In his opinion Mr. Daniel Elombah wrote:
"…Ndigbo Nwere Problem!!!..." (Translation: the Igbo have problem)
Mr. Elombah's dire prediction was based on the publication of the registered voters by zone by our Independent National Election Commission which was published as follows:
1. North-West Nigeria 18 Million
2. South West Nigeria 15 Million
3. North East Nigeria 8 Million
4. North Central 8 Million
5. South South Nigeria 8 Million
6. South East Nigeria 7 Million
Total 64 million
On the surface it would look as if Igbo have problem especially when taken from the point of view of Idowu Bobo
All road the presidency of Nigeria runs through Northwest and Southwest, 50% of the voters are from these two regions of the country.
In other words 2 zones make up 50% of registered voters. If you convincingly win both you will just be scrambling to win 25% from a few more states and you are in.
Several things stand out from this analysis:
1. NW (21%) of the population has 28% of registered voters 7 points higher than her share of population.
2. NW registration (61%) is 20 points higher than the national average of 45.7%.
3. SW with 19.7% of the population has 23.4 % of registered voters or 5 points higher than her share of the population.
4. SW registered 54% of it citizens compared to the national average of 45.7% or 10 points above national average.
5. SS and SE have the lowest registration percentage except for NE and considerably lower than their share of the population.
Compared with other data from the Nigerian government the oddity of the registration exercises become more apparent. Take a look at college enrollment table.
1. The 2 zones with the highest percentage of college youths (SE 34% of all Nigerian college students and SS 25%) have the lowest number of registered voters. In other words college education is an impediment to participation in politics or access to political information. In no other place in the world has this phenomenon been observed.
2. NW with a mere 5.3% of college enrollment has almost a 2:1advantage over SS in registration 61%:38%. Their youth have more access to political information than SS or are more politically aware.
3. NC which has the highest level of college education in the North has the lowest level of registration for this election.
This is just a one minute analysis of the published results. We shall look at the details as the registration exercise results are published. The State numbers would highlight where the most fraud was compiled as would city and constituency reports.
Areas of further research:
* Comparison with prior registrations
* Comparison with the prior voting numbers
* The state registration currently with the amended voter registration in the rerun elections in Anambra, Ekiti and other states.
* Tax collection from the states such as number of payee
Mr. Elombah and his Igbo compatriots would serve Nigeria better by purring into the statistics and proving them fraudulent. It will be much better than throwing up hands and saying that: "Ndiigbo nwere nsogbu." What Ndiigbo nwere is opportunity to unmask fraudulent practices in Nigerian polity.
One can lie with statistics but such lies are often revealed by statistics.
Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba
Boston, Massachusetts
It is interesting and at the same time frightening how very little interest and comments arose out of the recently released result and analysis of the voter registration for the upcoming election. Contrast this to the intense interest shown and continues to be shown about appointing two Nigerian professors in the US to the position of VC in Nigeria. Instead of planning how to better the lot of the people in Nigeria, it is clear that a vast majority are longing for how to go and join the band wagon of running the country down.
Back to the analysis of INEC registration. If the result is as reported it raises very serious and challenging issues.
1. That the SE zone is possibly the least populated of the zones in the country. If that is the case what is the justification for demanding another state? Are we not better off insisting that the basis for the federation be the six region that is already, more or less, official and have revenue sharing based on that instead of the states or local governments.
2. Having the highest number of students in higher education suggests that the southeast zone is in the business of spending their resources training their talents only to have them exported to other zones. Brain drain.
One of three things could be done about this state of affairs. The first is to do nothing and continue to train talent and export them and continue to depopulate the zone. The second is for the zone to develop a comprehensive plan that will dissuade the migration of people to other zones by making the zone more attractive for her citizens to want to stay in their area and develop it and also to attract those who have left to return. This is my preference because a prosperous area is the area with growing population not a declining one. The third is to fight for the abolition of “indegenship” phenomenon so that where ever they are any Nigerian will have the full rights as anyone else: to live, work, own property, do business and participate fully in the political process. Am I the only one who has this opinion?.
