Politics
By Steve Osuji
LONG KNIVES: There’s no doubt that plans are afoot to decimate Ndigbo and their businesses in Lagos. The signs were always there and they came to full view during the last elections. But every iota of doubt was cleared last week when the 10th Lagos State Legislative Assembly was being inaugurated.
The honorable speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, who was resuming his 3rd term in that exalted office didn’t mince words about the new thinking the in leadership hierarchies of the state.
Speaker Obasa said: “There would be laws in the areas of economy and commerce, property and titles, and we will reverse all reversible to protect the interests of the indigenes.”
Obasa spoke definitively that going forward, legislative instruments would be deployed to support the indigenes of Lagos. Lagos was not a no man’s land, he warned. The threats here are not veiled in the least, the targets are obvious and unmistakable. It’s Igbo culling.
Recall that the last election in Lagos was something of a battle royale. It had indeed been so since the last three general elections when Igbo in Lagos began to show more than casual interest in the elections in Nigeria’s largest commercial city.
In fact, since 2015, Igbo in Lagos have consistently won seats in the legislature in Lagos – both at state and national levels. Certain areas of the city have become catchment areas for Igbo block votes which would naturally give fillip to election victory in those areas. It has also become clear that by sheer strength of Igbo population in Lagos, any candidate who can successfully canvass Igbo block vote would be sure to carry the polls if they were free and fair.
This assertion has proved consistent since 2015. And in the last elections of 2023, Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the midget Labour Party won resoundingly in Lagos in spite of all manner of manipulations. This must be the last straw for the current power hegemonists who have held Lagos in their thrall for 24 years.
LAGOS POWERBROKERS DIG IN: Though the ruling Lagos power cabals led by the current president , Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) are not Indigenous Lagosians, they have captured Lagos and entrenched themselves in the power matrix and bureaucracy of Lagos so much that even indigenes have been subdued and sidelined. The powerbrokers of Lagos are mainly indigenes of Ogun and Osun states, but they currently have a vice grip on the levers of power in Lagos.
It is this group who feel threatened by the rising electoral strength of Igbo in Lagos and they seek to make punitive and discriminatory laws against Igbo. Somehow, they conveniently forget that they too are visitors to Lagos. They deploy ethnic politics, Igbo blackmail and gangsterism.
They also forgot that Igbo, one of the dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria have lived and thrived in Lagos (as in most other cities of Nigeria) since pre-amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914. An Igbo, Mazi Mbonu Ojike had won election to the Lagos City Council and was Deputy Mayor in 1951. Sir Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was the first president of the stock exchange when it was the Lagos Stock Exchange. He was the wealthiest man of his time and he was instrumental to the initial infrastructural development of Lagos, especially around the Lagos Ports, Ikoyi and Apapa areas. His son, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was a Lagos boy.
The great Zik – Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was an Isale Eko boy who spoke fluent yoruba. There are numerous others, including the Mbanefos and the Anyiams.
Igbo have over the years, integrated themselves into the Lagos society, intermarrying, developing huge communities and unquantifiable businesses. Igbo Conservatively boasts about 30-40% of the population of Lagos and own about 40% of property, businesses and commercial activities.
Therefore, it’s right to describe the current culling policy and legislative ambush of Ndigbo as nothing but a pogrom by another means.
They had boasted that 2023 was the last time Igbo would allowed to participate or out-vote Yoruba in Lagos. A chargrined Bayo Onanuga who was the campaign head of the Tinubu camp that lost Lagos, boasted about it. Not only that Igbo votes would be vastly subdued, their entire activities, property rights, businesses and commercial ventures would be curtailed and life would be generally miserable for them in Lagos. This is the game plan.
Now, the vicious battle starts in earnest. No mean a persona than the powerful and ‘permanent’ Speaker of the LSHA has proclaimed it. They would fight Ndigbo on many fronts and in many guises. As you can already see, they will dress their pernicious actions in dubious garb of law.
As Obasa spoke in Alausa, a traditional ruler in Ogombo, Eti-Osa LGA, moved one step ahead to initiate a land verification in his domain. He made a newspaper publication thus: “The Oba in Council shall carry out land instruments verification and ratification exercise in all land transactions and purchases in Ogombo…” The move is ostensibly to fish out fake and spurious land title documents being paraded by unscrupulous elements.
The monarch warns: “Any land owner who fails or neglects to take advantage of this window… will be doing so at his or her own risk as such a land would be deemed FORFEITED.” Emphasis not mine.
It’s remarkable that Ogombo is one of the sprawling communities washed up by the Atlantic Ocean along the Lekki-Epe stretch. It was an abiding brackish water swamp that defies cheap, ordinary construction. Like most other communities in Lagos, the tough, waterlogged swamp of Ogombo must have been acquired at exorbitant rates by mainly Ndigbo and built up at huge costs. Ogombo has no facilities. No roads, no drainage, hardly any government presence. In the rains, like now, it is water drenched and roads nigh impassable. The hapless dwellers of Ogombo are probably battling with flooding right now with no help from government. Now the monarch picked his time to give his long-suffering SUBJECTS extra trouble.
But brace up, this is only the beginning of Igbo troubles in Lagos.
HOW NDIGBO MUST RESPOND TO LAGOS ‘POGROM’: First, let every Igbo know that this is a clear and present danger. There will be no respite and no help. Even though most of the actions (like the one by the Ogombo monarch), are illegal and unconstitutional, they would do it all the same. The stakes are high for power mongers masquerading as owners of Lagos and they now hold the levers of power up to Aso Rock. The last thing Tinubu would allow would be to lose Lagos again in the event that he stands for a reelection.
But, you, Onyeigbo, must remain strong, bold and fearless. Remember you are a citizen of Nigeria and have inalienable rights like ANYONE else. Never allow yourself to be intimidated or cowed.
Bond together more, form groups to fight for your rights, remember class actions are better; never let them divide and rule you. Remember self defense is legitimate in law.
But most importantly, prepare for the WORST. First, begin a phased mental divestment and backward movement to your homesteads. Review new investment decisions, checkout more business friendly states in Nigeria and begin to relocate there. The world is much more a global dot now. There’s no business you currently do in Lagos that cannot be done in Awka, Owerri, Umuahia, Uyo, etc. Besides, Lagos needs you as much as you need her.
But if in the end, the laws and constitution of Nigeria would not protect you; if you are stripped, humiliated and forced out of any corner of Nigeria, by all means, return to the east and join the movement for the emancipation of Ndigbo. That would be a legitimate quest.
A.
Tags: Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe Mazi Mbonu Ojike Mudashiru Obasa Steve Osuji
