Countering Collapsing Leadership in Southern Igboland

 Introduction

There is a sustained decline of leadership quality in Igboland since 1967. With the massive shock it withstood during the Nigeria – Biafra War, most of its elements were lost as it limped grudgingly to 1982 with the first civilian rule in Nigeria. Since 1983 the compact between leaders and followers has broken down and what obtains is discredited, abysmal and regressive. This article attempts to flesh out some of the typological characteristics sustaining the breakdown and suggest at least a solution to the problem from a strategic viewpoint.

Spaces & Unique Qualities

Location only influence human actions rather than determine them. The implication of this ground truth confirms that change is the only permanent feature on any part of the earth, the only home of man including Igboland. Over 80% of Igbo population live in rural areas. There is abundant evidence of leadership change with observational data captured since 2016. This data only confirms the double flotsam & jetsam of centrifugal outcomes in Abuja and the state capitals. Standard of living and quality of life continues to decline across the board. Between 2017 – 2019 a 25-litre of palm oil never exceeded N7,999 in any market in southern Igboland. Apparently numerous major & minor palm oil dealers left the industry. Mayhem, instability and uncertainty rules!

Horrors of Leading

Most bearers of ascribed and achieved leadership i.e. men in the area have failed. It is natural that the landscape is contaminated by the prevailing poison of ontological and existential poverty flowing from Abuja. The following negatives dominate leaders disposition including lack of curiosity, insensitivity to complexity & history, slavish attachment to European & USA hypotheses/theories, ignorance of huge cost of solutions, poverty of problem-resolution tools & skills, anathema to knowledge, allergy to knowledge bearers and hatred for delegation. These negatives are found across the board in both urban and grassroot roles; in the political, social, economic, the Church and ecclesial groups. These are the collective drivers of the collapse of Igbo society.

Footprints for Man

Bad leadership doesn’t always correlate with bad followership however majority of followers carry the can falling from bad leadership setting off a hydra-headed explosion that affects every person in every family in the communities. Distrust, lack of confidence, fear and suspicion gradually rear their ugly heads with clear behavioural and spatial footprints. To beef up security home parcels are fenced and gated, within which large homes with gothic roof are usually erected for lizards and rats to occupy.

Another expression is ‘pure water’ syndrome, a desperate valueless and ahistorical living. The previous generation had cool fresh water stored in clay pots, a signature feature of a people that has vanished even in villages. Of course there is the pathological public display of material things. The best expression is the torturous erection of costly places of worship in villages by the poorest people consolidating the spectre of confused spiritual identity and ambiguous spiritual leadership. 

Browse of Confusion

One of the most powerful sources of leadership crisis across the board is uncritical attachment to ideas/theories/hypotheses from the Global North. Most of the leaders subscribe to these poisons without even reviewing and unpacking their components. For example many accept the idea of cash crop vs food crop. They also root for foreign direct investment vs local abundant resources and opportunities. They hang on to an uncritical and ahistorical presentation of knowledge which they helplessly impose on impressionable young minds transmitting poisons from one generation to another. 

Everything indigenous is beneath their dispositions, paying lip service to their values and potential to respond to current problems. The sad truth is that elite Europeans & USA citizens with power have never wanted other peoples, ethnicities and nations. A comprehensive treatment is found in Black Skin, White Mask by Frantz Fanon. There is no such thing as an African European, Asian European or African American. These are illusions packaged and sold to the existentially deprived & ontological poor.

The limitation of some of these ideas is recently evident. Global North elite will suffer their own populations before they export it to other peoples. COVID-19 decimated United States while the leaders played for time. European Union with all its wealth and advancement couldn’t produce a vaccine. The invincibility of Israeli armed force is exposed by the strategic error of allowing its eastern flank to be compromised which brought Iran to its borders. Despite sanctions in a generation, Iran has moved from being a no-power to a nuclear power. Brazil organises the best football but is on a freefall with COVID-19. Few weeks ago, India was flexing muscles with China and went on weapon-buying spree only for COVID-19 to unleash aggressively on its 1.3 billion people.

So the question to be posed is thus, does an Igbo leader/follower recognise his/her dignity intuitively? Or does he/she only have confidence in self-reference to others and things? An unexamined life is unworthy of living regardless of attainment and status. The mind must be drained of erstwhile poisons for life-giving knowledge to germinate and grow. There is no middle ground. A dignified people rise only through defiance of current powers, order and structures.

