Nyesom Wike And Igbo Ancestry Deniers

Wike

 Something interesting happened recently and it has to do with identity. Veteran journalist Dele Momodu was interviewing the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike on Instagram and the journalist told him that he was Igbo and he took offence with that. The way he protested for being referred to as Igbo, you could be pardoned if you think that Dele Momodu might have accused him of being a member of Boko Haram or a member of the so-called bandits terrorizing the country. 

Wike insisted that he was Ikwere and not Igbo and to add to the absurdity of the conversation he said that some Ikweres believe they are from Benin. Interestingly, Wike comes from a part of Rivers State where the former governor of the state and current minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi who has never been shy of his Igboness hails from. You may recall that a few years back Amaechi was accused by the Senate Minority Leader Enyinnaya Abaribe of deliberate marginalization of the South East in the federal government’s railway development programme. Amaechi was at the Senate to defend his ministry’s budget. He had what many considered a heated argument with Senator Abaribe on the neglect of the South East on the scheme of things in respect to the rail sector. Days after the confrontation with Abaribe, Amaechi appeared on Channels TV to discuss the same matter and Amaechi took time to explain that he would not be in a position and watch South East marginalized on rail transport when the zone is well known for business endeavours and contributions to the economy and that as an Igbo man himself “Unless Abaribe wants to deny me my Igbo heritage” and he cannot stop the zone from benefitting from the ongoing rail development across the country. 

And any keen observer would notice that Amaechi dress more Igbo than ministers from the South East during Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings. Therefore examining the different perspective to the Igbo question by Nyesom Wike and Amaechi it is obvious that he who says he is Igbo is Igbo and he who says he is not, is not. It is akin to the Jewish identity question. There are those who believe that a Jew is he or she who calls himself/herself a Jew. But the traditional way of knowing who is a Jew is if the person’s mother is a Jew. To such people you are only a Jew if your mother is a Jew, not even your father. It is an issue that I have addressed in the past in an article titled “Like The Jewish Question, Who Is An Igbo?” 

It has also been noted by scholars that the Igbo denial is rooted in identity politics. The lack of political leverage to be gained at federal level as an Igbo have made many especially those from South-South to deny any affinity with Igbo. Contrast this with the North where those who are not Fulani are falling over themselves to be identified as Fulani even when they have zero Fulani blood. When their Fulaniness is called to question they claimed to be part of the amorphous Hausa-Fulani tribe. The Igbo denial is of course tied to the Civil War and its aftermath in which the Igbo are still paying the political price to this day. The 1966 Coup was/is branded ‘Igbo Coup’ to this day because there is/was a belief that it had a preponderance of the Igbo in its top hierarchy, but most of these Igbo officers that executed the coup are from present day South South, precisely Delta State where many today deny that they are Igbos. But because of the action of their brothers, thousands of innocent Igbos was slaughtered on the streets of Northern Nigeria and the Civil War that followed cost Ndigbo over 3million lives and set the region back a hundred years. The taker away from this identity challenge is that those who deny being Igbo have not fared better than those who do. In fact those who wear their Igboness as a badge of honour are some of the best in what they do. Former Super Eagles captain Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh, whose younger brother Azubuike Oliseh also was a professional footballer announced that he is not Igbo. In fact nobody asked him about it and out of the blues he said, “Sorry to disappoint you, I am not Igbo…” 

The guy was delivering a TeDTalk where people wanted to listen to learn how he made it playing football on the streets of Lagos to becoming part of the glorious Super Eagles of 1994 set. And he digressed for whatever reason. Even his Igbo denial did not make him to last as Super Eagles coach. His, was one of the shortest in Super Eagles history. Austin Jay Jay Okocha, former Super Eagles captain like the rest of the Okochas including his late brother, Prof Emma Okocha who wrote the thought-provoking book , “Blood On The Niger” an account of the genocide committed against Igbo people in Asaba by the Nigerian military when the civil war was already over, wear their Igboness as badges of honour. And Okocha is a better brand than Oliseh any day. To cap it, when legendary football god,

Pele compiled the list of the 100 greatest living footballers in the world, Okocha’s name was included and nobody complained that Oliseh was not included. Everyone understood that he does not deserve to be on the list. 

If one looks at the pedigree of people of Igbo origin or ancestry, from Olaudah Equiano, King Jaja of Opobo, Sir Louis Ojukwu, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Prof Chinua Achebe, to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Hollywood A list actor Chiwetel Ejiofor of Oscar winning ‘12 Years A Slave’ blockbuster movie, Super Computer genius Philip Emeagwali whom Bill Clinton described as “Bill Gates of Africa”, Jay Jay Okocha, Dr Cosmos Maduka, and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala among others, any reasonable person in Africa and the Diaspora should consider it an honour to be identified as Igbo even if they are not.