THE nation of Israel has never been a stranger to wars from the Biblical times to this day. They, therefore, built and developed structures and systems that make them succeed and dominate their environment and situation. Israel has become self-sufficient in almost all sectors of their economy through the use of lessons from numerous war experiences.
This piece is about Ndigbo of the South East of Nigeria who, like the Jews, are presently scattered all over the 36
states of Nigeria, but unlike the Jews have suffered only one defeat in a civil war that lasted three years. But from all available facts Ndigbo have learnt little or nothing from the experiences of that defeat.
Most wars are avoidable, but when they come, they bring lessons which should help the parties to live with greater respect for each other. Not so in Nigeria, where those who supposedly defeated Ndigbo have expectedly only helped themselves with the spoils of the war.
A few examples. They own most of the oil wells and blocs even though the oil comes from the South-South and South East. They have many precious solid minerals, but have managed to ensure that there is no national body like a commission to harness the gains from the exploitation of solid minerals to the benefit of the whole country. So they can shout and try to intimidate the rest on the sharing of proceeds from oil at any gathering, while none exists for us all from the solid minerals buried in the bowel of their lands. They claim to have greater population based on figures they concocted.
They are the leaders and captains of Industry, have laid good foundations for enduring agriculture and manufacturing. They have managed to carefully manipulate the situation to knock the head of Ndigbo against their natural good neighbours, the Niger Deltans, such that some Igbos now believe the they are not loved by their neighbors, while Niger Deltans who bear Igbo names and speak Igbo avoid to be identified as Ndigbo. And to crown it all, they have settled with the notion that they are born to rule the country and dominate the Igbo man who must never be allowed to produce a presidential candidate being elected a president.
To achieve this, they fight anybody whose body language is favorably disposed to Ndigbo, and in that frenzy, they brought terrorism into Nigeria. Led by men like Governor Nyako of Adamawa State, they are now using the same terrorism as their reason to call for an uprising in the North against Ndigbo, all because they perceive President GEJ as an Igbo man.
But has the Igbo man realised that the battle is just to stop him? Has he learnt anything as a people from the losses and experiences of the same civil war that has so rewarded his co-sailors in the ship of the Nigerian state?
During the war, life became so tough for the Igbos; food and medicines were scarce. There were no means of transport; to own a motorcycle was a rare privilege, all because of the economic blockade. The blockade was so effective because we had no access to the sea in the form of a seaport.
The only airport in Igbo land was the Uli Air strip, used mostly for war purposes. But 43 years after that war, Igbo land still has no seaport. We have a barges port in Onitsha, which means nothing in terms of our experience from the civil war.
There is no plan anywhere, either by government or private efforts, to provide a deep seaport to serve the South East, and they are not working on building one in the South-South under any form of partnership or arrangement to remove that challenge or failure. Should Ndigbo not be building bridges across to their neighbors? The only international flight to and from the South East happened under President GEJ, and we expect a sea port worthy of note with direct access to the sea like in Apapa under him. Any Igbo man that has or may join in fighting GEJ, irrespective of his political party, has refused to learn from the civil war.
During that war, our sources of protein were sheep and goat meat, pork, rats, snake meat(very delicious), lizards, frogs, and certain insects like the cricket, grasshoppers, asparagus of all sorts, larvae from the oil palm and raffia palm trees which were delicacies with some medicinal values, and assorted vegetables, especially the green and fluted pumpkins we call Ugu. We had only the native Igbo cow we call Ehi. The cattle from the North called Nnama was not known, and no one cared for it.
But today, Fulani herdsmen want to run over us because we abandoned our God-given resources, including ehi, and have developed a strange appetite for Fulani nnama.
Ndigbo should have an Institute for Insects and Reptiles as a tribute to those creatures that helped us overcome and survive the war. There is one in Israel with good tourist impact to copy from.
Ndigbo should have a plan to be self- sufficient in protein supply without depending on nnama.
Our main sources of carbohydrate in that war were yam, cassava, cocoayam and the corn meal from the WCC and Caritas International. Today Ndigbo have abandoned yam, cassava and cocoyam to other zones to produce. We have become major consumers. As useful and famous as the corn meal was, no one talked of producing it because we chose to learn nothing from that war. Our Governors pay lip service to gully erosion which is washing away farm lands, and even our bankers join others in making lending money to develop agriculture in Igbo land very difficult.
Nigeria is blessed, but the North wants to rule or scatter it.
An Igbo proverb says that ‘it is only the deaf grasshopper that gets consumed by the woodpecker.’
CLEMENT UDEGBE, a legal practitioner, wrote from Lagos.
Source vanguard
