In Lagos, there is no anxiety for Ibo

The news that some faceless placard carrying individuals are asking Ibo to leave Lagos shows the level to which the detractors of this nation can descend in their bid to scare people, cause rancor, disquiet and fuel class, group or ethnic displeasure and hatred in the country. However, this ugly outburst should not give anyone a sleepless night because it is not in the character of the natives of Lagos State to issue threat or‘quit notice’ to fellow Nigerians irrespective of their views or political affiliation because we know that as long as there is a country, every Nigerian has the privilege of living in any part of our republic without intimidation or harassment.

For those who should know, the typical indigene of Lagos, and I am one of them, is a frank no nonsense individual who will say it as it is without minding who horse is gored but he is too cultured and cultivated to embark on meaningless gyration that will lead to no positive outcome. He is tolerant, accommodating and very friendly to the extent that he could pluck out his eyes as gift to a friend. Since this news broke out some of us have been making the same inquiry that most decent citizens of this country have been asking. That is “Who are this faceless group?”

Therefore, the news that some caterers of dishes of disaffection and elements of disunity went to town issuing threat to the Ibo group in Lagos is condemnable, unreasonable, outrightly naïve and ugly in all its ramifications.

Let me make it clearer without loss of emphasis, that. I am speaking as one of the elders amongst the natives of Lagos and from the point of knowledge and comprehension of what we stand for and represent,the typical native of Lagos is known to be accommodating, sophisticated, kind and receptive to multicultural and plural nature of our society and anyone can attest to it. The respect for the tradition, norms and cultural leaning of others is firmly embedded in the mind of the natives and that is one singular reason why people are confident in investing and relaxing when they come to Lagos to the extent that they rarely want to return to their home town. The world certainly has a lesson to learn from our tolerance of other people and we cannot afford to descend below this set standard.

Those who grew up in Lagos in the 1940, 1950 and probably the 1960 will attest to the fact that we lived in a city where your race and creed was immaterial and inconsequential in the way we deal with you on daily basis. Lagos is a place where people relate to you because ‘you are you’ and not because of your religion or your ethnic leaning. In school, in the larger community and every other public place, you are simply regarded as a member of the community who has equal and inalienable right of existence. It is indeed very hard to find the Lagos natives attacking other Nigerians.

The permissiveness and tolerance of the indigenous Lagosian knows no bound to the extent that many non-natives in Lagos are title holders in our palaces and this is not a new development. Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, the father of the Biafran Warlord, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was in the 1950s, a member of the Aworo-sasa in Western Nigeria to the extent that his membership of this important traditional club was celebrated in a song by Yusuf Olatunji (a.k.a Baba L’Egba).

Despite the horror of the Civil War, it is on record that there was no single Igbo life lost in Lagos and South West Nigeria. Throughout the civil war, some Igbo did not return to Biafra. They lived with us in Lagos until the termination of the war in 1970. Two incidents that would have shaken the tolerance of the natives have to be mentioned in this article. In one case, a whole family perished in Lafiaji, almost opposite the old Ministry of Communications and in close proximity to the Kam-Salem House,when their Ibo tenant planted a bomb and vacated the house without a trace. In another incident, a bomb was planted at the Casino Cinema in Adekunle killing all those who were there for evening leisure. Despite these two gory incidents, the Ibo were never harassed in Lagos. Yet, this did not deter us from protecting and sharing accommodation with those remaining in our neighborhood.

I was one of the young men who with others took gifts, including edibles to those who returned to Lagos after the civil war in 1970 at the Games Village in Surulere which was then used as the refugee camp. When the war ended, the properties abandoned by the Ibo who fled to avoid being trapped by the scourge of war were returned to them by the Yoruba and the natives of Lagos and other South West states.This is brotherhood at its best.

It is on record today that many Ibo work, including teaching jobs in various ministries in Lagos State. The question is at what point did the Ibo and Yoruba become antagonists?

This attitude of respect and accommodation of others is not peculiar to the natives of Lagos. It is a traditional and cultural norm entrenched in the bloodstream of the Yoruba. Our parents will tell us not to look down on anybody because “Ona lo jin, erunaani baba” literally meaning “It is the distance from home that makes a Prince look like a slave”. The simple interpretation of this is that anybody you see around you who are from distance land should be respected because, although, they may be toiling on your land but they are also important landlords in their homeland. Some people sheepishly take this attitude of the Yoruba as timidity. Such people are merely naïve because a cursory look at the sociology of the Yoruba will show that there is hardly any ethnic group in Africa that has more paraphernalia of war than the Yoruba. The Yoruba still maintains that structure till today.

While it is unacceptable and stupid for anyone to threaten or give quit notice to Ibo or to any ethnic group for that matter, it is important to also tell anyone living in any community to respect the tradition and culture of the natives. This does not pertain to the Ibo alone but to all those who live and share space with landowners. It is in this respect that I have a word for the non-indigenes in Lagos, especially the youths of Ibo stock who are mostly “Jonny just come” in Lagos, a British term originated in the early nineteenth-century that refers to a naval officer or seaman new to a ship. Courtesy Charles F. Briggs (1839) inthe novel, “The Adventures of Harry Franco”.Like the Yoruba will say “Tiajabansabaekun, ekungbodosaba Aja” literally meaning that “If the dog is respecting the tiger, the tiger too must give some respect to the dog” because the slowness of the lion during hunting is not timidity but a move for a successful game.
• Rasheed Ojikutu is a Retired Professor of Statistics,University of Lagos.