By Emeka Alex Duru
Every fleeting arrangement throws up phony characters that in unrestrained excitement, tend to the extreme. In their frenzy, the upstarts do not differentiate the sacred from the profane. Everything is rather brought into the mix. That was the major challenge of the Warrant Chief administration in some parts of Igbo land, particularly the South East between 1891 and 1929.
The failure of Indirect Rule in the East, compared with the results in the North and West where there existed structured monarchical systems, had pushed the colonial masters into a certain level of discomfort. The environment in the East with its trademark checks and balances, did not favour Indirect Rule that was riddled with corrupt and dictatorial inclinations. Foremost historian, Prof Elizabeth Isichei, got it well in her 1976 publication, ‘A History of the Igbo People’ that “the patterns of traditional Igbo government were hopelessly unsuited to the needs of the colonial state. Its system of checks and balances, its pursuit of consensus by protracted discussion, its use of religious sanctions, and especially, its small scale, rendered it impracticable.” The Warrant Chief arrangement, thus became the clincher for the imperialists. They needed the locals who would serve as their eyes and voices in the communities on matters of revenue collection and administration.
But in their desperate quest to enforce the system, the British colonialists failed to take into consideration the peculiar customs, traditions and experiences of the Igbo communities that were largely autonomous and independent. They therefore appointed individuals arbitrarily to serve as warrant chiefs, not minding their status or moral standing among the people in their domains. To worsen matters, some of the appointees were social misfits, who ordinarily would not command attention at village square assembly. Due to the manner of their appointment, the chiefs never owed any loyalty or responsibility to their own people but to those that accorded them undeserved relevance and privileges.
The Warrant Chiefs, thus grew rich illicitly and began to exercise authorities that were not originally bestowed on them. The inherent corruption in the system counted among the factors that led to the famous Women’s Revolt of 1929 in Eastern Nigeria (narrowly referred to Aba Women riot in some instances). On the basis of the upheaval, the colonial masters had no choice other than to abolish the warrant chieftains the following year, 1930. But by then, much harm had been done to the socio-political system of the people.
In similar way, some emergency leaders were thrown up in the East after the 1967-1970 Civil War. Some, were unprincipled men – collaborators – who latched on their relationship with the rampaging federal forces to sabotage the efforts of their people during the crisis. In local parlance, they were called “saboteurs”. As reward for their inglorious actions, they were enormously empowered through contracts and other shady deals.
If you see them as the Nigerian version of the Carpetbaggers – the opportunistic or disruptive Northerners who infiltrated the Southern states after the American Civil War and exploited the local populace for their own financial, political, or social gain, you are not wrong. Elsewhere in Africa, they existed in quantum at some points. At the height of demand for independence and the campaign against colonialism, some traditional, economic and political elite, who were scared of losing their privileged positions with the exit of the colonial masters, engaged in many underhand activities to undo the independence struggles in their respective countries. In the French and Belgian colonies, they found comfort in a special class known as the Évolué – a French label for a native African or Asian who had “evolved” by becoming Europeanised through education or assimilation and had accepted European values and patterns of behavior. A distinctive character of an évolué was the ability to break social ties with his group, and appearing to have entered another system of motivations and values.
Celebrated Essayist and author, Chinweizu, describes them as “Comprador Bourgeoisie”, in his great work, ‘The West and The Rest of Us’. These were middlemen who exploited their kinsmen while serving foreign capital in both political and economic relations. For them, everything was normal, as long as their interest was protected.
It is against this backdrop that the antics of some social media personalities from South East seeking national attention in the City Boys Movement, the pro-government support group advocating President Bola Tinubu’s reelection, can be understood. The Movement, led by Seyi, Tinubu’s son, is essentially a youth mobilisation platform with involvement of prominent private-sector figures for the President’s second term. It is patterned along the detested Daniel Kanu’s “Youths Earnestly Ask For Abacha (YEAA)”, one of the contraptions by the ill-fated General Sani Abacha military administration to advance the agenda of the head of state at transition to civilian presidency.
Igbo socialites in the City Boys Movement include Emeka Okonkwo (E-Money), Obinna Iyiegbu (Obi Cubana), Pascal Okechukwu, (Cubana Chief Priest), entrepreneur Cletus Uzoezie Oragwa (Zenco) and others. They are mostly young men that are creating waves in their immediate communities and beyond. The members of the Movement have been understandably upbeat and excited for many reasons, including the rare opportunity for handshakes with the President, anticipated opportunity to enlarge their business spaces or seek cover for some past deeds that can be exposed by a vicious presidency if they fail to play along. They therefore deserve to be allowed to humour and entertain themselves, in assuring the President that they were going to deliver and hand over the South East to him during the election. Infantile as that may sound, it is one of the beauties of democracy – plurality of views and opinions.
But it seems that the guys in the Movement, are beginning to assume that they are forces to be reckoned with in the politics of the Region. And they are allowing rascality to blur their senses and drive their activities, in the process, veering into topics that are clearly beyond them. They now see themselves as the new faces of Igbo leadership. The other day, at a parley with Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State who recently defected to Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC), Iyiegbu (Obi Cubana), stretched his assumption of importance too far when he claimed: “Our people (the Igbo) lack political knowledge, and our work is mostly to educate (them)”. He did not state how he was going to refocus the Igbo on the path of knowledge. The anger generated by the loose comments was yet to die down when his side kick Cubana Chief Priest declared in Owerri, Imo State that: “We the Igbos are the people that were defeated during the war…we do not want to lose again…”
To be sure, Pascal Okechukwu, the Cubana Chief Priest, lacks the capacity and equipment to discuss the War, the victors and the vanquished. The crisis ended 56 years ago. Okechukwu was born on April 2, 1981- 45 years ago and reportedly had a tertiary education at Federal Polytechnic Nekede in Owerri. How far such young age and humble intellectual background equip him to venture into the issues about the civil war to the point of dismissing the heroic effort of the Igbo in the encounter as that of a defeated people, remains a wonder. And to choose Owerri, a strategic city in the Igbo resistance struggle for the gaffe, indicates the extent delusion and grandeur can drive one that lacks discipline and restraints.
Clearly, these men of the moment are getting it wrong and need to be called to order. Politics at macro level is different from social media influencing and relevance. It is also not about advertising rootless wealth. When, particularly, it comes to the South East, the Igbo with its unique republican orientation, the meaning gets clearer. The Igbo socio-political system is such that interrogates who you are and not jump into celebration of your breezy emergence at the social scene. For the record, in Igbo electoral democracy, there is no cast-in-the-stone prescription or compulsion on who to vote for at elections. Just as brothers who rode on same vehicle to the village square could disagree in principle and still return home together, sleep under same roof without rancour, the people are fluid on electoral matters. Thus, a husband and his wife could approach same polling booth and cast their votes for different candidates. It is a matter of choice.
When therefore the City Boys assure the President that they are going to deliver the South East to him, they are merely telling him what he wants to hear. The truth is that they cannot do so in a free and fair poll. They lack the roots and the reach among the people. What will rather determine how far Tinubu will go in the zone, is his performance score card to the region and the nation, which, all considered, is abysmally low.
The people and residents of south east justifiably feel they are excluded from the Tinubu government in appointments, policies and programmes. These are the issues the President needs to deal with as the election draws close. Doing so requires strategic partnership with the people who bear the brunt, their real leaders and not with noisy individuals on the flight for fancy.
Emeka Alex Duru, PhD
Editor, TheNiche Newspapers, Lagos
(08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)