Whose Presidency is it Anyway?

Many people prefer a restructured Nigeria. We can recast and rebuild Nigeria, presidency or not.

There’s a natural mystic

Blowing through the air

If you listen carefully now you will hear

~ Bob Marley

Terrorist herdsmen have laid waste to our countryside. Kidnappers and killers terrorize our urban areas. The ISWAP-inspired insurgents in Bornu State escalate the ongoing civil war. Arewa bandits and their wholesale abductions and assassinations spread to forceful control of the Abuja-Kaduna corridor. Unknown gunmen strangle the southeast. People are suffering in silence.

The cyclical psychosis is “blowing through the air,” as Bob Marley and the Wailers sang in Natural Mystic. As usual, the Igbo may catch flak. This current dilemma may not end in praises if aspirants inject themselves into the blaze of bigotry as ethnic champions. We know the implications of any blowback: lives and properties will be compromised. Far too many Nigerians are yet to cleanse themselves of petty prejudices.

I have protested the use of “Igbo presidency” for two decades. The Igbo as an ethnic nation has no presidency; Nigeria has a presidency, and the seat is in Abuja—a Nupe enclave. Minister Ojo Maduekwe called the expression “idiotic” in 2003. Earlier in 2002, Minister ABC Nwosu dismissed it as “cheap blackmail.” The continued chatter about “Igbo presidency” and versions with “Southeast zone” and “Igbo ethnic extraction” should stop.

To survive, live, and thrive, the Igbo need and want a society that is just and equitable. It is not a made-up philosophy; it is ingrained in Igbo worldview of “Ọfọ na Ogu”: Justice and Equity. If the Igbo practice and preach this concept at every level, Nigerians will learn. The condition of the country provides enough lessons to prove that we are better when the least of us is good.

No one disputes the fairness in any Nigerian aspiring to be president. No one doubts the capability and competency of an Igbo as the president of Nigeria. However, the presidency has never happened as an ethnic project, and it will not happen as such in 2023. Political parties produce presidential pretenders: Nigerians vote. It is that simple.

Despite their acclaimed hard work and honesty, humanity and humility, Igbo aspirants work too hard and still struggle to convince Nigerians that they can provide a purposeful leadership. Despite their worldwide excellence in various fields of human endeavors and consultations across the country, they still wear the crude cloak of political provinciality. Despite their intellectual prowess and great understanding of societies, they still act like the politically uncircumcised. Thus, despite the remarkable demographic spread across the world, the Igbo fail to parade a safe and sound hunky-dory homeland, a strong base for successful political forays.

An Igbo can be president of Nigeria. In 1998, Alex Ekwueme was leading. It was not an Igbo project. Obasanjo was not a Yoruba production. Yar’Adua was Obasanjo’s deed, not Hausa-Fulani. Jonathan was a PDP project, not an Ijaw scheme. Buhari did not happen on a Fulani front; APC formed and delivered. Now that APC and PDP have thrown their presidential tickets open, and Igbo political elites are all over the place supporting sundry non-Igbo aspirants, we must discard the “Igbo presidency” mindset with all its inferences.

Ohanaeze’s George Obiozor said something remarkable recently: “We will not speak with one voice; we are not mumu!” The idea of someone speaking for the entire Igbo nation without, minimally, a majority mandate must stop. We should first build that nation as a common cause and stop following whoever has millions for a ticket and speaks English.

Many people prefer a restructured Nigeria. We can recast and rebuild Nigeria, presidency or not. Nigerians do not benefit because the man in Aso Villa has a name from their religious or regional background and acts as an undertaker to a crumbling green giant with clay claws.

Nigeria is a sad state. Strange situations surface normally. Nigeria needs a healer. We are all healers. “Anyị na-egbo mkpa; igbo mkpa ka e ji mara anyi”: that’s why we are all Igbo—problem solvers. Solving socio-economic problems on a universal scale is our God-given gift, our divine-driven purpose on earth. We can heal Nigeria. Healers do not go soliciting; they are solicited. Where there are few subscribers, the pros showcase their skills at town squares. Therefore, we should focus on building nations on the six-zone structure with Abuja in the middle, a pivot for continental renaissance.

We need new leaders to see the light before Damascus, governors with excellent entrepreneurial experiences to focus on building the zones—not power for personality. Imagine where we would have been in the southeast with a ban on open grazing of cows and empowering economic environments as contained in several blueprints. Sadly, a group of goats is leading a leap of leopards. The Igbo is a nation of leopards. The cubs of a leopard do not chew grass, and they do not follow goats.

Let the building begin!

@aladimma