Understanding the Igbo Problem in Lagos

A story of self betrayal

(Part 1)

Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD September 8, 2025

When I read in the news earlier today being the 8th day of September, 2025, that the leadership of the popular Ladipo Market in Mushin Lagos has been taken over by the minority Yoruba members of the market, I added another cup of tears to the already over-flowing tears over the dastard act of renaming iconic Charlie Boy Bus-stop and Ozumba Mbadiwe street to Yoruba bearers.
My questions have been all the while, where are the Southeast Igbo big-wigs in APC and those appointed as Ministers of the Federal Government? Where are the five Southeast State Governors? Where are all the leaders of opposition parties including Mr. Peter Obi and his Obidient Movement?
Where are the celebrated businessmen such as Prince Arthur Eze, Onyeama Air Peace and Chief Emeka Ofor? Where are the big-mouthed political leaders such as Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, and their fellow insatiable Fulani stooges? Where is Engr. Joe Igbokwe? Where are all the wide-mouthed Igbo unity scam project and IPOB agitators disturbing the solemn peace of Anioma people?
Professor Bolaji Akinyemi has just written his pro-Igbo opinion on the matter. May be the Igbo are waiting for Professor Wole Soyinka to follow suit. That is the irony of being Igbo of the Southeast—a people whose self-interest overrides the enduring necessity of collective interest.
I know that during my hey days as the leader of Igbo People’s Congress (IPC) in Lagos State, such acts could not have happened without strong counter by my Yoruba colleagues, including God-fathers like Dr. Frederick Faseun and Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti.
This is because I would personally go to them and demand that they take immediate action, which they would definitely do straight by threatening the Governor. You can’t be my friend and watch your people oppress my people for no reason. I must see what you can do to stop it. I have had also the privileged of being beckoned by the likes of Rear Admiral Godwin Ndubuisi Kanu and Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife to act urgently in similar situations. Joe Igbokwu cannot deny this fact. No Southeast Igbo can boldly act in such manner presently. And the question is why?
Not long ago, one of my friends from Southeast, precisely from Igbo-Ukwu in Anambra State but based in Canada, named Somadina Muojeke a.ka. Agbudugbu-Agbudugbi asked me, “But Tony why are you attacking Ndigbo?” My response was simple. “Because I am Igbo and anything that happens to the Igbo as a group affects me.”
That’s the number one conceited ethnic mentality of the average Igbo from the Southeast. No matter the degree of crime or sabotage committed against the Igbo by any political leader from the Southeast, such a person remains a hero to the people protected under the vile political cover of, “any criticism against him is anti-Igbo.”
You become an Igbo hater when as an Igbo from Anioma or Rivers State you criticize an Igbo leader of Southeast descent, especially the three political Baals of Ndigbo— Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Nnamdi Kanu and Peter Obi, whose policies and actions had always been against collective interests of the Igbo ethnic nation. To them these people are as infallible as the Pope ex cathedra.
It is not often the weird dancer who is ashamed of his performance in the public square but his kinsmen. So the relationship between Anioma people and their Southeast core-Igbo kinsmen is neither a matter of hatred nor denial of Igbo identity as it is now being insinuated by some politically and intellectually gullible elements from the Southeast. It is a matter of differentials in core-values founded on distinctions in origins, customs and tradition.
So being Igbo is not about disturbing the peace of Anioma or the Igbo-speaking people of Edo and Rivers State in the name of uniting the Igbo. Uniting the Igbo for what? For Biafra project or for Nigerian President of Igbo extraction! These hypotheses are unworkable as far as Anioma people are concerned because neither can the Igbo alone elect a President of Nigeria nor were Anioma people part of defunct Biafra and will never be part of any future Biafra.
As I have always pointed out, the present Anioma is a multi-ethnic Igbo-speaking regional concept and not Igbo by collective origin. I am from Igbuzo (Ibusa) founded by core-Igbo immigrants from Isu Village, Uruagu Nnewi in Anambra State and my lineage belongs to this group. Therefore, most of those carriers of moronic Igbo ethnic identity are not more Igbo than I.
