By Tiko Okoye
Let me also hasten to add that in canvassing the point of view that the surest path to midwifing a president of Igbo extraction in 2023 is by the PDP zoning it to the South-Eat, I am not in any way, shape or form underrating the capacity of the highly illustrious Igbo members of the APC to have a credible shot at the 2023 presidency. But the naked truth is that such a route is a very long shot indeed given realpolitik.
The chosen candidate would not only manage to outwit serious contenders in the South-West and tear down the walls of Igbo-phobia to evince a significant number of votes in the core-North and South-South (latter not to be especially taken for granted), but equally succeed in getting a block vote for the APC in the South-East – not impossible, but, barring a miraculous sea change in the mindset of majority of Ndigbo, hardly unlikely in the short span of years to 2023.
On his part, Ohanaeze President-General, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, did not see anything wrong with Umahi deciding to join any political party that would promote his personal interests or guarantee a better life for his people. “Don’t people join politics for either selfish or group interest?” Nwodo whimsically asked. He revealed that, “I’m rather more interested in whatever is happening in APC and in my own party, PDP, and I appeal to both to nominate presidential candidates only from the South-East.”
But inasmuch as Nwodo’s stance is well-intentioned, the fact remains that it would amount to political voyeurism. You cannot be in your own house and insist on deciding what happens in another man’s house! That is why I felt befuddled by new reports that someone of the calibre of Ezeife was volunteering to lead a high-powered South-East delegation to plead with Bola Tinubu and other South-West political heavyweights to concede the 2023 presidency to Ndigbo!
The PDP traditionally enjoys a block vote in the South-East. Truth be told, APC has never scored more than five percent of the total votes cast in the South-East in any election! Given this ugly reality, APC apparatchiks can hardly be faulted for turning a deaf ear to the “vexatious and tendentious” demand – from the APC perspective – from a people that have unapologetically and unrepentantly majorly voted against their party candidates and interests in virtually all elections. Expecting anything else is tantamount to incorrigibly hoping to discover a virgin among a group of veteran prostitutes.
There can be no gainsaying that if the APC becomes the first major political party to nominate a presidential candidate from the South-East, it could – still very much a toss-up – bring enormous pressure to bear on PDP to do likewise. But why should APC be expected to commit an electoral suicide by hastening to volunteer to act as a pacesetter or catalyst in a venture it stands to practically gain nothing from?
But the unkindest cuts of all came from Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike. The governor has acquired a notoriety or fame – depending on which side of the divide you belong – for being pugnacious and rabble-rousing (his fans would rather say he is audacious and a daredevil). It consequently did not come as a surprise that he was the first to take Umahi to the cleaners. “Umahi is defecting for purely selfish reasons because he wants to be the APC presidential candidate in 2023,” roared Wike.
He called Umahi an incorrigible liar for accusing PDP of marginalising the South-East over a 20-year period, reeling off a laundry list of high elective and appointive posts held by Ndigbo under various PDP administrations as proof that we have enjoyed a very good outing in Nigeria under PDP’s umbrella.
In doing so, Wike rather conveniently forgot to mention the metaphoric ‘Big Elephant in the Room’: the Presidency! The No.1 position in the country has alluded Ndigbo but the South-West and his own South-South have already tangibly romanced the crown jewel. He failed to tell his audiences that the presidency, on a standalone basis, is far bigger than all federal cabinet offices put together due to the occupant’s absolute power to hire and fire as well as dispense economic, financial and political largesse at will!
Practically every detractor has been alleging that Umahi is jumping from frying pan to fire on account of an unrealisable quest to be the APC presidential candidate in 2023. But there is a probability that he might just be watering the ground for another eminent politician and one of the founding fathers of APC to clinch the ticket and attract enormous dividends to his beloved state! And even if he is seeking to contest the presidency on his own account under the banner of APC – which he has gone to great lengths to disavow – what exactly is wrong with such an ambition? Is there anything that disqualifies him from gunning for the top post? Would he be guaranteed the presidential ticket if he remains in PDP?
Besides, it is an open secret that Wike has been angling to be the nation’s vice-president for a long while now. He had everything set to emerge as Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s running mate at the 2018 PDP Nominating Convention in Port Harcourt but the emergence of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the party’s standard bearer upset the applecart and temporarily put paid to Wike’s ambition. And now, there are strong rumours that he has again hopped into his running-mate train with an eye on 2023.
Why then is seeking a higher elective office selfish on the part of Umahi but noble on the part of Wike? Is this not a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black? But the fact remains that Umahi and Wike are miles apart. Whereas Umahi is insisting that the presidency must be zoned to the South in keeping with convention – and ultimately to the South-East – Wike is willing to sacrifice the interest of the entire South on the puny altar of being a spare tyre to another Northerner, even after Buhari has spent the allotted eight years in office! Talk of selfishness!
And why should even Wike, who has not allowed any opportunity to pass him by to emphasize purported differences between his Ikwerre sub-dialect and the main Igbo dialect now choose to speak for Ndigbo? Why has he taken it upon himself to weep louder than the bereaved? If Wike wants his newfound love for Ndigbo to be taken seriously, he should amply eye-mark it by leading a movement to unreservedly apologise to Ndigbo for the travesty called “abandoned properties” and organise for affected families to be paid commensurate reparations.
As an aside, I do not know how many people recently observed that after exiting Aso Rock Villa and partisan politics, “Ebele” and “Azikiwe” no longer prominently feature in the names of former President Goodluck Jonathan?
- To be concluded Saturday
Tiko Okoye, a Boston University Hubert Humphrey Fellow, wrote in from Abuja (tkooziks@gmail.com)
