As the 2019 elections draw closer, all manner of political permutations are coming into play. The stakes are high and the politicians are not taking any chances.
Though Nigerian politicians are not known for their fidelity to campaign promises, all manner of promises are being made, all the same, even those that will be breached before the first ballot is cast in 2019.
The political parties on whose platforms the politicians are seeking the mandate of the electorate are not left out in the jostling.
And that was what happened on Tuesday, July 3, at the Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri, Imo State, where the state governor, Rochas Okorocha, organised a mega rally for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South East.
It was bare-knuckle politics. President Muhammadu Buhari, who has had a frosty relationship with the South East since he assumed office on May 29, 2015 played God, literally, when he proclaimed that the political future of Ndigbo in Nigeria would depend on the vote the region turns in for him in 2019.
Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), who represented and spoke on behalf of his principal, said the 2019 election will either make or break the chances of the people from the South East in producing a president.
“The people of the South East have the right to make a claim to the ruler-ship of this country,” he said.
“2019 will make or mar (sic) the aspiration of Igbo nation. I am calling on the Igbo to make a paradigm shift and think seriously of their position.
“The presidency of Nigeria is negotiable and can only be done on position of strength and the strength of the Igbo will be determined by 2019 support for Buhari.”
The promise is not only patronising, it smacks of blackmail.
It is gratifying that most Nigerians also view the promise from that prism.
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization,Ohanaeze Ndigbo pointedly told the president that the political future of the Igbo lies in the hand of God and not any mortal being no-matter how powerful.
In a statement by its spokesman, Chuks Ibegbu, Ohanaeze said: “The political future of Ndigbo lies on God and not on any man. Nobody should play God over the political fate of Ndigbo.
“We have nothing against President Buhari re-contesting but nobody should threaten or cajole us with that. The actions, utterances and activities of any presidential candidate for 2019 will determine if Ndigbo would identify with his or her aspiration in 2019.”
Another Igbo socio-cultural organization,Igboezue International Association Nigeria and the Diaspora (IIAND), echoed the same sentiment.
“If the treatment meted on Igbos by seizing their millions of pounds sterling in the banks, confiscating of their properties in almost all parts of Nigeria, including nearby Port Harcourt, Rivers State; declaring their properties as abandoned properties, by the then Nigerian government and their cohorts, and the stipend given to them to start life afresh did not decide Igbos future, then Buhari, APC and no man can do that, but God,” the group said through its President General, Chief Pius Okoye.
The president’s promise, as enticing as it may be to a section of the Igbo population particularly the members of APC is rather cheap and speaks to everything that is wrong with the country’s democracy.
It is not the prerogative of the incumbent to decide who succeeds him. That is a decision left for the people, to whom power in a democratic setting belongs. Sovereignty resides with the people in a democracy. And that democracy is defined as “government of the people, for the people and by the people” is not for fun.
Again, the presidency of Nigeria is not political patronage to be dispensed by the president.
In any case, who told President Buhari that the overarching desire of the Igbo is for one of their own to be president of the country? As much as a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction is not a bad proposition if it is made in good faith, Ndigbo are better off with a restructured Nigeria that provides equal opportunity for every citizen irrespective of ethnicity, religion and sex.
With or without the nebulous, self-serving and patently deceitful promise of dashing them the tenancy of Aso Rock in 2023, President Buhari should strive to create a society run on the democratic wheels of equity, fair play, justice and inclusive governance.
It is the absence of these democracy ethos and norms that is alienating him from Ndigbo.
The Igbo abhor injustice. But they are resilient and know what is good for themselves and cannot be sweet-talked into committing political suicide, nay harakiri.
President Buhari has the constitutional right to seek re-election and he can still win the support of Ndigbo in realising that ambition but in seeking that support, he must come to the table of equity with clean hands and not subterfuge.
Buhari has run the most provincial government ever and has treated the Igbo with contempt, excluding them from strategic political appointments.
There is no Igbo in the security hierarchy of the country and National Security Council meetings are held with the utter exclusion of one of the three legs the country stands.
Is it not ironical that the same Buhari who does not care a fig about the huge imbalance in his appointments regarding key security architecture of the country where the Igbo were deliberately yanked off will now be at the vanguard of moves to dash them the presidency in 2023?
These are the issues that stand between Buhari and Ndigbo and if he wants a better relationship with the people, these are the issues to address and not the patronizing offer of the presidency in 2023, a promise that he will be in no position to fulfill.