In the same Ibusa, there are settlers from Nri, Benin, Esan, Aboh, Ejeme-Unor, Utagba-Uno in Ndokwa, Asaba, Ogwashi-Uku, Ubulu-Unor, Egbudu-Aka, Issele-Azagba, Akwukwu-Igbo, Obosi, Isu-Aniocha and, Awka. Much as all these groups accept one common identity, “Isu-Mbaogu”, that does not obliterate the underlying fact of their heterogeneous origins. So any vagabond from Southeast who brands Anioma people as having identity crisis speaks from demented ignorance.
The point is that there are certain weird acts the so-called celebrated Igbo leaders of Southeast do against the collective interest of their people without anybody coming out boldly to reprimand them. Such cannot happen among Anioma people; and that’s the reason Senator Ned Nwoko has to be called to order; and he aptly knows the consequences.
Anioma is where one’s money does not count on his political or public influence. Tony Elumelu, Nduka Obaigbena and Jim Ovia among others, with all their money maintain their respective levels as obedient indigenes of their respective hometowns. But among the Igbo of Southeast it is a different ball-game altogether.
For instance, the Igbo popular billionaire from Ukpo in Anambra State, Prince Arthur Eze who brands himself “Ozomkpa Ndigbo” (Solution to Igbo problems) during the tenure of Governor Willy Obiano collected some Anambra State Traditional Rulers and took them on a ramshackle courtesy visit to the cloned President Muhammadu Buhari. The Traditional Rulers were suspended and subsequently removed from their thrones by the Governor for travelling without authorization.
These Traditional Rulers remain removed till date with replacements already installed in their respective towns, like the case of Igwe of Nawfia His Royal Highness Chijioke Nwankwo. In fact, one of these unfortunate Traditional Rulers from Anam was gruesomely murdered, possibly on the instigation of his successor.
For Prince Arthur Eze, such humiliation against the people he led to their humiliations and destruction does not matter. Life continues as usual for him and he continues to relate with Governor Obiano’s successor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo without any attempt to resolve the problem and save these unfortunate Traditional Rulers from their predicament which was created by him.
Such act of reckless and ignominious abandonment cannot happen in Anioma. And of course, it is impossible for any man to gather a group of Anioma Traditional Rulers and take them to such ignominious trip. But that’s the irony of his honorific name, “Ozomkpa Ndigbo.”
This is the typical mentality of an average Southeast Igbo—both rich and poor; both political leaders and followers. Anioma people are different and this is the reason why the so-called “Igbo Unity” project by some frustrated Biafran agitators will not have a foothold on Anioma land. This has been part of my experience in my year-long struggle for Igbo emancipation.
This is my case with the Igbo of Southeast Nigeria who often style themselves core-Igbo, while the rest Igbo subgroups domiciled outside the Southeast are described as peripheral or fake Igbo, only useful as foot-stools for their exclusive political interests. To them, these are people who should be cowered to join the Southeast geopolitical zone without question and must dance to their dastard political drum-beat in order to be identified as proper Ndigbo or, be insulted at will and branded as people with identity crisis.
It does not matter how much an Igbo from Anioma or Rivers State sacrifices his life, energy and time in pursuit of collective Igbo interest, he remains an incomplete Igbo. To the Igbo of the Southeast, an Anioma person supports the Igbo cause just because he wants to belong and not on the ground of his patriotic spirit. And when he decides not to belong he is insulted and derogatorily accused of identity crisis.
To them therefore, unless Anioma people dance stupidly in support of Senator Ned Nwoko’s reckless bill of their annexation to Southeast, they are people with identity crisis. Unless Anioma people decide to raise the defunct Biafran flag and join the IPOB leprous chorus of Nnamdi Kanu’s supreme leadership, they are Igbo haters.
