Follow Us on Google
I have always held the view that Nigerian politics, especially election campaigns, should be issue-based.
In other words, I have always argued that any politician who wants the people’s votes in Nigeria should tell the electorate what he or she intends to do for them, how he/she intends to solve the people’s peculiar problems and why the people should invest their votes in the politician in exchange for the resolution of the identified problem.
This also means I support the view that Nigerians should no longer allow themselves to be deceived by politics of ethnicity or hatred but must, henceforth, look for men and women of quality, men and women guided by truth and honesty, men and women who are ready to identify the people’s needs and to commit to genuine resolution of the identified problems; men and women who genuinely come to serve the people, to provide the needs of the people!
This view is based on the fact that the level of development of our democracy as at today is that our people still equate democracy dividends with provision of good roads, basic infrastructure, food, good heathcare, job opportunities and such like, which more developed democracies may just take for granted.
This explains my interest in the recent visit of Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, to Akwete, in Abia State, to, as some reports put it, “identify with Akwete Women Cooperative Society” and to help promote local Akwete cloth weaving heritage.
For the record, the referred Akwete cloth has been described as “a famous hand-woven textile, originating from Akwete town in Ukwa East Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria.”
Further formal description of the textile said it is “defined by upright vertical looms and unique cultural motifs.”
History has it that this centuries-old Igbo traditional cloth weaving craft, credited to a local matriarch and master weaver named Daada Nwakata, is “woven mostly by women in Akwete and surrounding Ndoki communities, located near Aba and Port Harcourt, although in modern times, people who who probably learnt the craft from Akwete and are now doing it for a living can be seen in many other communities of Igboland and beyond.
But it is Akwete town, the identified origin of the unique weaving technology, that Mrs. Tinubu visited to have a feel of the ancient craft at its roots. This is commendable.
But some accounts of the historic visit and the N1 billion donation she made to the rural women currently engaged in the ancient local craft quoted Mrs. Tinubu as telling the excited women that “if my husband is re-elected President of Nigeria, I will make Akwete cloth my favorite wear.”
I am not certain that those were true a rendition of the First Lady’s exact promise to the women during the historic visit. But, if it is, I can guess how the First Lady expected the rural women to feel at the knowledge that their craft may soon become the favorite wear of Mr. President’s wife.
While such a simple gesture by Mr. President’s wife is likely to boost the image of the textile and as such translate to greater and wider acceptability and patronage for it both locally and internationally, it sounded somehow patronizing.
Besides the kind gesture of wearing Akwete fabric, there is also the issue of the conditions precedent to the First Lady’s willingness to wear Akwete clothes.
Since I am not even certain those were her exact words, I do not intend to jump to conclusions over the obvious import of the quoted condition embedded in that statement: That is, if Tinubu fails to be re-elected in 2027, then his wife, Mrs. Tinubu, will not make Akwete her favorite wear and may in fact never wear it or further promote its production and sale.
This is the part that gives me concern. Yes! I am worried over such a condition because I am not aware that leaders even, from Nigeria, who have earlier opted to use their influence to boost Nigerian heritage, have ever hinged it on the condition that the people must surrender their votes for them. I am talking about leaders and international icons that have also made Nigeria pround.
For example, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Nigeria’s golden export to the world, who humbly but proudly wore local Nigerian fabrics when she served as the super Finance Minister and the Co-ordinating Minister in the country. It is a fact that this great woman continued to wear and to promote local Nigerian fabrics after she was made to leave office in Nigeria and as the President of World Trade Organisation (WTO).
I have not heard that she ever told us Nigerians the condition that must precede her willingness to advertise Nigerian culture and heritage to the world.
I never heard she gave the Obasanjo Government or the people of Nigeria that if she is removed from her plum and powerful office in Abuja, she would stop showcasing local Nigerian fabrics to the world.
This is why I believe that Mrs Remi Tinubu may not have been quoted rightly.
If she loves this Igbo cultural or Nigerian cultural craft enough to pay a visit to the rustic community of Akwete and to donate that handsome sum to the women, I do not want to believe she will stop loving the fabrics just because her husband failed a national election. So, it’s not likely she actually said so.
But as I said earlier, I prefer to believe our First Lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, was not satisfactorily quoted.
So, for the purposes of today’s article, let me just admit that by making the visit itself and by clearly linking it to her husband’s possible re-election in 2027, Mrs Remi Tinubu has not only identified the need to promote this ancient Igbo heritage but has revealed it’s promotion as one of the campaign promises Tinubu intends to make to Abia State people and perhaps to the people of the entire Southeast zone for their support and votes in 2027.
