Title:   MARGINALIZED IN NIGERIA, MARGINALIZED IN IGBOLAND: AN APPRAISAL OF THE CRISES AND DYNAMICS OF SELF MARGINALIZATION IN CONTEMPORARY IGBOLAND

Abstract
This study contends that while it is painful and probably normal to see and
lament the alien status of the Igbo in the Nigerian project as evidenced in their
verified marginalized condition, it is even more painful and lamentable that the
Igbo are also alien and discriminated against in core Igbo heartland. It affirms
that the popular refrain of Igbo marginalization in Nigeria is less painful when
juxtaposed with the reality that greater number of the Igbo are even more
marginalized in Igbo land. With sundry state policies targeted against indigenes
of ‘other’ Igbo states in the labor market especially in the civil service and the
retaliatory responses there from, including despicable social relations amongst
the constituting peoples, government/culture-induced social stratification
remain on the increase within the enclave. The superiority claims and
assumptions of some sections of the Igbo fuse into attitudinal dispositions of
government leading to certain marginalized Ndigbo alleging rights infringement
that further buttress the crack on the unity-wall of the Igbo nation. The study
argues that the central pursuit of sovereignty of the Igbo from Nigeria will be of
no consequence if the cracked walls of unity that engender national
consciousness and patriotism are not fortified to withstand the challenges of
resistance to independence. It concludes by insisting that calls for a free Nigeria
necessarily puts a duty on the Igbo to embrace a similar social condition because
discriminatory disposition of Igbo state governments against Igbo nonindigenes
as well as the assumption of cultural and material superiority of one
Igbo group over the other signpost natural ingredient for rancor and
disintegration that must be avoided by all means.

Citations:

Publication Date: 2022-08-06