The incontrovertible truth is that whatever role Igbo play in Nigeria’s emerging political turf will be determined by them and not by any other group or persons. They are where they are today because they failed to take the chances that came their way in the past 31 years. In 2003, for instance, they were deliberately schemed out of relevance by forces opposed to their continued unity.
This plot was again executed in 2007 when no Igbo man or woman was deemed fit to be chosen as the vice president of Nigeria.
From all available designs, it can be concluded that 2010 posed about the worst period for them, as the powers-that-be excluded them from sensitive political offices. Check out this list to see what I mean: President (Niger Delta), Vice president (Hausa), Senate President (Hausa), Speaker of the House of Representatives (Yoruba), Chief Justice of Nigeria (Hausa), President, Court of Appeal (Yoruba), Inspector General of Police (Hausa), Director-General of the State Security Service (Niger Delta), National Security Adviser (Niger Delta), Secretary to the Government of the Federation (Hausa), Head of Service of the Federation (Yoruba), sensitive ministerial portfolios such as Minister of Police Affairs (Hausa), Minister of Petroleum (Niger Delta), Minister of Agriculture (Hausa), Minister of Foreign Affairs (Niger Delta), Minister of Finance (Yoruba), Minister of Defence (Yoruba), Minister of Federal Capital Territory (Hausa), Minister of Transport (Hausa), Minister of Education (Hausa), Minister of Water Resources (Hausa), Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (Yoruba), Chief of Army Staff (Igbo), Chief of Air Staff (Hausa), and Chief of Naval Staff (Hausa). Because of space, I was not able to mention the distribution of offices in government agencies and other sectors of the economy.
The fact x-rayed by the statistics above is that head or tail Igbo are the most neglected ethnic group in Nigeria. There was a time Igbo occupied many of these key positions. This takes us to the past to see how Igbo had fared. From 1966, after the brutal death of Gen. J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, to date no Igbo has occupied the office of President, Chief of Air Staff, or Chief Justice of Nigeria. Igbo occupied the position of Chief of Naval Staff once through Allison Madueke, and Inspector-General of Police once by Ogbonna Onovo (for less than one year).
It is important to observe that the late President Musa Yar’Adua administration offered Igbo the greatest opportunity for reintegration. Under his regime, Igbo occupied these positions: Minister of Foreign Affairs for the first time, Minister of Education, Minister of State for FCT – nearly 27 year after Chief Okoye held the position during the Shehu Shagari government, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Head of Service, Governor Central Bank for the first time, etc. I am sure that they would have got more if he had not died when he did.
Those who claim to love Igbo must demonstrate it in words and deeds. It is not enough to make promises to them without any concrete signs that such promises will be fulfilled. It may not be necessary to list all the disappointments Igbo have suffered in the hands of other tribes. But the truth is that their mumu don do.
This brings us to 2011 and 2015. There is no iota of doubt that Igbo are qualified to vie for the presidency, even in 2011, and that is why I have offered myself. If there is any ethnic group overqualified to contest for the office of president it is Igbo; after all, they have not occupied the prestigious office since Nigeria became an independent nation. The closest they came was when the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe became the ceremonial President of Nigeria with the executive powers residing with the Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa. It is ludicrous that some persons would love to take Igbo for a ride. Which other way can one explain the effrontery in asking Igbo to wait till 2015 to take a shot at the presidency? Who is sure they will be offered the position in 2015 without a fight? Any Igbo who thinks Igbo will get the presidency on a platter is living in a fool’s paradise. Nobody gives anybody power – you scheme, and even fight, for it.
Yoruba have chosen, out of sheer political skilfulness and savvy, to opt out of seeking the presidency this time round. They have their reasons. No single Yoruba is involved in the race for the presidency in 2011. They have tactically withdrawn – positioning themselves strategically for the future. What happens if they choose to go for it in 2015, since PDP have roughened feathers by silently jettisoning zoning to accommodate some egocentric and parochial interests? From all indications, it is certain that if Goodluck Jonathan contests in 2011, then 2015 will be an all-comers’ affair. Who will have the moral right to ask any ethnic group interested in the presidency not to go for it? This is why abandoning zoning portends great danger for our budding democracy.
What Yoruba have done by not vying for the presidency in 2011 is simply political wizardry! They have taken into consideration the compelling need to show fairness and equity in the contestation for relevance in our polity. This is a sharp contrast to the obduracy being demonstrated by some individuals and groups opposed to zoning. These people’s actions are definitely perilous to our nation’s democracy. It would not have been fair for Yoruba to go for the presidency less than four years after one of their own handed over the baton, having held the office for eight unbroken years. This is the kind of sensitivity and selflessness we should exhibit whenever our personal interests clash with the nation interest.