Put more simply, if we are to believe that First Lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, actually spoke her husband’s mind while she was at Akwete, one of the benefits Abia State will get by supporting Tinubu’s election is that if Tinubu wins, the First Lady, Mrs Remi Tinubu, will start wearing Akwete clothes more often.
Coming shortly after the commencement of the controversy over Federal Government’s alleged plan to make Adire, a local textile fabrics from the Southwest zone, the new fabrics for Nigerian Youths Service Corps (NYSC) members, tongues are wagging that Mrs Tinubu’s sudden remembrance of Akwete may be remotely connected with the Adire’s imminent ascension. Whether this is true or false, I think it is commendable to promote all our local heritage equally and unconditionally.
Besides the fact that such unconditional promotion will boost national unity, their economic potentials are unquantifiable.
Another election promise discernible from the the First Lady’s words is that re-elected President Tinubu, perhaps through his wife, will also support Abia State Government to develop and to promote Akwete clothes manufacturing and sales. As is the case of Mrs Tinubu wearing the clothes, Mr President will do it only when and if he is re-elected President. This too is odd.
The first family still have over a month to preside over the affairs of Nigeria.
A powerful president like the President of Nigeria will not need more than a month to turn around for good an industry like Akwete clothes making if he so desires. Unaided, Akwete clothes heritage has survived. All that it needs is a deliberate and purposeful push. Tinubus can begin and achieve the Akwete turnaround before the 2027 Elections. That one will be a more concrete presidential campaign material than a promise.
I am not saying here that Mrs Tinubu has not done anything worth commending by visiting Akwete and bring it to the consciousness of Nigerians and the world.
This is something. At least, it is better than approaching a whole people, like Abia State, Ndigbo or the Southeast, who have consistently voiced out feeling of marginalisation and hatred, with no specific promise except to demand for their votes as of right. It will indeed be wise for President Tinubu and all the other Presidential Candidates to personally come to Abia State, the Southeast and indeed all the other states and zones to find out their needs so as to understand what their campaign promises should be.
When I first heard of Mrs Tinubu’s promise and the condition she reportedly gave for making Akwete her favorite wear, my first instinct was to try and compile all the concrete 2027 Election campaign promises President Tinubu has made to Abia State and to the Southeast.
Part of what I got after researching speeches and utterances of his aides, supporters and his party chieftains include what they described as “institutional development like the South East Development Commission, and political integration.”
It may be my fault but I dare confess that I do not really understand how these issues should be made Tinubu’s major campaign promises for the votes from the Southeast?
I do not understand because I consider the first (SEDC) as something already done and for which Mr President has already been commended openly in the zone and so should not be recycled for 2027 Election campaigns.
As for the second issue, (political integration of the Southeast zone into Nigeria), I consider it a shame for the handlers of an Executive President who have already ruled Nigeria for almost four years to use reintegration as a major campaign promise to the Southeast zone in order to get their votes for his re-election in 2027.
I sincerely believe that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu cannot personally say such for if he does, that will amount to admission of neglect and marginalisation of the people of the Southeast zone in the almost four years he has presided over the affairs of the country. If he woefully fail to reintegrate Ndigbo to Nigeria in his first four years in office as President, it seems doubtful if he has what it takes to achieve it in the next four years.
If you ask me, it would be better for Tinubu to be more serious with concrete promises like delivery of rail line projects in the Southeast. A project like rail network in the zone or even the eastern rail corridor rail project or quality new road network are amongst the kind of commitments that can help refute claims of marginalisation of the zone.
Since all the rail lines the APC Governments built since the days of Buhari and also President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Lagos – Calabar Coastal Highway carefully cut off Southeast, it is only fair to compensate the zone with a seaport, rail network or something equally concrete.
On IGP’s shoot at sight order
All well meaning Nigerians are tired of the worsening insecurity and are therefore eager to stop the killers and bandits.
But this desire does not seem to blind the people’s eyes on the danger inherent on the recent Inspector- General of Police “Shoot-at-Sight Order” on any body caught illegally carrying arms.
For sure, it is an offence to carry arms illegally, but knowing Nigerian policemen and what they can do with such sweeping order, I join other well meaning Nigerians to advice that the Order be suspended for now and properly reviewed.
Already, some organisations like Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) has asked the Inspector General of Police Mr. Tunji Disu to withdraw the Order, describing it “illegal and unconstitutional.” I agree with this view
• Samuel Hezekiah Egburonu Esq, lawyer, veteran journalist and literary scholar, is a current affairs analyst
