The Southeast, 2023 And The Presidency.

By S. Long Williams Esq

“The past is where you learnt the lesson , the future is where you apply the lesson. Never stop learning because life never stops teaching”

Dr. Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe was Governor General of Nigeria between 16th November, 1960-1st October, 1963. Upon Nigeria attaining a republican status in 1963, he became President of Nigeria between 1st October 1963 to 16th January, 1966. He was President but without presidential powers. He was a ceremonial President as Nigeria was then under a Parliamentary System of Government. He was like the Queen of England. He was head of state but not head of government. The head of government was Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Belewa the Prime Minister who was a Northerner from present day Bauchi State. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was an Igbo from Anambra State in the Southeast of Nigeria. He was a Ceremonial President and state ceremonies were where his powers ended though he could dissolve Parliament and call for fresh elections when the circumstances warrants.

After the 16th January, 1966 military putsch, he lost his ceremonial presidential position/powers and Major General Johnson Thomas Umunakwe Aguyi-Ironsi from Umuahia in present day Abia state became head of state and head of government. This however was short lived as a counter military putsch on 29th July, 1966 exterminated him and ended his six months grip on power. Fast forward to 1st October, 1979. Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme from Oko, Anambra State, Southeast of Nigeria became the first elected Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the presidency of Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari from Shagari village in Sokoto State, Northern Nigeria. These were the farthest the people of the Southeast in the Federal Republic of Nigeria could achieve on the Presidency.

The people of the Southeast are the Igbos. A tribe of people seen as industrious, intelligent, hardworking, astute and naturally ambitious. They constitute one of the three major tribes in Nigeria apart from the Hausas in the North and the Yourbas in the west. Since after the 29th July, 1966 counter military putsch, no other person from the Southeast has come close to the corridors of the Presidency apart from Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme as stated above who was nonetheless a mere Vice President. Is it that there are no capable, competent and trusted persons from the southeast to assume the office of the President of Nigeria, is it that there is a skewed policy to ostracize the people of the Southeast from becoming the President of Nigeria, Is it that the people of the Southeast are not prepared or are not zealous in becoming the President of Nigeria? The answers to all these questions are in need of urgent attention as the race to 2023 gains traction.

I shall proffer answers to the posed questions seriatim.

On the first question which is whether there are no capable, competent, trusted and ambitious Igbos from the Southeast to take a shot at the Presidency and assume the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The answer is certainly in the negative. The Southeast is blessed in all ramifications. It is blessed with the best intellectuals globally, very successful businessmen/women, industrialists, professionals in all fields of human endeavour, astute & deft politicians, writers and publicist. The list is endless. A handsome majority of them are capable, competent, trusted and ambitious to become President of Nigeria and transform the country into another United Arab Emirate if given the opportunity. In politics we have the likes of Charles Chukwuma Soludo the present Governor of Anambra State, Peter Gregory Obi, former Governor of Anambra State and one of the Presidential Aspirants in the Peoples Democratic Party, Dave Nwaeze Umahi, the present Governor of Ebonyi State and one of the aspirants from the All Progressive Congress, Owelle Rochas Anayochukwu Okorocha, former Governor of Imo State, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, a very distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Senate Minority Leader, a gentleman par excellence and one of the best Senators ever produced in the history of the Nigerian Senate, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, present minister of Science, Innovation and Technology, Senator Chris Ngige, present minister of labour and employment, His Excellency Senator Ike Ikweremadu. The list is inexhaustible. So the bane cannot be the dearth of capable, competent, trusted and ambitious manpower in the Southeast.

Then Is there a skewed policy to ostracize the Igbos from assuming the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? This belief seems to be swallowed hook, line and sinker by a great majority in the polity. Recently a clergy man in the person of Pastor Tunde Bakare of The Citadel Global Community Church gleefully informed his congregation and the world how the first Prime Minister of Nigeria Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa on the night he was executed by the coupist placed a curse on the Igbos that they will never rule Nigeria. This revelation by Pastor Tunde Bakare has thrown up an avalanche of responses and salient questions put to him has remained unanswered. Steve Osuji in his article described it as Treacherous Theology. This is the height of religious hypocrisy. It is unfortunate that the likes of Pastor Tunde Bakare will give filip to the belief that this skewed policy to keep the Igbos at bay from becoming President of Nigeria is real and these are done for selfish and ethnic considerations. In 1999 Dr. Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme was the most popular aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party seeking the nomination of the party to run for the office of President of Nigeria. But what happened at the PDP Primaries in Jos in 1998 sent shivers down the spine of many PDP members and Nigeria generally especially the Igbos. A retired general and one time former head of state Chief Olusegun Mathew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo got pardoned after being convicted for coup plotting and was railroaded into becoming the Presidential flag bearer of the PDP and ultimately became the President of Nigeria. If Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme had clinched the PDP ticket, his chances of becoming the President would have been bright because as at 1998, the PDP was the most formidable and popular party on ground. The formidability and popularity of the PDP was the sweat from the brows of Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme and few others. This was another Igbo opportunity of becoming President gone awry. Since 1999 till date no Igbo has had an opportunity. In March, 2021, Dr. Doyin Okupe, a former aid to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan tweeted thus “A national consensus for Igbo presidency cannot evolve until the core north forgives the Igbos for the killing of Sardauna of Sokoto by Nigerian soldiers of Igbo extraction in the 1966 coup,” Dr. Doyin Okupe was in the corridors of power for six years, can we say his tweet was out of ignorance of the complexity of the Igbo question in the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Whether we like to admit it or play the ostrich, something is amiss about the issue of the Igbos quest for the Presidency and until we come to grasp with it and confront it truthfully the agitations will exacerbate and Nigeria will never know peace, togetherness and progress in it’s chequered lifetime.

On the third question which is whether the people of the southeast are not prepared or not zealous in becoming the President of Nigeria? It will be most unfair and wicked for anyone to argue or postulate that the Igbos have not made spirited legitimate attempts at becoming President of Nigeria. In the 2003 General Elections, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegu Ojukwu contested for the Presidency under the All People’s Grand Alliance but unfortunately lost. In the 2019 general elections, Kingsley Moghalu from Nnewi, Anambra State ran for the office of President under the Young People’s Party YPP but also unfortunately lost. If the two major political parties mean well for Nigeria, they must as a matter of priority and delicate urgency present candidates from the Igbos for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to assuage them for the sake of fairness, equity, brotherliness and good conscience just as was done in 1999 when the southwest were allowed to present cadidates in the two major parties the PDP and APP. So for anyone to say that the Igbos are not prepared or zealous in becoming the president of Nigeria, that person l must say is mischievous and/or suffering from delusions. The Igbos are more equipped and prepared to run this country and turn it around for the good of all Nigerians. Any other person jostling for the Presidency from any other geopolitical zone in the south is just sabre rattling full of sound and fury signifying nothing. The Igbos must know that this is the right time and opportunity to gun for the Presidency for sometimes there is no next time, sometimes there is no second chance, sometimes it is now or never. Sir William Arthur Ward succinctly captured it when he said ” Opportunities are like sunrise. If you wait too long, you miss them” Will they be given the chance in the 2023 elections so as to heal some of the wounds of a broken nation? Time will tell.