The Wrath of Nigeria & Why Everyone Is Complicit – By Jimi Kusanu

It was ludicrous having stumbled on a reportage of the president’s wife claiming to be a “detribalized” citizen of Nigeria. I could not help but ponder exactly what that meant.

What does it inherently mean to be detribalized? Does it suggest that you no longer identify with the ethnic stock to which you belong? Or after having performed some symbolic rites, your ideological disposition may now be considered more “ecumenical?” I find it utterly worrisome that a supposed first lady of a steeply ethnically divergent society would conceive, then make such pronouncement.

Such pronouncement can be likened to when an individual says, “I am now deconverted.” The obvious question subsequently arises, how are you deconverted if you were never converted? If an individual is born Muslim or Christian, he as anticipated, practices the religious tenets and follows the doctrine of the religion.

In other words, an individual cannot be “detribalized” if they were never tribalized to begin with. If one’s ethnic philosophy and judgement tilted more towards ecumenism, rather than chauvinism or jingoism, I presume one would not have to undergo such laborious task of detribalization. How do I know it is a laborious task? Why else would a former lawmaker cum First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria make such a statement if it were not for citizens to acknowledge and be cognizant of her efforts to nowadays evince a more panoramic view of “nationalism?”

The articulation of the foregoing is germane to the motif of this blurb because of its nuanced centrality in pop culture conversation in both the digital and physical spaces in recent times , especially since the conclusion of the 2023 Nigerian General Elections and the vastly controversial inauguration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

It is first disheartening, then embarrassingly agonizing to inescapably find oneself in both digital and physical spaces where discourses border nothing except jingoistic chitchat and other attendant nonsense.

X, formerly Twitter, appeared to be the hub of socially, culturally and politically progressive discourses amongst Nigerian netizens. This I am persuaded to believe is owed to the concentration of the demographic who are its leading users. Except that these days, there has been a seismic shift in the themes of discussions. Conversations have drifted from polemics on potentially progressive, cultural, social and political ambitions and other regular drivels to nauseating, intellect-declining and exhausting squabbles of completely trifling and quite inane subjects.

I struggle to believe my eyes on the many occasions I have seen Nigerian youths go against one another on what ethnic groups have the best soups or cuisines; what tribe has the most beautiful women, or whose region is bedevilled with less sociocultural ills. This is not usually some friendly banter by the way.

21st century Nigerians, among many of whom are graduates , eligible for advanced degrees have been polarized, subjugated and defeated such that they are endlessly at each other’s throats on the most unimaginably irrelevant and stupid subject matter.

An example was when the Ojude Oba Festival held in Ogun State, southwestern Nigeria got its increased media attention concluded in 2024; an avalanche of slurs intended to discredit and ridicule the glamour the event seemed to have paraded was started by narrow-minded characters who have now been loosely christened bigots. Ethnic chauvinists like them within the Yoruba folk too could not conceal their pungent bigoted grandstanding.

Following the 2023 elections, it is somewhat unsurprising that the Yoruba and Igbos would be the two tribes constantly warring. The squabbles are so intense that malediction and profanity are not omitted.

All these can be traced to the Nigerian history. The founders and the fighters for the independence of Nigeria. The two patriarchs of both Yoruba and Igbo political evolution and civilization who were political arch-rivals. Sixty three years after independence, a keenly contested election was underway. Primary players included a widely supported contestant from the Igbo tribe and a political big deal who made a statement at one of his campaign rounds in the lines of, “it is now my time.” A statement I personally found distasteful.

To understand the apparent rancour between the two ethnicities and by extension other ethnicities in the country, I imagine it is imperative to sojourn back to the past. The beginning of what appears will be the end of an entity called Nigeria – ethnic and religious intolerance.

The build up to the Jan 15th coup has garnered innumerable controversies overtime; controversies I shall attempt to disentangle in my best capacity.

First, the Igbos cannot claim total innocence. Follow this with all open-mindedness you can whether you’re Igbo or otherwise.

The leadership of the coup was by high ranking officers of the Army who were from the Igbo extraction. Major Chukwuma “Kaduna” Nzeogwu , Emmanuel Arinze Ifeajuna , Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Christian Anuforo, Humphrey Chukwuka, Donatus Okafor and Adewale Ademoyega are the documented leaders of the putsch. Only one of these officers is non- Igbo.

The above-mentioned officers, during the planning, coordination and execution of the coup, contributed in one way or another to sentiments that have led many non- Igbos to christen it the “Igbo Coup.”

For instance, Chris Anuforo, involved in the coup, killed Colonel Kur Mohammed and Lieutenant-Colonel Pam and Unegbe. Donatus Okafor, a conspirator of the coup, conveniently failed to arrest General Agunyi-Ironsi who would assume the position of Head of State.

Ifeajuna , the celebrated Olympian is rumoured to be a tribal kinsman of Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first President of Nigeria in the First Republic. It is also alleged by sources who were active participants in the national polity that Ifeajuna had hinted Azikiwe of the coup, and that could explain his coincidental trip to the Caribbean on health grounds.

After General Ironsi became Head of State, many wondered why the putschist were only arrested and not prosecuted. This cast a croynist aspersion on the motive of Ironsi’s leadership.

Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa ; Premier Ahmadu Bello and his wife, Hafsatu Bello; Finance Minister Festus Okotie-Eboh; Brigadier Ademulegun and his pregnant wife, Latifat were few civilian casualties on the night of Jan 15th, 1966. Many of whom were humiliated, beaten and murdered execution-style in cold blood.

Major Zakariya Maimalari had hosted a cocktail party in his home that night which was encouraged by Ifeajuna in order that the officers who were attendees of the 3 day Brigade Training held in Lagos and coconspirators of the coup would not return back to their base. They would later return in the morning to murder him.