Yet these same people are telling us that such conquest mentality does not translate to annexation! Where has it happened in Nigeria that outsiders should be more concerned about the creation of a State than the indigenes? Was it not through that means that the British started their colonization of present Nigeria?
Anioma people would like to see Ikwerre, Etche, Oyigbo (Obigbo), Ahoada, Ogba, Ndoni, Ndoki and Egbema people of Rivers State join the Southeast first before anyone crosses the Rive Niger to suggest such conquest project among Anioma people. We have numerous Igbo-speaking communities in Igalamela/Odolu, Ofu and Ibaji Local Government Areas of Kigi State; as well as in Benue State. We expect the Igbo unity project and its Igbo bu Igbo political scavengers to first unite these communities with Southeast before crossing the River Niger.
Anioma people right from the creation of modern Nigeria have been contributing their quota towards the progress and unity of the Igbo as an ethnic entity without tangible returns from their Southeast kinsmen. I need not recount the records of gallant Anioma soldiers and commanders of the Biafran Forces which remain untainted till date without any record of sabotage against the Biafran cause.
There has also been the deliberate and devilish attempt by some Southeasters to demonize the illustrious son of Anioma Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu as the cause of current Nigeria’s political problems. But the truth is that Major Nzeogwu was heartlessly sabotaged by his Southeast Igbo kinsmen. I want to be contradicted by any Southeast Igbo scholar. In the business of military coup d’etat there are two ends—either you succeed or you fail. There is no excuse for failure.
Ambassador Raph Uwaechue as Biafra”s Representative in France stood dedicatedly with Ojukwu till the end of the war; while Ojukwu’s Southeast kinsmen were sabotaging the war efforts by diverting money meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition to personal coffers. These are the same people whose children are shouting Biafra and IPOB today and expect Anioma people to listen to them.
Ambassador Uwaechue did the same as the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, sacrificing his time and money for the running of Ohaneze Ndigbo Secretariat without contributions from the five Southeast State Governors. He went down to his grave unsung without a single honor from the same Southeast leaders during his burial. No single Southeast Governor found it fit to attend his funeral.
Professor Frank Ndili took over as Vice Chancellor of a University of Nigeria, Nsukka, dotted with wooden prefabricated buildings constructed with the huge sums of money from the Federal Government under the “Three Rs Scheme”, by his predecessors. Two of the three Vice Chancellors: Professors H. C. Kodilinye and J. O. C. Ezeilo were from Southeast. Professor Ndili initiated a massive post-civil war reconstruction of the University with solid permanent building structures. Midway into his tenure the same Southeast ganged up against him and threw him out of office ignominiously.
Today it is on record that following the retirement of Bishop Michael Ugwuja Eneja as the Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese, there was serious succession crisis. It took an Anioma son, the pioneer Bishop of Issele-Uku Diocese, Bishop Anthony Gbuji to not only to stabilize the Diocese, but presided over the creation of Nsukka Catholic Diocese from Enugu Diocese.
Similarly, at the same time Bishop Anthony Gbuji was presiding at Enugu Catholic Diocese, another Anioma son— Archbishop of Enugu Province of Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Emmanuel Chukwuma, was presiding as the Bishop of Enugu Anglican Diocese. Again, he took over following the crisis of succession that followed the retirement of Bishop Gideon Nweke Otubelu from Anambra State.
Not only did he perform extraordinarily but did what no other Southeasterner could do. He presided over the splitting of the original Anglican Diocese of Enugu into seven Anglican Dioceses at a time most of his Southeast colleagues were resisting the splitting of their Episcopal realms into two.
While working at Enugu-Airport as Assistant Superintendent-in-Training of Air Traffic Signals of Civil Aviation Department, I began to notice injustices and frauds in administration especially against those of us on the technical line. Out of anger I began a one-man protest writing for the public opinion pages of the Enugu-based Satellite and Daily Star newspapers. Not long after that, I was elected in absentia as Propaganda Secretary of Civil Service Technical Workers’ Union of Nigeria (CSTWUN), Enugu Airport Branch.
