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Two days before the Anambara gubernatorial election of January 2010, I was at the Onitsha market. In my discussion with a number of traders, I told them that Chris Ngige, the gubernatorial candidate for Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) or Chukwuma Soludo, the candidate for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will win the upcoming election. That, if, the election is free and fair, Ngige, due to his tremendous popularity in the state, will win. However, with the penchant of PDP for electoral fraud and the readiness of the then Maurice Iwu led Independent National Election Commission (INEC) to serve as a willing tool of PDP infamous political designs, there was a possibility of the PDP candidate, Chukwuma Soludo, being rigged in as the governor of the state
They told me that Peter Obi will be re-elected. Their anticipated Obi’s victory was not due to his performance as governor. His administration, they said, “has not been marked by obvious successes”. The basis for his victory, they explained, is his campaign message. His campaign message was direct and simple: the Yoruba have their own party, ACN and the Hausa have their own party, All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP). And when the chips are down, they can all fall back to their own political parties. The Igbo have their own party, All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). It is in the interest of the Igbo that we uphold and strengthen our own political party. So, the people of Anambara should vote for APGA. For a vote for APGA is not a vote for Peter Obi but for Ndi Igbo.
I insisted that irrespective of Obi’s campaign message that Ngige will still win the election. They acknowledged that Ngige is popular because he, as governor, essentially, “brought us out of slavery”. However, they persisted on Obi’s victory because “any one with common sense”, after listening to him, must vote for APGA. And, as they predicted, Peter Obi was re-elected, not because he did a good job as governor but because he exploited tribal sentiments.
Tribal politics – tribal demagoguery – is a powerful weapon in Nigerian politics. Nigerian leaders have failed to give Nigerians a sense of nationhood. They are yet to redefine the object of Nigerian unity and nationhood, and give Nigerians a unified sense of national purpose. As such, Nigerians, retain powerful loyalties and sentimental attachments to their different ethnic groups. In the struggle for power, politicians have repeatedly wielded this potent weapon to serve their political, and mostly, selfish ends.
Tribal politics offers the people nothing. It carefully skirts facts and figures and illogically appeals to the emotions and sentiments, thus, making it hard for the people to objectively assess the political candidates. It does not make a case for credibility, knowledge, experience and leadership qualities of the candidate but demands that you vote for him because he belongs to a given tribe and/or his political party is dominated by members of a given ethnic group. It provides for psychologically satisfactory acceptance of the candidate –even when him/she is unqualified for the office. No wonder, Peter Obi, an ineffective governor, got re-elected because he inflamed tribal passions.
Instructively, Nigerian politicians are indifferent to tribe when they collude to steal, share and salt away public funds. It is irrelevant to them when they, in their arrogance of power, ride roughshod over the masses of Nigerians and when they, through negligence and corruption, ruin Nigerian institutions. They resort to ethnic politics when there is a need to exploit the masses – to whip them into paranoiac frenzy – and get them acting unquestioningly in accordance to the needs and fancies of the politicians.
As the traders stated earlier, Peter Obi’s government has not been “marked by obvious successes”, which is mediocrity. The evidence of Peter Obi’s eight years of mediocrity pervades the state: crumbling public infrastructure, anti-people government policies, deficient health services, poor quality schools, unemployment, pervading poverty, etc. With very little to show for eight years in office, rabble-rousing – inciting the passion of the people and befogging their political discernment – becomes an indispensable element of Peter Obi and APGA’s campaign strategy.
On the 16th of November, 2013, the people of Anambara State need to elect a governor that can tackle and solve the myriad problems plaguing the state. This requires their rejection of Peter Obi’s (and APGA) tribal politics and sifting through the gubernatorial candidates based on their antecedence, knowledge, experience and overall leadership capabilities, and choosing the best.
In the upcoming election, the people of Anambara need more than a nominal change from one governor to another. They need a change in the object of governance. According to the traders I quoted earlier, Chris Ngige “brought us out of slavery”. It took courage, vision and selflessness – the desiderata for great leadership – to dislodge political godfathers buoyed by their evil political sponsors in Abuja and redeemed a people from “slavery”. Again the people of Anambara need outstanding leadership: a courageous, visionary and selfless leader that will break with the past and usher in a new order. A new order marked by respect the people’s longing for a good life and the dedication of the state’s resources to the remarkable improvement of the quality of life for all.
Chris Ngige is a candidate in the November 16, 2013 election. And interestingly, the broom, the logo of his political party, All Progressive Congress (APC), literally and figuratively signifies change, the sweeping away of moribund and mediocre governance to make way for dynamic and progressive leadership. .
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
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