The foregoing and more nuances suggest why a significant chunk of sociopolitcally conscious Nigerians have tagged ( maybe erroneously) the Jan 15th coup an Igbo Coup.

First, the leadership is predominantly Igbo. Although some have opined Major Nzeogwu to be Deltan, it however remains to be known if there are no Igbo tribes in what is today considered Delta State.

The casualties are people from other parts of Nigeria except Southeast. Arthur Unegbe is Igbo but many would argue he was probably the only military egg needed to be broken such that the omelette would be made.

The individual who would become Head of State was Igbo who against military standard operation procedure would have court-martialled the coupists conveniently failed to. It does not take much objectivity to see what this suggests.

The casualties of the Biafran war on the Igbo side is beyond sad and excruciating, especially as children and women of little means were the bigger victims. However, the June 21 annual commemoration of the Abonemma people is celebrated as the day Nigerian troup liberated them from siege of Biafran soldiers. This is telling of the modus operandi and prospect of the entire Biafran self-determination.

The Jan 15th coup is undoubtedly a watershed event in the relatively young history of Nigeria at the time. It precipitated into a chain of sociopolitical landmark events that have moulded the contemporary political landscape of the nation.

The July 28th countercoup is worthy of mention as one of those events and being the immediate reaction or reprisal to the maiden coup.

The countercoup had the leadership of mainly northern military personnel and as such, since the first coup already had been tagged an Igbo Coup, dozens of Igbo soldiers were slaughtered.

Masterminded by Lt. Colonel Murtala Mohammed and other northern officers like Theophilus Danjuma , a torrent of military coups would ravage Nigeria, leaving vestiges of distrust in the military and ubiquitous instability.

This also led to the anti-Igbo pogrom in the north, which would culminate ultimately into the Biafran War – a needless war in my books.

The bitterness, resentment and insipid zeitgeist many decades after would be described by many as visceral.

The Arewa , and the self-proclaimed Yoruba conservatives need to shut the fuck up. They should consider and explore the possibility of not opening their noisome jaws at the earliest possibility to taunt and grandstand.

The arrogance of the academic “major” ethnicities infuriates one particularly as it can be concluded that the extant rot and misery in Nigeria can paradoxically be attributed to these ethnic groups.

The present administration of Bola Tinubu has only succeeded in being more clueless and ineffectual than the erstwhile. The Buhari administration set the country on its path to retrogression and now Tinubu’s has floored the throttle.

Sometimes I am helpless when I think about the potential beauty embedded in our diversity.

Ruminate over the plausibility of a Tiv family travelling to the hinterland prairie of Ekiti for a simple vacation or an Idoma household emigrating to the beguiling heights of Ondo.

Would it be nefarious if a young Fulani adult in the quest for different cuisines to whet his palette, a better opportunity at commerce and perhaps fancies the likelihood of cuffing a non-Fulani beautiful woman find his way to the sunny ambience of the Eastern bloc and ensconce peacefully with the natives ? I think not. Essentially, the benefits of such communality are limitless.

I charge you to contemplate the homogeneous repercussions if the overall ethnography of 80-85% of the enclave called Nigeria is not so far from that of the Fleming and Walloon people of Belgian Europe. This is not some utopian wish or ambition.

I am beyond certain that if the leadership, encouraged by the citizenry, had not weaponized poverty, ethnic bigotry and religious persuasions, such communalistic spirit is achievable in Nigeria.

It is clear as day that Nigerian politicians cannot fathom the serendipitous fortune they have encountered in their largely sycophantic, narrow-minded and lily-livered citizenry.

This explains why they constantly, promptly and brazenly clamp down on any inkling of rebellion. They cannot afford to let go!

Now the demographic I have a bone to pick with is the seemingly lettered and exposed members of the public. They lead a defeatist and insouciant disposition towards the governance of the country. Many of them are equally ignominiously bigoted dunderheads who do not see the bigger picture.

I mean how more conspicuous can it be that it is not a Yoruba versus Igbo affair, or the Kanuris against the Nupes ; that it is simply a tussle between the very minute elite political and economic class versus the rest of whoever is left ? Does it require Dan Vinci’s or Rembrandt’s level of cognitive superiority to discern what the fuck is going on ?

There are documented records and reportages of politician’s embezzlement and other malfeasances across all ethnic groups, yet barely-living , eating-from-hand-to mouth young and old squeeze at each other’s throats for what I cannot comprehend.

Alameiyeseigha is from the Ijaw region, Joshua Dariye is from Plateau, Orji Uzor Kalu is Igbo and the incumbent president is Yoruba. Politically conscious folks would have very little difficulty to determine what these individuals have in common.

There have been recent reports of the middle- class withdrawing their wards from “certain” types of schools, inflation is at 34.80% higher than Ghana’s and South Africa’s combined. Insurgency is so protracted that citizens are now desensitized to triple digits casualties. It has become so commonplace. Yet, we let greedy characters wear robes that give them the illusion of being larger-than-life while they deplete our resources and further ruin our lives.

The earlier we collectively codify generally beneficial sociopolitical systems, the better we all will live.

No tribe is ahead of another. No tribe can be absolved of the misery of Nigeria especially the self-vaunting major ones. Combat and ditch your inherent chauvinistic sensibilities and attempt to project into the future the endless possibilities where politicians are held accountable and decisively prosecuted for their seemingly unending excesses.

I promise that the current ruling class will never allow a separation of the country; how else would they sustain their unbridled avarice?

This is the plan: stifle your chances of improving your economic freedom, utilize your sentiments such as ethnic and religious identities to keep you tethered while they , their families and cronies flourish and live maximally at your very expense so you remain socially and economically subservient.

To be honest, I do not know what more to say, but if you read this far, abeg think for yourself.

Cheers.