The public assault meted against the former deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, in Nuremberg, Germany, has exposed the peculiar challenges faced by politically exposed persons of Igbo extraction. Poor Ekweremadu, the political bounce he spent 20 years of guile and trickery in the peculiar slippery political environment of Nigeria to build has been perforated by a few IPOB zealots in far away Germany.
Unlike in Germany and other western European countries, political protest in Nigeria has not matured enough for protesters to freely pelt their leaders with objects, to register dissent. So, while the German government is resisting pressure to haul in the protesters who manhandled Ekweremadu, the Nigerian government is putting pressure on the government to arrest and prosecute the boys who acted on behalf of IPOB. My worry is that in our country of copycats, there is the possibility that the Nuremberg maltreatment may become the new way to register political protest by youths in Nigeria.
So, as Ekweremadu is left to lick his wounds, political elites, even from other geo-political zones, must weigh their options on how to deal with what may turn a malignant tumour for Nigerian elites. Of course, they should join the government to condemn the action of IPOB against Ekweremadu, and urge that necessary steps be taken to ensure that such style in exercise of the right of protest is discouraged by law enforcement agencies.
Truly speaking, the easiest way to stem the burning anger of youths of our country is to ensure good governance across board. Those in authority must mend their ways, unless they want to bring the roof down on our heads. The level of corruption in our country is so unnerving that one needs to be sturdy in resistance to resort to self-help, not to be tempted to applaud the kind of humiliation meted out to Ekweremadu. Of course, not as a person, but as a metaphor for the frustration that governance in Nigeria has turned to.
It is the same feeling of disenchantment about the way Nigeria is that the Buhari government taps into in its war against corruption. Interestingly, because Ekweremadu has been in power for so long, he has developed a cult of followers as well as a coterie of haters. While his followers are raising their voices to condemn the humiliation of their beloved, his haters are saying, the treatment serves him well, and is a notice to others that the day of reckoning is near.
As Ekweremadu’s young political acolytes tried to salvage what is left of his famed invincibility in the state politics, when he landed at Enugu airport last week, the sense of forlornness in his eyes was too glaring to miss. While the young Turks stood guard for a photo shoot, their master’s eyes were so distant, apparently realizing that its joyous political life was dying. The eyes betrayed weariness and sense of failure as he failed to gingerly maneuver the land mines this time around, as he has done for 20 years in Enugu State politics.
In a statement by his media aide, Ekweremadu excoriated Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB gang for betraying him despite his modest efforts to help secure his release on bail. Kanu accused him and other Igbo leaders of being responsible for Operation Python Dance, which the federal government ordered to deal with IPOB. Sounding upbeat, Kanu has threatened to deal with other Igbo political leaders for their alleged role in bringing IPOB to its heels.
While calling those who attacked him in Germany miscreants, Ekweremadu was forced by political exigencies to reply the allegations by Kanu, while advertising his achievements as the highest political officer holder of Igbo extraction. He cannot afford to ignore the miscreants, considering the harm they have done to his political image. Exuding confidence at the Nuremberg treatment to Ekweremadu, Kanu has ordered his followers to arrest President Muhammadu Buhari and hand him over to Japanese authorities as he visits Japan. Of course, Kanu knows his supporters would be putting themselves in a harm’s way if they try such stupidity.
But such is the crass insensitivity of Kanu’s IPOB, and the dilemma they foist on Igbo leadership in a Nigeria that is badly governed. While the majority of Nigerians are clearly disconsolate with the state of affairs, IPOB’S decision to challenge the corporate existence of Nigeria as the solution, strewn with land mines the political road of Igbo political elites, should they show them overt sympathy.
To make matters worse for the Igbo political elites, in a Nigeria where their people feel so marginalized, the message of a new Biafra by IPOB resonates well, especially amongst the hoi polloi. It is that discontentment that Nnamdi Kanu exploits and Igbo leaders know that. To compound their challenge, their competitors from other regions know that local challenge exists, and would not mind to take advantage if the opportunity arises.
Of note, Ekweremadu’s political opponents at the national level will be chuckling at his recent misfortune from the home front. After all, he connived with the former senate president, Bukola Saraki, to share the spoils of senate leadership between the majority party APC and the minority party PDP. They would be happy at his recent misfortune, and even amongst PDP, there are those who will privately be wishing him more misfortune, considering that he has enjoyed a roller coaster of joy for 20 years.
In Enugu State politics, Ekweremadu has also managed to outwit those he formerly called his masters. His former boss as governor of Enugu State, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, though in the same party with him presently, would not forget how he joined his successor, Sullivan Chime, to deal him a deft blow. Across the political divide, Chime, now an APC stalwart would be chuckling at the turn of events. There are also others in the state, who started with him, but whom he had outfoxed along the line, to stay at the top in the state political cadre, who will be happy at his misfortune.
But regardless of how Ekweremadu’s enemies and friend-enemies may feel about his style of politics, it is important they work together to ensure three things. They have to agree on how to take appropriate steps to discourage the resort to self-help by the multitude of disenchanted self-exiles. Secondly, they have to stop the glaring mismanagement of public resources by those of them in public service. Finally, President Buhari must be discouraged from giving fillip to the marginalization of Igbos or any other group in Nigeria.
Considering several encounters with Ekweremadu in the past, this column is not his fan, but it does not support his being violently abused.
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