2023, Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part B

Author(s): Iheanyi Enwerem

Abstract: The term “marginalization” entered into Nigerian political lexicon immediately after the Nigerian-Biafra war (1967-70). It all started with the victorious Federal Government unleashing a number of policies which were deliberately targeted on Ndigbo (the Igbos). Of note, at the Federal level, were the Federal Character, the Quota System and the Twenty-Pounds policies, and, in Rivers State, the Port-Harcourt Abandoned Property policy, to name a few of such anti-Igbo policies. Thus, it was the Igbos who, as the defeated party in that war, popularized the use of the term in the Nigerian political discourse following their sense of exclusion from the country’s socio-political and economic scheme of things. Faced with a largely anti-Igbo post-war environment in the country, the Igbos had to swim through the hostile tide, so to speak, struggling for their survival. Therefore, this paper aims at critically examining the role the Christian Churches in Igboland, especially the more predominant Catholic Church, has or has not been playing in Igbo politics of survival in Igboland and beyond. If Ndigbo are still marginalized, could it be because the Christian Churches by way of the socio-political and economic activities of their adherents, especially their leaders, have failed to do the needful – the practical witnessing to Christianity’s emancipatory message and character? The import of, and response to, this question vis-à-vis the needed survival of Ndigbo are pertinent and, indeed, long overdue for a corrective attention; this is especially when one considers the fact that Igboland is not only the ‘home’ of Christianity in Nigeria but also its most Christian part. Hence, for its conclusion, the paper will proffer a way forward!

DOI: 10.33545/26646021.2023.v5.i1b.212

Pages: 118-126 | Views: 460 | Downloads: 8

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