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Having fulfilled its pledge to ensure a shift of presidential power to the South, the “educationally backward” North must be bewildered, bemused and irritated by the ongoing war of vile words and crude display of primitive politics by the educationally advanced South as the bitter disputes over the outcome of the 2023 presidential election continue between Nigeria’s Igbo and Yoruba people of southern Nigeria. In the buildup to the 2023 presidential election, there was a united front from southern Nigeria in the demand for a shift of presidential power to the region after the eight-year tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner. This position was championed by the 17 governors of the South and endorsed by the leading socio-cultural groups of the region such as the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Afenifere. Fortunately, the northern wing of the ruling APC supported a shift of power to the South, but not so the PDP; and Ahmed Bola Tinubu from the Yoruba-speaking part of southern Nigeria emerged winner ahead of Atiku Abubakar, a northerner, as the President-elect. But the biggest challenger of Tinubu’s victory is Peter Obi of the Labour Party, a fellow southerner of Igbo extraction, who emerged as the second runner-up in the keenly contest presidential election.
Historically, the apex political leadership of Nigeria had been shared or rotated between the northern and southern protectorates that were amalgamated by the British colonial authorities in 1914, as a means of ensuring inclusion, equity and justice in an ethnic and religiously plural country like Nigeria. In the First Republic Westminster-style democracy, between 1960 and 1966, power was shared between Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa from northern Nigeria and President Nnamdi Azikiwe from southern Nigeria. In the Second Republic [1979-1983], when Nigeria switched to the American style presidential system, military head of state, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, from southern Nigeria, handed over presidential power to Shehu Shagari, from northern Nigeria, with Alex Ekwueme from the South as his vice. In the Third Republic, military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, a northerner, conducted an election that threw up MKO Abiola, a southerner, as President, and Babagana Kingibe, from northern Nigeria, as his vice. Unfortunately, the Third Republic was aborted because of the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
Since the commencement of the Fourth Republic in 1999, the pattern has largely remained the same, as military head of state, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, from northern Nigeria, handed over to Olusegun Obasanjo, as the democratically elected President, with Atiku Abubakar, a northerner, as his vice. And power rotation between the North and South as well as a shared presidency between the two regions continued throughout the Fourth Republic. However, there were doubts and apprehension in the buildup to the 2023 presidential election because of the seeming commitments of President Buhari to power shift to the South after his tenure. These doubts and apprehension were not altogether unfounded because of his unbridled northern regional sectionalism, which elevated ‘Arewa privilege’ to a near state policy, hence the agitation from the southern part of Nigeria for power shift from theNnorth after President Buhari’s tenure.
Whereas, the northern protectorate remained as one region that was predominantly Muslim and Hausa-speaking but with a significant population non-Hausa speaking Christian peoples, the southern protectorate was divided into a predominantly Yoruba-speaking Western Region and Igbo-speaking Eastern Region at the beginning of the post-Independence First Republic. These divisions along ethno-regional lines deepened the culture of ethnic and religious politics of identity, which created animosity and mutual distrust between the Igbo and Yoruba in their contestation of power at the centre, to the benefit of the Northern Region. This division persists into modern Nigeria, 63 years after independence in 1960. And in addition to this division in the South, the North had taken full advantage of it, being the largest democratic demography in Nigeria, to decide the course of presidential power since 1999.
But in what may be described as an oxymoronic turnout of events, President Buhari’s hyper-sectional tendencies, which left Nigeria deeply divided, had an unintended outcome of Igbo and Yoruba across the South of Nigeria in the face of the worst example of northern domination of every aspect of Nigeria’s national life. So profound was this unity that individuals and groups of Yoruba extraction, including former President Obasanjo and Afenifere threw their support behind Peter Obi of the Labour Party, an Igbo, for the presidency of Nigeria, against one of their own, Tinubu. Sadly, the emergence of Tinubu as President-elect appears to have rekindled the extinguished flame of bitter rivalry between the Igbo and the Yoruba. And the acrimony is pushing Nigeria closer to the precipice of systems collapse as were the cases in the first, second and third republics.
To arrest this ugly situation and avert the path to a mutual self-annihilation of the Igbo and Yoruba in the politics of Nigeria and save the country the avoidable road to state failure, Tinubu, the President-elect, must rise up to his responsibility as next leader of Nigeria and begin the national healing process. And the national healing process must begin with southern unity. Tinubu must realize that he is only President-elect today because of Obi’s presence in the race, which decimated Atiku’s chances in the South East, South-South and the Middle Belt regions of Nigeria. If Obi and his Igbo kinsmen had betrayed their Yoruba kinsmen in their collective quest for power shift to the South by aligning with PDP’s Atiku from northern Nigeria, Tinubu would not have won the 2023 presidential election.
Most importantly, Tinubu must view the strong protestation against his election by the many voices from the Igbo section of Nigeria as a protest not against him as person but against exclusion and marginalization that has denied them the opportunity of occupying the highest office in the land since 1966. What the Igbo ethnic nationality needs now is appreciation, empathy and solidarity and not scorn from Tinubu and his supporters. In the same vein, it is pertinent to point out that Tinubu emerged victorious in the just concluded election with support from parts of Nigeria where Obi of the LP was not exactly expected to do well. Thanks to his mastery of the establishment political terrain of Nigeria, Tinubu leveraged on his well-oiled network of friends and associates to carry the day in the Muslim North, which is Nigeria’s largest voting demography, in addition to dominating his home region of the South West, which is also the country’s second largest voting area.
Tinubu’s victory, which has ensured power-shift to the South, is a major win for the unity of Nigeria and this will rub off positively on every southerner, including Ndigbo, as this has kept the window of opportunity for the emergence of Nigerian President of Igbo extraction open now and in the future. An Atiku victory would have permanently shut this window against every southerner, whether Muslim or Christian, now or in the future. More than anybody and anything else, Atiku and the PDP are responsible for the unfulfilled aspiration of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction and not Tinubu and his APC. If only Atiku had led the northern wing of the PDP to support the emergence of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction as a reward for their consistent support for the party and for him since 1999, just as the northern wing of the APC did for Tinubu as payback for his firm support for the party and the region since 2015, Peter Obi may have emerged as President of Nigeria in the 2023 presidential election. And Just as Tinubu and his Yoruba kinsmen owe a debt of gratitude to their Igbo brethren for his emergence as President-elect of Nigeria, the Igbo people of southern Nigeria should also appreciate Tinubu’s efforts to ensure power shift to the South in a party whose leadership was reluctant to give up the knife and the yam.
