Censured and dispraised for their tragic attempt to bifurcate the country, the igbos, forty three years after the civil war, remain the only major ethnic group to be invested with the nation’s presidency. Between 1970 and now, the two major ethnic nationalities-Hausa/Fulani and the Yoruba, and even the minority Niger Delta-have shared that exalted position at different times. In a manner of ex-cathedra, the North and the evolving aggressive minority in power have started fresh portentous political carapace for the re-possession of the presidency in 2015. Confined to the humiliation of their partial incorporation into the nation’s political system despite having shown some remorse for the inglorious civil war, the Igbos now resorted to “neither-here-nor-there” politics. They have tried “centre politics”, “mainstream politics”, “Ihu Oma politics”, “Chukwu ga eme ya politics”, “concoction politics”, “general politics”, “and so on and so forth politics”. The only one they have not tried is “opposition politics”. This political fickleness potentiated them with the number two position-Vice President-in the Second Republic.
Nettled by the impotence and opportunism of this manoeuvering that earned them only four years of vice presidency in 43 years (this is without any prejudice to Ebitu Ukiwe’s short stay in office), I believe the Igbos need a radical overhauling of their political philosophy by rebranding and articulating it just like the Yorubas have settled for progressive politics. Let the Igbos come up with a dominant political ideology as different from the extant ragtag idiocies which cast them as a group without political discipline. This perception is what is responsible for the derisive treatment they receive from other ethnic groups. No nation is willing to concede its presidency to a group with a perceived image of un-seriousness and political indiscipline.
I read Godwin Alabi-Isama’s interview with The Nation on Sunday (July 14) and his only contribution to the Igbo presidency jujitsu was this consolatory prophesy: “…the Igbo will rule this country in the near future only if they stop trading and start manufacturing what they are selling.” I need to know what the respected General meant by the phrase “the Igbo will rule the country…” Did he mean “economic domination” or “political control”? If he meant the former, I agree with some reservations because of the Igbo business sagacity. But if he meant the latter, I respectfully disagree with his weak linkage between mercantilism and political control. Economic power not properly deployed for political expediency cannot confer automatic political control on any group. The Igbos are responsible for whatever humiliation they are suffering today within the Nigerian state, not because of the civil war, but because they are deluded by the misconception that their economic power alone can make them relevant. They must understand that their economic power needs to be complemented by a corresponding political power feasible only through a political revolution that they need to undertake with dispatch.
One thing that may stymie the execution of this revolution is lack of a central figure to play the toughie. Since the death of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Igbos, with profound apologies to few of them with outstanding profiles, have not had another political leader with the clout, credibility, charisma, personality, intellect and national acceptability that the Zik phenomenon epitomized. What we have is the emergence of individual Igbo leaders with antecedents that question their credentials to pursue and promote the kind of political revolution one is canvassing for. Besides, most Igbo businessmen that could be counted upon to undertake this revolutionary agenda are government contractors who may not be ready to sacrifice their economic interests and political influence for an Igbo national cause. They are likely to succumb and kowtow to a vindictive government that may find the pursuit of their political agenda too antagonistic. With this kind of attitude and ennui to the Igbo cause, it is doubtful if the Igbos can come out of this political gridlock.
In lieu of a credible personage, prosecuting the political revolution through a socio-cultural organization like Ohaneze Ndigbo may not be a bad idea. My only fear, one that has been confirmed by the flighty fragmentation of Afenifere, a similar organization by the Yorubas and the castration of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), is that the organization may be weakened and become polarized by the pursuit of self interests and multiple agendas by individual members of the organization who, under such circumstance, may be pressured into abandoning the collective interest of the nationality for their own political and economic goals. Consequently, the Igbo unity which is required for the reinforcement of the protestation against their privations is kibbled by the shenanigans of loose cannons who prefer the lure of filthy lucre to the collective good of their people.
