days are very close. The die is indeed cast. The Anambra election must surely hold. The major contenders are already known. The gubernatorial debate is over. The deadline for campaign is also nigh. The only contention left is the election proper. The long-awaited voting day is the only decisive event left to determine the next king of Ndi Anambra. But that is not the only thing at stake in this election as the Anambra election will certainly more than any other thing shape and determine the destiny of more than sixty million people who are the denizens of a space within an area known as Igboland. The Anambra election, every onye Anambra must know, is more than the exercise of civic duty of voting. No doubt it is one’s exercise of his or her franchise but Ndi Anambra must know that it is far more than that. The Anambra man and by extension the Igbo man wherever he may be must know the truth which though culls from the symbolism of this election but is the real reason why the Anambra guber race is not just a mere election contest but it is, I must therefore say, a civil battle that will surely gauge the tenacious resolve of a people in not only averring that they, like every race or nation, have a political ideology and identity but also that the Igbo people caught up in the conspicuous struggle for recognition in Nigeria have once and for all decided that they must not just exist but live as every supposed human persons in the twenty-first century should.
From street to street, from town unto town the contenders have in attempt to upstage the other hauled various damaging salvos against both real and imagined enemies. We are conversant with the talkings of one brief Dr. Chris Ngige and the uneducated Ifeanyi Uba. The brief man has always argued that Ndi Anambra, nay Ndi Igbo, needed to, with all they have got, be part of the so-called broomish revolution. That Ndigbo will be better off in the party that deports his people even from a city which is part and parcel of the system known as Nigeria. The uneducated Uba on his part has maintained that higher education like university education is not needed for the leadership of a state as Anambra. The APGA Obiano claims on his part that continuity of the government of APGA will strengthen the foundation that has already been laid by the outgoing governor. But into the deep, even in the deep of the deep discovered I the symbolism of the Anambra election and its great importance for the struggle for Igbo political identity. Its symbolism very far from the claims of the gubernatorial hopefuls but rather its symbolism points to the old known truth that has always faced the land of my fathers at some points in their development: That Onye Igbo must at a certain juncture be placed in a dilemma of either he defines himself or he faces being relegated to eternal dungeon of political irrelevance. What does this portend to say? That the political phenomena of Anambra 2013 is a reminiscence of the political phenomena of the 1960 though in another guise other than the military battles of those gory events of those gory days. Thus, neither is it the ranting of the brief medical doctor nor the folly statements of the man uneducated , nor even the continuity of Obiano can suffice but that Ndi Anambra being the light of all Igbo is placed in that seemingly sempiternal dilemma of either or. That is that, Ndigbo must choose between collective survival or collective annihilation.
The underlining cause of all: It is the struggle of which Dr. Francis Fukuyama the famous Japanese American political scientist called “the struggle for recognition” in his Magnus Opus “the End of History And the Last Man”. Francis has said that this struggle predates all other human wars. That men have because of “struggle for recognition”, that is, the fight for self esteem or self dignity indulged or embarked on the bloodiest war history has ever known. That contrary to the teachings of my revered friend Karl Marx, that it is not the economy that determines the actions of men but rather it is men’s determination to at all cost protect their ego, their self dignity or esteem that have pushed men to engage in the bloodiest battle from the earliest time even until now. That in the cause to protect ones dignity men more often than not have always engaged in the bloodiest war for pure prestige.
From the time before the so-called Nigerian independence the struggle for recognition had commenced in the territory now known as Nigeria between Ndigbo and the rest of the people of this territory. The first recorded killings of Ndigbo were in 1945 in the now northern Nigeria. The killings of Ndigbo have continued till date. Before today’s Boko Haram massacre of Igbos the struggle for recognition reached its crescendo in the 1960 precipitating the bloodiest war in the history of black Africa. Ndigbo not being able to bear any further the continuous demeaning of their humanity as a people rose up to the call of nature to either or. They fought that war though they lost the war but they also won the war. Ndigbo in engaging the rest of Nigeria asserted their dignity as a people. Yes Ndigbo fought the war to save their political identity. They survived the conspired annihilation.
But after the civil war the struggle for recognition did not stop neither did the Nigerian constitution able to create strong institutions that were able to check the megalomania of northern and western hegemony over Ndigbo. As the struggle for recognition certainly reaches its crescendo by 2015 as predicted by both spiritual prophets and temporal political pundits it is expected that Ndigbo should gird their loins to ones again answer the call of nature—the last struggle to save Igbo political identity.
When the struggle for recognition reached its crescendo in the 60s Ndigbo responded very aptly with a “military Biafra”. Ndigbo saved Igbo political identity with the declaration of the independence of the Republic of Biafra.
What shall we now say? That the Anambra election is not just election as usual but a symbol and that the symbolism of the election that is a symbol is the old known struggle for recognition which has long bedeviled the warped system now known as Nigeria and that this struggle reaches its crescendo in 2015. That though the struggle reaches its crescendo in 2015 Ndigbo unlike in the military Biafra must not allow themselves to be caught napping. That the struggle for recognition reaches a high degree in Anambra 2013 election. That the outcome of Anambra election shall in no small measure determine the direction and which side upon which victory shall swing to in 2015.That the Anambra election shall determine their either or.
What does the foregoing evince finally? That from the foregoing submissions, it is now very clear that Anambra election is a very decisive and important engagement for Ndigbo to either assert their political identity or face being relegated to eternal dungeon of political irrelevance. And that for Ndigbo to assert their political relevance as they did in the 60s with a successful platform “the military Biafra” they needed to do so with another platform now obviously “APGA”. And that Ndigbo should know that though the battle of the 60s was militaristic, this one may take a guise other than the 60s—civil battle. And what should they therefore do? They should therefore declare “operation civil defense” by coming out en masse to cast their vote to the one platform—APGA—that will surely aid Ndigbo to war the final war of Igbo political identity in 2015; for after the struggle for recognition in the warped system named Nigeria in 2015 there shall be no other. So, neither the brief medical doctor’s argument nor the uneducated business man’s folly nor the continuity of Obiano can suffice but for the collective interest of Ndigbo to be able to get set so as to be able to withstand the bloody battle for pure prestige come 2015 that Ndi Anambra should vote APGA so as to have a collective political identity to face the evil day that must surely come. Let it be so!
Elo Afoka holds a PhD in Logic.
Email: eloafoka@gmail.com
Mobile: +23408039229982