Probably, the bloodbath that followed the agitation for the actualisation of June 12, 1983 presidential election and the fear of a recurrence must have informed the seeming political docility among the Yoruba in the current dispensation. Is it not said that experience comes with age? They have continued to learn from the phlegmatic and disdainful treatment they have suffered in the hands of some powerful ethnic groups, which saw their brand of politics as being too paternalistic.
In any case, the June 12 imbroglio brought the Yoruba unity to another level. They forged ahead together and achieved the goal of the struggle collectively. Interestingly, this was the major political challenge they faced since the death of the great sage, Obafemi Awolowo. It not only challenged their ability to work together, but taxed their intellect and ingenuity. But, despite the mountainous odds in their way, they were able to pull through.
It was, therefore, not surprising that the whole nation agreed Yoruba should be given the opportunity to produce the president in 1999. It was the same deference that enabled Olusegun Obasanjo to emerge as president, even when he could not win in his ward, local government and state. According to the result of the 1999 elections, PDP could not win a single ward in Yoruba land. The situation, from all indications, has not changed despite the garrison politics the same Obasanjo promoted in the South West Zone between 2003 and 2007. There are ongoing plots by PDP to bamboozle the electorate in the zone through acts intent on causing disharmony and strife. But these plots have met a brick-wall going by the plethora of losses the party has suffered in the Appeal Courts that presided over election petitions in the zone.
No matter how anybody views it, the South West zone is a no-go area for PDP and they know it; at least in 2011. It is unarguable that it will take a very long time for the party to recover from the shock of the present happenings in South West zone. Indeed, by the time it recovers, it may be too late to do anything tangible to dislocate Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN), which is ruling the zone like an emerging emperor.
Those planning to rig elections in 2011 in the South West will have been disappointed by the turn of events in the governorship election petition. These developments will certainly affect the direction the tide will go next year. Those who had based their calculations to win landslide next year on when PDP controlled a majority of the states in the zone will now have a re-think.
This brings us to a very important question: Whither Igbo in all of this? Definitely, it would have been a different ballgame all together if Igbo had found themselves in the same dire strait. Some Igbo would have sold out and sabotaged the struggle just to achieve their self-aggrandisement. The little homogeneity some concerned Igbo attempted to build in 2007 by winning two states for the South East in order to give them distinct identity and respect has since been destroyed by the greed and avarice of a few of its power-drunken politicians. The enemies of Igbo, by putting a wedge in the way of the desire of Igbo to carve a niche for themselves politically as the Yoruba had done, have succeeded, although temporarily, in stalling the little progress they have recorded so far.
It was the zoning arrangement of PDP that made it possible, in the first place, for Yoruba to be where they are in today’s politics in Nigeria. The dominance of political power by the North was a product of the division among other ethnic groups jostling for control of power. The North, from the pattern of past elections (at least between 1966 and 1983), had always voted en bloc – with the interest of their tribe paramount. This is why they have been able to build a formidable structure that can confront any form of opposition.
Perhaps, this is why I seem to think that zoning is the most equitable way for power to revolve among the various ethnic groups in Nigeria without rancour. Quarantining zoning, as is being championed by some persons and groups in PDP, will surely spell doom for Igbo. I do not subscribe to the sentimentalism being promoted by some naive and short-sighted individuals who feel threatened by zoning. My major interest in how power is shared in Nigeria is how Igbo will get to the presidency. Precedents show that it will be difficult for Igbo to get the ticket to the presidency unless something miraculous happens, as was the case with Goodluck Jonathan when he succeeded the late President Musa Yar’Adua as demanded by the 1999 Constitution.
Nobody needs a soothsayer to tell him that 2011 poses a huge challenge to Igbo. It is unfortunate that some Igbo leaders have failed to toe the path of honour and courage and fight for their people. Rather they have chosen the path of infamy and sold their birthright for a pot of portage. How much would a man or woman be paid to sell his or her heritage? What future will such a person bequeath to the generation of Igbo unborn?
I find it reprehensible when critics refer to Igbo as treacherous and pecuniary even to the detriment of their people. I wish to state unequivocally that Igbo are not a treacherous people. It is a few disgruntled ones among them that give them the bad name they now bear. Today, they cannot boast of any stronghold politically in Nigeria. What the so-called leaders of Igbo do at present is to run from pillar to post in search of a non-existent recognition in mainstream politics. It is a very dicey and foolhardy gamble because he who pays the piper calls the tune.
The only option available to Igbo now, if at all they want to salvage whatever is left of their integrity, is to come together and chart a new course for their collective emancipation. It will amount to a disastrous estimation for Igbo to hope to be handed the presidency in 2015 on a platter. It will take hard work, resilience, perseverance, tactfulness, and good working relationship with other ethnic and social groups for them to make it. Gallivanting with political misfits, turncoats and ideologues will distance them continually from the presidency.
Left for me: any presidential candidate that does not pick an Igbo for the post of vice president will not get Igbo votes.
Igbo, this is the time to wear your thinking cap and do that, which is needful or forever keep quiet and lick their wound.
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