2 weeks Ago By Clem Aguiyi
At a time, Nigeria is going through ravaging inflation that has wiped off the middle class, the worst economic crisis since the civil war that caused the death of over 1,000,000 Igbo children and woman due to starvation, economic blockade and warfare; at a time of social upheaval, political instability and general insecurity that has resulted in ethnic cleansing of indigenous people of the North by Islamists and foreign militias, at a time we have become a laughing stock and butt of jokes around the world, the last thing we need is another manipulation of history to serve dubious purpose. Nigeria that was once the glittering pride of Africa is now a scorn due to our leaders who are ineffective and ineffectual to build a prosperous, safe and secure country, but instead steal the resources and wealth of the country while millions of people wallow in poverty; no food, no water, no health care, poor sanitation, no jobs and no education. Why Nigeria is in steady retrogression and has not risen beyond the expression of imperialism remains a puzzle.
This in my view is a puzzle that we must band together to resolve. At a time like this, one would expect constant engagement in civil conversation and discourse that will keep us united and save us from doom. History teaches that historians should play a crucial role in shaping collective memory and identity.
Granted that Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are the major tribes in Nigeria, this country is nevertheless a vast land with over 300 ethnic nationalities with their distinct languages gig sawed by the British as a geographical expression. Nigeria’s diversity alone gives any Nigerian historian of repute the responsibility not just to document history but to go beyond mere documentation of history to foster a shared understanding of the past in such a manner that will contribute to nation building, recognising there is no clear and distinct tracheotomy between the past, present and the future. I had expected a supposedly high-ranking professor of history with over 45 years’ experience in research and teaching of history to be more fair and truthful in highlighting the contributions and experiences of all ethnic groups.
Historians of this calibre owe our society a duty to write history in a manner that will shape the country to be a better place and not to further poison the well or cultivate a further atmosphere and culture of hate against one ethnic or the other. Sad but true. Sad that Prof Audu Bako chose to write nasty and ugly things against the Igbo ethnic group – a people that has been targeted for destruction and death in Nigeria.
The genocide against Igbo predates Nigeria’s independence. In 1953 thousands of Igbo in Kano were killed and their properties destroyed. The horror was unprovoked other than the fact that many northerners harboured a fierce distrust of their Christian Igbo neighbours.
Ordinarily, such old tired lies as delivered by Bako are the type of work that I ignore, but again reading through the pages of his tissues of lies was like a torture but I still had to take the pains to read through every single line. For an academic work of a retiring professor, there was not a single page without a sic, distressing errors of text and context, sub text and texture. The entire work is devoid of intellectual curiosity too.
Hard as I tried, I could not find a reference to quote from such intellectual research work. I was inclined not to do this rejoinder, but there again we live in dangerous times where the Igbo are endangered facing real existential threat. The false claims made by Bako is sad but not strange: Sad because Bako has taught history for over two decades and must have impacted and influenced hundreds and maybe thousands of young minds who had acquired anti-Igbo sentiments as a result of his false teachings.
His lecture was worse than anti-climax, if this is what passes for history and what has been taught for over four decades, one can only lean backwards with jaws askew. But thank God he is one evil off the classroom..
