IGBO PEOPLE, MIRED IN AND HELD DOWN BY THEIR 'CRAB MENTALITY?'

No one could have said it better, or put it more succinctly and in a language very easily understandable, even by a layman? No one has ever articulated it more eloquently and scholarly until now? For as long as the attempt at decoding the albatross bogging down the Igbo people have lasted, no other mind has ever precisely zeroed it down to near science, placing a handle on the root-cause of the intractable problem. A royal father has now finally identified and named the Igboman's leg-iron, their "crab mentality!"

His Royal Highness Obi of Onitsha, Agbogidi Igwe Nnaemeka Anichebe has finally put a name to the monkey which is hanging around the neck of the Igbo people of this world. A monkey, which is militating against their real and actual collective progress, especially politically, within the Nigerian general society as well as their Igbo Diaspora. Icheoku adds, but instead of admitting this problem and finding a solution thereto, the Igbos have always tried to explain away this their lack of real brotherhood and cohesiveness/camaraderie as republicanism; and you ask yourself what is republican in a people that cannot galvanize and coalesce for a common purpose or help one another get somewhere meaningful? A people who selfishly make it all about the individual self or nothing; a somewhat 'if not me it must be no one else syndrome?'

His Majesty spoke in a recent forum, organized to address the place of the Igboman especially its new 'minority status' in Nigeria and the way forward for them within the Nigeria political entity. According to His Majesty, the Igbo people of Nigeria are suffering political stagnation in Nigeria because of their "crab mentality!" This affliction affects the Igboman's mind and prevents him from making any meaningful dash for power in Nigeria and at the same time, unable to support, push or allow his fellow Igboman to do so. Elucidating further, the Igbo people are like crabs placed in a basket, which would not move out of the basket and will not in any case, allow any of them to get out but will collectively hold each other down; making all motion and no movement to somewhere or anywhere. This quandary they find themselves, a near anarchical restiveness makes them their own peoples' worst nightmare. This 'affliction' makes it impossible for any Igbo man to ever climb out of a metaphorical self dug-hole where they are confined and consigned to. While none of them gets anywhere outside the hole, they will not help, assist or support each other either. Instead, they prefer to hold each other stuck down-under, preferring instead for all of them to remain mired down in the hole rather than have one of them rise up and out of the hole as an alter ego.

Crabs in a
hole or basket ordinarily could easily escape confinement if only they would band together and develop a workable game-plan. They could make a crab-pyramid to help one another get up and get out of their hole; but no, they would not because crabs don't work together very well. Instead, they spend too much valuable time squabbling amongst themselves and arguing about petty things including nothingness. This is the sorry fate which has befallen and overtaken the Igbo people of the world; and until they resolve to shake the monkey off their back, it is going to remain a knee-jerk feeble approach with their political endeavors in Nigeria. Icheoku says, who says the Igbo people do not still have some fine minds amongst them, as exemplified by this custodian of their ancestral bequeath and inheritance, the Agbogidi.

Until now, opinions have been as diverse and varied as they are inarticulate, ranging from the mundane to the inexplicable; but suffice it to say that His Royal Highness finally got it right; - he nailed it right down to the Igbo problem. Call it unruly crowd mindset of the Igbo nation? Term it a motley-crowd mentality of the Igbo people? Call it obstructionist tendencies of the Igbos? Call it their 'I or no one else' syndrome? You are right and right you shall always be with whatever description you proffer, as long as it agrees with the sentiment that the Igbo people of Nigeria have a problem of not supporting one another, and a self-inflicted one for that matter. Is it petty, you bet it is. Is it selfish, oh yeah! Is it self-inflicted, yes; if not, tell Icheoku who from outside Igboland that is a greater enemy of the Igbo people other than themselves? A product of self hate, avarice, jealous, envy, restiveness, disunity, lack of cohesion and a dis-organised, disheveled, dishevelled, inarticulate, rambunctiousness, smart-alecs syndrome and a society where everyone thinks and sees himself as superior and all-knowing than the man next door.

The simple, short and concise answer to the Igbo 'un-supportive of one another' question, is that the Igbo people of this world, majority of who call Nigeria home, are yet to reach their epiphany in understanding that leadership position is a requirement for any given society both for cohesion and for strength. That in order for any society to thrive, they must have a recognized leadership to serve as a guiding light; and also at any given time, there can only be one such captain of a ship? But possibly due to their political immaturity and naivete, coupled with somewhat puerile dispositions, the Igbo people, despite their proclivity for smartness, are yet to fully realize the efficacy of this proven societal imperative of having a cognizable and identifiable engine to pull or push the rest of the society train of the Igbo nation to a destination of relevance. But nay, a riotous and frenzied motley of people they are; more aptly captured by William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar when he referenced the plebeian mob. Icheoku says, until the Igbo people realize this their very devastating shortcoming, it will always remain for them, a sorrowful undertaking, their attempt at reaching a meaningful destination of political relevance within the Nigeria society.

