If I was not Igbo, I would have looked for an Igbo person to explain to me why Igbos often complain and cry foul. Why are they always having a pity party?
Is this pity party germane or just a tool of blackmail and bargains.
I think that If Shakespeare in his inquisitiveness met an Igbo person, the question will not be his famous quote “to be or not to be”, it will be a simple “who are you”.
The truth is that today an Igbo man may not know who he really is himself, having been told a lot of things that others think he is, most times contradictory and incorrect. For example, you will hear some Igbos today say that Igbos do not love themselves. In the essay titled “Guileless Igbo Man and His Bare Soul” it was empirically debunked.
In the 2023 elections for example, some commentaries hold that Peter Obi lost because Igbos do not love themselves, while some other commentaries stated that Obi got millions of votes because Igbos are tribalistic and voted for their brother.
This is a case of two contradictions in one equation. So the Igbo man is constantly sitting for an exam he will never pass, that is one of the powers of prejudice; it pre-judges. He just has to fill into a stereotype. So whether he does A or B he will never be innocent
In my book (Igba Boi) – Igbo Boy: Profit and Prejudice, I pointed out the pre-emptive power of prejudice in the chapter titled “he suffers and offers prejudice”.
Cliches usually ware out and become stale with time, but the Igbo question is different, it remains an evergreen cliche; old, overused, but always interesting and effective. The word Igbo remains an Ace card in the socio-political and economic life of Nigeria, and it should not be so in the way that it currently is. This potency should be removed as a double-edged sword that it is (another topic on its own).
A funny example is an incident sometimes ago where Wike was having a tough time with some political adversaries and he said he was being target because he’s Igbo. This is the same Wike that has gone to great lengths many times to point out that he is not Igbo in anyway, but when the game got more intense, he then claimed to be Igbo, at least momentarily.
The attacks on Igbo businesses in Sokoto when Deborah Samuel who was from the north was murdered and her killers face prosecution, was both surprising and revealing. It justified what a light hearted friend told me sometime back, that when any man quarrels with his wife at home, he goes out looking for an Igbo person to blame.
Recently, the US took interest in Nigeria, citing what it believes to be Christian genocide. In order to rally Nigerians against any attack by the US against terrorists, the government and public commentators said the US had a sinister motive. They started by saying the US is coming for Nigeria’s resources. When this didn’t gather much momentum as expected, they sought for and found a usual magic portion to sell propaganda – put “Igbo” in the sentence it will sell, it worked well as usual – the legend of the screwdriver salesman in Onitsha.
It was surprising how very smart men like Daniel Bwala, El Rufai, Shehu Sani and many others bought this story and used it in their commentaries. The truth is that though they know better, but like students who couldn’t do their assignment at home (of thinking through) maybe because they were busy and didn’t have much time, they submit a cheat code and viola it works. Even more hilarious was Gumi saying that the US was supporting Biafra as it did in the civil war.
A critical look at the Igbos might show them to be very emotional people who react to issues sensationally. But you need to imagine what it means to be in the spotlight often and for the wrong reasons for prejudiced and one-sided stories that will never see you as innocent, then you will know that being emotional (if he really is) is even a nobler response than going down the road of despair and self-harm.
