I have no doubt that when an ambience of inclusiveness and appreciation is intentionally and consciously created for the Igbo man; his best will become easily noticeable. At that time, his best will then become a positive push towards achieving national development, recognition and respect.
Over the years, Nigeria has struggled for global recognition and respect among the 196 countries of the world (that is, if you consider Taiwan an official country). This desired recognition and respect, however, has never been bestowed upon any nation just because that nation merely desires it. It is usually worked for and earned.
Global recognition and respect, as an important concept, is always a function of purposeful leadership that gives attention to its human and natural resources, harnessing both in productive manners that bring about incremental development of the nation, enhance the daily living of the citizenry, and then create a positive image of the nation in the eyes of the world. When this is in place, the nation then becomes easily recognisable in the eyes of the world, even without having to engage Public Relations Agencies to launder her image.
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As an approach, Nigeria, in most cases, has striven to employ only her natural resources in achieving greatness. This, being an approach that pays little attention to identifying and utilising all her human resources to the fullest, has produced little results. It has been so because natural resources, though a blessing from God, is a servant that must be utilised by man for his good; meaning that the concept of human resources identification, definition and usage supersede that of natural resources. When a nation then focuses more on natural resources, crude oil for instance, to the detriment of her human resources, a not so happy ending is certain to result.
The Igbo race is one of the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. Like all other tribes and tongues existing in and constituting the nation, the Igbos, who mostly inhabit the South-Eastern part of Nigeria, but who are also found anywhere human life exists on earth, are a people with boundless verve. The issue however is that the vitality, vim and vigor of the Igbo man have remained principally unexploited in the process of national development. In my view, there are three reasons for this error.
The first, as hinted above, is the misconception that the leadership of the country has held on to over the years – the misconception that natural resources are superior in value to human resources. That is the reason why a government will do everything politically and militarily possible to protect an oil installation, but the same government will do little or nothing to protect a threatened citizen. It is a disarrangement of value. This is one reason why the Igbo man, despite what he represents and what he can offer, has not been truly engaged as an agent of true transformation.
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Of course the development of the nation does not rest squarely on the shoulders of the Igbos alone; and it will be foolhardy to insinuate that. All other tribes in the nation are equally important, and whatever that is said here, can as well as apply to any other ethnic group, even though it is clear that these ethnic nationalities are differently endowed.
Comparatively however, the Igbo man remains, at the national scene, the less engaged tribe in the country; even though he is extremely engaged in his personal business and pursuit. To an extent, even the Igbo man, consciously or unconsciously, has come to see himself as an unwanted lot in the Nigerian project. This has to change. He is needed. He is gifted; and his gifts, when tapped, are sure to bless the nation.
An adjunct to this misconception is the inability of our leaders to understand the people they lead. For instance, in similar situations and environment, with similar materials and opportunities to utilise, the Igbo man will act in a way dissimilar to the Hausa man, and the Yoruba man will act differently from the way an Ijaw man will act.
The reason is that these people are differently wired. The Igbo man is essentially positively twitchy. He is naturally dexterous; highly enterprising, smart and capable of astounding productivity if encouraged. And I believe this is not difficult to appreciate. Just look around the nation and you will see the signs and imprints of this man of boundless energy. Whether your focus is Lagos or Kano, Port Harcourt or Nnewi, Jos or Warri, the Igbo man is there, setting goals and achieving results.
I do not talk about education here; my concern is the inborn traits that distinguish the Igbo man. Education is good; so good that, in its different forms and modes, nothing of note can be achieved without it today. But education is acquirable; innate attributes and peculiarities are not. Degrees can be obtained from universities; but no one can learn divine industriousness. It is what God gives, and which separates one man from another, and one race from another. It just has to be discovered and exploited.
I realise that whatever the Igbo man is inherently blessed with does not make him superior to other nationalities in the country. As such, he’s not being portrayed as the numero uno. However, it will do the nation a world of good if the Igbo man is wholeheartedly embraced, and made to develop a sense of belonging in the Nigerian project. As long as we profess unity and reject division, all nationalities making up the nation must be fully taken on, and allowed to function optimally.
Some, for certain reasons, would be quick to snort at this standpoint, and hastily point at several deviously unwholesome activities of individuals among the Igbo race, and in the end, hurriedly conclude that there is nothing good about the Igbo man, whether he is a business man, technocrat, politician or religious leader. This would be a tragic error.
My understanding is that there is no tribe or tongue in this country among which extremely cunning, sneaky and crafty men and women do not exist. . As a matter of fact, among the Yorubas (of which I am one), there are those you will pray never to come across, given their depth of moral depravity. I am certain that each ethnic nationality in the nation has its own black sheep. Therefore, the emphasis here is not the weaknesses of the Igbo man, but his strengths and superb abilities.
In my personal life, I have been graciously blessed by the Igbo man and other people outside of my ethnic nationality. I have found out that great and good people exist across the length and breadth of the nation, and they cut across all the tribes constituting Nigeria. Along this line, other people’s experiences might be different, or maybe even terrible, but what is clear is that there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the Igbo man. He is simply a blessing whose reservoir of natural endowments has not been opened by the nation.
