Igbo identity crisis: The DNA option (2), by Ochereome Nnanna

Since the end of the Biafra War in January 1970, ethnic disunity has wreaked great havoc in the former Eastern Region. In the former Northern Region, the Minorities (especially Christians and non-Muslims) want to be fully accepted by the so-called “Hausa/Fulani” Muslim Majority, who wield overwhelming power. But they (the Minorities) are rebuffed, discriminated against and subjugated. The same applies to the Minorities in the old Western Region. The Yoruba tend to keep the Edoid and Western Igbo groups at arm’s length. Only the Itsekiri are spared this because of real or contrived “ancestral links”.

In the East, the situation is the other way round. The Minorities distance themselves from their Igbo Majority neighbours. The situation is so queer that even those who are obviously Igbo (in terms of names, language and culture) reject the tag of Igbo. They rather hold strongly to their dialectal identity, which they call “ethnic nationality”. When an Igbo-speaking Ikwerre or Ukwuani person denies being Igbo, it is as laughable as me, an Abiriba man, claiming, “I am Abiriba; I am not Igbo.” In our first instalment of this article, I gave examples of how these false claims have always failed to fool other non-Igbo Nigerians when political decisions are being made. Peter Odili, an Igbo identity denier, was swept aside by President Olusegun Obasanjo in favour of Goodluck Jonathan, despite being obviously more endowed with leadership qualities than Jonathan.

The Eastern people, irrespective of subtle differences, have always stood out from the rest of the country in many ways. They share the same republican, democratic culture. Some groups are monarchical; others were historically led by a committee of elders under a paramount figure, an Obi or Eze. There were no absolute kings anywhere in the East. There was absolutely no imperial or expansionist culture. No community sought to conquer and annex the other. Quarrels were settled according to laid-down traditions. People interacted, intermarried and traded freely.

Up till today, the cultural dressing of all Eastern groups, from Igbo to Ibibio/Efik to Ijo to Ogoni, remains a shared heritage. Also, it is only in the East that Islam has been strongly rejected and Christianity wholesomely embraced to coexist with the ancestral belief systems of the people. The East is Nigeria’s exclusive Christendom. These commonalities, however, have failed to unite the people because of petty-mindedness and self-destructive rivalries stoked by external predators.

Before the white man came, the hinterland traded and prospered with the coastal people. Despite being Igbo, my Abiriba cultural outlook is more of the riverine fashion. If you come to Abiriba, you will hear names derived from Bonny (Ubani), such as Jombo, Igbani and others. You will also hear names from the Calabar flank, such as Bassey, Erem (Edem), Itum, Okon, Asibong, and so on. My father’s name is Okpan, which is the same as Akpan (Efik/Ibibio). Yet, we, the Bende Igbo, are Igbo till the last man standing. Towards independence, the regionalisation of government awakened ethnic consciousness among the new educated elites who sought to position their peoples to ensure they were not disadvantaged under indigenous rule. That was when groups started aggregating into Igbo, Efik, Ibibio, Ijo, Ogoni and others.

The main watershed of division in the former Eastern Region was the Biafra War. After the first coup of 15th January 1966, the North wanted to secede from Nigeria. If that had happened, all of us would have been in a much better world. But evil Britain, with their eyes on the rising oil wealth of the Eastern Region, installed Col. Yakubu Gowon as Nigeria’s Head of State. They gave him the “divide-and-rule” blueprint which they used to govern the British Empire, the largest empire in human history.

The strategy was simple. To take full control of the oil resources of the Eastern Region, simply separate the Igbo from their Minority neighbours, thereby weakening both sides. Go into the Igbo dialectal groups in the Greater Port Harcourt areas and splinter them into “ethnic nationalities”. Hedge the main Igbo body into a small enclave and cut them off from the sea. To remove Ndi Igbo from Port Harcourt, declare the properties which they left behind during the War as “Abandoned Property” and share them among prominent Rivers State leaders. Tell the Ijo people that Rivers State is their war booty. While they trade hatred and fight, you sneak behind them and possess and plunder the oil and gas. If they agitate too much, you hang the leadership of the troublemakers and appoint a few “warlords” as pipeline guards (“maigads”).

It worked like magic. Igbo groups in Rivers State started rewriting their oral histories, renaming their communities and inventing untenable tales of Benin origin bereft of Benin language, culture and names. Meanwhile, barefaced evidence points uncompromisingly to Igbo origins as validated by eminent colonial historiographers. Ask any AI platform about the ethnological origins of these self-denying groups. The answer is unequivocally, “Igboid”. Igbo denial has become a self-inflicted mental disease. A mentally deranged person is usually the last to know he is not well.

I strongly believe that this matter should be settled through a scientific process: DNA checks. Any Igbo-speaking community that denies Igbo origin should undergo mass DNA tests. If Benin origin is confirmed, the argument is closed in favour of Benin heritage. I bet you, many of them will reject this option, choosing, instead, to remain the mosquito on the scrotum of the Igbo nation because they are on the payroll of the enemies of Igbo and Eastern unity. These enemies include the oil-well owners from faraway parts of Nigeria and the jihadists whose life ambition is to roll the East into the sack of the Fulani Caliphate and enslave the people as they have done to the Hausa. These Igbo deniers are threats to us.

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