You are indeed not alone in the observations you’ve astutely made in above excerpt. The main problem with the core Igbo political leadership elite is the absence of strategic thinking and planning; there is always this urge to live for now as if tomorrow is for the birds to worry about. The Igbo supposed strategic political interest appears to be predicated mostly on a superficial half-baked scheme for the occupancy of the Aso Rock or in positioning the well-situated few Igbo with Abuja connection to secure plum jobs at the center, whether in the Federal Government or the main political parties’ leadership echelon. The only times one hears about so-called “Summits” for deliberating on Igbo political affairs are whenever elections are around the corner. There was just one held in Concorde Hotel, Owerri during which a threat was issued to the PDP, ostensibly on behalf of Ndiigbo, to restore the ruling party’s chairmanship to the Southeast geopolitical zone or else. Issues like the voter registration head count must be esoteric matters for whoever are naïve enough to believe that the actual vote counts matter during general elections in Nigeria. What matters to some is not how many are registered to vote in the Southeast but rather what accrues to the zone from the center at any point in time. It is also not how large the allocation to the Southeast that bothers our political elite leadership; it who are in the advantaged positions to receive whatever comes our way on behalf of the rest of us. Sad and bizarre, isn’t it?
The reconfiguration of Nigeria during the decades of North-dominated military rule was used to assure one thing – that the former East is gerrymandered enough to make it perpetually incapable of standing toe-to-toe with the other former regions, at least, when sheer numerical strength is relied upon as the sole index for sharing the nation’s largesse. The object, of course, was to hamstring the Igbo at the center and thus make us to be content with playing second fiddle to the former North and West in perpetuity. And they succeeded beyond compare, at least, for now. As long as we join other Nigerians in continuing to rely solely on the silly game of numbers, especially based on the geopolitical zones, number of states and other demographics, the Igbo shall remain effectively checkmated in the scheme of things. But some of our folks really don’t get it. We still clamor for state creation as the magical instrument for seeking parity, for example. We are also too willing and ready to configure our strategic interests by aping the models and tactics that supposedly work to the benefit of our rivals in the North and West.
The Igbo must discard the penchant to dance to the tune of music being dictated by our rivals simply because we have been had since the civil war which our side lost. Unless we, as a people, start soon to become more imaginative in the revamping of our strategic game plan for interfacing with rest of our fellow compatriots, we shall surely condemn this and future generations of Ndiigbo to reaping the harvest of heartaches and disappointments in affairs of the Nigerian nation. I appreciate the overall thrust of your options and the associated viewpoints about each one of them. The option of dissuading outward migration of the Igbo has been posited my many but as we all have come to realize, this is a tall wish that is easier said than done. The sociocultural impetus which drives our people toward self-actualization through individual accomplishment trumps the logic of focusing all our available energy in the development of our home front first. Somehow, our Igbo commonsense informs us to think home after we have accomplished something of note. “Aku lue uno” appellation goes to those who bring home the bacon after one has it made it elsewhere. Let’s, therefore, not excessively quarrel with our folks for responding to the imperatives of our authentic Igbo sociocultural pressure which compels us to range far and wide within Nigeria or even internationally, if that is what it takes for fulfill our individual Ikenga. In fact, our strategic advantage ought to be sought through the deployment of what comes to us naturally and not by fighting it. This proposition shall be fully elucidated on a later occasion.
The quest to actualize the “abolition of “indegeneship” phenomenon” is a genuine cause for the Igbo because it marries consistently with our worldview. We, therefore, cannot just acquiesce to citizenship of a nation in which the Igbo vital sociocultural instinct in us is stifled. The late Senator Chuba Okadigbo made a spirited effort to push for the universality of Nigerian citizenship through a committee he headed at the time of his premature demise. The right of every Nigerian to exercise one’s domiciliary rights in all nooks and corners of the country should be regarded as a fundamental baseline for citizenship. The paradox of continuing to feel like a stranger in one’s own country negates the Igbo worldview in a very fundamental way. Our political elite class must internalize this truism about the Igbo before any of their articulation or representation of our collective interests can begin to get any traction.
Our problem in contemporary Nigeria is the lack of coherence in delineating what it takes in order to qualify to speak on behalf of the Igbo. Thus far, it appears that just having an Igbo-sounding surname appears to be all it takes for anyone to open one’s mouth too wide to vocalize even on matters of extreme strategic importance to our cause.
One of three things could be done about this state of affairs. The first is to do nothing and continue to train talent and export them and continue to depopulate the zone. The second is for the zone to develop a comprehensive plan that will dissuade the migration of people to other zones by making the zone more attractive for her citizens to want to stay in their area and develop it and also to attract those who have left to return. This is my preference because a prosperous area is the area with growing population not a declining one. The third is to fight for the abolition of “indegeneship” phenomenon so that where ever they are any Nigerian will have the full rights as anyone else: to live, work, own property, do business and participate fully in the political process. Am I the only one who has this opinion
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