Mr. Femi Fani Kayode’s sequel, “The bitter truth about the Igbo”, which appeared as a three-series article on NigerianEYE earlier
this week, did not disappoint in the least. We must remind ourselves
that this article is part of Fani-Kayode’s efforts to prove that Lagos
is Yoruba and that any claims to it by any other indigenous group is
spurious.
Part of his method was to trivialise the contributions of any
other group to the development of Lagos, preferring to ascribe this
development largely to the genius of the Yoruba. In an earlier response,
I had sought to show that Fani-Kayode’s efforts in that direction were
not successful. I showed that his claims and argument were neither
grounded in history nor in economics, and that it was indeed so easy to
puncture those claims.
The problem with Fani-Kayode’s
concluding article on this issue is that it runs out of ideas and
abandons the issue under review after the fourth paragraph and only
returns to it in the last four paragraphs of the article. The contents
of paragraph 5 (paragraph 5 begins “That single comment, made in that
explosive and historic speech…”) up to the end of paragraph 13 are
hardly relevant to the issue under discussion. Let us remind us what the
main issue is using Fani-Kayode’s own words:
“Permit me to make my second and final
contribution to the raging debate about Lagos, who owns it and the
seemingly endless tensions that exist between the Igbo and the Yoruba.
It is amazing how one or two of the numerous nationalities that make up
Nigeria secretly wish that they were Yoruba and consistently lay claim
to Lagos as being partly theirs.”
How relevant then is the diversion to
the political history of the National Convention for Nigerians and the
Cameroons, the 1966 coup, the Ironsi regime, the pogrom, the civil war
to this issue of who owns Lagos and who has contributed to its
development write-up? How does this advance the debate? How does this
elucidate the key issues under discussion? I doubt very much that they
do. What they certainly succeed in doing however is to rouse emotions,
enflame tempers, to whip up sentiments.
Even here, Fani-Kayode’s use of
history is suspect, since his historiography is very selective. If
anything, however, in the deployment of this elective historiography, he
comes across as an apologist for the killings of the Igbo in the north
and as an ethnic-driven revanchist historian out to even out scores with
an imagined enemy. Revanchist and ethnicity-sodden historiography are
poor and demeaning pursuits as the prisms of bitterness, revenge and
ethnicity which come with them soon trap the historian, blur his vision,
dull his criticality and destroy his objectivity and capacity for
detached interpretation. The “history” we are thus presented in
paragraphs 5 to 13 is replete with instances of these.
In succumbing to the appeals of this
type of historiography, even if he was doing this as part of his ongoing
efforts at rehabilitation with a view to regaining entry to his
“tribe’s” confidence, Fani-Kayode does himself and his country a great
disservice. He does himself a disservice because he ends up with an
article where more than 55 per cent of its contents (55 per cent again!)
are of doubtful relevance to his declared purpose. And because he fails
to identify what is relevant and what is not, he ends up saddling his
article with major problems of cohesion and coherence. He does his
country a disservice because he presents a history of a difficult part
of her history that is deliberately flawed and skewed by his selective
use of sources and by his uncritical interpretation of events and
casting of persons – Ironsi is a coup plotter, Igbo indiscretion was
responsible for the pogrom unleashed on them in the North, the Igbo
provoked the civil war – all of which are examples of a flight from
intellectual rigour, mono-causal analysis, faulty attribution and one
dimensional thinking, and all very painful, pernicious and debilitating
ailments in persons they afflict. It bears repeating that good
historiography is about balanced sources.
To rely on sources that only
support the case one is pushing pushes one away from doing history on to
the slippery slopes of ethnic jingoism, “clan hagiography” and
propagandising of the cheapest sort. This is what has happened in this
article, and it is indeed a tragedy for Fani-Kayode. I believe that
this tragedy has arisen less from a fundamental lack of intelligence on
his part but more from his allowing himself and his mind to be shackled
and blinkered by bitterness.
Fani-Kayode sets out hoping to write
“the bitter truth” about one ethnic group and ends up clumsily splaying
the reality and truth of his own bitterness in public for an amused
world to behold and laugh at. As he navigates this current discomfort he
has created for himself, he once again deserves our compassion and not
our condemnation.
•Dr. Ihebuzor is a development specialist based in Tanzania
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The is a very good analysis.
ReplyDeleteWhat is good about the analysis?
DeleteDr ihebuzor, u can't hide your bias and your lies. you are far from being factual. A man's bitter truth is yet to be countered. it is better to say he shouldn't have revealed dis much than to continue to lie. All what d Igbos have done that is further aggravating is lying. this is aggravating Nigerians. Attacking will not resolve d issue. try being sincere and there won't be anymore stocking of the flame. it is unfair to deport igbos I agree. but let us agree to the truth when it is heard and just shut up.
