FROM FRAGMENTATION TO ONE GLOBAL IGBO FAMILY
There comes a time when a people must stop talking endlessly about unity and begin the much harder work of building it. I believe Ndi Igbo have reached that point.
For decades we have created organisations in almost every conceivable form: town unions, state associations, cultural bodies, professional groups, congresses, councils, foundations, movements and diaspora organisations. Many have done useful work and some have survived for generations. But we should ask ourselves a difficult question: do we really need another Igbo organisation?
I don’t think so.
What we need now is organisation.
We need to start thinking about one broad pan Igbo institution capable of bringing our people and existing organisations together without necessarily destroying or replacing them. Something with the stature and staying power to rise above personalities, political parties, governors and individual states; something that recognises from the beginning that the Igbo world is considerably bigger than the five states of the South East.
An Igbo person in Enugu should look at such an institution and say, “This belongs to me.” So should an Anioma person in Delta who identifies as Igbo, a migrated Igbo in Kogi or Benue or Bayelsa, an Igbo in Bonny, Ikwerre, Opobo Rivers, an Igbo community elsewhere outside the South East, a trader in Lagos, a professional in Abuja and an Igbo family living in London, Johannesburg, Houston or Toronto.
And the philosophy behind it should be very simple:
Nobody is more Igbo than another Igbo.
There is no superior Igbo and there is no inferior Igbo. Every Igbo is a first class Igbo within his or her own inheritance. Nobody requires somebody else’s permission to belong.
THE SOUTH EAST IS NOT THE ENTIRE IGBO WORLD
We need to get this into our heads because much of our confusion starts here.
The South East is a geopolitical zone. Ndi Igbo are a people.
Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo constitute today’s South East geopolitical zone, but those five states do not define the complete historical geography of the Igbo people.
There are established Igbo speaking, Igbo descended, Igboid and self identifying Igbo communities outside those five states. They are found, under different historical circumstances, in Delta, Rivers, Edo, Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Benue and Kogi.
Then there is the much larger modern Igbo population scattered throughout Nigeria: Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Benin City, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Uyo, Makurdi, Lokoja, Yenagoa and practically every significant Nigerian commercial centre.
Beyond Nigeria we are everywhere: Britain, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Germany, the Middle East, China, Australia and many other parts of the world.
This is not a claim that everybody indigenous to those eight Nigerian states is Igbo. Far from it. Those states contain other ancient peoples whose identities, territories and traditions must be respected. Neither should we impose an Igbo identity upon anybody who does not claim one.
The point is simply that Igbo does not begin and end at the boundaries of the five South East states.
That is historical reality we need to become comfortable with.
THE PEOPLE WERE HERE BEFORE THE MAP
Our ancestors did not move around carrying maps of a future Federal Republic of Nigeria.
They crossed rivers. They traded. They farmed. They intermarried. They established new settlements. Some fled wars. Some communities divided and others absorbed newcomers. Languages interacted and dialects changed.
Much later came colonial boundaries, provinces, regions, states, local governments and geopolitical zones.
We therefore make a mistake when we take a political boundary created relatively recently and project it backwards hundreds of years as though it were an ancestral frontier.
Migration does not erase ancestry. Displacement does not cancel heritage. And finding yourself on the other side of a modern state boundary does not make you less of whatever your ancestors were.
The same applies to language.
Nobody should have to sound like somebody from Onitsha, Owerri or Umuahia before being considered sufficiently Igbo. Nsukka sounds different from Ngwa. Onitsha sounds different from Owerri. Anioma has its varieties. Communities in Rivers have theirs. Border communities naturally carry influences arising from centuries of interaction with their neighbours.
That is what one should expect from an old and geographically dispersed people.
Standard Igbo is important. We need it for education, literature, broadcasting and communication. But Standard Igbo should be a bridge between us, not an immigration checkpoint into Igboness.
Our dialects are not inferior versions of somebody else’s Igbo. They are pieces of our history.
WE ALSO HAVE TO MAKE PEACE WITH OUR PAST
This conversation cannot succeed if everybody arrives carrying a spotless version of his own history.
Mistakes were made. Communities hurt one another. Political interests shaped narratives. Territorial disputes occurred. There were genuine minority fears and there was also arrogance by people who considered themselves majorities.
Colonialism complicated relationships. Nigerian politics complicated them further. The Civil War shattered relationships that had existed for generations, and what happened after the war created grievances of its own.
