The Igbos are gearing up for a shot at the presidency in 2015, they believe they are legitimate partners in the Nigeria Project and deserve as a matter of right to aspire to call the shots. DAVID-CHYDDY ELEKE in this report, looks at where their arguments are hinged, and the possibility that their aspiration may work.
Since 1998 when it became clear that Nigeria was about to transit from military dictatorship to democratic civilian rule, the issue of Igbo presidency has been on. The South East zone lost out in 1999 when it became evident that there was need to favour the South West with the presidency as a compensation for the loss of Chief MKO Abiola in the June 12, 1993 presidential election that was annulled by the General Babangida regime.
Less than one year in office, and with three and half years still remaining for the present government of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to wind up, there is a renewed agitation by the people of the South East zone to take a shot at the presidency in 2015. The call was first made by some group of Igbo red cap chiefs in Lagos, immediately after the swearing-in of President Jonathan in May, where they stated that Jonathan’s success was influenced by the Igbos, so that it will be the turn of the zone after his tenure.
Most respondents believed the call was premature either because the country was just out of an election or because a southerner had just been sworn in as president, as the northerner strongly believe that? the rotational presidency in the country is between the North and the South divide, and not between the six geo-political zones of the country as propagated by the southerners.
The recent body language of the Vice? President, Arch Namadi Sambo, with youths doning his vest at events, which clearly presents him as seeking to replace his boss in 2015 has also shown the Igbos that their agitation for a shot at the position has not gone down well with the North as they habour the intention to present candidates for the 2015 presidential election. All these have prompted most onlookers especially from the South East Zone to consider if their taking a shot at the highest office of the land is really their right, considering that no Southerner of Igbo extraction has done so since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, or probably it is a favour which puts them at the mercy of other zones.
On October 15, 2010, while the issue of who ascends to the position of the president in the 2011 election was discussed, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex socio-cultural organisation of the Igbos rose in Enugu to present a position saying, “Ohanaeze Ndigbo firmly believes in the reality and absolute equality of the six zones and strongly holds that the view that the topmost executive office of the land which has eluded the South-South and the South East since the birth of this nation half a century ago, should go to the them in unbroken succession as a matter of national priority, before any other zone can justly claim the right of a second or even third term”.
In line with the above position, Igbos were urged to vote massively for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as a credible candidate that has emerged from the South-South Zone as his ascension will mean that Igbos will be the next to take a shot at the presidency, since both zones are the only zones that have not tasted the office since the birth of Nigeria.
The argument of the people of the South East this time is that whether the idea of rotational presidency is between the North and the South as the Northerners are quick to claim, or between the six geo-political zones, they are ripe to hold the position before any other zone in the country in the 2015 election. This is made even clearer with the declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan that he will not present himself for re-election at the expiration of his four-year tenure.
?They contend that since the birth of Nigeria, the North has ruled the nation for 38 years, leaving the South with an infinitesimal 14 years, and whether the power shift agreement revolves around the North and the South or the six geo-political zones, it is the turn of the South East to take a shot at the presidency.
Amb. Ralph Uwaechue, President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo speaking with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY in a recent gathering to mark the birthday of former vice president Alex Ekwueme, said that the issue of Igbo presidency is not a favour that is to be done to the people of the South East. Rather, it is a legitimate right that must come to the people. Uwaechue rated the South East Zone as one that has done more to ensure the Nigeria project is sustained. He contended that the irony is that the same people who have done so much to keep Nigeria alive have been denied their federal character turn of producing a president for the country.
Uwaechue told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that the independence of Nigeria was masterminded and negotiated by the leadership of the three largest ethnic groups in Nigeria; Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, represented by Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo respectively. “The Hausa and the Yoruba have had their turns at the helm of affairs with several slots over, now is the turn of the Igbos,” He concluded.
The former Vice President of Nigeria, Dr. Alex Ekwueme who has twice contested for the presidency to represent the South East also spoke on the contentious issue. He said that it was believed that in 1970 when the civil war ended, that a ‘no victor no vanquished’ stand was declared, but the continuous denial of the people of the South East from taking their turn at the presidency has shown that the Nigeria/Biafra war was far from over.
Ekwueme said the only way the people of the other zones can truly show that the war has ended is to rally behind the zone to ensure the production of a South East president, the same way the zone has always stood behind any zone whose turn it is to produce a president. Going down memory lane, Ekwueme attributed the success of the South West Zone in producing former President Obasanjo in 1999 to the Igbos.
He also said that the Igbos facilitated the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan in the last presidential election by mobilizing for him and also voting massively for him at the polls. The decision he said was predicated on the fact that both the South East and the South-South Zones were the two zones that were yet to produce presidents in Nigeria, and since President Jonathan was already well positioned, the South East had to help the South-South actualize their presidential ambition with the hope that after the South-South, it will help the South East take its turn.
President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo on his part believes that if rotational presidency has to be shared between the North and South divide, then the North which has taken 38 years cumulatively has to wait for the South, where power presently is, to rotate it among the zones in the South until they equal the same 38 years rule of the North before an equitable distribution can now start all over again. But Uwaechue believes that the rotation is among the six geopolitical zones, and since the South East would be the only zone yet to take its turn after the South-South completes theirs, then it should be supported by all the zones to ascend to the presidency in 2015.
“I think there has been sustained marginalisation of the South East zone, there is a general feeling that within the Igbo nation that Ndigbo are being deliberately sidelined, particularly in the sphere of political leadership of the country. No Igbo person has so far been deemed suitable to be put at the helm of affairs, at the apex management position of Nigeria since Nigeria’s independence in 1960.
“It is sadly noteworthy that in the 30 odd years of military rule of our country, apart from the six months stint of General Aguiyi Ironsi, who was officially and formally invited by the civilian remnant of the toppled Balewa administration, to assume office as head of state in January 1966, the closest an Igbo officer got to governance was the appointment of Navy Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe as a second in command by the then military president, Ibrahim Babangida.
Ukiwe was summarily removed from office in humiliating circumstances and was never replaced with an Igbo officer”. Uwaechue stated. Uwaechue still speaking with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY said that several evidences abound to show that the rotational presidency is between the six geo-political zones of the country. “The fact came clear in 2007 when the elective headship of the two arms of government –executive and legislature emerged from the North. While President Yar’Adua was from the North West, Senate President David
Mark was from North Central. At the same time, the judiciary was headed by Justice Legbo Kutigi from North Central, even though by existing convention, succession is by professional seniority. Nobody, anywhere complained because we all know our country has six geo-political zones”.
Dr. Ekwueme believed that power is not given, but taken by whosoever is desirous of possessing it. He called on the people of the South East to see 2015 as their rightful turn and forge a common front that will guarantee them election into office after the single four-year term of President Goodluck Jonathan. He also called on other zones to show Ndigbo the same support it has always shown others.