Speaking with VINCENT KALU, Uko, who is Secretary of the Eastern Consultative Assembly (ECA), and a member of Southern Leaders of Thought, noted that an Igbo man as president would serve as a soothing balm and a unifying gambit to heal the land.
The 20th anniversary of IYM was quite interesting, how did the journey start and how has it been these past years?
The IYM was founded and established by God Almighty for a particular purpose. God has been directing the affairs of the IYM since 1999. What started out as a youth organisation earlier designed to promote Igbo language and spread good behaviour amongst Igbo youth, through distribution of a leaflet titled “Igbo Code Of Conduct “, gradually began to accommodate questions from Umuigbo at the end of each seminar, on the precarious Igbo condition in Nigeria.
Slowly, IYM began to enlarge the discussion from the importance of education and other issues to the need for Nigeria to give Ndigbo justice. Gradually, our resource persons at every seminar drifted into the pathetic political situation of Ndigbo in Nigeria. That is how IYM began to fight for justice for Ndigbo.
IYM suddenly became the defender of Ndigbo over the years. From promotion of Igbo language, to stressing the need for education, to Igbo code of conduct, now to fearlessly defending the rights of Ndigbo. IYM metamorphosed into the authentic and trusted voice of the oppressed and voiceless Ndigbo. Because the Igbo elite can meander their way to survive in Nigeria, they do not care about the plight of the downtrodden; IYM became the trusted voice of the masses of Ndigbo overtime. That’s what happened.
IYM initially wasn’t created to inspire the younger generation of Ndigbo, to wake them up from slumber to make them understand that if they do nothing about their condition in Nigeria, they will only be shifting that job and responsibility to their progeny. But that is exactly what IYM became with time. Nobody seemed to care about the younger generation of Ndigbo. So I took up the gauntlet. My target was purely the younger generation, to prepare them for the task ahead.
I travelled all over the country preaching to Igbo youths to organise themselves and fight for their rights. I told them nobody would fight for them if they don’t fight for their rights. I showed them glaring instances of clear oppression and subjugation of Ndigbo in Nigeria. I moved from school to school, compiled details of brazen suppression of our rights and denial of our dues as part of Nigeria.
It was only a matter of time before they woke up from their slumber. I was fortunate, respected elders honoured my invitation to speak to the youths at every of my seminars. We had question and answer sessions. It was those questions and answers sessions that opened my eyes to the depth of the frustration of the Igbo younger generation. I became alarmed.
Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, who generously and kindly attended dozens of my IYM seminars confided in me that he wasn’t shocked at the bitterness in the hearts of Ndigbo younger generation. He told me that he knew the younger generation of Ndigbo would be very angry at the treatment they are receiving from Nigeria.
He said the rest of Nigeria does not care about the frustration of Igbo youths, because Nigeria is busy, still celebrating the defeat of Biafra. He said the younger generation of Ndigbo would not accept the suppression of Ndigbo much longer. He knew that something was bound to give. He posited that the envy and fear of Ndigbo was largely responsible for the conspiracy to hold Ndigbo down perpetually, by denying them their rights.
So, by the late 1980s, I had known that the younger generation of Ndigbo would reject and resist the position of servitude designed for Ndigbo by the victors of the civil war. I happened to know this, not because I am a very smart person, no no no, I found out simply because I organised seminars for Igbo youths and during question and answer sessions, young Igbo men would lament that they are tired of Nigeria and wished for a separate state where they would be treated like human beings.
The students in Owerri, at my event at the Rosy Arts Theatre, would say the same thing the traders at Aba told us. The traders at Idumotta or Alaba market, Lagos, would say the same thing the civil servants in Enugu told us, and these people do not know each other.
The Nigerian state was clearly deceived by the “desperate hustling” of the Igbo elite club, who are so desperate for anything that they are willing to execute a contract through subletting, even crawling from office to office licking boots for crumbs. Nigeria’s leadership erroneously concluded that Ndigbo have finally accepted the humiliating position designed for them, as their proper place in Nigeria forever and ever. Accordingly, the humiliation of Ndigbo became state policy.
They forgot that Igbo elite represented only one percent of Ndigbo. They also forgot that Igbo are so republican in nature, and that every Igbo reacts according to how the shoe pinches him and the Igbo are never controlled by the announcement from one emir somewhere.
They also did not realise that the elite accepted the continuous humiliation in Nigeria because of two reasons. One, they are educated and therefore can always find a way to survive in Nigeria, known globally as very corrupt playground for Asian and Middle East scammers, masquerading as business men, who boast all over the world, how Nigerian officials are the easiest to compromise their positions to the detriment of their own citizens.
Secondly, the Igbo older generation, who were brutally punished by the colonial masters (from July 1967 to January 1970) through total blockade and ruthless bombardment of even refugee camps, for daring to forget that the colonial master himself, has great plans over Nigeria’s oil for his home country.
The trauma of the war created two different classes of Ndigbo. One, those who are willing to accept the continuous humiliation of Ndigbo, and those who are willing to do anything to restore their lost dignity. This fact, sadly, remains lost on the Nigerian state, which regrettably believes that force and intimidation will subdue the angry Igbo younger generation to accept the continuous humiliation Ndigbo have been facing since 1970.
Could that be why MASSOB and IPOB are agitating for Biafra?
Count your teeth with your tongue. I have repeatedly screamed the way out for decades. I have been screaming long before Ralph (Uwazuruike) established MASSOB. If I had joined my friends and classmates to hustle for political accommodation in Nigeria, I would not have known the shocking discovery I found out during the question and answer sessions at IYM seminars for Igbo youths. If those my friends parading as successful politicians had found time to organise seminars for Igbo youths like I did in the 1980s and 1990s, they too would have discovered the degree of anger burning in the hearts of Ndigbo younger generation. They also would have known that even their personal aides are not happy with Nigeria. They would have known that the only people happy with Nigeria are those benefiting from the misery in the land. They would have known, that these agitations were inevitable. It was bound to happen. Nigeria was bound to come to this.
What is the way out?
I will only be repeating myself. Twenty five years ago, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, my leader, asked Bob Onyema to bring me to Villaska Lodge, Ikoyi for a meeting. At that time, I was leading a coalition of Ndigbo Youth groups in Lagos. What came out from that very important gathering of very important leaders was actually packaged for the General Abacha constitutional conference of 1994/1995. What some people at that time called Afenifere agenda, simply because the great Senator Abraham Adesanya- led NADECO amplified it at that time. I am yet to see any superior argument till date.
Nigerians have no better choice. Nigeria is not working. There are reports of past conferences, many sections are bitter and angry at the current structure, some even want to opt out of Nigeria.
The system that worked from the mid 1950s to mid 1960 gave everyone a sense of belonging. You see the people lying to themselves, that they can hold Nigeria together under this unitary structure are the problem. Why they choose to deceive themselves beats me. Nigeria cannot grow under this military constitution. If the political structure is not reconstructed to true federalism by devolving powers to the federating units, Nigeria will die. Going back to the 1963 Republican Constitution is the way out, my dear brother.
