Ebube Agu and All That

In their recent meeting with agents of the Federal Government, South East Governors and their acolytes raised the issue of self-defense through the much maligned and non-performing Ebube Agu and vigilante groups in the battered wasteland of South East Zone. And to wit:

” The meeting endorsed our South East joint security outfit—Ebubeagu and asked them (who?) to work with security agencies and to respect the rights and privileges of all those living in South East and visitors.”

Apart from the inelegance of the construction, the intended meaning of the statement remains ambiguous because of a stylistic flaw. If anything, it reflects the confusion in the minds of leaders who have failed to put together a well-structured security architecture in the South East. It is also significant that security is listed as the number nine item in their communique. And as they rambled through the communique, they forgot the main reason for meeting with the Federal side: Security of lives and property, not secession, which is a consequential matter. Absence of the agitation for a separate existence and its condemnation by either elders or youths, of persons of South East extraction, is not tantamount to peace in the South East.

There is nothing in a name, many will argue, but can the Lion, however conceived in Igboland, tell its own story to justify its high falutting nomenclature and symbolism or will it remain the object of political manipulations, a masquerade without followership, an abstract ideal?  An “abstract ideal”. That, indeed,  is what the outfit represents in the mind of many in the South East. The resignation of the chairman of Ebube Agu, General Abel Obi Umahi, and the circumstances surrounding that resignation are not savory and suggest a still birth.

 Until the lion has a story to tell–its exploits, travails, bravery with the hunter and so on– it will have no glory, no honor. It will not glitter. It will die on arrival, as, indeed, it appears to have been the case here. The Governors have not addressed fully the implications of the allegations raised by the General. No General goes to the battle front without the necessary armaments. We are simply tottering , far behind the madding crowd, reminiscent of Thomas Hardy’ subversive and  unsettling novel. Let it be said that General Umahi is a gentleman and a fine officer, a brilliant  graduate of Political Science from the University of Ibadan, tested in many battles The Igbo nation has a story to tell, a story steeped in pride, gallantry and resilience., different from the state capture and “one chance” syndrome which have overtaken our land.

Insecurity, in my estimation, is the greatest challenge in IGBO land today, it should be given the same rating, if not a   higher rating as our genuine concern for restructuring the distracted Nigerian polity. Both will help us deal, inter alia, with the twin monsters of youth unemployment and de-industrialization in Alaigbo today. These will also help us achieve the ideal Ebube Agu, not only of means but also of the mind, an existential aphorism that will ensure self-apprehension and induce an Igbo renaissance, a rebirth of a can-do spirit, the like we had in the 1950s and the 1960s. Political and economic prosperity cannot be achieved without security. As humanists and social scientists, we must see security as a commitment in which the protection of the entire population is our number one engagement, daily.

Oh yes, we can raise the bar. We need a homeward, an autochthonous inspired leadership to do this. Ebube Agu must therefore be a symbol of affirmation and opposition, opposition against all forms of military and psychological subjugation; affirmation of a people’s will to be themselves, to defend themselves at all times, a find de siècle inquisition against external invasion which is a prelude to internal colonization. The Igbo say “ife kwuru, ife akwugide ya”. No one survives alone, ultimately.  A masquerade that is pushed around is not it.

The poor showing and non -presence of most of South East Governors at the last meeting of Southern Nigerian Governors  in Lagos calls for  a serious reflexive thinking. The report is that only one governor from the South East attended the meeting in Lagos, while a majority of the other governors from other Southern states attended. If the governors from the South East could not attend the Lagos parley, for whatever reasons, they could have asked for the postponement of the meeting to a more opportune time to enable them participate. Perception is sometimes, as important as reality, and the thinking that their absence is for selfish reasons is resonating in many places. This is not good for a people noted for pace setting.

 This  also is no time for navel guessing, a fruitless wasting of time and self- doubt. They have serious political consequences, not only for individuals but for groups in a clime where individual survival cannot guarantee group survival. Igbo leadership and those at its  democratic apex, must therefore think again and retool their present self-serving strategy, and join the rest of Nigerians calling for a change of the status quo. They should not play the second fiddle nor adorn the ostrich mentality.

Going forward, I think it is time for a College of Igbo elders to talk to our present representatives at all levels, especially those at the national level, for a perceived laisser- faire attitude and response to the multitude challenges and issues confronting NdiIgbo and its battered wasteland.

It is apposite to end this piece with this poem by  an American novelist and poet, Josiah Gilbert Holland (July 24,1819-October 12,1881).The poem, unarguably the best by the author and the most quoted , transcends the American existential drama  of its time to embrace the pangs of a suffering humanity in need of quality and selfless leadership

“GOD, give us men,

A time like this demands

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith

and ready hands;

Men whom the lust of office does not

kill

Men whom the spoils of office can

not buy;

Men who possess opinions and a

will;

Men who have honor; men who will

not lie;

Men who  can stand before a 

demagogue

And damn his treacherous flatteries

without winking

Tall men, sun-crowned, who live

above the fog

IN public duty, and in private thinking;

For while the rabble , with their thumb –

worn creeds

Their large professions and their little

deeds ,

Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom

weeps

Wrong rules the land and  waiting