Complicit

  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 … Read more