Anti-Igbo sentiment

During the early years of Nigeria's colonial independence, the Igbo people increasingly came to be perceived as a disproportionately-favored ethnic group with affluence and multi-regionalistic opportunities due to the employment of the Igbo within colonial Nigeria by the colonial authorities and the prominence of them in the public sector in regions throughout the country. This situation aroused the ire of others toward the Igbo.[5] Igbo peoples accustomation to traveling all over the country which helped in leading them to success in business and commerce also aroused anti-Igbo sentiments in southern Cameroon and played a part in southern Cameroon joining Cameroon.[6]

The natives competed with the immigrants from Nigeria, especially the Ibos, whose resilience and ingenuity in trade, combined with their lack of modesty in success, provoked envy. Cameroonian politicians contributed to ethnic stereotypes by inciting fanciful rumours. Of course, other rivalries also mattered, but in the elections of 1954, 1957 and 1959 discontent with connections in Nigeria was clearly associated with anti-Ibo sentiments.

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This situation was exacerbated by the short-lived government of General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, who abolished the federated regions, because most of the members of his military junta were Igbo; this event led to his assassination in a counter-coup which was primarily led by Northerners. It was followed by the massacre of thousands of Igbo in pogroms which occurred in the Northern region, an event which drove millions of Igbos back to their homeland in Eastern Nigeria; ethnic relations rapidly deteriorated, and a separate republic of Biafra was declared in 1967, leading to the Biafran War.[5]

The 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom was a series of massacres which were directed at Igbo and other people of southern Nigerian origin who were living in northern Nigeria. The massacres started in May 1966 and they reached a peak after 29 September 1966.[8] During this period, 800,000-850,000 Igbo civilians were murdered throughout northern Nigeria by Hausa–Fulani soldiers and civilians who sought revenge for the 1966 Nigerian coup d'état, which was carried out by six Majors and three Captains of Southern Nigerian extraction, and resulted in the deaths of 11 Nigerian politicians and army officers of Hausa, Fulani, Itsekiri and Yoruba origin.[9] These events led to the Nigerian counter coup and they eventually lead to the secession of the eastern Nigerian region and the declaration of the Republic of Biafra, which ultimately led to the Nigeria-Biafra war.[8] The 1966 massacres of southern Nigerians have been described as a holocaust by some authors[10] and they have variously been described as riots, pogroms or genocide.[11][12]

The frequent theme of hatred and the lack of trust towards the Igbos by certain Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba people has parts of its origins in the January 1966 coup d'état, led by a majority Igbo military, under the command of officers (Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emmanuel Ifeajuna).[13] The coup killed many prominent Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba leaders, including the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Northern Region Premier, Ahmadu Bello, and the Western Region Premier, Ladoke Akintola. The coup also resulted in the killing of the most senior Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba military leaders, including Brig. Samuel Ademulegun, Brig. Zakariya Maimalari, Col. Ralph Shodeinde, Col. Kur Mohammed, Lt. Col. Abogo Largema, and Lt. Col. James Pam.[14][15][16] Though the coup might have orginally been a plan to put Awolowo in power the coup was seen by Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba leaders as an Igbo attempt to take control of Nigeria, and the violence that followed was seen as a justification for the cleansing of the country which would be accomplished when the perceived Igbo influence was eliminated.[17] The coup also didn't result in the death of prominent Igbo political leaders. The coup was met with widespread anger and resentment, particularly in the north, where it was seen as an Igbo attempt to dominate the country. This anger and resentment led to the violence that followed the coup.

The violence that followed the January 1966 coup led to the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967. The war lasted for three years after which the Biafria region was rejoined into the federation. The Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba-led Nigerian governments regained control of the country, but the conflict left a legacy of bitterness and resentment (often either for Nigeria by Igbos or against Igbos by non-Igbos) that continues on to this day.

A starving Biafran girl during the Nigerian Civil War

The Republic of Biafra was a secessionist state in eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to January 1970. It took its name from the Bight of Biafra, the Atlantic bay to its south. The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic,[18] cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. Other ethnic groups that constituted the republic were the Efik, Ibibio, Annang, Ejagham, Eket, Ibeno and the Ijaw, among others.

Anti-Igbo sentiments also proliferated during the Nigerian Civil War with an almost intentional extermination of Igbos during the war. Talks of killing the Igbos were common a Lagos policeman quoted in New York Review on the 21st of December 1967 stating that “The Igbo must be considerably reduced in number”.[19] The Nigerian federal government also announced the authorization of identity cards on people who have Igbo origin.[20]

They were to carry their identity cards on their persons whenever they were outside their homes. The announcement led to a rumor that the Nigerian government, through that medium, intended to find out the exact population of the Igbo in Lagos, with the plan of eventually exterminating them. Every Igbo man and woman was issued with an identity card.

