The entrance of the All Progressive Congress (APC) into the nation’s political arena has opened a floodgate of reactions. It is painful some respected political and public commentators have allowed primordial interests and baseless sentiments to becloud their sense of reasoning in analyzing the implications of the coming of another big party viz-a viz as it affects the political interest of Igbos.
It is unfortunate that some of their postulations range from the sublime to the ridiculous. They made funny and strange allusions that the APC is the design of the Yoruba political class to ‘capture’ other parts of the country in its desperation to take charge of the nation’s political landscape.
As a unbiased umpire but a stakeholder on issues affecting Igbos, it is important one takes an unbiased standpoint to critically look at the political gains as well as the disadvantages of the formation of the APC as it affects the Igbos.
If the Yorubas deemed it apprioprate to enlarge their political coast by joining the merger of opposition parties,why are we crucifying some Igbo leaders who were part of the merger as a basis to spread the political tentacles of the Igbos?
Aside these ethnic sentiments, any lover of democracy, justice and fairplay will hail the recent merger of the four opposition parties in Nigeria which gave birth to the All Progressive Congress (APC).
One, It is good for our democracy. Even if the merger fails to eject the PDP out of power at the centre in 2015, it would have contributed to enliven the nation’s political terrain and at the same time increase political competition.
A nation where there is absolute monopoly of political power by a cabal of politicians enscapsulated into the ruling party does not guarantee good governance. It does not end corruption and irresponsible leadership, rather it encourages it. The people will be subjected to the whims and caprices of such ruling party. Such a party can afford to gamble with the happiness and prosperity of the people because it is damn sure that it cannot be dethroned from power because there is weak opposition.
For those who say the merger is a Yoruba agenda, they should be reminded that politics is all about interets. Why can’t we imitate the Yorubas and have a handshake with other ethnic groups if we are truly desirous to end our political woes? If Bola Tinubu and his ACN followers are extending their tentacles beyond Yorubaland, what is wrong if we imitate late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who entered into a strategic partnership with Ahmadu Bello to garner the support of the North? What is wrong if we imitate Dr. Alex Ekwueme who struck a partnership with Alhaji Shehu Shagari to serve as Vice President.
Besides, how will Igbos realize their aspirations if we continue to enclave ourselves in a regional party like APGA and continue to be the ladder for the PDP other tribes use to climb to power. I will come to this later.
The benefits of two strong political parties is the beauty of democracy.In Industrialized democracies such as the United States and United Kingdom, Americans and Britons can attest to the fact that they attained economic prosperity because they had the power to elect and at the same time eject out of power political parties that either lived up to their expectations or those who performed poorly.
Countries who got entangled into a one party state syndrome can also attest that they have not fared well and better since such obnoxious political practice came into existence. The end product of a one party state is corruption, irresponsible, bad governance and inept leadership. These are political vices hunting Nigerians since the return of democracy 14 years ago.
Therefore, the coming of the APC is a major plus to the political development of Nigeria. If the Yorubas deemed it apprioprate to use it as a platform to extend their political tentacles, it can also serve as a springboard for Igbos to redefine their political intentions and desires.
A retropesction of the political voyage of Igbos is pitiable in the last 14 years. We can attest that we have never had it rosy since 1999. It is a story of sorrow and pain of a people who have given so much to the nation and earned marginalization and deprivation in return . And if the APC is the aspirin that will cure our political headache, then one can say that Igbos need it more than the Yorubas. If it is not, then we can discard it.
The ruling party – the PDP- cannot boast it has effectively taken care of the ‘political needs’ of Igbos despite the massive support it has garnered from the South East geo political zone. The PDP’s inability to respond to the yearnings and aspirations of Igbos 14 years after its formation should be of serious concern to any Igbo man or woman. And this is why it is imperative Igbos should continue to explore other political options. It is imperative Igbo leaders seek for political acomodation elsewhere. Our elders say if one door closes, another opens!
The coming of the APC offers a veritable platform for Igbo leaders to hit the drawing board again, strategize and seek to know if the APC can respond to our political needs and demands.
All over the world, political leaders seek for strategic partnerships to actualize the political desires of the people. We should care less with trivial issues such as who led Igbos into the APC. Those who say Rochas Okorocha should be cricified for doing so should have a rethink. The APC is not Okorocha’s creation or making, infact he is not in a position to say if the party can or cannot assuage the political yearnings and expectations of Igbos. It is bad politics if we sit down, fold our arms and conclude that the APC is not Igbo friendly when we have not even explored whatever opportunities it has for the Igbo nation.
It is too early to condemn the party when it has not even taken off. Those who understand the political history of Igbos after the civil war should have pity on us. If Awolowo’s policy impoverished Igbos in the past, should we keep on sulking and complaining about it like a child weaned of breast milk by the mother ? Is it not time we move on. Why must we allow the past to haunt us or determine which political move we make?
Igbos have suffered various types of political annihilation. They have been in political quandary for so long. They are a people in wonderland uncertain of their political fate.
2015 is a crucial year for the Igbos, yet it is strange that they are uncertain where their political destination will be. For an ethnic tribe that constitutes part of the large population of the Nigerian statecraft, it is pitiable that they are the weeping child of the Nigerian family.
