Nigerian flag has become
a symbol of shame, says Kalu Onuma, Ndigbo Lagos scribe
By Segun Fatuase
Saturday, July 17, 2004
At 40 years of age, Kalu Onuma says he does not believe in
the Nigerian dream because of successive governments’
inability to resolve those fundamental differences that divide
the various ethnic tribes.
A disillusioned Kalu echoes loudly that “I am only a
Nigerian when I watch Super Eagles play. I don’t feel
Nigerian in any other way because you can’t give back
to a system what the system has not bred in you”.
In this encounter with Saturday Sun, Kalu remains emphatic
that the 350 distinct nationalities must make efforts to resolve
those differences dividing the nation.
According to him, there exists a likelihood that “in
their diversity there will be strength and unity”.
The Mirage
2007 is a mirage. A year and half ago we were all screaming
for the 2003 elections when there were fundamental problems
within the system. What Ndigbo have always stood for has been
good governance and we still have quite a big chunk of years
before this administration finally accounts before Nigerians
what it has been able to do.
Now, everybody is gripped in the fever of an elusive 2007,
when in 2004 there are still no good roads or basic infrastructure.
We now have a continual decay of our moral and civil society.
Nigeria is still very far away from industrialization, away
from self sufficiency and we are talking about 2007.
The irony about 2007 is the continual recurrence of the name
IBB and the continual screaming within PDP. These two things
bother me and they should bother every right- thinking Nigerian
and especially the Ibos. We are looking at a situation in
which the whole content of Nigeria is equated within the context
of PDP. We are forgetting that Nigeria is a multi-party system.
There are so many other parties, so why the hype?
I can admit the fact that everybody has the right to say what
he wants to say but we are already seeing a systematic engraving
within the political system that they (PDP) are creating roads
to rig and destroy whatever gains we have made.
Conversely, IBB took 8 years, the longest any person has ever
had, and what did he deliver to Nigerians?.
If his conscience is telling him that he has done something
for Nigerians, he should relax and reap the fruits of what
he did for us. But this shows you how endemic the corruption
of power could be. How a man, who can still not account before
Nigerians so many lapses when he was in government, is coming
back to tell us on an empty promise that he wants to rule
us again and many Nigerians believe it. I mean, there’s
something wrong about it.
And the Yorubas, who just some couple of years ago drew a
red mark on him, suddenly claiming that IBB has been forgiven.
Forgiven by whom? What are we talking about?
We should begin to look far beyond 2007, the political equations
, far into the future and far back into the past and see that
the whole structure is totally designed to fail.
If you bring IBB back, bring Buhari back, bring Idiagbon back,
bring whoever back, it would still be the same old story.
The position most people share is that the country must be
restructured.
Open field for politics
There is a need to create an open field, an equal playing
ground where people can exhibit their God-given talents, where
people can be able to plan out that which they have been created
to play out.
As Nigeria is today, the Igbos are stifled. We cannot create.
We cannot show that equivalent of prosperity that is inherent
in us. Every other tribe is also marginalized. Even the North
is marginalized and there is no case to be made for all these
leaders who want to be recycled.
What needs to be recycled in Nigeria is our environment, not
the political system. The political system as it is now must
be disbanded.
Igbos as second fiddle
When you look at the Igbos playing second fiddle in any political
situation, it is not something inherent in us. It is not something
encoded in our socio-political system.
It is a recent phenomenon which started in the 70s.
What you are seeing is a continuation of the same suppression,
the same calculated attempt at destabilizing the Igbos. So,
the people you think go along to play second fiddle are men
and women who otherwise would not have done so if the (civil)
war had gone a different way.
Igbo as a race
When you want to look at the Igbos as a race or a group, what
you see is just 0.1 per cent of the so called men who want
to play second fiddle. The other 99.9 per cent are truly and
symbolically Ibos, who, everyday of their lives do not think
of how to cheat or destroy or support the further enslavement
of their people but those who in their various capacities
try to be positive and creative in every sense. But because
the system is so structured, you find out that your creativity
and sincerity would not even go a long way to help you not
to talk of helping your communal base. So what I am saying
in effect is that the structure of the country has to be looked
at. There is no way the Ibo race with over 5 marginalized
states can produce a president. So how can we be relevant?
That is the question every Ibo man has been trying to answer.
Relevance
This cannot be sought through Aso Rock. If the country is
properly structured, my local government council, Arochukwu/Ohafia
L.G would not need to wait for the Federal Government to give
us allocation before my local government area functions. And
because this money is not forthcoming, that is why you find
a desperate LG chairman trying to strike a deal, in some cases
with all good intents, to get some money and get the structures
to function. My LG does not need the Aso Rock politicians
or technocrats to cough before we realize that erosion has
decimated our environment, that our children are not going
to school, that our teachers are not paid, that our palm produce
has to be brought in before the rains destroy it. Because
all these are centrally and unilaterally concentrated in one
hand you can’t function.
