People have been urging me to go for President in 2023 but I say to them, the vehicle called Nigeria has no brainbox but people are talking about changing driver only. What can a driver with a knocked engine or a car with a faulty or no brainbox do? Absolutely nothing, until the vehicle goes for a complete overhaul. Those clamouring for restructuring of this country are saying fix the car first and look for a driver.
The foregoing statement was credited to Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State and one of Nigeria’s finest. He is among the Igbo first-eleven of whom his people are profoundly proud.
Whether Obi actually made the alluded statement or not, it is a fact that the country is actually a vehicle with neither engine nor brainbox. In fact, it does not have a steering wheel, and the gearbox is either missing or malfunctioned long ago.
However, Nigeria is on the march again. Already, some people from all divides have declared their interest to contest the 2023 presidency.
Of course, it is the inalienable right of any qualified Nigerian to aspire to that office. Among those that have so far declared their interest are men who have paid their dues and have what it takes to rule this country, perhaps. There are also those used to tomfoolery who may be out to steal and sell the carcass of the rundown vehicle instead.
There are many factors to consider while building a nation. One of such is to aggregate the interests of all sections of the country. It is very unfortunate that, after over 60 years of independence, Nigeria has not been able to graduate to nationhood because of its inability to cohere and manage its disparate ethnic groups.
Perhaps, the greatest opportunity to take a serious step towards that is now, using the 2023 presidential election. In fact, the country had risen to the occasion once when, in 1993, every other section sacrificed their own ambition to allow the Yoruba produce the President, just to pull the country back from the precipice after the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, which the late MKO Abiola presumably won.
If the country did it then, there is greater need to do it again for the Igbo for the sake of fairness, equity and justice.
There is an unwritten agreement over the years that the country’s presidency should rotate between the North and South and this has been keenly observed all these years. Therefore, after President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years for the North elapses next year, the presidency must return to the South.
There need not be any controversy what part of the South it should be zoned to. Since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999, Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-West had occupied the office for eight years. It was the mood of the nation to pacify the region then. It was only natural, based on the agreement that a northerner succeeded Obasanjo in 2007. That was how Umaru Yar’Adua came and, later, Goodluck Jonathan, before Buhari came in 2015. Therefore, it is only fair and just for the country to favour the Igbo in 2023.
Sadly, this has become a matter of intense debate and all manner of shenanigans. Some believe that Buhari may not be favourably disposed to handing over to an Igbo man, but this may not be true, as the President obviously has a soft spot for some Igbo people, especially in his cabinet, and has also made it clear that he has no preferred candidate, as he proved in the Edo and Anambra gubernatorial elections. In any case, if things don’t play out properly, it would only confirm the belief that Buhari is an Igbo hater and one is not sure he would like to carry that tag at this period of his life. He should also be mindful of revolt against him, if he imposes any aspirant on the party now he is set to leave Aso Rock for good.
The quest for a President of Igbo extraction in 2023 is germane and borne out of the all-time maxim that what is good for the goose is also for the gander. The Yoruba have had eight years of presidency under Obasanjo, and another eight years of vice-presidency with Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who has also declared interest in succeeding his boss, Buhari. It does not gel with reason that the Yoruba would be dreaming of occupying Aso Rock in 2023, instead of supporting their Igbo brethren from the South-East. It is being discussed arrogantly as if the Igbo don’t matter and are not part of the equation at all.
To worsen the matter, some people mischievously allude to the self-determination agitation of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a reason the Igbo cannot be trusted to produce the President, as if the Boko Haram insurgents, bandits and killer herdsmen stopped Buhari or any other northerner for that matter. The IPOB campaign pales into insignificance compared to the grisly bloodletting in the North.
The Igbo are a major ethnic group in this country and must be allowed to occupy that office like others. This must be done not as charity but as a matter of right. The IPOB agitation was borne out of such insulting neglect and making the Igbo feel third class in a country that they have given their all to build. The best way to quench the IPOB fire is the recognition that the Igbo, too, deserve the right like others to produce the President. Those saying contrary things are the trouble with Nigeria because commonsense knows that it is absolutely impossible for the President to just carve out Biafra because he is Igbo in a country with a constitution and National Assembly comprising mostly non-Igbo parliamentarians.
Therefore, the quest for the Igbo to produce the President in 2023 is justified.
With every sense of modesty, the Igbo have the best men to run the country. Therefore, those talking about merit have indirectly said the job should be given to the Igbo. If merit is to be measured by the mess the past leaders have made of the country, it is most reasonable that the Igbo are given a chance to clean the Augean stable. The Igbo have proven to be competent and reliable, ever excelling in whatever assignment they have been opportune to occupy in this country.
There is also the inane talk of disinterest on the part of Igbo politicians. Nobody knows exactly what that kind of talk means because there are men with capacity who have so far indicated interest and these are credible and competent Igbo men running on their own merit and not propped up as puppets of the North or anywhere.
Peter Obi is unarguably one of them. One does not fully agree with the above statement credited to him. Indeed, Nigeria is a ramshackle and cannibalised vehicle but I know that if Obi puts his mind to it, he has in his veins the excelling Igbo DNA to restore the broken down vehicle and make it functional. Of course, the Bible asks what the righteous could do if the foundation is destroyed, as in the case of Nigeria.
I believe there is much the righteous could do. One of such is to simply lay a fresh foundation and build a much more durable country. The Igbo are proven experts in this field. Apart from Obi, we have other giants like Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. Irrespective of what has been done lately to cow him, Kalu remains a lion whose roar is effective. There is also Dr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, the self-effacing, suave and youthful Minister of State for Education. His signature of pragmatism, effectiveness and famous ability to build bridges across the various ethnic divides and age groups in the country is legendary.
Without dwelling much on other equally notable Igbo personalities, the trio of Nwajiuba, Obi and Kalu are more than fit to preside over this country. Anyone expressing a contrary view is being untruthful and mischievous.
In the name of fairness, justice and equity it is time to consider the South-East, since the North, the West and South-South have had it. Being the third leg of the tripod, the country risks wobbling and possibly falling if the legs are not properly balanced.