Ahead to Tomorrow

Things will get tough before getting better. The fact remains that the current indigenous structures are very weak to contend with the emerging problems initiated by the double implosion of Abuja and the state capitals. The kind of emerging problems can no longer be articulated and solved at the nuclear family level only. Which hospital is affordable? How is preventable health care managed? Where does a pregnant mother go for ante-natal care? Who provides resources for a talented child from a weakly resourced home? How/where are improved seeds obtained and distributed every farming season? These and more problems affect everyone and require well taught out collective action. Such actions need a new leadership.

There is a desperate need to revitalise indigenous leadership structure which is embedded in the community. The old leadership needs to be updated rather than be eliminated. Dynamic centralisation at the local level is the way forward. A new leadership need to fast-forward incorporation of young men and women into the ranks. There is huge untapped human resource in the villages in retired professionals. They will bring their skills, expertise, professional experiences and networks on board. These are the keys towards preparing the ground for knowledge-based economies with unique characteristics of each community. Above all this leadership must be open to share and interact with others for innovation exchange.

The community structure needs strengthening, fed by relevant policies, backed up with dynamic systems/processes, and sustained by an active personnel who implement approved proposals & initiatives. The community becomes a capital, a centre of excellence, an exporter and generator of added-value resources. Abuja is remote now, Owerri may return to better day. There is no need waiting for both centres.

There are rich opportunities waiting to be tapped if the collective will is brought to bear in recognising that a generational potential is open for positive exploitation. Only if the danger of inaction is recognised and positive action is accelerated.

Conclusion

Creative destruction in every age opens new paths for persons and collectives to recognise potential responses for strategic initiatives. Therefore communities have the best opportunities to embrace what appears ugly, regressive and disgusting by collectively articulate lasting cost-effective solutions for calibrated implementation. This ushers in stability and certainty. Through this way, the unintended consequences of centrifugal outcomes are avoided for consolidation & a healthy transfer from the current generation to the next. 

The Beginning of the End (Nigeria)?

Introduction

Events of the last few months in Nigeria especially in the east of the Niger are beginning to show interesting patterns. Patterns of confrontation and open conflict between different dynamic forces and factors are gradually emerging from the fissures that predate Nigeria’s consolidation in 1914 as a British geopolitical project. Taking a departure from 2016, this article will address some historical pointers while zooming on a few variables in Eastern Nigeria whose movements over time suggest strong indications of rupture rather than compromise.

In the Beginning

If the concept, entity and geopolitical reality referred to Nigeria has a foundation; it is evidently very weak that its owner must be caught between knocking it down to rebuild it and investing huge resources to shore up the foundations. Indications suggest that the Leaning Tower of Pisa has a better chance of standing another few centuries. Having written that, historical amnesia has the strongest index in many who review Nigeria.

Geographically, Nigeria consist of 2 parts. Fulani Empire in the north and the rest. Fulani empire covers swaths of territory from Borgu west of Sokoto to Garoua, Cameroun on the east – west axis between longitudes 4th degree East and 14th degree East. Its latitudinal extent ran from the 14th degree North to below 8th degree North. Makurdi seats on the 8^th degree parallel. Ilorin in slightly north of Makurdi. This is a huge geopolitical space ran from Sokoto. This arrangement came into existence after Usman Danfodio became the master of Sokoto and developed an ingenious geopolitical order laced in the amalgam of Islam & fulanisation to overthrow and dominate all lands east and south.  Rivers Niger and Benue didn’t obstruct this policy.

This order held firm until post-1885 Berlin Conference Scramble for Africa took effect. While Islamo-Fulani hegemony held sway, sections of the population in this multinational and multi-religious empire sustained their struggle for limited autonomy. These include various nations around today’s southern Kaduna,  Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Adamawa and old Borno. What appears as today’s struggle in these lands are phases of an old struggle for political control rather than clashes for land. Names like General Zamani Lekwot, Colonel Yohanna Madaki and Zango-Kataf should ring bells. Nations south of the two rivers bar Ilorin were never under Sokoto. For complete treatment read A Short History of Nigeria by Rex Niven.

It is important to stress that all officials of Fulani Empire from its beginning to the present are Black Africans i.e. dark-skinned Africans. However while Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe & Chief Obafemi Awolowo cared less,  certainly Dr Yakubu Gowon and Mr Theophilus Y Danjuma never knew or read these histories!

Interestingly the eastern boundary have changed several times from the 1950s until the recent past concession of Bakassi Peninsular to Cameroun. There is no northern boundary as permanent lines are not marked in the sand rather the frontiers start from the last arid settlement. This is clear from in-bound Kano flights descending from Northern Niger.

Operation Python Dance

Towards the end of 2016 widespread discontent in the general population reach fever high. The main driver of discontent is purely economic, the absence of capital and lack of regular access to capital in every form. This is testified to a macroeconomic policy of waste which bring many things to collide simultaneously. A mismanaged economy, an unproductive space, an over inflationary market, low (informal and formal) worker morale and enthronement of corruption! With this deadly cocktail, Abuja primed itself in a selective response to citizens reaction by targeting 5 Igbo-majority states.

