I took advantage of the break caused by the postponement of the
elections to visit a few places in the South-East and South-South zones
and directly gauge the perception of the people about the current
political developments in the country. The first place was my village in
Mbaise, then my mother’s village, both in Imo State. After going to my
state, I joined one of my close friends to pay a courtesy visit to one
of the riverine villages near Yenagoa in Bayelsa State.
Interestingly, some grass-roots politicians showed up during both visits
and I took the liberty of the two visits to discuss Nigerian politics
with both sets of people – my kinsmen and the kinsmen of President
Goodluck Jonathan. During my discussions, it was obvious that President
Jonathan has more supporters in Imo and other Igbo-speaking states than
even in his home state, Bayelsa. Surprised?
Let me state two things upfront...
The first is that contrary to the views expressed in some quarters, I do
not dislike President Jonathan, at least not his person. My concern is
about his style of politics and governance and his performance as
President and how these two factors affect me and my generation. As a
southerner and an academic, I should connect with him. If he performs
brilliantly as President, I will share in his success and such
performance will brighten my chances and those of other members of my
generation to one day decide to lead our country. The same way today I
am sharing in his mistakes. So, the stakes before us are clearly beyond
whatever thing I feel about his person.
The second is that if I am given an opportunity to nominate who will
become the President of Nigeria under normal circumstances, my first
choice will not be General Muhammadu Buhari. I am just 40 and so you can
begin to guess why. However, in the circumstances that we have found
ourselves as a nation, Buhari is potentially a better choice than
Jonathan. It is very obvious that our President has run out of ideas.
The country is deeply divided and the citizens are so highly
disillusioned such that it will only take a trigger for the country to
go up in flames. The current insecurity, unemployment, poverty and
economic uncertainty in the country have reached frightening dimensions
in our villages.
But do we blame all of these on Jonathan? Definitely no. Does he have a
large chunk of the blame as our leader at this time? Of course, yes. The
incestuous levels of corruption and blatant looting going on under
Jonathan are part of the reasons that have led to widespread
disenchantment and loss of confidence among the citizenry. Does my
support for Buhari mean that he will do any magic? No. These things will
take time to fix but we need another style. There is hardly any new
approach the current President can bring on the table after trying for
almost six years. Change has become long overdue. It will have a
psychological soothing on Nigeria and Nigerians.
Now back to my main subject. My discussions revealed that unlike me,
many people from my village neither support Buhari nor the All
Progressives Congress. I could not but ask the following questions: What
is the Igbo agenda in the current political dispensation? Who are those
articulating it? What is their reason for the fixation with the status
quo? Why are Ndigbo reluctant to engage the wind of change currently
blowing in the country? Many of the people masquerading as Igbo leaders
are individuals of questionable character preoccupied with only
pecuniary objectives. In my village for instance, a school drop-out is
now in charge. He feeds the kinsmen with falsehood and takes regular
advantage of their ignorance to enrich himself.
While in the village, one of my uncles called me and abused me
thoroughly for expressing views that he termed “anti-Igbo.” Which Igbo
was he referring to? It is obvious that he is still fixated about the
civil war and the roles of some northerners in it. I was shocked that
more than 45 years after the civil war, many people are still
passionately talking about it. True, it is an important part of our
national history but is it not time to move on? Could it be the main
reason to like or hate Buhari and the northerners? So, what about
Olusegun Obasanjo? What about the Ijaw who took over our abandoned
properties in Port Harcourt? To my mind, and the minds of many young
Igbo men, the Ijaw, who colluded with other majority tribes and
benefitted mostly in the acquisition of properties and wealth in Port
Harcourt from a tribe lying helplessly prostrate from a civil war,
committed greater atrocity towards the Igbo. The Yoruba recently came
out to declare that they would not waste their votes for anyone without
demanding something in return.
Have the Igbo made any similar declaration? What are they getting from
Jonathan and his kinsmen in return for Ndigbo support in 2015? Will the
Ijaw presidency (no matter how hard we try, this is what our brothers in
the Niger Delta have reduced the Presidency to) guarantee a national
redress on the injustices of the civil war and the abandoned property
saga? Will President Jonathan, as an Ijaw, who majorly orchestrated and
benefitted from the abandoned property saga compensate the Igbo the same
way he has guaranteed amnesty to the Niger Delta militants?
Have Ndigbo asked for all of these, especially, since a continued
support for the South-South, if it spirals out of country, may be
jeopardising Ndigbo’s fresh investments in wealth acquisition in places
like Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Jos, Bauchi, Zaria, Ibadan, Lagos,
Abeokuta and Lokoja just to mention but a few. You will recall that
Ndigbo subconsciously redirected their business investments to these new
territories as a result of the sense of insecurity following the
abandoned property saga. Will they now jeopardise all of these new
investments and wealth accumulation in support of the kinsman of the
same tribe that stripped them of their old wealth?
Why are we not engaging candidates on what they can offer the nation?
What are their plans for the textile industry, shoe industry, commerce
and other areas of comparative advantage of Ndigbo? What plans do they
have to develop Aba, Onitsha and Nnewi where our industry and
entrepreneurship are defined daily? How can we expand the infrastructure
and capabilities in these cities and expand opportunities for our
creative youth population? Does a leader have to be a Christian or a
Muslim to attend to these needs? How come Igbo leaders have been unable
to demand and extract some of these promises from our politicians? Must
we continue to play the second fiddle in this country?
It is disheartening that Ndigbo have become politically irrelevant and
directionless. No one is interested in articulating an agenda that will
move the zone forward. No one is interested to review why someone as
comfortable as Eze Festus Odimegwu will throw his support behind Buhari
or why President Jonathan’s kinsmen are beginning to reconsider their
support for their son. What you hear when you travel around “Ala Igbo”
are unsubstantiated rumours and unjustifiable fixation over the history
of yesteryears. I will not join my dear uncle to continue to bemoan the
past. I have chosen to engage the present and project, positively, for
the future.
The civil war, regrettable as it was, is in the past, a past that even
Nigeria has chosen to feign never existed; a past that our national
educational curricula have refused to recognise and teach officially.
There is a new war in town; it is a political war. I am struggling to
find the position of Ndigbo in the new war and it makes one miserable.
The civil war ended 45 years ago and if care is not taken, we may lose
out in this current political war. We are losing it already unless we
redefine our current priorities from an individual to a group survival
and sustaining agenda. For a people so talented and resourceful, this
will be nothing but tragic.
