By Emeka Alex Duru
(08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)
An off-the-cuff encounter with a colleague from the South-South geo-political zone, offered the push for this article. We were analysing the political developments in the country when he asked: “what are you guys in the South East doing about the obsession by politicians from the zone on Peter Obi’s 2027 presidential aspiration?” I tried to parry the question but he was insistent. Not wanting to be drawn into a long debate on the matter, I told him that I was not interested in it. But that was not the truth. In fact, I lied, for which as I know he reads this piece, I offer profound apologies.
There is no how any person of age and reason from the South East can claim not to be worried at the magnitude of pettiness being exhibited by some government officials from the zone to undo Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC). In their maddening stampede, there is the usual claim of working for President Bola Tinubu’s reelection. There is nothing wrong about that, ordinarily. Politics, after all, is a game of choice which, gives the electorate, the latitude to campaign for his choice or vote for him.
In the South East in particular, respect for the individual and his choice, is ingrained in the people’s way of life. At a typical village square where major issues of the day are decided by the triple principles of consultation, compromise and consensus, democracy is always in full swing. At that point, even when two brothers, for instance, trek or ride together to the venue, they may disagree on the issue under discussion and still return to the same family house without any of them feeling bad or betrayed. That is the essence of the exciting Igbo republican world view which finds expression in; “Onye na uche ya” (Everyone, to his conviction). In other words, the entire zone cannot be expected to key into same tendency or political party, especially as the current dispensation, at least in name, operates on multi-party arrangement.
People are therefore bound to agree or disagree, depending on what informs their convictions. When therefore, chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the region, came up with such fleeting contraptions as Forum of former South East Governors which ironically, excluded non-APC members, it was all in the bid to promote President Tinubu’s candidacy. The touted resolution of the serving governors of the area to work for the President, is equally in line with the agenda. Though Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti, of the Labour Party (LP) later claimed not being part of the resolution, his party not fielding a candidate for the election, is being interpreted in some quarters as tacit support for Tinubu. There is also the City Boy Movement, an amorphous congregation of young entrepreneurs and social media influencers that have signed up for the president. Some other groups and individuals are rooting for the flag bearer of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar or Obi’s NDC.
They are all accommodated in line with the trademark politics of tolerance and inclusion for which the zone is known for. This is why the bizarre dimensions to the contest by Anambra State governor, Prof Charles Soludo and Minister for works, David Umahi, through their loose utterances, give cause for worry to every discerning mind from the zone. In almost all their public outings, Soludo and Umahi have made it a duty to take a dig at Peter Obi. Incidentally, Obi, the NDC candidate left office as Anambra governor on March 17, 2014 – over 12 years ago.
From that period to the coming of Soludo four years ago, there was the administration of Willie Obiano that spent eight years. But Soludo hardly mentions Obiano in his tirades. He rather focuses on Obi. There is of course, nothing wrong in calling out his predecessor or going through established channels and institutions to get him answer for any failings while in office, assuming any existed. But reducing obvious animosity to the point of making it a policy of the state or primary issue in virtually all his public appearances, lowers the essence and office of the governor he occupies.
Umahi, former Ebonyi governor, is more piteous. He seems to have taken off his eyes away from the dilapidated federal road networks in the country and concentrated on attacking Obi at every turn. The latest in the series is his reported comparison on the development profiles in his Uburu community with Obi’s Agulu town. This is quite unbecoming of one that had served as a governor of a state. When politics drops to such juvenile tantrums, its primary purpose of providing avenue for service to the people, is lost. That is the extent South East political office holders have muddled the matter, just to be seen to be working for the President.
They have even gone further to vow that they would deliver the zone to Tinubu. There can be no better definition of sycophancy. That is perhaps, where the President may need to pull the brakes and call his promoters in the South East, to order. There is nothing wrong in the President or any other candidate for that matter, winning neat and fair in the region. But to boast over it, months before the poll, is where the problem becomes imminent. It is not about vowing to capture the zone. There must be the people-content. Every politics is local, so also is every election. The voters must be allowed to exercise their franchise in choosing who they want to serve them. That explains the maxim; power belongs to the people! Any attempt to take away the power from the people or foist on them the agenda of interest groups, is usually met with stiff resistance.
The history of the Igbo is replete with such instances. The case of the Warrant Chief administration in some parts of the area between 1891 and 1929, readily comes to mind. The Warrant Chiefs, who were appointed by the British colonial authorities for ease of administration and collection of taxes, at some point, grew rich illicitly and began to exercise authorities that were not originally bestowed on them. Subsequent reactions to their highhandedness and corruption in the system counted among the factors that led to the famous Women’s Revolt of 1929 in Eastern Nigeria (narrowly referred to as Aba Women Riot in some accounts). The upheaval compelled the colonial masters to abolish the warrant chief system the following year, 1930.
There was also the celebrated 1803 Igbo Landing incident in St. Simons Island near the sea port of Savannah, Georgia, United States of America, in which a large group of captured, kidnapped and enslaved Igbo resisted their enslavement in the most brave and dramatic way, by rising in unison, and martyring themselves in the Creek. A brilliant summary of the event by Professor of Political Economy, Okey Anueyiagu, in his insightful piece; ‘The Igbo landing, and the courage of a people’, captured it. Anueyiagu wrote: “These Igbo slaves embodied the mantra and the message that: You may enslave my body, but you will never be able to enslave my spirit and my soul. They all chose to die honourable deaths, instead of living lives worse than dying, in the cold cotton fields of the wicked and cruel white slave owners who in humiliating and dehumanizing them, profited from their blood, sweat and tears”.
You may consider the action by the slaves as suicidal or foolhardy. But it was not. It was rather a heroic response to an unjust situation. Even the Biafra experiment of 1967-1970 was not an exercise in secession as in courageous resistance to domination in a land that the people contributed much in building. That spirit of revulsion still resonates among the people in the face of injustice and intimidation. That is the more reason the South East politicians that intend to take a ride on the voters in 2027 for the President, need to think twice. It may not be easy for them.
Let the people’s will be allowed to prevail. It is not about Peter Obi. It is about the people asking themselves; are we better off in the last three and half years of the Tinubu presidency? It is about issues of development and corporate existence of the country that have been largely abandoned; the divisive tendencies engendered in the system by the current administration; the failing infrastructures; the welfare of the people or the insecurity that has boxed them into a corner. It is about millions of Nigerians that have been thrown into extreme poverty; the national currency, the Naira, that has been on free fall; inflation and youth unemployment that have been on all-time high. These are the issues that should matter in the campaigns, not the rootless grandstanding by South East politicians to humour the president.
*Emeka Alex Duru, Ph.D. is the Editor, TheNiche Online Newspapers, Lagos