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Ethnic profiling was also used in finding out who was Igbo in order for them to be killed. In Lagos for example public and private buses were often stopped and searched with passengers in a queue with the intention of collecting names and ethnic origins of the passengers. Any Igbo or persons suspected of being Igbo found in buses were executed this was the case for the Igbos who were publicly executed in Tinubu Square in June 1968. [22] Because of the maltreatment and brutality Igbos faced Igbo people had to devise different ways of survival. Igbo women in Lagos for example dropped their double wrapper attire which they often wore and adopted the Yoruba attire (iro and buba).[23] Igbos also stopped having conversations in public in Igbo and Igbos who could speak other languages identified as other ethnic groups to escape death or brutality. During this time businesses that advertised their products on billboards also made sure to take out Igbo-sounding names. [24] Igbos who found themselves remaining in Nigeria during the war faced torment and brutality from police, soldiers and civilians who were most often neighbors and friends but were often used by the Nigerian government as a token to showcase and prove that Igbos were welcomed in Nigeria.[20] Although Igbos faced hateful sentiments and brutality because of their identity the severity rose and fell depending on how the war was going.[21] The severity also rose at the mere suspicion of military advancements by the Biafrian military. It was during this period that derogatory terms such as "Okoro" became a popular use and Igbos in Lagos were told by certain people of Yoruba origin to leave Lagos and return to Igboland.[20]

On August 2019, a Yoruba secessionist who immigrated to the United Kingdom from Nigeria was arrested by British police for making YouTube videos that contained violent hate speech towards the Igbo people, and in April 2022, he was sent to prison.[25] In The US, recent tensions between Native Black Americans and Southern Nigerian immigrants have contributed to the stereotyping of African-Americans by Africans who have a general feeling of distaste for them. Igbo Americans tend to concentrate themselves in areas of the United States which are controlled by English Americans, (the minority which was responsible for the enslavement and oppression of African-Americans), like Northern Virginia and Washington state and they tend to work in fields like the medical field, the military and the prison system, where they generally work alongside conservative Whites. As a result, African-Americans in Northern Virginia generally do not regard Igbos as a brotherly tribe in the way that they have historically looked at every other Black, North African, or Caribbean ethnic group for centuries. This feeling exists in spite of the fact that African-Americans who live in these regions are disproportionately of Southern Nigerian descent and Igbo immigrants, due to a high rate of admixture with White slavers, are often harder to distinguish from African-Americans than other Black ethnic groups.

End SARS movement

The Endsars movement while mainly being a movement to call to end of police brutality in Nigeria was also used as an opportunity by people who showed negative attitudes and feelings against Igbo people to spread anti-Igbo sentiments. After it came out that there were some Igbos amongst the hoodlums that partook in the violence that occurred after the Lekki massacre, coupled with an Inciteful broadcast by Ipob which is a separatist organization strongly associated with Igbos were quickly blamed for the violence that occurred during Endsars.[26][27][28][29] Netizens who spread this theory often did not differentiate between Ipob the organization and Igbo people, as a result, anti-Igbo sentiments were mainly directed at Igbo people. This incident was also cited by people who didn’t want Igbo people in governmental positions outside of the southeast during the 2023 Nigerian general/gubernatorial elections.[30][31]

Anti-Igbo sentiments in Nigerian general and gubernatorial elections

During the lead-up to the gubernatorial elections of the year 2015 the Oba of Lagos stated that if Igbos do not vote for Akinwunmi Ambode will perish in the river within seven days.[32]

The 2019 gubernatorial elections also presented another opportunity for the usage of anti-Igbo sentiment as a campaign strategy, senator Oluremi Tinubu, wife of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said, “We will invoke all the deities of Lagos to chase Igbo people out. Igbos who refuse to learn our language. Igbos who didn’t marry Yoruba, we will inherit them.”[33] During this same election cycle having an Igbo identity was almost a political suicide, for example Jimi agbaje who had no relations to Igbo people and doesn’t speak Igbo was accused of being Igbo and correspondingly anti-Igbo sentiments was used against him during the election cycle. The most prominent word used against him was Jimichukwu which is a name blending of Jimi’s name and an Igbo word Chukwu, which is a very common Igbo word often used in Igbo names.[34] This specific word which was used against him meant that he was not a true Yoruba but a foreigner from the east and as such shouldn’t be a governor in the west.

