IGBOS USED TO BE VERY SMART POLITICIANS

ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES

Ndigbo must not continue to deceive themselves about our very precarious political situation at the moment. We have been dribbled, and we do not pursue the ball hard and fast enough, a very dangerous goal will be scored against us.

From 1959 when Nigeria held its first general elections, till 2007, Ndigbo had held tenaciously to our place in the tripod that keeps Nigeria together, politically. It was non-negotiable that the Igbo man would naturally take one of the first three most important and powerful political positions, till about 2007 elections, when we started slipping off the political radar.

I may not be able to immediately point to a precise reason why we went down the radar in 2007, but the totality of the blame for our further slip in 2011, is on the doorsteps of our unwise decision to throw our whole support to President Goodluck Jonathan. By supporting Goodluck Jonathan for the presidency in 2011, we conceded our right to Igbo presidency in 2015, as agreed by the PDP and inadvertently lost our place as the Nigerian tripod.

No generation of Igbo politicians had fared worst than the present generation of Igbo leaders and we must sing it constantly to their hearing that they have failed the Igbo nation. Not a single one of them is completely innocent. If just nine years after the Nigerian-Biafran war, the Igbos could successfully negotiate to produce the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, why are we struggling for even the 30th position in Nigeria's political ranking this time around?

We have been turned against ourselves and the energy we would have invested in fighting for the Igbo interest we are wasting in fighting ourselves and pulling down our major leaders. Of course, it is impossible for me to conclude this post without making any reference to Owelle Rochas Okorocha. The Imo State governor has been the lone voice shouting for Igbo liberation since 2015, but politicians from other tribes who are threatened by his clout and contacts recruited his fellow Igbo politicians to pull him down.We tend to forget that no matter what we may hold against Owelle, no ethnic group in a multi-ethnic nation like ours, survives without a strong leader, who is feared, respected and envied.

The reason I can immediately fathom for our steady retrogression in the Nigerian power table is that we began to play more of emotional politics than tactical politics. We allowed anger, love, hatred and empathy over matters that hardly concern us to determine our political alignment, instead of looking out for where our interest will be most protected and the Party and candidates that are most viable.

Like the late political analyst, Pini Jason observed; "We (Igbos) have a reputation for voting for whoever looks like being the winner." But we have lost that reputation and we are suffering it, direly. Today, Igbos are begging to be considered for Deputy Senate Presidency or even Deputy Speakership. This is the lowest we have come as a people and till we begin to look inwards for the solution to our political troubles, we will continue to degenerate politically. We must not also deceive ourselves by thinking or believing that with our business contacts and talents in trade, we can survive without political power. He who controls political power, controls the economy. Very soon, and it is already steaming, those who have displaced us politically will begin to take targeted shots on our business interests.

NDIGBO, ARISE!