People lost property. People were displaced. Communities became suspicious of one another. Some people found it politically expedient, and sometimes necessary for survival, to emphasise one identity and play down another. Others felt rejected by people they considered their own brothers.
We cannot go back and undo any of that.
But we can stop handing every old quarrel to our children.
We must give ourselves some grace. That does not mean falsifying history or pretending nobody did anything wrong. It means accepting that the purpose of understanding yesterday should be to make tomorrow better.
Tell the truth about the past, acknowledge genuine grievances, forgive where we can and move forward.
PERHAPS OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM IS NOT A LACK OF IGBO ORGANISATIONS
It is that we have too many organisations and too little organisation.
Everybody wants a platform. Everybody wants a title. Everybody wants to be President-General, chairman, patron, grand patron, coordinator or leader of something.
Meanwhile, the larger questions remain unanswered.
Who is thinking twenty or thirty years ahead for Ndi Igbo?
Who is collecting reliable data about our people?
Who is documenting our disappearing dialects?
Who is coordinating Igbo economic capital around the world?
Who is building a serious intellectual archive of our history?
Who is connecting our scientists, doctors, engineers, academics, entrepreneurs and investors?
Who speaks when an Igbo community outside the South-East has a legitimate concern?
Who connects the child growing up in London or Atlanta with the village his grandfather came from?
We have plenty of organisations.
What we lack is an institution with sufficient legitimacy that an ordinary Onye Igbo anywhere in the world can say: this is ours.
OHANAEZE HAS PLAYED ITS PART, BUT WE MUST THINK BEYOND THE PRESENT STRUCTURE
This is not an argument for abusing or discarding Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
Ohanaeze emerged from a particular historical experience and has played an important role in providing a collective Igbo voice. That history should be respected.
But institutions are created for people; people are not created for institutions.
The Igbo world of today is very different from the one in which our older structures emerged. We are more dispersed, more urban, more global, more professionally diverse and technologically connected in ways our fathers could scarcely have imagined.
The question therefore is not whether Ohanaeze is “good” or “bad.”
The useful question is whether our present institutional arrangements are sufficient for the Igbo world of the twenty-first century.
If Ohanaeze can be fundamentally reformed and expanded into something with genuine worldwide participation, let that conversation happen. If something broader eventually has to emerge, let us discuss that too.
But please, not another organisation simply because another group of people wants another set of titles.
Whatever emerges should be bigger than any individual and difficult for politicians to capture.
THERE ARE LESSONS AROUND US
The Yoruba historically developed institutions such as Egbe Omo Oduduwa around a broad sense of cultural solidarity. Northern Nigeria has produced umbrella organisations through which very different peoples and interests maintain channels for consultation.
We don’t need to copy anybody.
The Igbo answer must come from the Igbo experience.
But there is a lesson worth learning: a large and dispersed people need somewhere to continuously talk to themselves.
Not only when there is an election.
Not only when somebody is killed.
Not only when there is a crisis.
And certainly not only when somebody wants an endorsement.
There should be a permanent institutional home for Igbo thought, development, culture, economics, research and strategic conversation.
IGWE BU IKE, BUT NUMBERS ALONE ARE NOT POWER
Our ancestors gave us the expression Igwe bu ike.
There is strength in numbers.
True.
But millions of people pulling in different directions are still millions of people pulling in different directions.
Numbers become strength when there is organisation, trust and common purpose.
And another old principle remains equally important:
Onye aghana nwanne ya.
Let no brother or sister be abandoned.
That must include Anioma. It must include Igbo communities in Rivers and elsewhere outside the South-East. It must include the Igbo family in Lagos and Northern Nigeria. It must include the child growing up in London who speaks imperfect Igbo and the third-generation family in America trying to understand where their grandparents came from.
Nobody should be standing outside the family knocking on the door while somebody inside decides whether he is “Igbo enough.”
BUILD IT FROM THE PEOPLE UPWARDS
Any new pan Igbo architecture should belong first to the people themselves.
An adult Onye Igbo anywhere in the world should be able to become a member directly rather than needing the permission of a governor, politician, traditional ruler or town-union president.
Technology makes possible something previous generations could only dream about: a voluntary, secure worldwide membership connecting Ndi Igbo wherever they live.
But membership must mean something.
People should be able to participate, contribute, vote under an agreed constitution and hold their leadership accountable.
