The Mirage of
Igbo Presidency
By
Dillibe
Onyeama
culled from GUARDIAN, July 19, 2005
I am privileged to own a 664-page book titled WORLD
HISTORY, compiled by British scholar Rodney Castleden. This reference work dates
from 38,000 B.C. to present times and, as a chronological Dictionary of Dates,
provides a continuous and detailed history of the human race, covering all the
main moments in world history.
It is gratifying to note that the activities of some of Nigeria's ethnic
groups are well-documented as far back as the year 835, when Dougan, the first
king of the Saifawa dynasty of Kanem-Bornu, died at Njimi, his capital city. A
significant situation that bore a direct relationship with a feature of
present-day political life in Nigeria is recorded in the year 1139, when "The
Igbo people of the lower Niger (West Africa) are making fine bronze castings,
the first of several West African cultures to do so. The Igbo are politically
disunited, but they have spiritual unity under their religious leader , the Eze
Nri."
During the 2003 general elections in Nigeria, 864 years later, it was
brazenly apparent that the Igbo people were no less politically disunited, in
spite of their spiritual unity under the Ohanaeze; and today, two years later
and two more to go to the 2007 general elections, their political disunity
continues to be glaring, notwithstanding the stability of the Ohanaeze as their
spiritual leadership.
In the light of the foregoing, it is easy to draw an inference that the Igbo
people were not ordained to be politically united - in sharp contrast to the
other main ethnic groups of the Nigerian state, for whom political glory has
invariably been rooted in a bedrock of solidarity from kith and kin. This would
appear to be a vindication of the popular immortal claim of the individualistic
nature of the Igbo man.
From all this it can be positively maintained that any Igbo presidential
aspirant who clinches the coveted crown will not achieve it through any mass
effort of solidarity of his Igbo kinsmen. A classic case in point was Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe, who became the first indigenous Governor-General during colonial rule
purely through the vagaries of the hour, being as he was the most visible and
vocal in the strident nationwide clamour for independence. His subsequent
ascension to his desired post of President, although ceremonial but powerful,
came about through the collective love of the Nigerian people. The support of
the Igbo people alone would not have carried him through.
The ongoing deafening hue and cry by the Igbos to be given the Presidential
slot, set against blustery claims of marginalization, underscores the triumph of
emotion over good sense. Regrettably the Igbo people of Nigeria remain a
security risk in the wake of their 'Biafra' misadventure. Notwithstanding
General Gowon's placatory "no victor, no vanquished", any ethnic group which,
rightly or wrongly, summons the courage to secede from a sovereign state, holds
her to a two-and-a-half year civil war that draws in the super-powers, earning
recognition from four other nations, causing the deaths of over two million
people, and is finally defeated, must, of necessity, remain a security threat at
the end of the day. Anything to the contrary would represent the height of
irresponsibility on the part of the governing authorities.
Viewed in that light, the perceived marginalization of the Igbo people, while
unfortunate, must be seen as understandable. The activities of the
quasi-militant group 'MASSOB' and the open support voiced for its aims by the
'bearded genius' under whose leadership the Igbos rallied in their breakaway
bid, have demonstrated - as nothing else can - that the Igbos might not have
been pursuing the ideal approach in conciliating their adversaries from the
national collective fear, mistrust, opprobrium and phobia nursed against
anything Igbo. Indeed, there has been an inflammatory effect that might only
have served to concrete a tacit oath that the Presidency of Nigeria must not be
trusted to the hands of a notorious 'Biafran rebel'.
The Igbo people need to borrow a leaf from the US experience. After their war
of independence was formally ended in January 1784, a total of 179 years elapsed
before Lyndon Johnson, a Southerner and previously Vice-President, took the
Presidency in 1963 - and, at that, not by popular vote, but through the vacuum
created by the assassination of President John. F. Kennedy. In all those years,
there had been no overt agitation by the former rebel 'South' to produce the
President. It had come about by subtle lobbying, and when it became clear that
the South no longer constituted a security threat to American unity after a
stable Johnson Presidency, Southerners in the persons of Jimmy Carter and Bill
Clinton were swept into office by the love and popular vote of the American
people.
The picture is very different among the Igbos of Nigeria. The ghost of 'Biafra'
was barely exorcised in January 1970 than, 30 years later, demands for an Igbo
President - enforced by subtle blackmail from the sponsors of 'MASSOB', started
to reverbrate in the ear-drums of the nation. Apart from the inability of the
Igbo people to select a compromise candidate from among themselves, an Igbo
President at this juncture would send the wrong message to a mistrustful
Nigerian electorate which is unable to view the Igbo beyond the concept of the
cunning 'Biafran rebel'.
While the miracle of President Obasanjo's leadership could find possible Igbo
rivals in such political strongmen as Anyim Pius Anyim, Odumegwu Ojukwu, and
Chimaroke Nnamani - being those exceptional Igbo leaders possessed of a peculiar
strength of character, conviction and stubborn-ness to be able to ride and tame
the wild Nigerian bronco, is it Anyim who could remove a corrupt Yoruba
Inspector-General of Police and not ignite the flames of rage from the OPC
against the Igbos in Lagos? Or is it Chimaroke who could declare a state of
emergency in Plateau State and not risk the heavens falling against everything
Igbo north of the Benue? Or is it Ojukwu, especially, who could move against
mindless religious killings in Kano and not re-awaken murderous genocidal
designs against Nyamiri Banza?
No, the people over whom such a President would hold sway would see the Igbo
first before the Nigerian and the human being. Hence any Igbo aspiring to lead
the Nigerian nation with any hope of nationwide acceptability would need to be a
Nelson Mandela, or Bill Clinton, or Pope John Paul II, or even Nnamdi Azikiwe,
swept into power by the sheer love of all Nigerians.
On the horizon of possibles, one Igbo leader only stands out with glaring
singularity - Sam Egwu, the Executive Governor of Ebonyi State. He has emerged
as President Obasanjo's most trusted Igbo ally, the ultimate peace-maker whom
Obasanjo relied upon to effect the recent surrender of the opposition in the
Anambra political imbroglio - and who, as erstwhile Chairman of the Committee of
South-East Governors, sealed a truce in the war of nerves between the duo of
Governors Orji Kalu and Chris Ngige against Governor Chimaroke Nnamani. Through
Egwu's influence, the emergence of Anambra's Chris Ngige as the new Chairman of
the Committee of South-East governors was unanimously accepted.
Sam Egwu's remarkable humility, and his magnetism to attract love and
reverence, have been made manifest in his abrupt appearances in public to
interact with ordinary folk without the back-up of security men, and in his
low-profile motor-cades that do not punish the public with menacing sirens. His
popularity, also gaining ground in Yorubaland, needs more time and effort to
permeate the length and breadth of the Nigerian state. In that time, if the Igbo
people hold fast to the notion that God is to be found in silence, it is not,
indeed, unlikely that such an approach will yield greater dividends for an Igbo
aspirant to the Presidential throne.
