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Let Ndiigbo Celebrate Mike Okiro’s Appointment. By Ubanese Nwanganga Shortly after he took over from the High Chief of Owu, the great Solomon of our time, the anti corruption crusader who cornered our collective patrimony for himself and his cronies (Dangote, Otedola et al), President Umar Yar’Adua fired his police chief, Sunday Ehindero. Obasanjo’s anti corruption posture reminds me about the story of a man who denied eating rat meat but admitted to sharing it for the children with his teeth. This essay is not about the man we were too glad to see him leave office on May 29, 2007. Let’s leave Obasanjo for now and concentrate on the issue at hand. In firing his police chief, President Yar’Adua instructed the erstwhile police chief to hand over the affairs of the police to the next most senior police officer. Fortunately or unfortunately, the most senior police officer after Ehindero, DIG Ogbonna Onovo, an officer and a gentleman, was of Igbo extraction and from Enugu State. According to reports, his former boss did not favour him for the exalted office of the Inspector General of Police. Consequently, Ehindero, the reports maintain, refused to hand over to Onovo. While Ehindero held sway, the third officer in order of seniority, also a DIG was Mike Okiro, another officer and gentleman. He too was of Igbo extraction but from Rivers State. Ehindero chose to hand over to him instead of the second-in-command, Onovo. As a former civil servant and a keen observer of political developments in Nigeria since the end of the civil war, in 1970, there is no public officer from the southern part of Nigeria who could flout the authority of the Commander-In-Chief with impunity, as was credited to former IGP Ehindero. If the former IGP came from somewhere in the Caliphate I would not find it difficult to believe that his objection cost Onovo the plum police job (Consider the reported refusal of General Tony Hananiya to hand over the affairs of the Federal Road Safety Commission and you will appreciate what I mean.). Therefore, we are yet to be treated to the truth of the matter, that is, why Onovo lost out to Okiro. It is not my intention to go on wild goose chasing here but suffice it to say that Onovo lost out as a result of considerations, which had nothing to do with the preferences of his former boss or his ethnic origin. My guess is that having considered Okiro’s two remaining years compared to Onovo’s over four years, it is in the interest of the north to use Okiro as a temporary custodian instead of Onovo whose tenure would cover Yar’Adua’s four year term. I have no grudge against the north for this, after all Baba’s eight years of two terms saw three IGPs, all Yoruba. If security considerations informed Baba’s decisions, same consideration cannot be divorced from Yar’Adua presidency. The story of Ndiigbo in Nigeria since the events of January 15, 1966 is too well known to detain us here. Be that as it may, as Achebe, erudite professor of literature once observed, Nigerians are united in their hatred of Ndiigbo. The refusal of Ndiigbo to occupy the seat prepared for them by their compatriots before and after the war is at the root of the hatred. Otherwise, having lost the war and all that went with it-relevance, influence, authority-the Igboman was no threat to other Nigerians. However, the expectation of non-Igbo Nigerians was that having been cut to size; the Igbo man’s capacity to influence events in the country had completely been whittled down. Economically, he had been castrated by Chief Awolowo’s policy of twenty pounds for every bank account held and operated during the war, in the Biafran enclave. Besides, his property was declared abandoned in Lagos and elsewhere in the minority areas of former Eastern Nigeria. In the federal civil service he lost seniority and served under his subordinates, that is, if he was lucky to be reabsorbed. As the military had taken the centre stage in national political and economic life, the plight of the Igboman in the armed forces was better imagined than experienced. All senior Igbo army officers were incarcerated, without trial despite Gowon’s policy of “no victor, no vanquished”. Most of them remained in detention until 1975, long after they had been summarily dismissed from the military without benefits. Only the likes of Ebitu Ukiwe, Ndubuisi Kanu and Allison Madueke, in the navy, considered non-strategic were reabsorbed. Education suffered the worst form of neglect. With frozen bank accounts, premature retirements in the civil service, incarceration without trial, abandoned property, destroyed businesses, Igbo children, whether at primary, secondary or tertiary level, went back to school and began from day one to pay school fees. Those who were lucky to have the school fees returned to dilapidate school buildings with walls full of bullet holes and leaking roofs. Having served as the main theatres of war, from 1967-70, there was no solid bridge across