Adopting a buffering strategy of limited interaction & partial exclusion, Operation Python Dance was deployed with full military powers against the population of the states. These are unarmed civilian populations focused on day-to-day survival who are facing sanctions in their homeland in a constitutional republic. This policy is expressed in and round these states along the major roads punctuated with military/police check points every 4km. There are also intra-city check points. The role of the check points include slowing movements, increasing cost of business/interaction, extorting money and inciting the populations. One can call these spaces military zones because the uniformed persons on these checkpoints act with impunity.

The other method is the deployment of cattle herds by armed ‘intelligence’ persons to prowl villages and communities for information with geographical precision. These are not cattle grazing exercise rather a show of dominance of a self-assumed conqueror.

However the unseen consequences include alienation of the populations and confirmation that they are beyond the pale of Nigeria. It has mental and experiential impact inflating an already huge collective memory. On another level it strengthens the connection between the younger generation and their parents’ negative experiences of Nigeria in the 1960s that culminated in Nigeria-Biafra War. To them these acts confirm that Nigeria is trust-deficit, unreliable, unstable and uncertain. In summary, sanctions or Operation Python Dance failed abysmally but accelerated new realities & new leadership disconnected from the old guard. The nascent leaderships with undefined constituencies are experimenting with new aspirations beyond the confines of Nigeria’s narrative. Abuja lost the narrative, which is ‘one-Nigeria by any means’ narrative.

Salaries & Pensions

It is difficult to appreciate how Nigeria survived this long from a data perspective. It almost defies logic that an entity dominated by long-term south-facing variables and indicators is unconsumed for nearly 2 generations. Well! This survival parameter is strongly shaken by two powerful indicators. In the 5 Igbo-majority states public service salary and pension payments are non-trivial. In addition to the combustion unleashed territorially by Abuja in Operation Python Dance, poverty of leadership is fully expressed through non-payment or delayed payment of remunerations.

Various states governors have elevated the ugly practice into traditions of fund denial to workers and pensions in the last 4 years with disastrous consequences. The best salary and pension payments states are Ebonyi, Anambra and Enugu. Imo and Abia States are dung-heaps for public servants & pensioners. Public servants constitute majority of workers and are the major sources of funds for families and communities. The deliberate disruption of this flow of strategic resources is a watershed feeding the narrative that these communities have no future in Nigeria. The average salary & pension payment cycles are 4 months & 6 months respectively in Imo State.

Which society will endure this vicious trend devoid of reaction for such a long time? How can such spaces develop? How can schools, hospitals and services function? How can stability be ensured in the communities? The abysmal standard of living & poor quality of life are instant outcomes. Only in few places does local leadership shows strategic thinking in absorbing the lessons as opportunities for collective action. Sadly non-government (grassroot) leadership is tenuously weak across the board leaving the space for various voices with unclear motives. Evidently this scenario has increased tension in the land as Nigeria continues to recede gradually from hearts and minds.

Free Pass

Observations made during the last Holy Week in Imo State confirmed new realities on the ground. Since December 2016 roads in the named states are punctuated by military/police checkpoints. This is the case every 4 km or less. For unfolding reasons, Aba – Owerri Road from Airport Junction to Owerri had only 2 checkpoints against the daily average of 5. One at the Airport Junction and another at Akachi Junction! The reason for this development was unclear, it was certainly not government policy. However reports since then have continued to present pattern of checkpoints abandonment by military personnel and police beyond the sub-region.  

If this pattern is sustained over a time, it will testify to the huge loss of morale in the military/police ranks. It also signals that costs of manning checkpoints are accruing more than benefits. On another level, it suggest that rank and file no longer follow orders from high command. The recent past popular End-SARs demonstration is important to note.

Whenever this pattern of events become apparent, a wind of change in the power distribution is imminent. This means that the status quo ante is no longer tenable in its erstwhile configuration. Nevertheless, while general breakdown of order is not apparent perception of order has evaporated. The weak tangibles of the state is fritting away. Will it be conclusive? Will the custodians of one-Nigeria make one more attempt toward its restoration? Let the reader draw conclusions.

Conclusion

The situation in Eastern Nigeria is dire. All indicators are pointing south. Most of the long-suffering populations perceive recent events with reservation and concern. While uncertainty thrives, people know that nature abhors a vacuum. It is difficult to accurately pinpoint when the end will come, if it will. What is certain to come is more suffering, more discontent, more struggle and tension from the biggest state in the West African shatterbelt called Nigeria.