Nigerian Igbo complain about political “marginalization”. While true because of the civil war, and while Nigeria needs “a new grand bargain” b/w it’s ethnic nationalities, the Igbo themselves have harmed themselves. They must first shed victim mentality.
Then they must address the disadvantage of being “led” by selfish, greedy and self-centered political elite masquerading as political and social-cultural leaders who are the first to shoot down their own. Many Igbo leaders are fine men and women. But there are too many
that are envious and self-hating, choose to be politically second-class so long as it serves their little interests. Ndigbo need strategy, with high impact strategic engagement with other ethnic nationalities with a win-win proposition, not ethnic noise-making.
Do you think it’s a surprise that @BarackObama became US president despite the attempts of many other black Americans like Jesse Jackson? Obama succeeded because he did not have a chip on his shoulder, though he acknowledged the systemic injustice of racism.
But he had a proposition, not just a sense of entitlement. He was able to largely because he was the son of Kenyan man and a white American mother who did not descend from a line of former slaves and therefore was spared of their psychological insecurities. The joke in Kenya is
that a Luo (his father was from the Luo tribe) could be a US president but not a Kenyan one! I ran for President in 2019 as a Nigerian candidate, not as an Igbo candidate, and no apologies. I love Ndigbo. But I also love other Nigerians, unburdened by the hang-ups of history.
All of this not say we should not deal with the civil war in our national history. It is the elephant in the room. I have argued that Nigeria’s leaders must apologize for the millions of lives lost in the Nigeria-Biafra war if we are to heal. That’s the right thing to do.
