In my article, ‘Immediate Task Before The President-Elect, 30 April, 2023’, I wrote as follows: “Yes, electoral choice has consequences but, if at the most difficult of times going into the APC presidential primaries, patriotic Northern APC governors could stick out their necks and opt for a Southern presidential candidate, the President – Elect cannot afford to demonstrate less fairness in the choice of those who will emerge the National Assembly leaders. Nigeria has traditionally rested on the North, West, East tripod. Therefore, since both the West and the North have already produced the incoming President and Vice- President, respectively, the next logical, fair and equitable thing to do, is for the Senate President to be zoned to the Southeast.”
APC threw that suggestion into the waste basket and zoned it to the South south on the grounds of higher equity and fairness, because whereas the Southeast has produced 5 senate presidents since the return of democracy in 1999, the South south has had none.
Also, apart from the Southeast not voting for the APC, the most outstanding Southeast senator, Orji Uzor Kalu, could not have been more antagonistic towards President – Elect Tinubu. He neither attended any of his events, even within the geo-political zone, nor did he campaign for him anywhere so that while he had 40,000 votes to win his senate seat, Tinubu got a measly 8000 votes in the state.
Of the many reactions to the article, space constraint will permit only one here. It came from Olu Ajayi, a retired, absolutely seminal Permanent Secretary in the Ekiti State civil service. He wrote:
“Your article was characteristically lucid, analytical and incisive, but it seems, in my considered opinion, to have simply flown with the traffic. True enough, inter -ethnic hostilities have been a problem in Nigeria, but let’s be honest, it certainly is not the most serious problem the President –Elect will have to contend with.
In politics, as in other endeavors, you reap where you sow. That is without prejudice to the federal character principle in power sharing. Tinubu was right in lending his weight to zoning the no. 3 position to the South as it is only fair to have a Christian as no.3. He should stop there as that, in itself presupposes that there are competent senators-elect in both the South East and the South South for the office. Remember that he will again have to face the electorate in about 45 months from now. The best strategy for him will be to compensate, and woo the North and those other areas where they voted for him, as he will certainly need them again. A timid approach of appeasement to the Igbo will surely be counterproductive. Performance was the secret of his success story in Lagos, not appeasement. And no matter what, nothing suggests that Igbos will align with Yorubas politically, in our generation. They will continue to feed on the ancient grudge of the genocide of 1966 and the Biafran war that followed forgetting that they were the power brokers in the governments of both Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Goodluck Jonathan. They have produced several Senate Presidents despite which they have not stopped complaining of marginalisation”.
“Mark my words, the South East will not vote for Tinubu in another election, especially if an Igbo is contesting the Presidency, even under a Party of Riddles and Jokes. I would, actually sincerely, wish a South South candidate emerges the no 3. Having said all that, I believe that the immediate task before the Tinubu presidency will be on security and the economy. Boko haram and other Islamic fundamentalist groups in the North, the IPOB and other violent groups in the South East and the other criminalities that have overtaken Nigeria, will have to be seriously dealt with. And in good time too. The economic situation is equally terrible. Inflation and youth unemployment have put Nigerians on edge. Addressing these concerns is what will endear the Tinubu government to Nigerians ; making Igbo the Senate President will work no magic”.
The above, among other comments, set me re – thinking my position.
Of course, I hold dearly to the notions of equity and fairness and that consideration was the basis for my suggestion, and other than that, can anybody sincerely say that the Southeast earned the Senate presidency either before, during or even since the February 25 presidential election, seeing how, almost to the last man, Igbos have done everything to delegitimise the election; claiming it was the worst ever election in Nigeria. So nauseating is this their claim, you would think they were all in Siberia during the 2007 election, held during the Administration of their big Uncle. That was an election the chief benefactor, President Umar Yar Adua, completely disavowed of just as it was described as the worst ever in Christendom by the EU while the National Democratic Institute observer team equally, summarily called it the worst election, ever. Anywhere, even in Myanmar.
And why are they united in thrashing the election?
