by Alexander O. Onukwue

Reactions continue to trail the anti-Igbo song that has been on the internet over the past days.

While there are speculations about the brains behind it, no particular persons or group has taken ownership of it. APC Chairman, John Odigie Oyegun, has placed the blame at the feet of the losers from the 2015 elections, but that would be too much of a generalization to make, knowing full well that Igbos also lost in those elections.

A look through the lyrics of the song could give us a clue, however, as to those whose imprints may have been present in the minds of those who drafted the song.

Prof Ango Abdullahi, a former Minister and Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, was the foremost supporter of the Kaduna Declaration, with his statements that the South East was developed by the grains grown in the North. This would have informed the lyricist for this anti-Igbo song as the following lines would show:

“We knew they have nothing since their origin, it was with the money of the North, that oil was explored and found. We are farming and grazing with our cattle and knew they have nothing.”

As an intellectual of repute, Abdulahi’s backing of the callous ultimatum given by the group must have emboldened them towards exploring other means of propagating their message, even as they received backlash from other leading figures in the North. A deeper look at the lyrics of the song suggest that the artistes may have lifted a lot of material from the words of the Professor in his debunking the South as the economic base of Nigeria.

“We northerners farm beans and they have nothing, we farm rice and they have nothing, they neither farm potatoes nor cocoa yam. They don’t have wheat, pepper, no grains and nothing. No onions and groundnuts, we eat surplus and gave southerners food. Let the country be divided, let the country be divided, we northerners are saying let the country split… You said you don’t want us, we too we don’t want you anymore”

Academics are usually proud when their works are quoted severally and credit given to them. One wonders if the Prof will be taking credit for this; he will probably not be bothered that he was not credited, given he already has given a prior assent.

Editor