The Igbos need to learn one or two things from the Yoruba on matters relating to political revolution. After the demise of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the undisputable progenitor of Yorubas’ progressive politics, another Yoruba national figure, Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, emerged. He single-handedly promoted the Yoruba political agenda and also ensured that he committed his resources to the cause until he became the elected President of the country. But he was prevented from enjoying the fruits of his victory through an annulment that threw the entire nation into a political turmoil that led us to where we are today. After his death, the Yoruba came up with the Afenifere revival with the objective of promoting and protecting the Yoruba political interest in a nation where a particular ethnic nationality had a rabid tendency for dominating the political space through deft manipulations. Despite the traditional hatred that the Yoruba progressives have for the conservative reactionaries of the PDP, they still came together in 2003 to give massive support to one of their own, Olusegun Obasanjo who leveraged on the Yoruba factor to cajole his kinsmen into supporting him for the presidency. The Yoruba sentiments, which in a way, facilitated his victory, later came to be the albatross for the fragmentation of the Afenifere. This was when (or should I say this was why?) Bola Tinubu decided to pick up the mantle of the Yoruba leadership
Emboldened by the conviction that the Awolowo legacy must be preserved, rather than withdrawing and insulating himself from politics after the electoral waterloo of 2003, where all the South West states except Lagos, went to the PDP, Tinubu fought Obasanjo, PDP and even some Afenifere “Iscariots” to a standstill until he recovered all the “conquered” states except one that he lost through treachery. But his ACN party was compensated with the victory of Adams Oshiomole in Edo State.
Another radical dimension of the Yoruba political revolution was the institutionalization of the Awolowo political ideology and philosophy. Through this process, they have stimulated the propagation and intellectualization of the revolution which was aimed at the socio- political transformation of the Yoruba people, their culture, history, politics, literature and their mentality, instructively, relating to their status, pedigree, role and significance in a polarized polity that is full of power intrigues. Bola Tinubu, the symbol of the revolution, established the Obafemi Awolowo Institute of Government and Public Policy and appointed Professor Adigun Agbaje, a renowned political scientist, as its pioneer Director-General. In a similar fashion, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the governor of the state of Osun also established the Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance with Professor Moses Akinola Makinde as its Chief Executive Officer. In addition, the Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi also came up with a Graduate summer school concept packaged by Drs Wale Adebanwi and Ebenezer Obadare with Professor Niyi Osundare as the first guest lecturer.
The objective of these various institutional initiatives is to ensure that the Awolowo vision for the Yoruba and his political philosophy remain relevant within a complex polity. Awolowo may be dead but through these various intellectual channels and mechanisms, his philosophy and ideology are kept alive and active. But this is not the case with the Igbos who seem to have abandoned the Zikist political philosophy and ideology. And this explains why the Igbos’ political relevance and value within the larger polity are under threat because the Zik vision and political philosophy which should be the theoretical guide for their political participation had long been jettisoned. Any political agenda, either of an individual or of a group, that is not vision-driven is flawed conceptually for lacking a fundamental inspiration that is germane to its attainment.
Until the Igbo academics, politicians, businessmen, statesmen, bureaucrats, traders and the rest of the citizens come together as a people and as a nation to agree on a common Igbo political agenda and pursue it with focused cohesion, the presidency will remain elusive to them. And more important, is the fact that they need more than Ohaneze Ndigbo to realize this goal. They need to review their “centre politics” or what they call “mainstream relevance” if the revolution was to achieve its political objective. The justification for the Igbos’ undignified embrace of mainstream politics baffles me. I wonder why they have to enslave themselves to an exploitative centre when they have the capability to liberate themselves and their tribe from the oppression of the “amorphous centre”.
Their argument is that their region will suffer if they play opposition politics. I am convinced that the Yoruba as a people, and as a nation, never had problem financing their infrastructure development and social programs for playing opposition politics. All elected representatives; the governors, members of the National Assembly and all the members of the State Houses of Assembly under the ACN, have keyed into the Awolowo vision of development. Being genuine Awo disciplines, and having imbibed his principle and discipline on governance, all the governors of the ACN in the South West are making judicious use of their internally generated revenue for their infrastructure development and social programs same way Obafemi Awolowo executed his projects and programs when he was the premier of the Western Region. None of the governors in the South West is waiting for federal “handout” for the execution or funding of their infrastructure development and social programs. If the Igbos now claim that opposition politics will cause them development deficit, it only illustrates the fact that their leaders lack the discipline to utilize their resources for the good of their people in a judicious manner.
While not trying to prick any conscience on the tragedy of the civil war, it is a worthwhile reminder for all ethnic groups in the country to know that war remains a senseless and irresponsible means of achieving one’s political objective. It is lack of strategy and wisdom that makes a marginalized and neglected people to adopt war as a means of achieving their political goal. Modern politics, especially in a democracy like ours, has sufficient mechanisms that can be explored and exploited to compel relevance and participation in the nation’s power sharing at all levels.
It is in the interest of the Igbos to put their house in order and coordinate their political operations to avoid a situation where the other ethnic groups will just be using them to “count scores” – a derogatory phrase invented by the youth for exploitation.
