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Recently while addressing the Press, enfant
terrible
Wada Nas took up the gauntlet and spoke
courageously
on the Igbo Presidency matter. His words
there is no
ethnic group that is more qualified than the
other in
producing the president of the country and so
more is
any more qualified than the Igbos
I do not want to be drawn into the controversy
of
where the Presidency has been zoned tofor all
I care
it can be zoned to the South of Sudan all that
matters
to the ordinary Nigerian is livelihood.
North-North,
South-South or West North! good enough the
current
Charge de Affair, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo has
said he
is not aware of any such arrangement and that
as far
as he is concerned with the exception of the
South-West which he represents everyone has
equal
right to the position. This much has been
collaborated
by the man with the gap toothed Minna born
General
IBB. The drama is more intriguing with the
unrepentant
Yoruba-Huasa Chair of the Arewa Consultative
Forum,
Sunday Awoniyi claiming that there already
exists a
power sharing formula. In the Nigerian movie
industry
called Nollywood Films end with the tense to
God be
the glory thus whichever way the drama ends
to God be
the glory.
The crux of this piece is the Igbo question as
regards
the Presidency of this great nation. The
April 2003
Polls brought to fore a serious question, the
singleness of purpose on the part of our Igbo
brothers
to rule this nation, at that count we had
Gen.Ike
Nwachukwu, Jim Nwobodo (decampees from the
ruling
Peoples Democratic Party PDP). Chris Okotie,
pastor
turned politician who insisted God told him he
was
going to winsurely the rigging of that
particular
elections was too much for the angels of
heaven to
intervene on his behalf, then the warlord
himself Dim
Odumegwu Emeka Ojukwu. If Alex Ekueme had
mistakenly
won the PDP primaries only Almighty Allah
knows what
would have happened. Not forgetting the show
of
splendour put up by the new Owelle Rochas
Okorocha in
the All Nigerian Peoples Party ANPP before a
palace
coup saw him removed bloodlessly. At that
particular
primaries cum convention the North taught us
all some
lesson in political discipline, tact,
consensus for
mutual benefit when all concerned stepped down
for
Gen. Buhari and without much ado he picked the
now
Late Oyi of Nigerian politics Chuba Okadigbo.
My dear
Rochas was too bemused that he left the party
back to
the PDP he had left earlier.
Where did consistency go to in the Igbo
dictionary,
unity in purpose. The fact is that it seems
the
independent liberal democratic tendency of the
Igbo
man is fast becoming his Achilles knee. The
Igbos do
not as of now have the ability to speak with
one
voicein the words of former Anambra State
Governor
and a veteran of Presidential battles C. Onoh
how can
you talk be talking about Igbo Presidency when
you are
not serious at all. When the time comes now,
all of
you would come contesting for one position
this much
he said at the just concluded South-East
Caucus
parley. In the same forum Alex Ekueme still
bitter
about the last betrayal said it had become a
periodic ritual for Igbos to meet and
strategise, but
expressed dismay that the results of such
meetings
were babash
That the Igbos have suffered in this
arrangement
called Nigeria is true, that they have paid
their dues
is even more true, that they deserve to steer
the ship
is unarguably correct, that they deserve the
support
of the other shareholders in this enterprise
is the
unadulterated truth! However have they reached
out,
have they made efforts at reassuring one that
they
would not sell the whole Nigeria like a spare
at the
popular Idumota Spare Parts Market in Lagos.
When
suspicion is paramount, deliberate concerted
efforts
is supposed to be made at reassurance.
Talk about reaching out, Rochas Okorocha was
in Sokoto
to felicitate with the Caliphate on
celebrations
making two centuries of existence. The issue
is what
was the strength of his politickingGeneral
Ibrahim
Babangida could not dribble his way to Nwankwo
Kanus
wedding but he sent a representative and a
letter that
was virtually published verbatim in all the
national dailies (an Igbo man and
footballer). At
the Generals first sons wedding Vice
PresidentAtiku
made sure he was there, although the two are
nursing
ambitions to the same exalted office. The same
wonderful politicking has seen Gen. Buba Marwa
former
Lagos State helmsman collect all the
traditional title
there is for the asking.
Therefore come 2007, the race does look like
this.
General Buhari is not one known to shy away
from
battles, if he lost it in 2003, who says he
is ready
to loose it again.
General Ibrahim Babangida, still smiling
scheming and
waiting on Almighty Allah.
General Buba Marwa I wont offend anyone but
I am
certainly not a puppet to anyoneI respect
other
contenderstime will tell
Vice President Atiku Abubakar believes he has
been a
faithful servant and its only natural that he
be
rewarded with the seat.
General Kontangora another of the Minna people
is
already dreaming of the seat.
Funnily for all these men they are already
putting
finishing touch to selecting their running
mates from
the pool that the Igbos would provide them
with. If it
is not Orji Kalu, of Abia State the only
Governor who
dared the presidency. And already has his
poster in
some major cities of the country. Then it will
be the
lecturing Governor Nnamani of Enugu State, or
the
tactful Sam Egwu of Ebonyi State, maybe the
woman
who told former Senate President Pius Anyim he
would
emerge Senate President should go and tell
Anyim and
the entire Igbos who the next President would
be.
In what part of the constitution where the
Igbos
confined to playing second fiddle?
I respect the person of Ambassador Fafawora,
however
the amiable gentleman goofed in a recent piece
in the
Comet newspaper where he claimed that the
Igbos did
not have a Presidential materialdo I blame
him?
Without voicing ethnicity was Obasanjo a
better
Presidential material compared to any great
Igbo son?
He further displayed ignorance by even
suggesting that
if he was to be given the chance of selecting
one, he
knew of only three, namely, Ekueme, Nwobodo
and
Ojukwu. Let me without sentiments assert that,
for
Ekueme, a Mandela presidency is not what the
Igbos
seek nor what Nigeria needs now. For Nwobodo
its
painful to say he is morally bankrupt, wont
even win
an election in todays Enugu state where he
hails
from, and finally for Ojukwu he is still
feared, and I
dont see his reputation of being unable to
win an
election come off that soon. He and Alex
Ekueme should
gladly join the likes of Emeka Anyaokwu former
Commonwealth scribe in playing elderstatesmen.
I strongly believe and a thousand and one
Igbos out
there who are eminently qualified to give
leadership
to Nigeria Plc.
The headboy of Nigeria President Obasanjo has
a part
to play in this epic. If the same Nigeria he
fought to
keep one must remain one. The Igbo presidency
question
cannot be continually washed away.
Maybe, a little look at this picture may prove
useful.
Say if Atiku is President come 2007,and he
rules for
two terms. In 2015, will it not be fair for
the
South-South or the Middle Belt to aspire for
the post
and wont it soon again be turn for the
South-West to
get it back? These are among the many reasons
why some
people are clamouring for the convergence of a
conference of nationalities without no-go
areas. If
Obasanjo was brought to compensate for the
Late Chief
M. K. O. Abiola debacle, let us then
compensate the
Igbos, hence leadership in Nigeria can be
gotten as
compensation. My perennial contesting
President
Abubakar Rimi the best governor that could
not be a
president has already said this much when he
said the
Igbos should wait for 2015 and the Yorubas
getting the
seat again in 40 yearswhat guarantees are
there for
2015
Our Igbo brothers, what more can be said than
there is
work to be done, it is a choice to sit, watch
and cry
wolf and marginalization. Rather than sit and
watch
the intense lobbying for the post of Vice
President.
Give the Igbo man a chance to be proven wrong
if he
cannot be right, one Igbo man can make a
difference,
he is Mazi Obi!
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