By Benjamin Obidegwu & Ben C. Onuora
Amidst debilitating poverty, epileptic power supply, perennial ASUU strike, galloping inflation, unrelenting depreciation of the Naira, unprecedented terrorism, and violent deaths across Nigeria, elected and appointed leaders in Nigeria have spent the past two months politicking joyfully! Hopefully, they are fully aware of the serious threats to the existence of Nigeria as a nation, posed by these attributes of a failed state.
The field of aspirants in the two dominant political parties of PDP and APC is so crowded that we expect the party leaders to present Nigerians with credible candidates of proven integrity and with track records of previous performance. We also expect the political parties to device a mechanism for stopping the aspirants who are facing trial for stealing humongous amounts of money in order to assuage the feelings of Nigerians and demonstrate the intolerance for corruption by the affected political parties.
Meanwhile, since May 2015 when President Buhari came to power, by his share determination to remain very provincial and parochial- in words and action, Nigeria’s unity has been compromised. This officially orchestrated disunity has invariably heightened the justifiable feeling of alienation by some sections of Nigeria, especially, the Igbos. Since the end of the civil war, Igbos have generally not been fully accepted back into Nigeria, judging by a glass ceiling against the Igbos as far as certain political positions are concerned. The most important of these positions is the presidency of Nigeria.
In 1998, Dr. Alex Ekwueme led other Nigerians to form the PDP. Just when, it seemed he was poised to pick the presidential ticket of the party, the “owners” of Nigeria thought otherwise and suddenly, General Olusegun Obasanjo was preferred. Not only that, but Dr. also Ogbonnaya Onu who had won the presidential ticket of the APP was persuaded to sacrifice his ambition for Chief Olu Falae under a political alliance between APP and AD. In the end, two Yorubas contested the presidential election representing the two largest political parties then. This was a deft political engineering to placate the Yorubas over the injustice done to Chief M.K.O Abiola. Though Falae lost, the Yoruba nation, through Obasanjo won. Indeed, Nigeria won, as there was relative peace thereafter.
After 8 years, the presidency went to the North with Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua emerging president. Upon his death in office, the presidential seat fell on his Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan of the South-South Zone. After him Buhari took over.
The expectation is that after 8 years of Buhari, the presidency should naturally return to the South in the spirit of equity and rotation principle. Based on this same principle of equity, IGBOEKULIE believes it should not just return to the South, but indeed to the South-East Zone, since the South-West and the South-South Zones had produced the president in 1999 – 2007 and 2010 – 2015 respectively. What is good for the goose is certainly good for the gander!
While it is obvious that APC has agreed to the presidency coming to the South, the PDP appears to be mischievously indecisive. Instead of the PDP expressly reinforcing the application of its zoning policy as clearly enshrined in Article 7(3)(c) of the PDP Constitution, it resorted to playing dangerous games by selling presidential nomination forms to both northern and southern aspirants. Thereafter, it constituted a bogus Gov. Ortom Committee to advise it on zoning! The pertinent question is: which committee advised the PDP on zoning before all its twelve presidential aspirants that contested for the ticket in 2019 emerged from the North? Was this an accident? Does it mean there were no qualified or interested Southerners then?
Equity and national stability demand that the two leading parties of APC and PDP should work to strengthen the unity of Nigeria. The quest for that unity will be best served in both presenting Igbo persons as presidential candidates the way two Yorubas were presented in 1999 by a deft political arrangement.
All that is required is for the rest of the nation to demand that credible and competent Igbos be presented. As of today, IGBOEKULIE has identified excellent aspirants of Igbo extraction among the two political parties. Others may yet join the race.
No political zone can alone determine who becomes president. Not even the entire North or South can do it without the support of the other. This is therefore a clarion call on all Nigerians to consider this proposition in the interest of fairness, unity, and national stability. In any event, since the Igbos supported others in the past, it is time for those others to reciprocate the kind gesture now. Despite recent agitations for separation, borne out of frustration, the Igbos are known to have shown faith in Nigeria by living and investing heavily in all parts of Nigeria. That sense of commitment to unity and the progress of others, should count for something.
Our nation needs healing, peace, and progress. Presidency by a competent Nigerian of Igbo extraction will promote and sustain these. Politicians should foster nation building. This is why S.14(4) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria stipulates that Nigeria should be governed “in such a manner as to reflect Federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command loyalty”.
Barr. Benjamin Obidegwu & Prince Ben C. Onuora are respectively, Secretary and President of Igboekulie