Simple, just because the votes were not uploaded on the IREV, real time. In the meantime, those who have promised to win the election for Peter Obi during his tour of Canada and the US, even though they were not going to vote, were at the ready, waiting for the figures to hack but they had none. Ditto for the PDP, for which reason Dino Melaye literally went hysterical since their contractors too were also waiting for the figures.
Good thinking INEC. Bravo.
Incidentally, as late as last week, the Supreme Court, in the Osun governorship case, affirmed that INEC is under no legal compulsion to immediately upload results on the IREV.
Also, Isa Ali Pantami, Nigeria’s minister of Communication and Digital Economy, later informed Nigerians that the INEC server recorded more than 12 million attacks on February 25 both from within and outside Nigeria.
That failure has been about the sole grouse of several, otherwise, respected Igbos, and why they rant about the President – Elect being sworn in on May 29, 2023. But much more than that, it speaks, in reality, to the fact that left to them, whatever Ndigbo does not, or cannot control, just must not be allowed to survive or thrive.
Only this past week, the highly regarded Olatunji Dare, a respected columnist on our Tuesday edition, took us through a refreshing recall of the shameful roles played by the likes of Professor Ben Nwabueze, SAN, who led the group that drafted the so- called Interim constitution, “the highly compromised” Attorney – General of the Federation, Clement Apamgbo, not forgetting the devil incarnate himself, Arthur Nzeribe, all Igbo – who, together with many other kindred spirits combined to mess up Chief MKO Abiola’s mandate.
A people who have severally partnered with the North in ruling Nigeria, just cannot bear to hear of a ‘real Yoruba’, becoming President of Nigeria. It pains far beyond the marrows.
In the instant case, as if presidential elections were holding for the first time in Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, had, a few months before the elections, became hyper active about the winning presidential candidate having to secure a quarter of votes in the FCT simply because he knows that the FCT is crawling with Igbos, and that they, in fact, practically owns it.
Space constraint will not permit us quote him talking, ex- cathedral, as if, even though a silk, he is ignorant of the Court of Appeal ruling in”Baba-Panya v President, F. R. N. (2018) 15 NWLR (Pt. 1643) 395, which declared Abuja the equivalent of a state.
Happily, INEC merely treated both him, and his views, with the only thing they deserve: benign neglect.
But Agbakoba is not alone. The likes of Sam Amadi, Obi Nwakanma, not forgetting Chimamanda Adichie or Rudolf Okonkwo, to mention only a few, have weaponised whatever offices, tools or exposure they brandish, to attempt to thrash the election, as well as, canvass their narrow ethnocentric view that the President – Elect must not be sworn in on 29th May, 2023.
Funny characters. You would think they were somewhere in Antarctica when other Presidents -Elect were sworn in as the presidential tribunal continued the cases challenging their election. Nor is Ohanaeze Ndigbo, their apex socio – cultural organisation, lagging behind in exhibiting its hatred for, and opposition to the President – Elect, just as their jobless hordes are daily on Abuja roads, demonstrating and shouting “ no swearing in”.
In all these, there’s one thing I know very well: for all these very important Igbos, the FEAR OF IPOB is the beginning of wisdom. It is the reason they stay put in Lagos when they come on holidays from abroad, never attempting to visit home. It is also why they will never change their stance on the election in a thousand years, as there are too many unexplained assassinations to think about.
Although Agbakoba would rather take no cognisance of the 180 days prescribed by our extant laws, but would wish that court processes are abridged, so the case can end in a week or two all because an Obi is on the ballot, he is far less dangerous than Joe Ajaero, the NLC President who, as Jibola Omole recently put it in his well-crafted ‘Weaponising The Nigeria Labour Congress Against the Incoming Government’, has literally turned the Labour Union into a Peter Obi demolition tool. He has equally taken on the Nigerian judiciary with what he calls a ‘ hall of shame’ for judges who will not decide according to Obidients’ dictates.
Finally, the Igbo tendency to all think the same way, has led one of their own to accuse them of thinking like a crab. Hear him: “they behave like crabs. Put a hundred crabs in an uncovered basket. Go to Mbaise and come back , you will meet all hundred crabs waiting for you”. Some food for thought.