any river in Igbo land. Bailey bridges used in the prosecution of the war were all over the place. Holes dug across roads as obstacles by the Biafran forces were hurried patched to allow the victors passage. In short, road infrastructure in Igbo land was in total disrepair. Igbo land, by any account, was another country from the rest of Nigeria. Yet, in spite of the calculated attempt to render him prostrate with a view to killing him softly, the Igboman refused to die or be made irrelevant. Where it became necessary to beg, he begged. If selling whatever was not declared abandoned would help him to start all over, he did not hesitate to sell. From his meager salary he sent his children and wards back to school. Young men, ex-Biafran soldiers, who had suddenly become unemployed as well as children who could not return to school moved to the major centres of development in the country located outside Igboland. They were construction hands, daily paid labourers at the wharfs where they offloaded goods including cement. They were security men at factories in Lagos and Kano. Even some were night soil men. As Ndiigbo returned to different parts of Nigeria outside Igbo land where they toiled to make a living, they, notwithstanding the pains and dislocations of defeat, began gradually to rebuild their lives. Some well meaning Nigerians showed compassion and extended their hands of fellowship. Those who did so could not influence official policy, anyway. Many teachers moved up north where they were hired on contract. The only exception was areas where hostility against Ndiigbo was openly expressed. Such areas were avoided until the security situation improved. Otu Onitsha, the largest market in West Africa was rebuilt and reopened. Ekene Dili Chukwu buses were soon back on the roads. With the question of who was in charge settled in favour of the winners of the civil war, Ndiigbo could no longer pose any threat to anybody. Therefore, it was deemed safe by the federal authorities to start engaging Igbo expertise for national development. The decision was informed by two considerations, viz: - locally, it gave the impression that the war, fought for Nigerian unity, was truly over and Ndiigbo were indeed being received back as equal partners in the Nigerian enterprise. Secondly, it was a statement to the international community that the Nigerian authorities were capable of handling the nation’s internal post-war problems. Thus, as a result, qualified and able-bodied Igbo boys were recruited into the military and paramilitary outfits such as the police, customs, immigration, etc. Young graduates from Nsukka and other Nigerian universities as well as those who studied abroad were recruited into the federal civil service. In the case of the military, however, the point was well made that the mistakes of pre-war Nigeria whereby a high proportion of Nigerian army officers were of Igbo origin would not repeat itself. The precaution was achieved by way of discriminatory policy of quota based on states. In other words, recruitment into the officers’ corps of Nigerian armed forces through the Nigerian Defense Academy, located in Kaduna, was by quota. For instance, in a batch of 120 cadets, only 10 of them would come from Igboland. The north, which to all intents and purposes, remained one monolithic enclave in spite of the creation of states in 1967 by the Gowon administration, would provide 60. The Yoruba, the second leg of the tripod, which existed before the war, would provide 20. The minority states of eastern Nigeria would also provide 20. The remaining 10 slots were allocated to then Bendel state. Because the ringleader of the January 15, 1966 coup d’etat, which claimed the life of Ahmadu Bello, Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, was from the Igbo-speaking area of Bendel, no Igbo man would be included in the 10 slots for Bendel. Effectively, Ndiigbo moved from the premier league to unclassified division as far as the military, which had become dominant in Nigerian politics was concerned. So, the question of an Igboman ever again playing the role of Major Nzeogwu in Nigeria was adequately addressed. However, the situation was not quite the same in the civil service. Civilians do not plan coups or change governments by force. But they do influence policies depending on their political leanings. Therefore, bureaucrats of Igbo origin must be watched. However, this was not an issue of concern, as the intimidating presence of the Yoruba and Bendelites in the federal civil service was enough guarantees against Igbo reassertion via the power of the pen. Besides, the civil service had been subordinated to the total control of the military. Therefore, if Ndiigbo tried to reassert themselves using their civil servants, the military under the complete control of the north would take care of that. In the paramilitary outfits, the north, despite its obvious manpower deficiencies, maintained its stranglehold and headed the prisons, police, customs