Peter Obi's emergence as the Labour party candidate prompted Igbophobic sentiments and hatred against the Igbo people. During his campaign in 2022, there were discriminatory comments made implying that Igbos are trying to take over Nigeria and divide the country in order to create Biafra. Even after his multiple interviews/debates, which was uncommon for very popular presidential candidates in recent times within Nigerian politics, his candidacy was at times dismissed as Igbo people yearning for an Igbo presidency.[35] During this election the singer, Brymo made hateful comments against the Igbo people, at first he insinuated that Igbo people are not ready for the presidency and that Peter Obi should stick to organizing the eastern region from which he hails.[36] A few days after this hateful comment he released another Igbophobic comment while replying to a now-deleted tweet saying "Fuck The Ndi Igbo !! .. To Hell With It!!" this prompted an online petition on change.org to the All Africa Music Awards against his nomination for Song Writer of the Year. He released an apology but then left the same hateful comments on his social media account. These hateful comments by Brymo got a lot of support from ethnic nationalists who were often APC supporters.[37][38] Anti-Igbo sentiments during the 2023 Nigerian elections were common from the disenfranchisement of Igbo people during the PVC collections to an alleged bigoted statement against Igbo people in Lagos by the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje.[39][40] These sentiments became violent and resulted in blockades and threats against Igbo people from accessing the businesses they owned.[40][41][42] The violence stretched into the reoccurring burning and attacks of Igbo businesses in Lagos during elections. The sentiments peaked during the gubernatorial elections within the state of Lagos. Anti-Igbo sentiments in the 2023 elections reached such an extent that there was a belief that often came from election discourse that marrying an Igbo person would result in a tainted bloodline. Weeks leading up to the 2023 gubernatorial elections a candidate by the name of Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour who is part Yoruba (from his father's side) and part Igbo (from his mother's side) had anti-Igbo attacks directed at him. His identity came into question and these attacks weren't just personal in terms of the fact that he was part Igbo and had an Igbo wife. These attacks were directed at the broader Igbo ethnicity within Lagos and ethnic nationalists questioned why anybody who is Igbo should become a governor within the western states in Nigeria. A few days before the election there was almost an expectation that Igbos were not supposed to vote for who they wanted like any other people except for APC candidates. A good example of this is the threats made against Igbos 3 days before the election by an APC loyalist and political thug MC Oluomo, he made threats against Igbo People telling Igbos to stay home if they wouldn’t vote for APC candidates.[43] He also went on to retort that the Yoruba people should get there first and should be the ones to vote first.[43] This rhetoric got a lot of social media attention with Labour party supporters calling on the Nigerian government to apprehend MC Oluomo while supporters who were APC ethnic nationalists gave it support.[44][45] After so many pressures put on the Nigerian government the Nigerian police eventually stepped in calling the anti-Igbo rhetoric made by MC Oluomo a mere joke effectively downplaying parts of the threats which helped to spread the anti-Igbo sentiments during the elections.[46] On the day of the election, Igbo people were threatened and beaten in order to prevent them from voting. These attacks weren't just relegated to Igbo people but to anyone presumed to look like an Igbo person.[47] So as a result, Igbo people and anybody presumed to look like an Igbo person were being pointed at both by people who knew them and people who did not know them in order for them to be attacked.[48]

“I was told to go back to Anambra! How does Bolarinwa sound like an Igbo name? I was rough handled, beaten and sent out because I look Igbo? Because I was not going to vote APC?..."

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During the presidential elections, the Igbos who successfully got to their polling unit were also threatened right at the polling unit and were told not to vote at all, while during the governorship elections, they were also attacked for speaking the Igbo language.[50]

“On the day of the governorship election, they attacked Igbos here, threatening us if we come out to vote that they would kill us. One man was stabbed during the fight that happened on that day. “Three days ago, we heard the man died and the hoodlums caused trouble by attacking anyone they saw on the road, especially when you are not Yoruba.

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[52] Anti-Igbo sentiments in comments, and adverts flooded different social media platforms during this gubernatorial election.[53] These sentiments lasted right into the next day (Sunday) which was also the day Igbos were attacked at Abule ado in Lagos state.

Aftermath of the 2023 elections

The aftermath of the 2023 elections worsened ethnic relations in Nigeria but most importantly it worsened Igbo inter-ethnic relations within the country.

Also recounting her experience, Ijeoma Uba, a nurse who resides in Ikotun, Alimosho Local Government Area, said the outcome of the general election had led to division between Igbos and some individuals in the locality, stressing that she now closes early from her shop because of fear of attack.

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• Radio Nigeria Kaduna