Anyone looking for values and integrity in politics is lost already if the search is focused on the current crop of politicians in Nigeria. Most of them are people lacking in imaginative and creative ideas on how to solve our national problems hence they hold the nation down in perpetuity.
Due to their intense polarization of our politics, every conversation has turned into list of things that are wrong with Nigeria. The future seems as hopeless as yesterday notwithstanding current efforts and the promise of next level by the regime.
From every indication the obstacles of reaching the next level will not come from the opposition PDP but from within the president’s party which has been hijacked by actors with inordinate ambition to render him a lame duck before the take off of his second term.
These elements are more concerned with 2023. All the scheming to field the national assembly and cabinet positions with their loyalist are not out of love for country nor loyalty to the president but to serve their selfish agenda. The growing discontent and helplessness in most of our communities rather than being addressed serves their purpose as it makes the president more unpopular.
Part of their plot is to further displace the Igbo by denying them of their birthright in Nigeria. In the words of their spokesperson Ndi Igbo didn’t vote for Buhari and as such cannot ask for Presidency in 2023. I wonder which party the Yoruba people voted for before the system made it possible for them to head or tail produce the president in 1999.
Majority of the Igbo voted for restructuring in 2019 and not necessary against APC or President Buhari. This is because the average Igbo man is not enthusiastic about the way Nigeria is structured. The North can keep the presidency for the next thirty years if they want so long as Nigeria will be restructured. Without restructuring Nigeria will continue to falter as the current system is not designed to succeed.
There was nevertheless a sizable population of Igbo who fought hard on the side of President Buhari in the face of hostility. They fought hard and courageously to secure over 15% of the votes from South-East. It is this population that Rotimi Amaechi and the APC leadership are insulting by not recognizing their efforts. Otherwise why will 2023 be negotiable? Where is there sense of justice? When God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah he challenged Lot to show him one good man from that city and he will spare the city.
Does it mean that APC cannot find any Igbo who stood and fought for Buhari in 2019 that the Igbo will be demanding for the obscure position of Deputy Senate President where the North has taken the Senate President and the Yoruba taken the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Of course the Igbo may not have militants to unleash on Nigeria neither do we have any gun wielding terror organization to levy war against Nigeria. We also do not have the city of Lagos under our control and the capacity to cause economic disruption.
Amaechi was right that we have nothing to bargain with for the presidency in 2023 and we have no Igbo member of APC capable of being the Deputy Senate Presidency. We are unwanted because we are Igbo, not because we are not better. Amaechi said all he had to say because he wants to get us into the trap of playing defense and being sorry for voting according to our belief in 2019 or simply to get us angrier to be fed up with Nigeria.
Truth is that we are about the only tribe that is very angry with the Nigeria’s leadership deficit. We are the only people fed up with the fact that we cannot find visionary leaders that will lead the country to prosperity so as to take her pride of place as the last hope of the black race.
We may not have anything like Amaechi suggested but let me remind him that we remain Nigeria’s moral burden because we have justice and equity on our side. We have a history and tradition of competence. Our fathers founded and built this nation on merit. We produced men with proven ability to turn deserts into lands of prosperity. Within the nooks and crannies of Nigeria there are Igbo men and women making honest living, lifting themselves and others out of poverty. We have proven that we are people full of possibilities and we are dependable and reliable allies, you know where you stand with us. We have Ndi Igbo who didn’t just draw water from rocks but manufactured water from the thin air. The atmospheric water manufactured in Japan is the invention and patent of an Igbo genius rejected and frustrated by Nigeria.
The Nigerian system may be quick to deny a place in her University for 15 year old Franklin Ekene Ezeunala who posted the best score in JAMB because he is young and Igbo but the wicked system cannot stop us from breaking records and making waves around the world.
Tobechukwu Philips an Igbo posted 6.9 GPA to break a 125 year old record of Irvin High University USA. She didn’t need to sleep her way through to the best grade ever recorded by the university. Irvin High is an American University founded in 1894.
The Nigeria faulty system couldn’t stop Emelife Stella Chinelo from breaking a 100 years old record at University of Mysore India. Chinelo became the first student to bag the entire 20 gold award in the history of the India University.
Dr Eneh an Igbo won the US Award and recognition for his outstanding research in brain tumor. In the British Parliament, we have Chuka Umunna and Chi Onwurah as members. While our own Iwobi Anthony became the first elected black senator in Italy, Mr. Ezeajughi was elected the first black Mayor of London borough and Kate Ekechi got sworn in as the first female black mayor of Enfield in the United Kingdom. Also in the UK Mrs. Ifediorah became the first female black sheriff of Nottingham. Kelechi Madu was appointed Minister for Municipal Affairs in Alberta Canada. These outstanding Igbo sons and daughters didn’t need to bribe their way to power and global influence; they earned their position by merit, hard work, brilliance and excellence.
Whenever Nigeria becomes tired and ready to end her circus of deficit leadership, when she is ready to do away with men of little mind , when Nigeria is tired of mediocre leadership and ready to enthrone merit and competence, when Nigeria is ready to build a good society where life is valued and where citizens would share equal opportunity , speak freely and vote according to their belief , then Nigeria as one people will ask the Igbo to lead.
I am not a fan of zoning but where Nigeria has enthroned rotation as an unofficial policy of the state , I see no reason why the Igbo will not take their turn when the North, South West and South – South have taken their turns. It is on this basis that I support that 2023 is the turn of the South East to produce a Nigerian president.
Igbo interested in Nigeria presidency should put themselves forward for Nigerians to scrutinize. Such a person shall not be shy of competing with others and leaning towards the cultural battles of today as it affects Nigeria’s unity, peace and prosperity. We cannot remove ourselves from national conversation by refusing to speak on such issues as restructuring, freedom of thoughts and worship, security of lives, national unity and peace, education and technological advancement. It doesn’t matter if they resist us, that they resist us means our messages are gaining currency. Power is not given, it is taken.
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 