Icheoku affirms that at no time was this "crab-mentality" of the Igbo people of Nigeria displayed more flagrantly than during the 2009's PDP governorship primary in Anambra State, the supposed flag-staff state of Igboland? For just only one governorship position, 55 sons and daughters of Igboland threw their hats into the ring, forking out 5.5 million Naira respectively in application fees, the highest ever charged by a political party in Nigeria, just for the permission to contest for their party's flag-bearer for the governorship of a state? In the end, the 55 not-so-wise men and women lost the bid for the governorship seat and the eventual candidate the PDP's hierarchy foist on the party as its governorship candidate in the election, Chukwuma Soludo, woefully lost to the APGA candidate Peter Obi. It was not for lack of trying or funding or thuggery or rigging that PDP's Chukwuma Soludo lost; no, it was because a house divided amongst itself is bound to fall, and each 'disenfranchised' candidate worked assiduously to undermine the foist candidate of the party, deploying their 'crab-mentality' in the process. In the end, APGA's Peter Obi sailed back to the governorship mansion without much of a fight from the opposition; buttressing the crab mentality of the Igbo people wherein 55 crabs held each other down inside a governorship bowl, refusing and sabotaging any one of them from ever emerging out of the hole and/or winning the contest.

Also during the previous PDP's chairmanship that threw up the disgraced erstwhile chairman Vincent Ogbulafor, Icheoku recollects vividly that over 23 applicants of Igbo stock ran a contest of death for that office; forcing the powers that be in Nigeria, led by the governor's forum, to foist Ogbulafor on the party. He was later forced out by a guffaw of political misstatement which went against all permutations of the current power that be, then Acting President Jonathan and his South-South clan. The manner of Ogbulafor's exit once again portrayed the Igbo people negatively within the Nigerian society, as politically incapable, incompetent and too loquacious, which does not augur well for any meaningful political advancement of the race within the Nigeria polity. That Igbo people Jim Nwobodo and the late Chuba Okadigbo were similarly used by the institutionalized anti-Igbo elements of and in Nigeria in Jos, to frustrate Alex Ekwueme's presidential run in 1999, paving the way for Olusegun Obasanjo's final emergence, also bears testimony to this "crab-mentality" of the Igbo people.

Their mantra and war-cry is always 'either me or no one else;' and if not me, let no one else get that trophy; forgetting that a leadership can be provided through and by the proxy of a brother or sister in power? Like the biblical King Solomon the Wise and the two women contesting ownership of a child, the Igbo people usually are more identified with the woman who insisted that the child be divided into two halves? The "crab-mentality" afflicting the Igbo people is not exclusive of homeland/motherland Igbos; no, it is ingrained in their DNA and continuously manifests everywhere and anywhere Igbos gather together including their Diaspora. Take your mind to the defunct World Igbo Congress; and so many other Igbo bodies that have attempted a flight only to become moribund shortly due to petty intra-Igbo crass struggle of who is who or the numero-uno? There is also the Igbo people addiction for taking chieftaincy titles, where everyone wants to be a chief with titles of "this 1 and that 1"; as nobody amongst them ever wants to be number 2 of whatever title they buy or take? There are sometimes, so many "this 1 and that 1" that you wonder when will the "this 2 and that 2" ever emerge or begin to take root?

That Igwe Nnaemeka Anachebe, Agbogidi of Onitsha, a main city of Igboland in Anambra State came up with this apposite allegory, clearly depicting the problem bedevilling the Igbo people of Nigeria, could not have been a better coincidence. Good enough he is one of the custodians of Igboland and on whose laps falls the duty and responsibility to fix what is broken and should endeavor or help to coral Igbo people into a pen of support and love for one another. As a correlative, Icheoku asks, is His Majesty going to lead the Igbo people, especially of his Anambra State stock, towards finding a meaningful solution to the problem which continuously stunt Igbo collective progress within the Nigeria society, especially her political advancement? Icheoku regrettably answers in the negative, as even such effort will be clobbered down by the fabled Igbo people's 'crab mentality' as many other traditional rulers might not even allow the Agbogidi to rise up amongst other crabs from their dug-hole? They would not allow him to take the credit of being the man who finally solved an intractable problem hindering Igbos collective progress; and the wheel of Igbo "crab-mentality" keeps on churning and churning ad infinitum!

Concluding, Icheoku quotes a south-south Niger Delta operative in the presidency at Aso Rock, Mr. Smart Eselemo, who in answer to a question on the looming presence of Niger Delta people in Abuja, said, "it was true that so many Ijaw prominent personalities have relocated from the Niger Delta to Abuja since Jonathan became acting President; they relocated not because of anything but because they want to assist in seeing that Jonathan succeeds. You know, Jonathan is the first minority in Nigeria to become a President under a civilian dispensation. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the minorities, especially those of us from the Niger Delta, to ensure that he succeeds.” Icheoku asks, can the Igbo people of Nigeria faced with a similar situation where one of them finds himself in such a position, ever rise up to the occasion in support of one of their own? Can the Igbo people of Nigeria instead of perpetually undermining each other learn from Mr. Eselemo that "our own" is better than nothing and that it must not always be me, me and me? Can the Igbo people of Nigeria and the world over, ever learn to support one another instead of continuously adopting the "pull him down" attitude, which has become very symptomatic of the Igbo people of the world. It is either them or nothing else and as always, would, if not them, make sure it is no one else; and you ask yourself, when will the Igbo epiphany take place. So long as the Igbo people remain mired in their own squalor, caused by an inherent "crab-mentality" of 'me or no one else,' they will continue to grope for a meaningful relevance within the Nigerian society and the Diaspora!