Why Igbos Need To Consciously Change The Narrative Against Them -By Azuka Onwuka

The belief among many Nigerians is that Igbos are hostile to visitors in Igbo land: that they don’t sell land to visitors, they don’t rent shops to them, they don’t employ them or give them political appointments, they don’t allow them contest elections, they discriminate against them – contrary to how other Nigerians treat Igbos in their communities.

Igbos feel shocked whenever they hear this, because they believe that they are the most accommodating ethnic group in Nigeria, with the capacity to treat visitors even better than their own kith and kin and defend visitors with their own lives. But whenever they say this, other Nigerians laugh. In the minds of Igbo people, the wrong perception against them by most other Nigerians is the product of ignorance caused by lack of travel experience outside their region by most Nigerians.

But it is said that perception is reality. Whatever Nigerians perceive about the Igbos is what is true to them. Any other thing is story, story story, told in defence of one’s ethnic group.

The effect of this perception about Igbos is increased hostility and hate. Many non-Igbos feel that Igbos are wicked, scheming, greedy cheats who want to take over other people’s lands while not allowing strangers any inch of Igbo land.

The death wish by some people against the Igbos may be dismissed as far-fetched, empty threats coming from sick minds. But no victims of genocide ever believed that it was possible that their neighbours with whom they played and ate together could turn against them so suddenly.

Many Igbos assume that in the future when most Nigerians start travelling, they will drop their false perception about the Igbos and see the “truth”. But the reality is that many will never see that “truth” because the false narrative will always keep them away from Igbo land.

It may sound ridiculous, but many educated Nigerians believe till today that Igbos hate visitors so much that they will not only kill visitors for no reason but also eat their flesh. For many Nigerians, Igbos are capable of anything. That is why most parents refuse their children going to study in Southeastern universities or do their NYSC there. Many who manage to arrive the Southeast for NYSC will change their posting immediately after orientation and run away from the Southeast. Only the children of the class of parents who don’t have the connection/wherewithal to change the NYSC posting of their children or the few with rebellious children allow their children to travel to the Southeast for NYSC. But all through that NYSC year, the parents are anxious about the life of their children until the end of the programme. When their children report that they are being well taken of by their hosts, their parents find it hard to believe.

The second narrative is that Igbo land is terribly backward – a jungle with mud houses and thatched roofs everywhere, with poverty walking around on four feet and insecurity so high that most Igbos have to run away to other developed and secure parts of Nigeria and the world, to survive.

What we need to do as a matter of urgency

Even until 10 years ago, most Nigerians believed that Igbos were only traders who were backward in education. Thanks to the Internet and the social media, we consistently supplied the Nigerian public with statistics/data and records that told a completely opposite story: that Igbos have held a frontrow position in education in Nigeria even before Independence until today. It is still hard for many (including Igbos) to believe but statistics is always available to support that claim.

Just like in the education matter, we cannot fold our arms and believe that time will justify us. No. We need to tell our story.

Thank God for the Internet and social media, which are in favour of the voiceless. Thank God for camera phones that can take still photographs and videos.

We need to get to work urgently.

Stop telling others how many non-Igbo doctors have hospitals in your community or how many non-Igbo tailors or tilers are in your town. Please show us. Don’t tell us how many Yorubas or Hausas or Ijaws own houses in your community or how many streets are named after them, or how many areas are occupied and controlled by non-Igbos in your state. Oga, show us. We don’t want to hear stories anymore. Just show us or keep quiet.

Post your photos, videos, interviews, and documentaries on blogs and websites, which can be retrieved anytime, in addition to posting them on the social media. If you don’t know any website to post it to, post it on Nairaland.

But let us stop whining, explaining and defending; let’s start acting. For seeing is believing.

Nobody will tell our story if we don’t tell it. And the more we continue to assume that it does not matter, the more the false narrative hurts us.

Ta bụ gboo.