and immigration departments. Therefore, the conclusion was that with all the institutional discriminations put in place in the federal bureaucracies after the war, it would be a Herculean task for any Igboman, to make it to the top. However, where they did, against all odds and made it to the top, they would be retired prematurely. The continued use of quota and federal character whether or not the north could boast of qualified manpower and the multiplicity of states since 1976 continued to disadvantage Ndiigbo considerably. Above all, the institutionalization and acceptance of military rule by the north to run the country instead of democracy ensured that Ndiigbo lost out in all spheres. Fortunately, democracy came in 1999 after Abacha, the last of the dictators from the north, the maniac depressive who suffered from itching fingers, died in 1998. Obasanjo appointed the first Comptroller General of Immigration from Igboland in 2000. A recommendation by the Board responsible for the affairs of Customs, Immigrations and Prisons for the appointment of an Igboman to head the Customs was thrown out by the former President. Before the headship of the police became vacant following Ehindero’s attainment of the mandatory retirement 35 years length of service at the end of 2005, Baba quickly granted him an extension of service at the helm of police affairs. This enabled him to stay in office until Baba’s two terms of office expired on May 29, 2006. However, it happened that the two most senior police officers after Ehindero were two Igbomen. In order words, head or tail, Ndiigbo would win, thanks to democracy. Otherwise, under a military regime, Onovo and Okiro would have been retired before they became a threat to the interest of the north. I am not implying that President Yar’Adua cannot go ahead and bypass the two most senior officers for the office of the IGP. He can, but questions will be asked, as is the case with the sidelining of Onovo in preference for his subordinate, Okiro. Interestingly, non-Igbos have shown interest in the fate that befell Onovo. Under the military, Onovo’s retirement would have been seen as normal and no questions would have asked. Therefore, my position is that if Mike Okiro is eventually confirmed, as IGP, Ndiigbo should thank their gods for democracy. Okiro is an Igboman from Rivers state. I have always maintained that Ndiigbo are one indivisible people. There are no mainstream and peripheral Ndiigbo. Igbo blood flows in their veins, whether they are found in Obiaruku, Agbor, Asaba (Ahaba), Kwale, across the Niger, or in Aba, Orlu, Onitsha, Nsukka, Abakiliki, Ohafia in the present southeast, or Igwenga, Port Harcourt, Ahoada, Omoku in Rivers state. When Edwin Clarke, the Igwetimba of Izonland, said that Dr. Peter Odili is an Igboman, he was stating the obvious. Yoruba Nigerians as well as northerners see him as such. Is anybody still looking for reasons why his well organized presidential campaign to succeed Baba failed? His original sin was that he is of Igbo origin. Therefore, let Ndiigbo roll out the drums and celebrate Mike Okiro. He has achieved what no other Igboman before him had achieved in the Nigerian police force. We are proud of him. Besides, our people say that when a man loses something, which eventually goes to his relative the man has lost nothing. While we may not be happy with the way Onovo was treated we are more than compensated by Okiro’s appointment. The lackluster performance of Ohaneze Ndiigbo worries me a lot. Indeed, it should worry every right-thinking Igboman. The organization has continued to fail to provide critical leadership when it mattered most. Today, it has more than three factions. This is indeed sad and unfortunate. Notwithstanding, Ohaneze must celebrate Okiro’s appointment on behalf of the entire Ndiigbo nation. I don’t care which faction does it. A reception should be organized in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu or Okiro’s hometown of Egbema to mark the event. The Izon nation held a rousing reception in honour of Gen. Andrew Owoeye Azazi after he was appointed the Army Chief of Staff. Even though smaller ethnic nationalities such as the Igbira and Ibibio have at different times produced IGPs of police, this our first time is special. It is special because it came from the ashes of defeat and despite deliberate state marginalization. Yes, let’s roll out the drums and celebrate Okiro. Nobody gave us any chance of ever heading the Nigerian police force. Okiro’s appointment is a big achievement. Besides, if Ohaneze can get its acts right, Okiro is a potential President General of the Organization. He will deliver. Early 2002, after the Ikeja bomb blasts, Okiro was the man chosen to address Ndiigbo resident in Lagos. He did so in flawless Igbo language. He did not disappoint. Congratulations Mike Okiro! Congratulations Ndiigbo!! Long live Nigeria, where justice and fairness to all irrespective of tribe and tongue will prevail!!!
Saturday, June 16, 2007 |