Ike Chi-Ukwu Eluigwe
It may be coming to some of you as new information that Tunde Bakare said that the Igbo are under a curse. However, if my memory serves me right, it is about a decade or more since he first said this. If this spread of his statement is based on a recent statement of the same by him, then it means that Bakare is still of the same opinion. It will then mean that this is the second time, within months, that a pastor of Yoruba extraction will be regaling the public of how the Igbo are under a curse. The first to do that in recent times, just a few months ago, was Pastor Fatoyimbo of COZA; who told us how the Igbo’s labour hustles are due to a curse.
Pastor Tunde Bakare, on his own, gives another reason why the Igbo are under a curse -according to him. His own reason stems from his narration that Alhaji Tafawa Balewa cursed the Igbo for not producing a president in Nigeria because the coupists who besieged him forced him to drink alcohol before killing him. If Bakare actually believes this, it then leaves a terrible unease about his biblical-theological soundness.
On what basis should the action of a group be inferred as the action of the whole making the whole deserving of punishment? According to the biblical pattern, whenever the action of a single person translates to consequences for all, that person is in a leadership position over those who suffer from the consequences of his action. Pharaoh resisted God in resisting Moses, and all of Egypt suffered for it. Joshua went into a covenant with the Gibeonites, and it was binding upon all of Israel. When King Saul flouted that covenant, all of Israel suffered. When David counted Israel against the wish of God, all of Israel suffered consequences. When King Saul made a vow during wartime, it affected the ability of all of Israel to win that war. When Jephthah made a vow, it affected his family; precisely, his daughter.
All the instances where the act of one, or few, was made to have consequences on all, that one or few were leaders over those that suffered consequences. This being the Bible pattern of the Bible Bakare preaches, in what way were the coupists leaders over the Igbo nation? Were they leaders of the Igbo Union of that time? Were the leaders over an Igbo region aside from the Eastern region made up of non-Igbo peoples? Were they spiritual leaders of the Igbo?
So, how did Bakare extrapolate and transpose the coupists into leadership positions over the Igbo just to generate a tale of the entire Igbo people being cursed over the activities of these ones? Is Bakare saying that if some Igbo drown a person in the River Niger, and while the person drowns, she curses the entire Igbo with drowning whenever they pass the River Niger, it will suddenly come to affect the overall Igbo? Does Bakare read a different Bible?
Secondly, is Bakare not aware that it wasn’t just Igbos that stormed Balewa’s house? So, why were the Igbos isolated for a curse and others exempted? All those that stormed his house came to kill him, was that not enough for Balewa to place a curse on all of them? Is Bakare not also aware that eyewitness accounts tell that Balewa’s body was not found with gunshots wounds or bloodstains. He was found under a tree still wearing his spotless white robe. He was not killed, rather died while being detained from a suspected asthma attack; he probably, suffered an attack out of panic. That does not mean the coupists would not have killed him if he hadn’t died earlier, but it makes nonsense of Bakare’s tales.
If Bakare’s curse tales are based on very false premises, what does that leave us with? Are we seeing a genuine error or are we seeing a Freudian situation where the intents of the heart are being exposed? Is it that Bakare would wish that the Igbo be found under a curse? That our misfit in the Nigerian project be explained away with curse tales? Where did Bakare get his tale of Igbo officers forcing Tafawa Balewa to drink alcohol? How is it possible that Bakare did not know that the contingent was not made up of only Igbos? How come Bakare could not produce a biblical basis to support his claim of a curse over the entire Igbo by the actions of a few, even if we want to go by his tales?
There are over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria. The great bulk of these has not tasted the presidency. Are they also under a curse? Or is Bakare saying that they should forget ever being president due to their low population? After all, not too long ago, the same Bakare explained away the Igbo’s inability to clinch the presidency on “democracy is a game of numbers”. So, Bakare’s political theory states that those who should forget about the Nigerian presidency are those who do not have the numbers and those who are under a curse. This theory leaves the door open to only two contestants: his Yoruba group and the Hausa-Fulani coalition. Is this political scenario not familiar? So, Bakare is exposing and validating what many already suspect.
Come to think of it, why is it more convenient for Pastor Tunde Bakare to expose a curse over the Igbo than speak out against the injustices meted to the Igbo over decades -even preceding Nigeria’s independence? Should we focus on a curse on a rape victim or should we deal with the rapist that raped her? Was this curse Bakare talks about proactive, that is, it started having an effect even before the offence that warranted it happened? How should we explain that Nnamdi Azikiwe was denied his very deserved position of Prime Minister? The proactivity of the curse? How do we explain the betrayal Azikiwe suffered in the Western Region when he was set to become the premier after his party won elections there? The proactivity of the curse? How do we explain the pogroms the Igbo suffered in the north prior to independence? The proactivity of the curse? Did karma know that the Igbo will sin and began to punish them even before the sin was committed? Is Bakare’s Bible different from the ones sold in stores?
That this is coming up at a time when calls for Igbo presidency are loudest makes this most disturbing; that it is presented at a time when no eyewitness can confirm or refute the story makes it insidious. So, we have a story that will provoke northern rage and provide justification to deny the Igbo her due, while keeping other non-northerners/non-Igbo watching approvingly of the deserved retributive justice karma dishes out to the Igbo… all these, over tales by moonlight! So, Bakare raises this sort of dust over a matter that not only his twist of the tale cannot be confirmed, but in all probability is false when considering already known historical and biblical factors.
Bakare calls the Igbo for prayers. If an Igbo becomes president, Bakare will tell us he has led the Igbo to break the curse. If an Igbo does not become president, he will say, “I told you so… this curse is real.” For Bakare, however it turns, he wins. Well, for those grounded in the Scriptures which Bakare preaches, we do not need the appearance of results to confirm truth or error; we simply need biblical precedent… and Bakare has none.
Why it is difficult for Nigerians who believe that the Igbo are under a curse to ask the Igbo to leave is difficult to comprehend. Do Bakare and his type not know that partnering with a cursed fellow will affect negatively whatever you have together with that person? Please, kick out the cursed Igbo so that they can have a nation of their own and confirm to the entire world that they are really under a curse. Why this is so difficult for Nigerians is more difficult to comprehend than molecular science.
