Re: NIGERIA CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT THE IGBO - BY FEMI ARIBISALA - The African Sun Times

Recently I wrote an article, a rejoinder to public comments by Gen Gowon on Ikemba Ojukwu and Aburi - 
http://oducheazih.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/gowon-ojukwu-misinformed-nigerians-on.html?m=0. 

I had pointed out the growing set of non-Igbo Igbo apologists in our political landscape. I presented a short list which I never claimed was either comprehensive or complete. What I found most interesting was the fact that commentators across the generational divides are well represented. Akin Osuntokun is one. So also is Engr Tombari Sibe, the guy "who was not even born when the major madness of 1966 started." 

Sibe had detailed how, despite being from the Niger Delta, (Bayelsa?), he arrived at his own conclusions on the 1966 crisis, the war and its aftermath, and on Ojukwu and Ndigbo in general. Of course his views are not mainstream but he is now at an age where he can make up his own mind and has the confidence to make it public. 

All the above however did not prepare me for the major work by Prof Femi Aribisala titled "Nigeria cannot Survive Without The Igbo". The strange thing is that this opinion piece, which will definitely win him very few friends outside Igboland, has been in circulation since 2014. How could I, hunter and gatherer that I am, have missed it until today while trawling through Facebook? 

http://africansuntimes.com/2015/06/nigeria-cannot-survive-without-the-igbo-by-femi-aribisala/

It will be instructive revisiting the book reviews by the Saro-Wiwa siblings Noor and Ken(Jr) on Achebe's "There Was A Country." One of them, while referring to the complaint by other commentators about the thread of Igbo triumphalism in Achebe's narrative, riposted that the feeling of triumphalism has been earned. I leave the reader to deduce if Prof Aribisala is actually saying the same thing. 

I am Igbo. I studied at Unilag at a time it was not a normal or natural thing to do. I have lived in Lagos for the better part of my life, with all the rough and tumble associated with Eko. The good, the bad and the ugly! However, however, I cannot yet point out a case of systematic and overt dislike of my person by my Yoruba professional colleagues, acquaintances, neighbours and friends because of my being Igbo. This is notwithstanding the fact that I routinely plant my feet in each and every controversy that arises in our polity, especially Lagos and the O'odua states. 

Nigeria may yet be saved. If it is God's will and our determination that this will be achieved with the well known and documented fair and fully appreciated involvement of Ndigbo, then let's get on with it. We have wasted so much time bickering over non-issues.