His consciousness about the plight of his Igbo people is proportionate and an important task to him, not only to make them attain the presidency in 2015, but, also, to transform their consciousness, which was seemingly battered by the Nigeria/Biafra war that ended in the warfront some forty-three years ago, but continues to rage before and after independence some fifty-three years ago.
Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, a former governor of Abia State and the most honoured and award-winning personalities in the world, sees violence as no longer an option for Ndigbo to match on to their destined abode in the Nigerian project, but only where any ethnic tribes that characterise the country wants to extirpate the Igbo out of the surface of the earth, just as Nigerians are seeing the countless and senseless killings of Ndigbo in many parts of the country, but, especially, in the northern part of the country.
Ndigbo have always related peacefully in Nigeria, but some tribes here are yet to understand that the best way to live in the country is to see others as human beings and not, as peoples who come from the blues that must be killed at any un-provocation. Ndigbo are living in
Nigeria with pains. And this is where Kalu?s consciousness to transform them comes in.
The consciousness of Dr. Kalu is not about himself, but that Nigeria should stop denigrating the Igbo and follow what a Brian Eno said thus: When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That’s one of the great feelings ? to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.
It is this ?great social virtue? is what Kalu is championing for. But the North which has been known as a servant of the British has always sung a discordant tone. Perhaps, because the British told the northerners that they were born to rule? But to Kalu, this mindset is despondence and will never restructure the many lingering problems that are besetting Nigeria.
It is not certain from where this hatred against Ndigbo in Nigeria emanated from. Perhaps, from this story that the problems of Nigeria are introductory as epitomised by the country?s founding Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who was so interested to abide by the dictates of the British colonialists, but did not believe in the unity of Nigeria. He was appointed into the Northern House of Assembly in January 1947; and two months later, into the Legislative Council (National Assembly).
The excerpts of his first speeches at the two legislative houses as published by his friend/master and official biographer, Trevor Clark in the book, A Right Honourable Gentleman: The Life and times of Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, he submitted: ?We are fortunate in having the British here as our guides and teachers.
They are great colonial administrators and they have great experience in developing and administering many tropical dependencies. I want all our British officers to realise that now is the time when we, as their pupils, need all their patience and courage, and the use of their knowledge and experience. If ever the Northern provinces change, as I know they must, I want them to change into modern Northern Nigeria, but not into some sort of artificial civilization which is not either European or African.
The Northern provinces are now facing a great danger. ?Evil ideas are creeping into the North from outside sources. In all countries of the world you find men who thirst for power, who agitate the government and disrupt the happiness of the people for the satisfaction of their own personal ambitions. I understand we have such a class of people in Nigeria. I do not know what right those people have to claim to be the voice of the North.
We must do something soon in the North to show Britain and the world that these self-styled leaders do not and cannot in any matter or in any way represent us. We have our own leaders whom we have chosen?.
Balewa was reportedly declared to have further said at the inaugural meeting of the National Assembly: ?We are still far from one country, despite the railway train and the motorcar which have created the opportunity of understanding among ourselves. This alone is not enough. We here are representatives of different communities, to discuss our common problems and to establish our future destinies.
The success or failure of the Richards Constitution lies mainly with the unofficial members. We should not close our eyes to the fact that the Yorubas, the Igbos and the Hausas, who are the predominant tribes in the country, do not see eye (to eye)…?
Today, a senseless Islamic group is killing Ndigbo en masse in the Northern part of the country in the useless agenda that it does not like Western education (Boko Haram) which translates to (Book is Sin), when Balewa had added and said: ??Among the needs of the Northern provinces are mass literacy, and for the education of our boys and girls to go side by side. We have only one secondary school ? we ask for five more, three for boys and two for girls.
In the awards of scholarships, the Northern provinces should have more places, because the Western and Eastern provinces have been enjoying those opportunities for a long time. Now the time has come for the North, and we should like to make up for what we have lost. We are glad that it has come to the notice of government that the Northern provinces have not been receiving the use of their full share from the Nigerian government…?
Dr. Kalu would ask, of whom are those killing Ndigbo in the north because they said that ?book is sin? are following their footsteps, when a respected personality like Alhaji Balewa had clamoured for mass literacy to all the northerners, and the federal government has never
gone back in this request. Ndigbo are not sure if the government has done wrong to the north by providing them with Western education, which has resulted to the targeting of Ndigbo in the north for prey for no just cause of theirs.
It is pertinent Ndigbo come together as one, because they are not loved in this feigned ?one country?. For doubting Thomases, Sir Arthur Richards, colonial governor, doodled Balewa a laudatory note, on the parliamentary floor, immediately after Balewa?s speech thus: ?There
are some people in Nigeria who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of speaking for the whole country as one.
A delegation of these people (made up of Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Michael Imoudu) toured parts of the Northern provinces. We did not then understand the real intention of that tour, and we naturally mistook it for one of friendship.
?We had never dreamed that it could ever possibly happen that these people could have thought of becoming our mouthpiece. We should like the world to know that in the North we have got our own leaders, whom we have chosen ourselves, to be our rulers and our voice. We do not want our Southern neighbours to interfere in our development.
We have never associated ourselves with the activities of these people. We do not know them, we do not recognise them, and we share no responsibility in their actions. We shall demand our rights when the time is ripe. If the British quitted Nigeria now at this stage, the Northern people would continue their uninterrupted conquest to the sea,? Balewa said.
This mentality continues today among the northerners that anybody who is not from the north elected as president will never rule them, hence bickering and tinkering and killing of the people from the old eastern region of this country. But OUK, as Orji Uzor Kalu is fondly called,
is out to reunite all the countrymen and women to pursue collective ambition. He does not want anyone to be deceived, since Nigeria, as a country, has come to stay, and eschew aspirations that are along ethnic lines.
Although, he has not hidden his voice to tell the powers that are that Nd?Igbo are systematically and serially marginalised in Nigeria. He tells those in the government to forget the noise some shameless Igbo politicians make about federal presence in the zone, because there is none at all. He says that only a dreamer will not appreciate the renewed vigour with which Igbo build bridges and work together to reposition themselves in global affairs. And that the new consciousness, which gains momentum by the day, is being driven by the emerging realities in our national life.
It was in the days of the Balewas that Ndigbo are maltreated in Nigeria. Kalu would say that time has passed when Igbo used to sit on the fence and wait for things to happen naturally. Even Igbo elite (who used to be passive about the struggle for Igbo emancipation) are in agreement that the time has come for us to be more creative, daring (if need be) and persuasive in working for the actualization of the Igbo Project. This is the consciousness!
Odimegwu Onwumere is a Poet/Writer, Rivers State. Tel: +2348032552855.
Email: apoet_25@yahoo.com
