THE BURDEN OF PATRIOTISM: The Igbo Experience and the Double Standards of Nigerian Nationalism

THE BURDEN OF PATRIOTISM: The Igbo Experience and the Double Standards of Nigerian Nationalism

From the earliest years of Nigeria’s independence, the Igbo person has carried a unique burden within the national space, one that requires extraordinary restraint, silence, and self-effacement to be considered “patriotic.”

This expectation did not emerge in a vacuum; it has roots in events historically documented, from the 1966 anti-Igbo pogroms, in which over 30,000 Eastern Nigerians were massacred in the North, to the Civil War, where starvation was deployed as a weapon, leaving over a million civilians dead. Even after the war, policies such as the £20 compensation, the abandoned property saga, and exclusion from strategic national appointments institutionalised a perception of the Igbo as perpetual outsiders who must constantly prove loyalty.

This history quietly frames what many Igbo Nigerians describe today as a double standard of nationalism. While other ethnic groups may boldly celebrate regional heroes, promote cultural pride, or even advocate ethnic self-determination, the Igbo person who voices similar sentiments is quickly labelled “tribalistic.”

Igbo ingenuity, whether in the wartime technological innovations of Biafra, or the modern commercial successes of Aba, Nnewi, and the diaspora, must be downplayed to avoid accusations of arrogance. Speaking Igbo in professional spaces is discouraged, yet other major languages are embraced as markers of national belonging.

The pattern is painfully familiar: a Yoruba advocate of Oduduwa republic remains a “sophisticated nationalist,” and Northern leaders who promote religious or regional ideology are still invited into national dialogue. But an Igbo person must tread carefully, often validating other groups while being silent about his own, to be deemed “detribalised.”

This is not victimhood, it is a reflection of a long-standing structural bias that demands Igbo compliance without acknowledging Igbo contribution. And yet, despite disproportionate sacrifice in commerce, education, and national development, the nation’s message has often been: You are welcome, but only as junior partners.

For Nigeria to heal and progress, these double standards must be confronted honestly. True unity cannot thrive where one group must diminish itself to belong. The Igbo have given much to Nigeria; it is time Nigeria reciprocated with fairness, dignity, and equality.

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