ReplyDeleteFani thinks that he is the only Yoruba in Nigeria. He lives in Lagos and thinks that no Yoruba man lives outside. I make bold to say that no Igbo man can wake up and start insulting Yorubas because we live together and have been enjoying fruitful relationships.If any man makes you angry, you can take it up with him and not his tribe or religion. He has started apologising and in no time, he would retract the whole cooked up story.
ReplyDeleteGood talk!
DeleteDr. Conclude your article with 'Lagos belongs to Igbos' and you will score very good points.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I am concerned,this issue of Lagos belongs to who is irrelevant bcos nobody is laying claim to Lagos. If we really want to show how learned & travelled we are,we should recognise what's happening in the civilized world. We seem to want to emulate them but we never really do. That African blood in all of us remain there no matter how we try to polish ourselves. Most of us commenting on this issue are probably citizens in other countries,enjoy all the rights & privileges that come with it,we know basically the truth in this matter. The Ibos should not be accussed of wanting to claim ownership of Lagos simply because they probably indicated that they have made & continued to make contributions towards the development of Lagos state. There's no such thing as ownership of a state or a Nation,not even in the constitution. What is there is CITIZENSHIP & THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP. Come to think of it,those of you who know history. The place we know today as AMERICA was 'owned' & occupied by the RED INDIANS, where are those Natives in today's America? How many American presidents & members of Parliament were Red Indians? The more we sink ourselves into this sort of debate,the more we expose our NAIVETY & IGNORANCE. It is total disregard to that entity we call a Nation and its constitution. As one senior Advocate has rightly pointed out that eviction of citizens of this Nation especially unwillingly is unlawful & against our constitution. I think we all need a break,we need go back to our classrooms,libraries,& other places of learning & acquisition of information to upgrade ourselves before we revisit this issue.......Chris Abara.
ReplyDeleteDr.Ihebuzor or what do you called yourself you have no point,if you want to criticize Fani Kayode about his write up,take his point one by one and make reference on it.
ReplyDeleteEL MATOSKY Made sense today oh! Hallelujah.
ReplyDeleteFFK made no point,what should be taken one by one? His boastings about how he flirted with IBO ladies or what? Or how his grandfather taught an Obo man on school or how he received Christ in an IBO man's church. This una tribal sentiments DPN block una brain. Think well my man.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame the tribal jingoists in this forum because as rightly pointed out by one of us the thing is still in our blood! After all, it is not more than one hundred years ago that our forefathers were at each others throats on the basis of tribalism.
ReplyDeleteWhilst the rest of the world are moving into ways of making the world one village our so called educated and cultured elites are still daggers drawn as to who owns wich land. Shame on you little minded baboons!
I need dictionary for all these big English O!! Jingoism? Clan hagiography? Is this about who knows how to speak the most ridiculous big English or is it about Lagos? I think it has deteriorated to competition of ridiculous big English words!! I go die!!
ReplyDeleteOfcourse, what Femi said is likely to generate more controvercy than solution. Although the truth is hard to say as it is hard to please, we connot refuse to aknowledge that the Igbos have a tendency of wanting to claim all and always have the attitude of "I own all", "I must control all" and "if I am not given all, no one will know peace". Its a serious habitual tragedy. What Femi clearly pointed was the fact that that attitude led to the disaster of the sixties and if only the Nigerian populace decipher what is happening now, they will caution the Igbos about a history repeatation and thus save us the agony of going over the same deadly path as we have threaded in the past. Its just but a clear warning of an iminent danger.
ReplyDeleteMay God save Nigeria from experiencing another civil war.
mr well travelled and learned cum great historian(Chris Abara), we will be better learned if u educate us on how red indians were pushed aside in their own land and make us see the sense in what u are trying to sell. Must we always follow the whites? No is the answer particularly when they are wrong. There is no sense in another tribe encroaching and forcing their ideologies on other tribes. It only breeds hate. The red indians were not happy about losing their land ooo. Mr sabi
ReplyDeleteThis is a very poor analysis by this writer, all that Fani Kayode said were very relevant as he went back to show how ingrate, dubious, disrespectful, destructive and selfish Igbo people have always been since race. Instead of you people to learn and ammend your treacheous ways, you all still continue to live in your shadows.
ReplyDeleteAnd so on that note I suppose Nigeria should have allowed the igbos the chance to leave Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteJingoism or no jingoism the fact still remains dt LAGOS by every available piece of history belong to the YORUBAS simple!!
ReplyDelete