Representation should deliberately include Igbo communities outside the South East. Delta, Rivers, Edo, Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Benue and Kogi cannot merely be invited when convenient and forgotten afterwards.
The Nigerian diaspora outside the traditional homeland must have a voice.
So must the international diaspora.
The diaspora cannot continue to be remembered primarily when money is required. It contains some of the finest Igbo human capital anywhere in the world and should be represented accordingly.
BUILD INSTITUTIONS, NOT PERSONALITIES
The real strength of this organisation should not be the office of President General.
It should be what survives the President General.
We need a serious economic council connecting Igbo capital and enterprise. We need scholarship and educational foundations. We need a historical and cultural institute capable of documenting our archaeology, migration traditions, oral histories and archival records.
We need a language institute that respects and records our many dialects while strengthening our ability to communicate with one another.
We need a global professional network connecting Igbo doctors, engineers, lawyers, academics, scientists, entrepreneurs and technologists.
We need a properly governed development and investment fund.
We need legal and civil rights capacity to assist communities facing genuine discrimination through lawful means.
Young people should have a real seat at the table, not be told to wait until they are sixty before they are considered capable of leadership. Women should not be brought in merely to sing and organise ceremonies; they must participate in decision making.
And we need something we have neglected for far too long: serious research and data.
How many of us are there?
Where are we?
What are the educational outcomes?
Where is Igbo capital invested?
Which dialects are disappearing?
Where are our professionals?
What are our infrastructure deficits?
How are Igbo communities outside the South East faring?
We cannot plan intelligently around anecdotes.
A WORLD IGBO CONGRESS SHOULD ACTUALLY CONDUCT BUSINESS
Imagine an annual gathering of Ndi Igbo from around the world that is not another jamboree and not another opportunity to distribute chieftaincy titles.
A gathering where audited reports are presented, research is published, development targets are reviewed and the condition of Igbo communities around the world is assessed.
Publish an annual State of the Igbo World Report.
Education. Health. Business. Investment. Security. Language. Culture. Migration. Infrastructure. Political representation. Diaspora affairs.
What improved?
What deteriorated?
What did we promise last year?
What did we actually accomplish?
That is how serious institutions behave.
ANIOMA SHOULD MATTER TO ALL OF US
This is also why Senator Ned Nwoko’s passionate campaign for Anioma State should not be treated as somebody else’s affair simply because Anioma lies west of the Niger.
People are entitled to debate the proposal, its boundaries, constitutional requirements and political implications. But the larger issue should concern us.
Igbo communities outside the five South East states cannot remain an afterthought in pan Igbo affairs.
Whether through the Anioma State movement, cultural organisations, language preservation, historical research or other lawful initiatives, efforts to reconnect dispersed Igbo communities deserve serious engagement.
A river should not make brothers strangers.
Neither should a state boundary.
THEN THERE IS THE REALITY OF POLITICAL NIGERIA
We should not deceive ourselves about the country in which we live.
Nigeria is a federation in which numbers, states, representation, institutions, alliances and political organisation matter.
Our extraordinary dispersal has been one of our greatest strengths. Ndi Igbo went everywhere, traded everywhere, built everywhere and became part of communities throughout Nigeria.
But dispersal without coordination also has a price.
We become Anambra Igbo, Imo Igbo, Delta Igbo, Rivers Igbo, Lagos Igbo. Then APC Igbo, PDP Igbo, APGA Igbo, ADC Igbo. Then this governor’s people and that senator’s people.
Before long, our fragmentation becomes somebody else’s political opportunity.
That does not mean Ndi Igbo should vote as a bloc or surrender individual political judgment. Far from it. People should choose candidates and parties according to their own convictions.
But surely there are interests that transcend party.
Security. Education. Infrastructure. Economic development. Federal representation. Constitutional rights. Interstate connectivity. Protection of Igbo communities. Language and cultural preservation.
We can disagree about politicians without forgetting that some interests are larger than politicians.
That is what mature political organisation looks like.
IT MUST NEVER BECOME A POLITICAL PARTY
This new pan Igbo institution must be fiercely non partisan.
APC members should belong.
PDP members should belong.
APGA members should belong.
ADC members should belong.
NDC members should belong.
People with no party should belong.
Governors, senators, traditional rulers and business leaders may participate as Ndi Igbo, but none of them should own the institution.
