Ndi Igbo and 2015 Elections

I won’t describe the renewed clamour for
a Nigerian president of Igbo stock in 2015
as “idiotic”, as Ojo Maduekwe did in 2003.
After all, the unwritten agreement in the
ruling PDP was that, after the north’s
eight years from 2007, an Igbo would
emerge as presidential candidate of the
party.
At the turn of the 20th century, I read
statements from opinion leaders like
Wada Nas literally begging Ndigbo to be
patient until 2015. Now, through a
conspiracy of Igbo haters – men and
monsters – the emergence of an Igbo
president in the next 10 years appears
utopian.
For Ndigbo who disagree with me, I have
a story to tell. It is like a vision of the
2015 politics revealed to a soothsayer in
Nri kingdom. Call it déjà vu and you
won’t be wrong. Literature students may
choose to cite it as an example of
allegory, imagery, symbolism or simply
metaphor – I don’t know which one
anymore, though I used to be an
authority on literary terms some 31 years
ago.
Here’s the story I read in The Nation of
April 16 headlined “Suspected kidnappers
use Abati’s name to lure Igbo youths to
Abuja”: Twelve young men led by the
national secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo
Youths, Okechukwu Isiguzo, were lured
into Abuja by kidnappers masquerading
as Dr Reuben Abati, special adviser to
President Jonathan on media. “Abati” had
invited the group to meet with the
president in Aso Villa so he could
dialogue with the Igbo youth leaders as
he had done with the Arewa and Yoruba
leaders.
The young men jumped at the offer. On
the appointed day, “Abati’s
representatives” lodged them in a hotel in
Gwagwalada. Three vehicles came to the
hotel on the morning of April 11
purportedly to take the youths to Aso
Rock; but, instead of heading for the Villa,
they sped off to Suleja in Niger State. An
argument ensued between them and their
captors until they ran into a security
checkpoint. The drivers refused to stop,
drove into a bush, and ran away.
Abandoned in the vehicles, the young
men had to trek back to the checkpoint to
narrate their ordeal. “Nobody knows the
intentions of the so-called ‘Reuben Abati’
but it is suspected that it was a set-up to
wipe out some Igbo youth leaders,” said
Isiguzo at the end of his story.
For a better understanding of the Igbo-
journey-to-the-presidency story, for
“Abati” read “Nigerian kingmakers”; for
“a hotel in Gwagwalada” read “APGA”; for
“vehicles” read “PDP” or “APC”; and for
“checkpoint” read “INEC”. Is it for nothing
that this has been revealed at this time? I
don’t think so. He who has ears, let him
hear! Ndigbo that can’t resist greed for
money or who leap before they look have
been forewarned.
Rejected by the PDP and only good to be
used by the emerging APC, Ndigbo appear
to be at a crossroads. Indeed, this time
calls for deep thinking: they should
borrow a leaf from the clarion call of
“Yoruba Ronu” in the late 1990s. Dr Alex
Ekwueme founded the PDP but the party
was hijacked. Between Ekwueme and
Olusegun Obasanjo (imagine the
contrast), other PDP Nigerians chose
Obasanjo in 1999 and 2003.
And after Obasanjo failed to achieve his
life presidency project, he imposed on the
ruling party a terminally sick Umaru
Yar’Adua. He had promised to hand over
to Dr Peter Odili, an Igbo. But even after
penciling Odili in for Yar’Adua’s running
mate, Obasanjo and his henchmen
replaced him with Dr Goodluck Jonathan,
an Ijaw, at the eleventh hour.
At independence, Nigeria rested on a
tripod – Eastern, Western and Northern
regions. But for a long time (1970-2010),
the Eastern Region was shut out of the
presidency. I agree with gifted actor Pete
Edochie, who said, in my presence in
2011, that he was not keen on having an
Igbo president.
President Jonathan has already taken the
slot of the defunct Eastern Region.
Whether his exit year is 2015 or 2019 is
unknown, but the next president after
him should come from the north. And
just as the Igbo majority ethnic group in
the east gave way to a minority, let the
majority Hausa/Fulani in the north
concede the presidency to a minority.
That’s my advice anyway.
Ndigbo are partly to blame for their
current situation in Nigeria: they lack
unity and their trust in friends is
irrational. If they were serious about
taking the next slot of the east, they
would have laid out a workable plan by
now. Some still foolishly believe that, in
the PDP, Jonathan would hand over to an
Igbo. In the allied party (APC) expected to
give the ruling party a fight in 2015,
Ndigbo are neither here nor there.
See how they have been tearing
themselves to shreds in APGA that would
have given them bargaining power in the
APC. If, eventually, a northerner emerged
flag-bearer of APC with a Yoruba running
mate, would Ndigbo still cry
“marginalisation” and seek shelter under
the umbrella? Yet, for the APC to make
waves in 2015, it should have a
presidential candidate from the north and
a running mate from Igbo land. And that
Igbo man/woman should be competent to
take over after the president’s tenure.
In the PDP, this ambition can’t be
pursued. Ndigbo can only plead with
President Jonathan to empower them. The
highest appointee in his government is
the secretary to the government of the
federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; he
should be strengthened. Although Dim
Emeka Ojukwu rejected the post for
Ndigbo [he said a secretary was one who
served others tea in an office] when MKO
Abiola offered it before the 1993 election,
it is not a position that should be
belittled.
I’m sure SGF Anyim and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, finance minister and coordinating
minister for the economy, have been
instrumental in the few successes
achieved by the Jonathan presidency so
far. Like a copy editor in a newsroom, the
SGF is a smooth operator who doesn’t
expect to take credit for his work. But I
presume that Anyim has been whispering
into the PDP government’s ear that, since
1999, it has been unable to build a second
Niger bridge or complete Zik’s
mausoleum or mend the many eyesores
called roads in the east.
2015 is at hand. While it is impracticable
for Ndigbo to have the presidency then,
they should start building bridges across
River Benue, for no region alone can
muster enough votes to win the
presidency. It’s true that Ndigbo fleeing
Boko Haram spots have swelled the
population of Igbo states – there may be
over 25 million eligible voters there now
– but how many have been convinced to
perform their civic obligation?
No doubt, the Nigerian renaissance will
come at the right time. I have not been
professing love for Ndigbo alone. No.
Every region has well-qualified
candidates for the presidency, but every
region should be given a sense of
belonging. Tribalism is alive in Nigeria –
we shouldn’t shy away from the fact.