The goal of that strategy must be clearly defined. Here’s one attempt at a statement of that very important all-Igbo goal for 2023: Ndigbo wherever they are based in Nigeria and abroad will support any of the two major political parties, APC or PDP, that embraces the Igbo presidency agenda to produce a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2023.
2023 is a pivot year for millions of Ndigbo desiring acceptance by the rest of Nigerians for belonging in the Nigerian state. One of the clear telltale signs that will indicate this national acceptance is the achievement of the presidency of Nigeria in 2023 by an Igbo person. To accomplish this, Ndigbo need not only whip up the believers, advocates, and supporters of their cause, they also have to woo the agnostics, detractors, and adversaries across the land.
This requires building a strong and expansive nationwide coalition across the country to shake off the excessively individualistic pursuit of that highest office in the country. The place to start is at home, specifically, with consolidating the support of the Igbo nation all over the country and building a fresh strong bridge between constituents and their immediate neighbours in the South-South. Charity, they say, begins at home.
The home for the Igbo nation in Nigeria has to be redefined in a much more politically elastic lingo that all Igbo people, irrespective of the state of origin, can identify with. This is strategy number one for any serious hope for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2023.
The goal of that strategy must be clearly defined. Here’s one attempt at a statement of that very important all-Igbo goal for 2023: Ndigbo wherever they are based in Nigeria and abroad will support any of the two major political parties, APC or PDP, that embraces the Igbo presidency agenda to produce a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2023.
Ndigbo should be open to the two major political parties, and then make it clear that they will support any of them that picks an Igbo man or woman to be its candidate for the presidency of Nigeria in 2023. This should be the core definition of what is meant by embracing the Igbo presidency agenda by a political party.
For Ndigbo, one important lesson that must be learnt and taken to heart is that electing a president in any democracy involves the reconciliation of competing interests. As a people inclined to the ethos of democracy and the free market, Ndigbo should know that such a compromise must be a win-win situation…
It is the only way that any of the two political parties can prove to Ndigbo at home and abroad that it is worthy of the Igbo vote, and support; full stop. Ndigbo should have no permanent friendship with PDP or APC, only a permanent and undeviating interest in a president of Igbo origin in 2023.
For Ndigbo, one important lesson that must be learnt and taken to heart is that electing a president in any democracy involves the reconciliation of competing interests. As a people inclined to the ethos of democracy and the free market, Ndigbo should know that such a compromise must be a win-win situation in which all and sundry are happy with the final outcome; an Igbo presidency. That’s what political scientists call compromise – a willingness to meet others halfway so that all can get what they want. It is no weakness by any means, just the way of politics, especially democratic politics.
As the wise German statesman, and its first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, who helped unify that great country in 1871, once taught, “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best.” This is one maxim that all Igbo political elites in the South-East, fighting for the Igbo presidency in 2023, must learn by heart.
My good friend, the veteran journalist, Mr. Dan Agbese, recently argued in The Guardian that Igbo politicians politically became self-marginalised in Nigeria when they abandoned Ndigbo’s only political platform, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), for greener pastures. He was right on the money.
With this in the pocket, next to reconciliation with all our South-South kith and kin, the presidency journey will be halfway done as Ndigbo proceed to execute a realistic shaking of hands across the Niger, from a relative position of strength.
My good friend, the veteran journalist, Mr. Dan Agbese, recently argued in The Guardian that Igbo politicians politically became self-marginalised in Nigeria when they abandoned Ndigbo’s only political platform, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), for greener pastures. He was right on the money.
Alas, that political opportunism was spearheaded by two former governors of the South-East geopolitical zone, Mr. Peter Obi of Anambra State, and his Imo State counterpart, Mr. Rochas Okorocha. APGA could have been the means for Ndigbo to acquire national political relevance, the way Yoruba political leaders did with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Instead, Obi and Okorocha selfishly splintered APGA into two diluted and irrelevant pieces before finally abandoning it for a narcissistic pursuit of Aso Rock.
With leaders like these, who says a president of Igbo extraction must come from the South-East?
Ebere Onwudiwe is a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Abuja. Please send your comments to this number on WhatsApp: +234 (0)701 625 8025; messages only, no calls.
END
Be the first to comment