2027: A Red Flag for Dissident Igbo

By Ike Abonyi 

 

“ Betrayal in a family is much more devastating than a betrayal among friends or even Lovers, ”-Ari Aster

It would be vitally important and efficacious at the inception of this conversation to explain the basis to avoid being misconstrued. Ndigbo are naturally Republicans and cannot be pigeonholed in one political platform. To do so will be tantamount to putting all one’s eggs in a single basket which would portray no wisdom. Persons in their various political platforms are free, as is in all political norms, to canvass for their respective parties. This musing is therefore not for them, but actually for those who are clandestinely undermining the Igbo Presidency project for their selfish interests. These people are known and are going about de-marketing Igbo Presidency and scheming for Vice President since Peter Obi has obviously rejected it. Their provocative argument, which is a mark of greed and an inferiority complex, is that Igbo are not ripe to be President in 2027. That, unless and until they go through Atiku Abubakar as his running mate, they might not get the desired President of Igbo extraction. This trajectory of betrayals is seen by some politicians as smartness. But even though it’s a fact that betrayal is the currency of politics and that it always occurs in the dark corners of power, it comes with some obvious consequences.

We are also not unaware that there is no honour in politics because it’s a high-stakes game of betrayal and backstabbing where the ends always justify the means, even if it means destroying an ally.

But it’s also a fact that those who indulge in the betrayal act to climb often reap the consequences, if not immediately, it still comes eventually. Anybody luxuriating in the act of betraying the Igbo race should look back at history and study the brilliant life of an Igbo called Ukpabi Asika. This man was one of the finest brains to come out of Igboland. A first-class material from the University of Ibadan and an astute administrator got lost in an ignoble role during the civil war, 1967 to 1970, when he worked against the interest of his people.

All the good things Asika did before and after the war for Ndigbo got drowned in the perception of him as a saboteur during the war. Today none of his friends, associates, and even children can willingly identify with him in the public space.

For those thinking that Igbo President is not ripe in 2027, I would like to take them down memory lane into the political landscape of this nation from 1979 to date. It’s a known historical fact that the political foundation of this country was laid on a tripod of Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba, but in these contemporary times, 28 years of this dispensation, 1999 to 2027, this is the unjust picture of the distribution of the Presidential position in the country.

By 2027, the  Yorubas would have been in the Presidency for 12 years of Olusegun Obasanjo and Bola Tinubu, 8 years of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the Hausa-Fulani would have been there for 11 years of Umaru Yar'Adua and Muhammadu Buhari, and 17 years of Vice President by Atiku Abubakar, Namadi Sambo, and Kashim Shettima, a  Kanuri, and  5 years of Goodluck Jonathan, an Ijaw for President, and the same Jonathan three years as Vice President.

In all these, the Igbo were conspicuously missing, yet somebody, for selfish interest and to sycophantically impress someone, claims that the Igbo President is not ripe by 2027.

I would like to invite you to follow me on this historical expedition that would give us further insight into the pitiable political situation of Ndigbo in contemporary Nigeria. Nine years after the civil war precisely on October 1st, 1979 an Igboman in the person of Dr Alex Ifeanyichukwu EKwueme was sworn in as the Vice President to Alhaji Shehu Shagari under the regime of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN. That action was the politician’s way of ending the civil war on the agreed no-victor, no-vanquished understanding.

But the soldiers didn’t think that way, that an Igbo person would come within so short a time after the war to become a number two citizen and heading to be the  President after the second term of Shagari that just took off on October 1st, 1983. By December 1983, the soldiers struck and overthrew the elected democratic regime of Shagari ostensibly to stop EKwueme.

The thinking then was that the juntas struck to prevent Dr EKwueme from emerging President in 1987 since he was doing marvelously well in his number two position to the extent that he was seen as the engine of the regime. Dr EKwueme’s overwhelming influence in the regime made the thinking real that he was not an auxiliary but a direct coadjutor,  heir to the throne. The junta's disdain for the Igboman then was copiously put on display in the way and manner they treated the President and his Vice President after the coup that disrupted the democratic process. While Shagari was kept in a guest house after the coup, Dr EKwueme was sent to prison. The investigative report on EKwueme was the disarming verdict that prevented them from further humiliating him. His only offence was being an Igbo. The investigation panel came up with a verdict that Dr EKwueme was not only clean of corruption while in office, but that he was leaving the government poorer than when he entered.

