Elochukwu Benjamin
Awka
Human rights activist and lawyer, Dele Farotimi, has insisted that Nigeria has an “Igbo problem,” arguing that the crisis is rooted in the failure of the country to treat Ndigbo as equal citizens and restore their full sense of belonging.
Farotimi, who made the disclosure in a state-of-the-nation broadcast on his X handle, said the loss of citizenship, absence of the rule of law and widespread impunity had created the conditions responsible for separatist agitations and other ethnic grievances across the country.
According to him, if Igbos were treated as full citizens of Nigeria, there would be little reason for them to demand a separate homeland.
“Nigeria has an Igbo problem and it is important that we address it,” Farotimi said, adding that the question was how the Igbos moved from being advocates of a united Nigeria at the height of their national influence to demanding a separate homeland.
“Simple, the loss of citizenship. The absence of the rule of law. If impunity does not govern the country, there will be citizens.
“If the Igbo are citizens in Nigeria, they will not desire a separate homeland. Restore citizenship to the Nigerian, the Igbo will not be demanding to go anywhere.”
He argued that the same restoration of citizenship and rule of law would address other ethnic and regional grievances, saying the Middle Belt would not be complaining about herdsmen attacks while the Hausa people would not feel persecuted for asserting their identity.
Farotimi said Nigerians must stop avoiding the historical roots of the country’s problems and instead confront uncomfortable truths if the nation is to find lasting solutions.
He said the country had become increasingly hostile to opinions that differed from prevailing views, making it difficult for Nigerians to engage honestly with one another over issues affecting different ethnic groups.
“We have become a society that is largely anti-truth, and very hostile to opinions that diverge from our own,” he said.
Farotimi also traced the historical rise of Igbo influence in Nigeria to the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Igbos, according to him, occupied prominent positions in the military, civil service, railway engineering and other key institutions.
He cited Nigeria’s first president, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, as an example of an Igbo nationalist whose political vision initially extended beyond ethnic interests.
Farotimi said Azikiwe’s leadership of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), including its activities in Cameroun, reflected a broader nationalist and Pan-Africanist outlook rather than a narrow ethnic agenda.
However, he argued that political developments and ethnic competition eventually contributed to the transformation of what had been a national outlook into a more ethnic one.
He said it was important to examine that history because it provided context for understanding some of the ethnic tensions confronting Nigeria today.
On the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War, Farotimi rejected the widely used expression that there was “no victor, no vanquished,” arguing that the consequences of the war continued to affect the Igbo people.
“It is a lie to say that there is ‘No victor, no vanquished’ after the Civil War. Igbos were certainly vanquished and they were not allowed to forget about it,” he said.
According to him, Igbos were for years excluded from the upper echelon of the Nigerian Police, Army and other security institutions, describing the situation as structural marginalisation.
He also pointed to the political and administrative structure of the Southeast, noting that the region remains the only geopolitical zone with five states, while other zones have as many as seven.
Farotimi argued that the number of local government areas, which has implications for revenue allocation, had also disadvantaged the Southeast.
He further alleged that Igbos had faced deliberate exclusion from the presidency, citing the 2023 election as an example.
According to him, although the presidency was zoned to the South in 2023 and it was therefore appropriate for an Igbo candidate to seek the position, political calculations eventually worked against the emergence of a candidate from the Southeast.
“The Igbo person is not treated with the dignity and integrity deserved by a citizen in his own country,” he said.
Despite what he described as exclusion from Nigeria’s governance structure, Farotimi said the Igbo people had demonstrated remarkable resilience by developing alternative systems of survival and creating wealth within their communities.
He said that spirit of exclusion had, in turn, strengthened the desire for independence and self-reliance among Ndigbo.
However, Farotimi cautioned against allowing genuine grievances to become a tool for political manipulation, saying grievance-based politics had produced leaders whose actions sometimes harmed Igbo interests more than the alleged enemies of the people.
He noted that for nearly three decades, political leadership in the Southeast had been dominated by people from the region, rather than Hausa, Fulani or Yoruba politicians.
“No Fulani, Hausa or Yoruba man has ruled Igboland in the last 27 years. Every leader in the region has been sons and daughters of AlaIgbo,” he said.
Farotimi also blamed Nigerians collectively for the country’s present condition, insisting that no ethnic group could claim complete innocence.
“We are all, as a collective, to blame for where we are. There are no saints, and there are no sinners,” he said.
He called for a deliberate national conversation anchored on truth, historical understanding, citizenship and equal treatment, arguing that Nigeria’s problems could not be resolved by avoiding difficult conversations.
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