It must be strong enough to engage whichever government is in Abuja and independent enough to disagree with that government when necessary.
That is how respect is earned.
NOR SHOULD IGBO UNITY BECOME HOSTILITY TOWARDS ANYBODY
This point cannot be overstated.
A stronger Igbo identity must not become anti Yoruba, anti Hausa, anti Fulani, anti Ijaw, anti Edo, anti Ibibio, anti Idoma or anti anybody.
There is no contradiction between organising ourselves and respecting our neighbours.
In fact, the opposite should happen.
A confident and organised Igbo nation should be better positioned to build serious relationships with Yoruba organisations, Arewa organisations, Niger Delta organisations, Middle Belt organisations and other Nigerian peoples.
We organise ourselves not to confront everybody else, but to engage everybody else from a position of clarity, confidence and mutual respect.
PERHAPS THIS IS THE NEW MANTRA OF IGBONESS
Let the Igbo child in Enugu know it.
Let the Anioma child know it.
Let the Igbo child in Rivers know it.
Let the child growing up in Lagos know it.
Let the Igbo child in Kano know it.
Let the child born in London, Johannesburg, Houston or Toronto know it.
I am Igbo.
My dialect does not diminish me.
Migration does not erase me.
Displacement does not make me inferior.
A state boundary does not determine the worth of my ancestry.
Living outside the South East does not make me a peripheral Igbo.
Living outside Nigeria does not make me less Igbo.
No Igbo is more Igbo than I am.
And I am no more Igbo than any other Igbo.
Every Igbo is a first class Igbo.
That should become the covenant between us.
LET US NOT ANSWER FRAGMENTATION WITH ANOTHER FRAGMENT
Town unions will remain. State associations will remain. Professional bodies will remain. Cultural and diaspora organisations will remain because they perform useful functions.
The objective is not to abolish them.
The objective is to give them somewhere larger to belong.
A genuine pan Igbo institution should be capable of federating these bodies while also allowing individual Ndi Igbo to belong directly.
But let us resist our usual temptation to start with the name and the positions.
Who will be President General?
Which state gets Secretary General?
Where will the headquarters be?
Who becomes patron?
Those questions can destroy the project before it begins.
Start somewhere else.
What are we trying to build?
Agree on that first.
Then agree on its constitution.
Representation.
Checks and balances.
Funding.
Transparency.
Term limits.
Diaspora participation.
The place of traditional institutions.
The place of existing organisations.
How leaders are elected and removed.
How accounts are audited.
Only when those foundations are settled should we worry about who occupies which office.
Otherwise we will simply create another faction and call it unity.
THIS IS THE CONVERSATION WE SHOULD NOW HAVE
From Abia to Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo; from Delta to Rivers, Edo, Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Benue and Kogi; from Lagos and Abuja to every part of Nigeria where Ndi Igbo have made their homes; from Africa to Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Oceania, the principle should be the same:
Nobody is more Igbo than you, and you are not more Igbo than anybody else.
No superior Igbo.
No inferior Igbo.
No abandoned Igbo.
No peripheral Igbo.
No forgotten Igbo.
Just Ndi Igbo.
Many dialects. Many communities. Many states. Many countries. Many political opinions. One enormous extended family.
Our ancestors survived migration, colonialism, war, displacement and poverty. They rebuilt when very little was left to rebuild with.
Our generation faces another challenge.
We have to overcome fragmentation.
And we will not defeat fragmentation by creating another fragment.
We will defeat it when we finally build something broad enough for an Igbo anywhere in the world to look at it and say:
That is ours. I belong there.
Something democratic enough to command legitimacy, independent enough to command respect, transparent enough to earn trust and strong enough to defend legitimate common interests without becoming hostile to anybody else.
Something intelligent enough to understand Nigeria and confident enough to work with our neighbours.
Something that will still be standing when every person who founded it is gone.
That, in my view, should be the next great Igbo project.
Igwe bu ike.
Onye aghana nwanne ya.
Every Igbo is a first-class Igbo.
The South-East is a geopolitical zone.
Ndi Igbo are a people.
Wherever history, migration or circumstance has placed us, let brother recognise brother.
And this time, rather than create another faction, let us build an institution.
By Duruebube Uzii na Abosi
Chimazuru “Oblong” Nnadi-Oforgu
oblongmediaglobal
oblongmedialtd@gmail.com
Tel: 08072313955
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