That was not all, Gen Muhammadu Buhari was chosen as Head of state to appease the ethnic  Hausa-Fulani, where the dethroned Shagari came from, while nothing of such was contemplated for the Igbos, where the Vice President came from. And this was to be the template going forward. General Buhari went for a Yoruba as his deputy, Gen Tunde Idiagbon, and when he was thrown out in a palace coup, his replacement Gen Ibrahim Babangida chose an Igbo, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe as his Vice but barely one year he was thrown out and replaced with a Niger Deltan, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu. Gen Sani Abacha who replaced Babangida returned to the Yoruba, Gen Oladipo Diya and when Abacha died in office and was replaced by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, like his brother Babangida he went to the Niger Delta for Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe.

When General Abubakar announced his transition to civil rule program following immense pressure from politicians and the international community, Dr EKwueme was conspicuously the leading light who was coordinating the politicians. All eyes were on him to emerge as President, not just for his past credentials of being a successful Vice President, but for his role in forcing soldiers out of the polity. In addition, Dr EKwueme had also successfully nurtured the best political party then, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

At the first national convention of PDP in Jos, Plateau state in 1998, virtually all delegates headed to Jos with the mind that Dr EKwueme would pick the Presidential ticket. But as they arrived in Jos, something dramatic happened, the anti-Igbo juntas who were still controlling the system changed their mind and settled for one of them just released from prison, Gen Olusegun Obasanjo. Generals Obasanjo and Musa Yar'Adua, who died in prison, were incarcerated by Gen Abacha over allegations of plotting a coup.

The abracadabra that torpedoed Dr EKwueme was master minded by a General who arrived at Jos airport with an aircraft filled with ‘liquid’ that changed the situation and laid the foundation for the dollarisation of political party primaries. Yours sincerely was among the few journalists who were privy to the hi-tech political scheming in Jos that dumped EKwueme then.

Therefore, you can imagine me nostalgically remembering all these deliberate denials of Ndigbo by the nation, but somebody, an Igbo for that matter, is saying that they are not yet ripe for President by 2027. One wonders who is more ripe for the position, since even yesterday, than the Igbos, more so now that the Igbos have a quintessential candidate in Peter Obi, who has successfully, through his issue-driven messages and unprecedented antecedents, won the hearts of Nigerians across the board. Obi has also, more than any politician in this dispensation, galvanised the people into dropping their hitherto apathy against politics and the electoral system.

This musing is therefore a timely warning for any politician of Igbo extraction especially those claiming to be on the same platform with Peter Obi and scheming for Vice President that the third eye is on them and soon we will make their name public for blacklisting. The good thing is that the Igbo voters always throw them under the bus when Obi is on the ballot. This is the time the Igbo race requires peace and cohesion for the task ahead. Betrayal in a family is much more devastating and like it happened to Julius Ceaser when Brutus struck, it can be heartbreaking. If these Igbos who are deviously working against Igbo interests channel their energy to Peter Obi's candidacy, not necessarily for Obi but for posterity. 

The best way to be good ancestors of our descendants is to try to protect the ethnic interest so long as it is justifiable, defensible and doesn’t injure others. Anybody who claims to be a true-blooded Igboman and who is not pained that despite Igbos' exceptional potential, their uncommon contributions to the development of this land, and yet they are denied access to power in this country for decades should have their heads re-examined.

You are entitled to like or dislike Peter Obi, as politicians you are even entitled to be jealous of him and wish that the grace around him comes to you, but note the fact that his Presidential ambition has brought Igbos to the national table where issues are discussed and the political cake are baked and shared. It's just in the larger interest of Ndigbo to market Peter Obi for what he really is, the best product in the political market today for 2027. You can prove me wrong on this assertion if you can. This is made possible not by happenstance but by  Obi’s extraordinary reputation built over the years, his exceptional message acceptable to Nigerians, and above all, the uncommon divine grace around him. Let us therefore give him all the necessary solidarity for our sake and that of our children as Igbo people. May God help us.