his interest to run for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the Labour Party platform, chances of his success were written off as slim to none.

 

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), from which Obi decamped, felt confident that he would neither survive nor thrive outside their established political ‘structures’. Members of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), scoffed at the idea that he could pose a threat to their candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a behemoth of Nigerian politics credited with masterminding the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

 

Obi’s initial support base—a diverse group of progressive Nigerians of different ethnic and religious affiliations—knew that the odds were stacked against him from the onset. Nonetheless, they were happy to back a politician who seemed to have genuine zeal to serve the people and stuck with him based on this principle. Only Obi’s kinsmen knew that the conversation would soon become about where he was from instead of what he stood for or what he could offer. True to their fears, Obi’s candidacy soon became ethnically polarizing.

 

Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria’s People’s Party came on national TV with carefully selected words. According to Kwankwaso, ‘it would be very difficult for the northern voter to vote for a candidate from the South East.’ These loose comments started the barrage of attacks from mainstream personalities which has since then intensified. Politically exposed people like Kaduna State governor, Nasir Ahmad El Rufai, referred to Obi supporters in a tweet as ‘imports’ ahead of a planned one-million-man march and social media influencer Reno Omokri, repeatedly referred to Obi supporters as members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the proscribed secessionist group whose goal is to excise the South East from the rest of Nigeria. In a tweet, Omokri wrote that ‘at night, in their covens, there is absolutely NO DIFFERENCE between IPOB and the core Obidients!’

 

In all this, Obi stayed above the fray, maintaining that his candidacy was based solely on his belief that he could reposition Nigeria towards socioeconomic recovery. In his campaign, Obi told Nigerians everywhere that it was their turn to ‘take their country back’.

 

THE ROOTS OF IGBOPHOBIA

Igbophobia /ɪgbəʊˈfəʊ.bi.ə/ is the baseless suspicion of, prejudice, discrimination, or hostility against people from the Igbo ethnic group of Nigeria, by Nigerians (from other ethnic groups). Igbophobia is an ever-present thread that runs through the tapestry of the story of Nigeria. Long before the first military coup in 1966 and the civil war the coup precipitated, Sardauna of Sokoto and the premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, expressed deep-seated distrust towards the Igbo people in Northern Nigeria. According to him, ‘an Igbo man comes to a place and wants to become the top boss.’ To assuage his unfounded fears of Igbo domination in the North, the premier stated that they only hired Igbo people for jobs they cannot find a northerner or an expatriate to do, and in this case, only on contract basis. This enshrined a culture that made it nearly impossible for Igbos to secure civil service jobs in the North.

Source: Republic

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