Nationally speaking, if we focus on what is good in the other tribe, it will become less difficult for us to relate together and jointly build the nation. Currently, a terrible atmosphere of mistrust and caginess rules our political space, making it difficult to look forward into the future with a sense of oneness that is a sine qua non for national development. Never mind the sense of false unity that the politicians are trying to create.
The second is the unfortunate issue of Biafra. In fact, in certain instances today, the Biafra-Nigeria war is the benchmark through which the Igbo man is judged. The civil war, no doubt, was a regrettable occurrence; one which its blame cannot be successfully place at the doorpost of the Igbo man alone. However, it has ended. It ended long ago. Nigerians need to keep this in mind. Our leaders need to keep this in mind. The Igbo man himself must keep this in mind. We all are needed by this country. We must remember this, because as long as the gifts of a particular group is nationally spurned; the nation will continually suffer for the lack of such gifts. This is how the physical body operates; and the nation is similar, in some respect, to the physical body.
The United States, from where we have a copied several things – both good and bad – fought a civil war. Even while the war lasted, no attempt was made by the North to demonise the South over the contentious issue of slavery. The war was fought with a view to uniting the country, doing away with nationally rejected ideas, and ensuring development. After the war ended, the nation immediately began reconciliatory moves to end the war in the hearts and minds of the opposing parties. And it worked.
Today, the United States of America is one giant of a country that everyone wants to live in. This is equally possible in Nigeria. The Igbo man is no longer an enemy; there is no war going on. And we must stop seeing him as one. He must also see himself as a Nigerian, not a Biafran. The civil war must end in hearts and minds. This is necessary in order for real development to take place.
The third reason is that our leaders have a narrow view of the term development. They develop “things” – schools, roads, hospitals, markets, etc.; but they hardly develop people. We got it wrong long ago, by holding on to the mistaken belief that technological development alone is what uplifts a nation. Yes, technological advancements bring about noticeable, undeniable changes; but it is the developed people that create technological wonders.
It is the people who have the tools to exercise their God-given talents, who have the opportunities to have these talents and endowments fine-tuned, with all necessary facilities to express the expediency of their divinely packaged aptitudes, in an atmosphere of harmony, that ultimately develop the nation.
As a nation, we have intentionally refused to cultivate and develop the energies, abilities, aptitudes, endowments and faculties of the Igbo man. Yes, the Igbo man might be busy, but more often than not, he is busy for himself. This means that a major force in our quest for national development has been ignorantly hindered and left untapped. It means a major link to our desired development has been carelessly overlooked.
Obviously, the nation is blessed with tremendously capable individuals among the Hausas, Yorubas, Ijaws, Tivs, Urhobos, Kanuris, etc. These individual nationalities are great assets to the nation. But in none of these nationalities is the enterprising, restless, make-something-out-of-nothing-spirit that catalyses progress more domiciled than the Igbo man. Some may dispute this, but it remains my view all the same.
It is my conviction that Nigeria’s strive for greatness will remain completely elusive until such a time that our leaders become careful enough to closely look at the component nationalities in the nation, determine what each represents, what each can offer, and then logically design a holistic developmental plan that will accommodate each of them, with rooms for self-expression and realisation.
With the above in place, and with a driving authority at the top of this plan to strategically control, unify and channel these combined energies in the direction of our identified goals, without any of the nationalities feeling inferior, and none assuming a superior status, Nigeria would have started her match into greatness. This is crucially vital, given the fact that what we have at the moment is a disunited front that hinders our advancement.
It is imperative that, from the point of view of national hunt for growth and development, the nation puts in place policies, facilities and environment that would boost the adventurous spirit of the Igbo man. He must be assured of his place and relevance in the nation; he must be convinced that the concept of Biafra ended decades ago, and that he is a Nigerian just like every other person in the country. This is what ought to be.
Unquestionably, no one needs to wait for the government before he or she goes for what is good; but that is talking individualistically. Nationally, it is the duty of the government to create the atmosphere and ensure that all citizens are buoyed up to be their very best. Nigeria badly needs this approach.
I believe the leadership of the country should do all it can, and the time is actually ripe for it, to take advantage of the Igbo talents and gifts. It is already clear that our collective inability to harness the abilities of all our nationals is somewhat responsible for the failure of the Nigerian state.
I have no doubt that when an ambience of inclusiveness and appreciation is intentionally and consciously created for the Igbo man; his best will become easily noticeable. At that time, his best will then become a positive push towards achieving national development, recognition and respect.
I am convinced that the Igbo man’s adeptness and his venturesome spirit are assets that the Nigerian nation has neglected for too long a period. And I advocate a change.
Pastor Gabriel Olalekan Popoola a former University of Port Harcourt Students’ Union Leader, worships with Living Faith Church and can be reached at [email protected]
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