Situating the debate Now that the 2015 elections have been won and lost, it will do us some good to give more perspective to the Lagos debate in order to achieve some logical conclusions. Last Friday, in my pre-election prognosis, I had started on the premise of that age-worn Igbo maxim: O biara be onye abiagbulaya, mgbe o ga-ala mpu-mkpu apu kwa laya. It simply means live and let live but pithier and more beautiful in its literal sense: bear no ill-will against your host lest you be afflicted by hunch back as you return home. This and several other Igbo dictums are indications that the Igbo universe has a deep culture of mutual respect and reciprocity.
Recall that the Lagos monarch, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, had sparked off a latent ethnic controversy a few days to the April 11 governorship election when in one anxious moment, he had ‘decreed’ that Ndigbo and other non-indigenes in Lagos would have the Lagos lagoon to contend with if they failed to vote his candidate. His ‘fatwa’ was even more irksome in concluding that “what you people cannot do in Onitsha, Aba or anywhere you cannot do it here.”
Surely this comment coming from a paramount royalty exhibits a rare form of intolerance and bigotry that should never be allowed in the 21st century. Understandably, the Oba’s bombshell is triggered by the March 28 presidential election in which APC in Lagos lost five House of Representatives’ seats with Igbo PDP candidates winning two. There was therefore apprehension among some Lagosians and in Lagos APC that the numerical strength of Igbo voters in Lagos could cause an upset in the guber race, thus the unrestrained threat: ‘vote APC or perish.’
One is taken aback at the dissemblance of some Yoruba commentators, even highly enlightened ones, who are expected to serve as guiding lights to the illogical hoi polloi. Not a few have made excuses for the monarch, positing that he is kabiyesi – he that cannot be questioned. But we also know many obas in history have been deposed, de-throned or even put down! Well, a few issues have been thrown up by this episode:
First, Ndigbo in Lagos have not run foul of any law of Lagos State by voting Jimi Agbaje or the PDP. It is democracy at work and as the electoral process gets better, the people will increasingly vote their conscience and their votes will continue to count. And it is unfair, if not hypocritical for anyone to seek to abuse Ndigbo as if they have broken any law by exercising their democratic rights.
While we are at it, why are Ndigbo always singled out and made a scapegoat? There are hordes of aggrieved Yoruba in Lagos and the Southwest who got huge cash inducement and they voted for PDP. Nearly all the Southsouth people in Lagos and the Southwest would have voted for PDP as well. So it is sheer ethnic baiting to make it seem as if only the brash, ungrateful Ndigbo plotted to undo the APC in Lagos.
Nobody, no matter how highly placed, is allowed to issue hate messages that are liable to lead the untutored mass to violence and tribal frictions. Election is not a do-or-die affair and we must refrain from making it seem as if losing is the end of life.
This brings us to the issue of the status of Lagos. So many commentators are hinging their logic on Ndigbo doing in Lagos, what they would not accept in their place and I think that is simply asinine if not an illiterate argument only heard in motor parks. The point is that Lagos is in a class by itself – a mega city. Providence, geography, colonialism and Nigeria’s geo-political history have made it so. Lagos is willy-nilly carrying a role foisted upon it by these factors way beyond its control. Lagos is at least one hundred years removed from Onitsha, Ibadan, Kaduna or any other Nigerian city.
Lagos is no longer a Yoruba town as some of my Yoruba friends would want to so circumscribe it. Come to think of it, Lagos is not even a Yoruba word, we seem to forget that! Lagos is a burgeoning cosmopolis which is striving to earn her pride of place among the world’s cities. One merely chuckles when some folks get provincial and seek to own Lagos. Yes, there are indigenes; yes, they may own Lagos but they cannot circumscribe Lagos.Like London or New York or even latter-day Dubai, great cities will inexorably evolve to be no-man’s land. For example Nigerians and especially Yoruba have won important council elections in England. By their growing number and importance, in less than 50 years a Nigerian of Yoruba extraction could be mayor of London, or even prime minister. When the time comes, there is nothing anyone can do about it.
When the time came for Barak Obama, a Black American of Kenyan origin to rule America, there was nothing anyone could do about it. Not even the White Ango-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) who believe they own America. Not the inimitable Jewish clan. Who runs Dubai today? Does it matter? I think not; what matters is that they have a complex city, the mall of the world to run and they seek a throng of ‘strangers’ to come have a stake.
A city is like a brothel which thrives by the very traffic of strangers. It is a prodigal that grows by undoing its progeny. A true city is not home to indigenes strapped in bante (loincloth) smudging the glistening sheen of modernity. A city is an open sesame, a spell for making barriers fly open and engendering massive growth and development. What is a city without the throng of ‘visitors’, paying huge taxes, laying massive investments and shooting skyscrapers into the skyline in morbid capitalist quest?
Takeaways and what Akin Ambode can do: The incoming governor must take off where Governor Babatunde Fashola stopped; he is here to build a megacity, a global top 20 not to nurse the wound of indigenes. The best cities in the world thrive on state of the art infrastructure, unflappable security and water-tight rule of law. Apart from fast-tracking modern infrastructure, he may need to set up an agency to take charge of non-indigenes (non-Yoruba more appropriately); what really is their size, what are their grievances and special needs; why would they vote against a ruling party, etc. What are the best avenues to reach the critical mass of non-indigenes? Another election will soon be here and the thinking party will get the votes. The best cities of the world are judged by the quality of their laws, the soundness of institutions and the astuteness of minds running it.
Finally, I sincerely think Ndigbo deserve some respect and understanding for their enormous contributions to the making of this mega city. If someone could quantify how much taxes, levies and dues derived from their work and business activities daily, it would be clear that this city needs Ndigbo as they need the city. It also must be stated that Ndigbo have nothing to be ashamed of for choosing to sink with PDP; they will have to live with the consequences anyway. It will smack of “negative triumphalism” to borrow Reuben Abati’s tautology for anyone to pillory Ndigbo for their choice.
And Okonkwo comes to town: My cerebral colleague, Olakunle Abimbola writing in his column (Republican Ripples) The Nation last Tuesday brought Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’s’ (TFA) protagonist – Okonkwo, into the fray. But his perspective is flawed because he does not quite grasp the sociology of the Igbo man. Using the TFA analogy, it is not for nothing that the book opens with a wrestling match. That signifies gamesmanship, rivalry, chivalry and strength. Again, nowhere in TFA is found any concept of monarchy or over-lordship. What is preponderant are forums of elders trading in wisdom, young men of valour, industry and free-spiritedness that border on irreverence. That is what we are; that is the constitution of our DNA and it will be unfair to expect us to change overnight because we live in Lagos or London.
Historically, Igbo abhor monarchy. Never mind the self-crowned aberration found on nearly every street of Lagos and beyond, they don’t represent Ndigbo. Again, most of the so-called paramount rulers in Igboland cannot trace their crown a hundred years back. This is in contrast to some stools in Yorubaland that may date back nearly a thousand years. So here are two peoples of vastly contrasting cultures and acculturation. What this means is that each of our peoples have strengths we can tap into and build upon. They also have their foibles, their peccadilloes which we must understand and tolerate.
We must acknowledge and regard each other from these perspectives. But most important, we must always remember that what counts ultimately is our common humanity under one maker. And whatever else we may claim to be, whether indigene, aborigine or stranger element would not matter at the end of the day. What would matter is the quality of life we extract from this space; the smiles we are able to evoke from our neigbhours, colleagues and associates regardless of tribe or tongue. How do we improve on this space we find ourselves today and make it even better for our children? Finally, we often forget too quickly that we are but mere mortals – here today and gone tomorrow, but the city abides.