Psyche of the Igbo man
We are patriots and we are truly believers in an open playing
ground. And Ibo man would stand his ground anytime, anywhere
in the world if he is supported legally and truthfully without
the lies of the quota system that was designed to keep us
away and it is still keeping us away and as long as things
remain like that there would be no future for us in this country.
Whether we clamour for 2007 or whatever, it would still be
the same Nigeria that I am living in. It can only take a supernatural
miracle that would take us to that position as long as Nigeria
is still structured this way. So until we can convincingly,
with historical perspectives, bring the nation to the realization
that if you are holding the Ibo man down, you are holding
yourself down, then there’s no headway.
Sovereign National Conference
The purpose of the conference is to bring out the best in
all of us. It is to bring out the unifying factors, to break
down the differences, to make us realize that though we are
different people, we can still be one nation. It is to bring
out the positive passion that you can only see if Nigerians
are watching Green Eagles play. That is what we want to bring
out. Each football match that Nigeria plays is a miniature
of what we want to achieve during the National Conference.
The mechanisms can be worked out but first we have to agree
that as long as the Hausa man in Birni Kebbi sees his failures
as an Ibo problem and each time this problem occurs, his next
target is an Ibo property or life, then there is need for
a conference.
And as long as the Ibo man believes that there is a structure
put in place to oppress him, to keep him away from certain
basic amenities required for success, there is a need for
restructuring. For as long as the Niger Delta continues to
feed the rest of the nation, supporting the arid regions,
supporting states that produce nothing, there is need for
restructuring.
As long as our youths, trained or untrained, continue to leave
our shores in their millions, then there is need for a conference.
As long as you don’t feel a tinge of patriotism for
your flag and the flag becomes a symbol of shame and not of
protection, there is need for a conference. And as long as
there is a big distance between Aso Rock and the poor man
in my own little village, there is need for a conference.
Government should be closer to the people. It should not be
far away. Government should be the true reflection of the
different diversities in our system.
One thing we should know is that no matter how Nigeria finally
ends up either as separate nations or one nation, we already
have enough encoded in our historical sharing to help and
enable us to continue to share. Even if there is an independent
country in Yoruba land tomorrow, in the North, in the South,
in the East, it would still remain one of the most viable
economies in the West Coast of Africa. There is a lot to make
us continue to be one but there are a few problem areas and
these are just so critical that Nigeria might just disappear
in a whisper. That’s my fear.
Way Forward
We have to bring back Nigeria to the status quo. There is
no point agitating for 2007 when it is obvious that an agreement
was reached long before 1999 (according to the politicians).
If that is the case, then why should this group of people
continue to sign agreements with our lives?
Who is going to pay the price in 2007? Obviously it is the
poor man, the area boys, almajiris, agberos.
To ensure that this does not happen, we ought to put in place
the proper structure and platforms to bring the people together.
The details, as earlier mentioned, would have to be worked
out but we must all agree on it first. Then and only then
can we set the ball rolling. We must first see Nigeria as
an entity that must be maintained, not run down.
People’s Representatives
This cannot be members of the National Assembly or the Presidency.
They can only support the idea. Any other thing would make
them stumbling blocks because they will create “no go
areas”. Right now, we are on the wrong side of civilization
and that is why most of our representatives are imbued with
personal greed and selfish interests.
Nursery for militia
It is an on-going struggle between the people and the government
in power. It did not start yesterday. You will recall the
time of Isaac Boro in the Niger Delta.
What happened during the civil war was a fight against injustice.
Maitatsine in the North had its own idea about what things
should be. Now, what is happening in Plateau and Benue States?
It points to the fact that as long as Nigeria remains deaf
to the cries of the people there will always be a nursery
to breed these ethnic militia.
I spent last Christmas in Ogoni land where the bulk of the
oil used in Nigeria is produced. There is only one filling
station in the place with fuel selling at N110 per litre.
The suffering there is horrible and until government appreciates
the level of suffering there, there will be no peace.
Between violence and Persuasion
Nigeria was created in violence. The amalgamation was a forced
thing and you can’t have a bastard and then make him
an heir. Bastards don’t inherit.
Now we realize that amalgamation was a marriage we never intended.
So we are now asking for a quiet divorce since it is apparent
that we have been supporting illegality all this while.
Nigeria as a memory
We will become the model in Africa. If we must amputate Nigeria
to make it function, please let us do it.
I don’t believe in a Nigerian dream. I am 40 years old.
Everything I have enjoyed was provided by my community and
today I owe allegiance to my community first before Nigeria.
I am only a Nigerian when I watch Super Eagles play. I don’t
feel Nigerian in any part of the country even when section
25 of the constitutions says so.
You can’t give back to a system what the system has
not bred in you.
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