It is palpable today that the South-East zone of Nigeria is looking for its good luck in the political equation of President Goodluck Jonathan. Ndi’Igbo want to be relevant more than the Jonathan-led administration wants them to be. They are clamouring for the Speaker or Senate president of the hallow chambers of National Assemblies, but Jonathan and his government, which this undaunted ethnic nationality represented much, want the position of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) zoned to them.
But this is annoying, owing to the fact that Nigeria, since inception of independence in the 60s, rarely recognises whom the cap fits. Anti-Igbo know that this group in Nigeria really deserved a position more than that of the SGF, but for commission or omission, Ndi’igbo are slided. As the folded unfolds, if the SGF finally settles for Ndi’Igbo, it means that they have to sit down and watch for the next four years, like Goodluck Jonathan sat down and watched during the travails of his late boss, Umaru Yar’Adua, and rarely acted, because he was sidelined in the things of governance by a group of devilish people understated as cabals.
It is imperative to say here that somebody can influence the humiliation of a people but will never hamper their independence someday. Those who are waving the ‘progress’ of Ndi’Igbo in Nigeria with the back of the left hand are the true enemies of the ‘progress’ of Nigeria. It is sad that these people who now dictate for Ndi’Igbo, out of sentiment, did not remember that Ndi’Igbo are the second largest voters for Jonathan, who was elected, not minding the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP zoning formula. Yet, the zoning veiled to die still surfaces, when it has to concern Ndi’Igbo? Against this backdrop, Ndi’Igbo should not be laughing so much, hoping that Jonathan ‘their brother’ has clinched power, because a good market is known in the morning, and a friend can be so respectful than a brother.
It is saddening that Ndi’Igbo have always looked for good luck in Nigeria, even when they try so much to be good to their brothers and kins, they get the obverse. Ndi’Igbo are manipulated so much in this country, even through their own vessels called ‘Igbo leaders’. The South east governors forum or whatever the name is called is not helping matters.
We could recall that when in 2005 Dr. Chris Ngige was the governor of Anambra State and the incumbent chairman of the five South-East governors, things were not different. Though, Dr. Ngige was applauded by his colleagues and generally the Igbo race, because he made it succinct that all the five governors of the Igbo-extraction would henceforth attend any meeting “in the spirit of the new South-East united spirit and agenda”. Dr. Ngige cried bitterly for the unification of Ndi’Igbo, because the future of Igbo-man was paramount in their spirits. Yet, Ndi-Igbo did not map out ways for Ndi-Igbo aspiration to produce a Nigerian president in 2007. This is 2011, going to 2015.
While Ndi’Igbo asked their owns in 2011 to recoil to their caves because of Jonathan’s presidential aspiration, the hope for Igbo people to produce the president of this country would hardly be as bright as it was supposed to be in 2011, if things continue to go in this sorrow direction. The National Political Conference (NPRC) showed that the Nd’Igbo opinion counted in Nigeria, because of the attention the South-East delegates attracted, but saddening that they have not had the luck for their aspiration to count, a decade of that conference.
It is regrettable, why Ndi-Igbo were made to dance in the political scene as second class citizens every time, whereas the forefathers of Ndi’Igbo shed their blood and lost their valuables for the establishment of this country called Nigeria. Those of Igbo extraction who are saddled with th power to man Ndi’Igbo had been titular in the forefront of the campaign for Ndi’Igbo liberation from humiliation and neglect so as to avert incoming generation from blaming the elders of today. These groups of representatives have never placed their personal enthusiasm less than the interest of Ndi’Igbo, just as their forebears placed their interest less to better Nigeria. Ndi’Igbo leaders and many of their groups, like Ohanaeze, always chase the mouse while their house burnt. Ndi’igbo governors forum always have its unity of the five governors to fight for their vision, while Ndi’Igbo cremate.
No ‘vision’ seen clamoured by this group has ever been followed. Their visions are dumped in the trash bin, after any meeting or political dispensation. It was seen as quite fortunate that the spirit that united the south east governors in 2005 was based on the fact that they all belonged to the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), but the story is different today; it is unfortunate indeed today that their spirit was pummeled to the soil before November 2006, when the PDP had its presidential primaries for the 2007 elections. All the five governors of South-East, except Dr. Ngige, because of issues surrounding his governorship position in Anambra State that led to his bow, flagged-off as presidential candidates. This was also the way it happened in 2003. Who is remembering 1999?
Even when these Igbo governors wanted the presidency, we all saw how the PDP primaries was executed which produced the then governor of Katsina State, Mr. Umar Yar’Adua as its presidential flag bearer. After that PDP’s primaries, none of the South-East governors that were making noise to produce a Nigerian president of the Igbo extraction remembered the agenda of that meeting they held on 15th July, 2005, to produce a Nigeria president of Igbo extraction in 2007, except Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, who did remembered.
Dr. Kalu showed the enormous love he had for Ndi’Igbo, by decamping from PDP to the Progressive People’s Alliance, PPA, which he flagged its presidential flag, in seeing that he achieved the Igbo president. He even came up in 2011, but was shouted down by the sycophantic Ohanaeze, and he hands-off, since the Igbo mythology says that no single man is stronger than his kinsmen. Others didn’t know then but Kalu knew that, “The agitation for the Igbo to produce the president in 2007 has assumed a global dimension because of the interest it has generated among Nigerians and non-Nigerians abroad. Even the world superpowers were in total agreement that Igbo people should be given greater latitude to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country”.
While that played, today, it is very surprising that the titular South-east governors forum is crying foul of their betrayed position in becoming Speaker or Senate president. Ohanaeze, also, has been crying marginalization in the state called Nigeria, but at home, it has not shown peace and love among Ndi’Igbo. Its members antagonize each other so much that it looks as if they are running the political-Igbo (not socio-cultural) group individually. Ohanaeze forgot to understand that a bunch of broom that is scattered couldn’t sweep. There are a lot of disunity among the self-acclaimed Igbo leaders.
Ndi’Igbo should always be supportive of their genuine courses instead of some opportunists playing the galery. As their agenda or aspiration unfolds, they should not need the help of a soothsayer to tell them what to do and where to go. No Igbo should be fighting for the course of the Ndi’Igbo alone, but to seeing that Ndi’Igbo are united, because democracy in Nigeria lives in the hearts of people than it lives in the Constitution. Ndi’Igbo should always stop looking for good luck, because miracle doesn’t just happen; work, meeting fate, is the miracle.