This has continued for so long compelling Igbos to wonder if they are strangers or visitors in a nation they call their own. After the Civil War, the cry of marginalization by Igbos has continued unabated. This has compelled the Igbo nation to always play second fiddle in the nation’s scheme of things and it will remain so, if we keep on sulking and complaining about our political ordeal.
Since the return of democracy 14 years ago in Nigeria, Igbos sober political condition has remained the same. It has grown from bad to worse. And because Igbo leaders are yet to find the rhythm that will enable them collectively change their misfortune, the nation’s number one seat has continued to elude them.
Despite the fact that four of the six geo political zones in the country has had a feel of the presidency since 1999; it is disheartening that Igbos, being a major ethnic tribe that have made enormous contribution to the economic development of the country have failed to achieve the task of producing the nation’s president. And I will say without fear of contradiction that Igbos are the architects of their misfortune having failed to align their aspirations to a political party on whose platform the Igbo Presidency project can be achieved.
A flashback to factors and events that led to the collapse of the realisation of Igbo Presidency in the past are rooted on the fact that we have been unable to locate the right political party that can cruise us to the presidency.
In addition to this, Igbo leaders have continuously embarked on disjointed campaigns fuelled by incoherent and discordant tunes. They proclaim Igbo Presidency in the morning only to support a Northerner in the evening.
We also saw lack of co ordination, individualistic approach by Igbo leaders who hid under the canopy of Igbo presidency agenda and the ruling party to champion their selfish political interests. We also saw some political parties and their presidential candidates who claimed to have similar Igbo names that came to Igboland to shop for votes only to dump us when their presidential ambition succeeded. During electioneering campaign for the 2011 presidential election, we saw an Azikiwe in a Jonathan who came to seek our votes, only for Azikiwe to disappear for Ebele when Goodluck succeeded to capture power!
This is why it is important Igbos conduct a soul searching exercise to enable us determine the direction of our next political voyage in the next political dispensation.
With the coming of a mega party such as the APC, we ought to see the viability or otherwise of such a party before we conclude it is not for the Igbos.
As 2015 draws near, Igbos must critically asses which political party that can serve as a platform to transform our collective expectations to reality. We should thoroughly compare the disposition, capacity and willingness of the dominant political parties to transform our political desire to success. For those, who insist it is only the PDP that will guarantee our political safety, they are dead wrong! Igbos has given so much to the PDP and what has the party given to us in return?
The PDP is a party that has not offered the much needed opportunity for Igbos to actualize their political desires. Despite the enormous contributions of Igbo sons and daughters to the growth and development of the party, the PDP has continued to reward Igbos with political disappointments. The party has continuously disgraced Igbo leaders and has shown reluctance to offer Igbos its might and size to actualize its motive of producing the country’s President.
First, in 1999, it disgraced one of its founding fathers and a great son of Igboland, former Vice President Dr. Alex Ekwueme at the 1999 Jos Convention rejecting his presidential candidature in preference for an ex military non democrat like General Olusegun Obasanjo.
The party also used the position of National Chairman which it zoned to the South East to make a caricature of great sons of Igboland. The first victim was Chief Vincent Ogbulafor who was forced to quit when he was caught in the web of a deadly conspiracy spawn by anti Igbo conspirators in the party.
Next was Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, who was shoved aside as national chairman of the party on the floor of the Eagle Square, Abuja just to satisfy the inordinate ambition of the party’s emperor! He was also removed for advocating reforms that could usher in internal democracy into the party.
For APGA, I wonder why it has refused to join the merger of opposition parties. This put a question mark on the party as I wonder if the party founded by the great late Eze Igbo Gburugburu, Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu was only structured to be a regional party till thy kingdom come.
In my piece titled ‘Igbos And The Right Political Platform To The Presidency published on this column last year, I defined “APGA as a political platform to seek for political attention and recognition at a time Igbos needed a voice to echo its relevance in the dynamic and intricate politics of Nigeria. It will not be out of place to say that APGA is Late Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu’s political tool to bring Igbos together to locate its place or role in the Nigerian political firmament at a time Nigeria was coming out of militarism and finding its feet in the new democratic space”.
I continued “The political situation at that time made APGA a mere rallying point for Igbos. This has served its purpose and has presently outlived its usefulness. It therefore underscores the fact that a regional party with ethnic bias such as APGA cannot be the right platform to actualize the national aspirations of a people. It is a party built on Late Ojukwu’s image and clout and with the Igbo leader resting peacefully in his grave; APGA has lost the willpower to be relevant in the nation’s political space. The party is weak structurally and bedevilled by internal crisis that is almost tearing it apart. With two States in the South East in its domain without a single Councillor from any other part of the country, the party cannot be said to have a national outlook or posture to take an Igbo to Aso Rock in 2015 in a nation with diverse ethnic plurality”.
From the foregoing, it is disheartening for a political party that claims to have the interest of Igbos at heart to narrow the chances of actualizing the political emancipation of the people through measures that contradicts its role.
The ethnic diversity of the country makes imperative for Igbos to embrace a solid political platform if it intends to leave the political cocoon it has confined itself.
I humbly advise as I rest my case.
