Since zoning of political offices has become the order of the day in
Nigeria, an equitable consensus would follow that Southern Nigeria—the
Igbo in particular—will produce the next president of the country, come
2023. But such zoning convention has begun to beg the question: Would
the candidacy be open to the entire Igbo nation or would such
opportunity be limited to the South-East zone of Nigeria?
The answer is a no brainer: The ticket ought to be open to the entire
Igbo nation of the Southern extraction. Here is why.
The proponents of rotational presidency argue that the concept would
ensure a sense of belonging among Nigeria’s disparate ethnic groups. Of
the three Nigerian major tribes, namely, the Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, and the
Yoruba; only the Igbo are yet to lead the country under a democratic
setting.
The Igbo nation—that is, people sharing similar heritage, including
culture, names, language, and religion—is beyond the South-East zone.
But many political pundits understandably like to paint a marginal
picture, and the gullible society, the Igbo not excluded, never
hesitates to buy the gambit. This distortion has perpetuated because of
the fleeting nature of memory in the Nigerian state, where true history
has been tabooed.
Besides Igbo indigenous communities in other states; the Ohaneze Ndigbo,
the umbrella Igbo socio-cultural group, is a seven-state structure,
denoting areas with sizeable Igbo population, namely: Abia, Anambra,
Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, and Rivers states. The key offices are also
distributed and rotated among the member states.
For example, while the current President General of Ohaneze, Barrister
John Nwodo, is from Enugu State of South-East zone, the General
Secretary (Barrister Uche Okwukwu) and Vice- President General (Dr.
Sylvanus O. Ebigwei) hail from the South-South states of Rivers and
Delta, respectively. Needless to mention that Ambassador Ralph Uwechue,
an indigene of Delta State, was the Ohaneze President-General between
2009 and 2013.
A defining muddle is that, of the seven Ohaneze states, only Delta and
Rivers are in the South-South zone. The implication is that the Igbo
indigenous communities have found themselves in the minority among the
ethnic nationalities that make up the South-South zone. Therefore, if
the presidency is to be zoned based on the existing six zone-structure
of Nigeria, a South-South Igbo of this generation cannot realistically
aspire to lead the country, his or her credentials notwithstanding.
The foregoing hypothesis was tested in 2007 when the South-South zone
lobbied for the presidency. The South-South Igbo, remember, were told in
unmistakable terms to explore such ambition whenever it is the turn of
their kith and kin in the South-East.
It is on such backdrop that Pa Edwin Clark, the Leader of the
South-South zone, made the infamous (or rather the rational) statement
that Dr. Peter Odili, a former governor of Rivers state, had no moral
right to encroach on the turn of the zone. Even though Mr. Odili was
arguably the most compelling presidential aspirant of in the 2007
electoral season, he was blackballed mainly because of his Igbo
heritage.
The South-South Igbo must not be allowed to suffer a double political
whammy. Having been sidelined by their South-South neighbors in 2007,
based on ethnic orientation, it behooves the South-East Igbo to
accommodate their kith and kin in the race for the 2023 presidency.
Make no mistake about this: The South-East is the only zone in Southern
Nigeria that is yet to produce a democratically elected president.
Therefore, embarking on the presidential project solely through prism of
the South-East can be superficially plain. But the Igbo must be careful
not to tempt a pyrrhic victory.
Politics is a game of number. We can take a cue from the political
genius of our Hausa-Fulani counterparts. Despite their vastly disparate
ethnic origins, the Fulani and the Hausa groups in the three Northern
zones have molded into a seemingly homogeneous political block. It is
not surprising, therefore, that they show a united front in the
different political parties whenever it is the turn of the North to
produce the president.
Though the North-West zone has dominated over the years, the people go
the extra mile to ensure that the inherent zoning arrangement does not
foreclose the aspirations of the Hausa or Fulani-speaking people from
the North-East. That is how recent doyens of the North-East politics,
such as Adamu Ciroma, Bamanga Tukur, Atiku Abubakar, and Nuhu Ribadu,
were able to mount respectable presidential bids.
Broadening the Igbo political map is a win-win. It will offer Nigerians
a larger pool of aspirants to choose from. Besides a galaxy of
presidential aspirants from the South-East, it would also address the
aspirations of the South-South Igbo, particularly those in their prime,
for example, Patrick Utomi, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Ifeanyi Okowa, Tony
Elumelu, Peter Odili, Mike Okiro, Chibuike Amaechi, and Nyesom Wike, to
name a few.
Unity is power. A united Igbo front has a better chance of winning the
zoning debate, to begin with. Further, a Nigerian presidential project
anchored through the entire Igbo nation has the potential to unite the
people towards common purpose. It can halt the defeatist trajectory of
postwar politics and de-Igbonization policy of successive national
governments, which have combined to fracture the Igbo unity to the point
where some never hesitate to deny their Igbo heritage either for
post-war survival or in exchange of political porridge. It can equally
instill commonsense to those who use mere political affiliations or
boundaries to assume superior Igbo heritage over the others.
Igbo bu Igbo! The hint is that the South-East and South-South Igbo share
a common destiny in the Nigerian experience. And they ought to share
good fortunes, as they did past misfortunes. For instance, the
South-East Igbo bore (or have continued to bear) the brunt of the first
Nigeria coup, led by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, a South-South Igbo.
Similarly, the South-South Igbo were not spared by the actions of
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a South-East Igbo, who led the Biafran war.
The bond between the two Igbo groups is not lost in the fact that they
have sustained similar voting patterns in national elections, despite
postwar feuds, orchestrated by successive national governments.
A Nigerian president of Igbo extraction will not only heal the wounds of
the past, it is also a bold step in harnessing the country’s abundant
potential towards the greater good. It is an opportunity for equity and
justice. It is an opportunity to assuage the long-standing distrust
against Igbo-speaking people of Nigeria. It is a profound opportunity
for the Igbo to reverse the downward spiral of distrust created among
themselves by artificial post-civil war boundaries.
Dr. SKC Ogbonnia, a former presidential aspirant, writes from Ugbo,
Awgu, Enugu State.
Twitter: @ SKCOgbonnia