I became in the process a covert member of “Jim’s Vanguard” under the guidance of late Senator Fidelis Okoro of Nru-Nsukka, then officially the Chairman of Anambra State Road Safety Corps (Jim Nwobodo Police), but under the operational command of Chief Frank Oloto of Ovoko-Nsukka, then Anambra State NPP Youth Leader.
The objective was to checkmate the violent thuggery tendencies of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu through his “Ikemba Front”, which was unleashing mayhem on defenseless NPP supporters and, at the same time deriding both Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Governor Jum Nwobodo. Indeed it will sound strange to some people if they hear that Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu introduced modern-day political thuggery in the Southeast.
I was enraged by the saboteur tendencies of the NPN Igbo-Fulani stooges at the time, the infamous NTA-sponsored “Federal Government Presence in Anambra State” by Chike Ubaka, the Ojukwu-led Ikemba-Front attack on Governor Jim Nwobodo at Nkpor Junction, the dastard activities of Police Commissioner Bishop Eyitene, the burning of ABC Transmitting Station at Ngwo, the struggle over the construction of Nnewi-Igbo Ukwu-Ekwulobia-Oko-Umunze road between Vice President Alex Ekwueme and Governor Jim Nwobodo.
Today as I am writing this essay, nothing has changed in that age-long quisling mentality of the average Southeast political leadership. And this explains why there is massive support for the Anioma-Fulani stooge named Senator Ned Nwoko among his likes in Southeast against the collective will of Anioma people.
On April 30, 1999, I was dismissed from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for what they described as “by the order of the Visitor of the University and Head of State of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria”, then Gen Abdusalami Abubakar for no stated crime.
But I knew it was not unconnected with my role in the struggle to defend the Igbo cause within University of Nigeria, Nsukka and, the wider Nigerian polity; especially against the attempt to demonize the progressive Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, from Item, Abia State, Prof Oleka Udeala by his Southeast Igbo kinsmen. In the course of that struggle I was suspended five times from the University, arrested five times by the SSS (DSS), charged to court five times and acquitted of the five cases. Finally my name was submitted to the Federal Military Government for dismissal.
Relocating to Lagos, I formally joined NADECO through the General Secretary of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) Chief Frank Ovie-Kokori, who employed me as his Personal Adviser.
It should be noted that at that time—1999, the Igbo in Lagos State were in a precarious situation; more serious than what is happening today, because at least nobody is being physically attacked at the moment. The OPC was carrying out unprecedented harassment of the Igbo residents in the State because of the provocative roles of some Igbo leaders as agents of anti-June 12, 1993 Presidential election. The Igbo in Lagos were like sheep without shepherd.
They were constantly harassed in their markets by both wayward OPC members and miscreants called Alaye. The Ohaneze Ndigbo led then by Prof Ben Nwabueze, SAN, was a spineless handmaid of Fulani oligarchy openly antagonistic to Afenifer, the apex Yoruba socio-cultural organization which was then the backbone of pro-democracy struggles.
The only functional apex Igbo organization in Lagos State was the Igbo Speaking Community led by Chief Uche Momah from Nnewi which was more or less an appendage of the Northern Fulani oligarchy, and thus was as spineless as Ohaneze Ndigbo. Nobody could speak for the Igbo or defend the Igbo at that point in time in Lagos State.
The harassments became so pronounced that Chief Frank Ovie-Kokori called me one day and asked me in a somewhat mocking manner, “Tony, what is happening to your Ibo people? Is it because they were defeated in war that they cannot stand up and defend themselves in Lagos?” I said ok I will see what I can do.
Disturbed by Chief Ovie-Kokori’s admonition and fired by the zeal to save my people from their second fiddle predicament in Lagos State, I decided to personally confront the leader of the dreaded Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) Dr. Frederick Faseun. I went to his Century Hotel at Okota, from where I was directed to his private hospital, Besthope Hospital, Mushin Lagos.
To be continued.