SATURDAY BREAKFAST with TONY OKOROJI

If you think that the Biafra movement is a joke, you may be living in a fool’s paradise.

There are indeed millions of my kith and kin who verily believe that the Republic of Biafra is coming soon and with it will come the end of all their problems. They believe that once the Igbo man is ‘liberated’ from the ‘zoo’ called Nigeria, Biafrans will no longer have to worry about school fees, health care, bad roads, epileptic power, unemployment, etc. Do not think that it is a joke but there are those who now believe that once the Republic of Biafra is proclaimed, the almighty American dollar will come crashing and the Igbo man can import whatever he wants freely from anywhere.

Perception is reality and young, impressionable, unemployed, under-employed and frustrated Igbo boys and yes, girls, have spiritually flocked to the IPOB movement in droves. The movement is marketed as freedom from Fulani domination, freedom from herdsmen and the land grabbing cabal. It is freedom from a terrible kind of slavery and if you know the Igbo man, you know that he does not want to be a slave to anybody. Let’s face it: the people marketing Biafra are doing a better job of it than the people working against it.

The struggle for an Independent Republic of Biafra is being marketed in sexy terms, as a fight for self-determination, democracy in action, and an exercise in freedom of speech.

I thought that freedom of speech means that you are allowed to have a robust debate. On this subject, if ever there was a debate, the debate is over. The Igbo man, very well known for his fierce individuality, has been told that he must tow the line. It is the gospel that Igbos are oppressed and shackled in Nigeria and Biafra is the only answer. If you are an Igbo man and you have an alternative view, you better be careful how you express that view. You may be lynched. Your view cannot be honest if you are not in support of Biafra and war. You must be a lackey of the north, well paid by the cabal or you are a saboteur.

Many who feel differently are too scared to speak up. They don’t want to be lynched. The politicians are playing footsy with what is taking place before our eyes.

I hope that by the language of the Biafra movement, the impression is not being created that the movement is not driven by the love of the Igbo man but by the hate of others. Any student of history will tell you how movements based on hate tend to end.

I know that there are fellow Igbo men who consider the Biafran agitation a bargaining chip in the Nigerian political chess board. The problem is that as petrol continues to be recklessly poured on dry wood, this bargaining chip may in a moment of madness turn to a misfired bullet with historic consequences. I have kept saying that soon, the falcon may no longer hear the falconer.

I am a proud and unapologetic Igbo man. My surname which starts with ‘Okoro’ is a flag I proudly fly everywhere. Oh yes, I face the tribalism and sectionalism faced by my kith and kin but I refuse to be shackled in Nigeria.

May be because as an Igbo man, I have it in my genes that no one can shackle me. I verily believe that one of the unique strengths of an authentic Igbo man is that he can thrive anywhere practically under any condition. Throw an Igbo man in the desert and he will germinate and grow! I worry when young Igbo boys and girls begin to believe that except they get affirmative action, they cannot succeed. It is not true.

Not long ago in Abuja, I had a discussion with someone who could not understand how the Igbos feel marginalized in Nigeria. He asked me whether I knew that the Igbos own eighty percent of the hotels in Abuja and much of the real property in the territory. He reminded me that the Igbos own much of the sprawling Alaba market in Lagos and even much of Idumota and Balogun and that all the property in a big swat of Lagos belongs exclusively to Igbos. In his words, “Sabongari in Kano is, to all intents and purposes, Igbo territory and in practically every Nigerian city, there is a ‘Sabongari’ owned by the Igbos”. My guy asked me whether the Igbos honestly want to trade places with the North with a few billionaires and millions of hungry people, many begging on the streets of our country for alms or riding okada to survive.

He is emphatic that any proper analysis will reveal that the Igbos have the highest per capita income of any ethnic group in Nigeria.
According to my Abuja guy, Nigeria has provided the Igbos with a territory of nearly 200 million people to trade in. If we do not appreciate the huge value of that, we should look towards Europe to see why they desperately want a common market and why Brexit has caused so much consternation. According to him, anyone who thinks that the Igbo man will sufficiently thrive in the small territory called Biafra may have drunk too much of some bad liquor.

I submit that the strength of the Igbo man may be his weakness. His fierce individuality makes him an unbeatable commercial success but a poor politician. It is often said that the Igbos have no king. In other words, every Igbo man worships his own god. The result is that the aggregation of knowledge and ability necessary for mass political prowess, is absent.

The young, impressionable, unemployed, under-employed and frustrated Igbo boys and yes, girls, are not listening to any of their refined academics or knowledgeable statesmen or wise thinkers. They are listening to the people who speak the language of the ‘zoo’. The young people of Igbo land are forever on WhatsApp listening to people who in coarse voices are telling them that once the Republic of Biafra is proclaimed and the Igbo man is ‘liberated’ from the ‘zoo’, Biafrans will no longer have to worry about school fees, health care, bad roads, epileptic power, unemployment, etc. Hmmmmm…

Let me repeat that no one can shackle the Igbos except the Igbos.

See you next week.