Igbo who live at home away from home by Tunde Ajimobi

The other day, the Eze Igbo in Kaduna State granted my request for an interview. I got to the palace of His Highness, Igwe Sylvanus Aneke, to find top members of his Council. The Onowu (Prime Minister), Chief P.C. Eze, led at the occasion and I followed as he conducted the traditional Igbo rite of receiving an honoured guest. I have always had this utmost reverence for traditional rulers. I guess it’s a fallout of the teaching to respect those in authority. But sometimes, I wonder if it has to do with the fact that my father said his paternal grandmother was a daughter of an Alaafin of Oyo. Anyway, the Onowu presented me with kolanuts in a wooden platter, and because I didn’t know what to do, I had said, “I guess I have to ask you what I should do with it,” a thing that made everyone nod. The Onowu said I had to give the bowl back to him. I did. He presented it to the Igwe who pronounced blessing in Igbo.
I didn’t understand him, but when he mentioned “Tunji Ajibade” as he prayed, and because it was the first time I heard a royal father specially pronouncing blessing on me, I paid serious attention, saying “Amen” loudly. Other practices were observed after which the Onowu informed me that the Igwe was ready to respond to my questions.

“Igwe, what is it like to be in Kaduna State, away from home?” was my first question. The first thing the royal father did was to correct the impression that he and his people were not at home in Kaduna State. “Some of us have been in Kaduna for over 30 to 40 years. So, when you say away from home, it’s not easy for me to remember what it used to be to be at home. We now believe that Kaduna is our home. So, I can tell you that we are at home even though you think we are away from home. We feel at home in Kaduna.” That response made me add more to my questions because my initial plan was to ask the Igwe a few questions about what the expectations of his people were of the incoming administration in Kaduna State.

Next, I asked the Igwe to describe to me his experience as the head of the Igbo community. “It’s not easy to be a head of any community, especially the Igbo community, because you know the Igbo are unique. We struggle individually; we work hard at whatever level. So, somehow that loyalty to leadership is not as easy as it is in some other communities where people depend on government and communal help and so on. You find out that it’s much more difficult to head such people. But the important thing is that in that our uniqueness we have culture. Like you were surprised at meeting the members of my council here. That’s how we operate; the moment you said you were coming to meet me, I knew you were not coming to meet me as an individual, you were coming to meet me as leader of the Igbo, and for me to meet you, I must carry the Igbo along,” the Igwe stated, explaining further the structure through which information from his palace gets to his people at their various town hall meetings.

I wanted to know the pattern of relationship between the Igbo community and the Kaduna State Government. “The relationship between us and the government will depend on the government,” he said. “This is because the important thing is that we let them know us. It’s left for them to create a channel through which we meet. I can tell you that the relationship has been fine.” But in what specific ways did the community support the government? I asked. “The Igbo are peaceful people. You know we are mostly businessmen, and business can only thrive under a peaceful environment,” he said. “By the time we are peaceful and we’re busy doing our business, we are contributing a lot to the economic development of the state.”

I asked the Igwe what his view was with regard to an allegation that the Igbo don’t set up things of permanent nature in Kaduna State, rather they always return to the South-East. He said he was surprised to hear such an allegation and he would have expected the reverse to be said of the Igbo. “This is because when you go round Kaduna, you see the kind of structures, the kind of hotels in this town that are owned by the Igbo. When you talk of big hotels, I can tell you that 80 per cent of them are owned by the Igbo. So, whoever is saying that must be someone who doesn’t really know us well. That’s far from the truth because I don’t think there’s any tribe that sets up business outside their home states more than the Igbo.” Asked to confirm what some said that just before the last general elections the Igbo sold their properties and left Kaduna, the Igwe said such was more of “speculation than reality because if people sold their houses a month or two months ago, would they still be in Kaduna now? Go round and tell me which part of Kaduna that you can say the Igbo used to be there, but they are no longer there.”

“Looking back at the civil war, and some of the crises that had occurred over the years in the North, how comfortable do you feel living in Kaduna with all the possibility of sudden break out of violence?”, I had asked. “As Christians, we believe that our safety is in the hands of God. I won’t tell you I am comfortable with those experiences (past crises), but I know that running away from Kaduna doesn’t necessarily mean running to safety,” the Igwe said, noting that he had passed through many of the crises in the North since he arrived to work in the Federal Civil Service in 1976, and from where he retired four years ago. “I can tell you that during the Sharia crisis in Kaduna, I was living in Ungwar Dosa (populated by northerners); it was my neighbours that protected me from those who wanted to burn my house five times. You can have brothers in any other tribe. My people say, ‘Nwanne di na mba’, which means you can have your brothers in another land. Here in Kaduna, you may have a neighbour from any other part of the country that will be friendly. Meanwhile, you may be in your village and have hostile neighbours.”

I called his attention to a recent comment made by the governor-elect of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, that different ethnic groups used to live together peacefully in the same neighbourhoods but in recent years, the state had become divided, with different ethnic groups living on either sides of River Kaduna. The Igwe agreed that that governor-elect was right and that Kaduna was divided. “I used to live in Ungwar Dosa in my own house. But I had to abandon the house to come to Barnawa to rent a house which I eventually bought. There’s no doubt that Kaduna is divided.” But how did this become more pronounced? I asked the Igwe. He explained that when the Sharia crisis happened, the then state governor, in his search for solutions, asked people of different faiths to move to either side of River Kaduna where Sharia law would either apply to them or not. As for the solution to this division, the Igwe said everyone, from leaders to followers, should promote love and good neighbourliness among people of different tribes and religions.

I asked whether, based on the pronouncement made by the governor-elect that there shall be no room for indigene-settler dichotomy under his administration, and asked those who wanted to be categorised as indigenes of Kaduna State to come forward, would the Igbo accept his offer? He said the Igbo had been praying that the governor-elect would keep his promise from the time he made it during the campaigns. “Some of our people were born here and have lived here for over 40 years, so, where else do you think they feel at home more? Why do you think I won’t be happy if Kaduna State is ready to accept me as an indigene with all the rights? That’s what we are praying for; it’s not whether we will like it, we are praying for it.”

source:Punch