On July 14, THISDAY published a back page article written by Ben Murray Bruce, founder of Silver Bird Group and a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator representing Bayelsa East.
The piece was the outcome of his interpretation of the data on Africa Health, Human and Social Development Information Service (Afri-Dev) vis-a-vis Boko Haram in the North East.
Bruce posited that rather than clamour for stomach infrastructure, we ought to tap into our brain infrastructure to better our lot.
Bruce cited former Governors Peter Obi (Anambra) and Rabiu Kwankwazo (Kano) whom he said turned around difficult situations in their states through the power of the brain.
He also had kind words for some of Nigeria’s founding fathers like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, and Ahmadu Bello, who produced results because they got right their scale of preference in the allocation of resources.
I agree with Bruce that education is the foundation upon which a society desirous of tackling social, economic, political and other challenges can build.
“Yes, stomach infrastructure is necessary, but even more necessary is brain infrastructure. Why? Because education is key. A hungry man is hungry for one day but an uneducated man is hungry forever,” Bruce said.
But one aspect of his logic provoking other senses and challenging the sense in his common sense is where he distanced himself from the South East.
He wrote: “I am not from the East, but I admire the custom of our brothers from that part of the country to take community development as a core duty of any individual that has the means.
“They do not wait for the government to build schools or roads or hospitals or even airports. Men of means within their community pool resources and build these facilities and in that way the community is made more prosperous.
“And the more prosperous the community is, the more secure the men of means within that community are.”
Well, will any right thinking person claim to come from the South East, going by the way those who are proud Easterners are treated as pariahs because of political calculations?
But does it not beat the imagination that Bruce, a kinsman of former President Goodluck Jonathan who featured prominently during Jonathan’s reign would say he is not from the South East due to current political exigencies?
Is it not confounding that this same Bruce, like Jonathan, was part of those who suddenly became “core” Igbo because the then political engineering demanded that Ebele and Azikiwe be added to Jonathan’s name.
When did Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Delta States stop being part of the East? During the First Republic, under the premiership of Michael Okpara, they were all from that axis?
Is it not possible that this entertainment impresario who of late is trying to make common sense of certain issues may be playing to the gallery, perhaps to curry the favour of the government in power across all the tiers of government?
On the one hand, an Igbo like Obi who acquitted himself as Governor in Anambra and was acclaimed for his fiscal responsibility is lauded because of his brain infrastructure.
On the other hand, his ilk are not good enough to be associated with because current national political arithmetic demands they be isolated.
Who is deceiving whom? My father warned me to be more wary of enemies within than enemies without.
Since May 29 when President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressive Congress (APC) took over the reins of power from the PDP government, certain characters masquerading as agents of change have been seeking ways to escalate the traditional hatred for the Igbo.
It appears they are having their way, if the few appointments Buhari has made and what we witnessed in the National Assembly (NASS), particularly the reelection of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, is anything to go by.
Most of those vehemently kicking against his election do so not because they dislike him but because they have concluded that the APC government should not include the Igbo. To some, the Jonathan government was an Igbo government which was a big fallacy. Others insist that Ndigbo did not vote for Buhari.
It has been argued that there was no way Buhari would claim that the votes he got were exclusively from the North and South West. How possible could that have been, considering that the itinerant Igbo live in every part of the country?
Former Managing Director of Nigeria Breweries, Festus Odimegwu, for instance cannot be faulted in his argument that the Igbo contributed in making Buhari President with their votes because they reside in every part of the country.
However, even if the Igbo did not vote for Buhari, does he want to be the President of some sections of Nigeria minus the Igbo? For Christ’s sake someone should let Buhari know that all his appointments so far do not show that he wants to preside over the affairs of Nigeria where Ndigbo are stakeholders.
The recent appointment of Service Chiefs calls for further reflection into the thinking of the new power brokers advising Buhari.
Only two are from the South – Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Abayomi Olanishakin, from Ekiti; and Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe, from Cross River.
All the others are from the North – Chief of Army Staff, Major General TY Buratai; National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Mungono (rtd); Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar; and Chief of Defence Intelligence, Air Vice Marshal Monday Morgan.
Earlier appointments by Buhari also ignored the interest of the Igbo, meaning there is an emerging pattern to tactically chisel Ndigbo out of the power equation of the country under this dispensation.
There is also logic in the call by Igbo Political Forum spokesman, Chyna Iwuanyanwu, for the federal government to give all zones a sense of belonging.
He said: “Ndigbo have no regrets and no apologies whatsoever for the choice we made collectively or individually during the 2015 elections in the exercise of our fundamental rights as citizens of this country.
“Any attempt to ‘punish’ Ndigbo or to deny them their rights and privileges would be contested.
“In 1999, when the majority of Nigerians voted for the PDP, the South West voted for Alliance for Democracy (AD). This was in spite the fact that Olusegun Obasanjo was the candidate of choice.
“In the same election, the North voted predominantly for the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). Obasanjo’s administration did not discriminate or ‘punish’ the South West or the core North, rather he brought them into the mainstream.
“There would be no justification whatsoever for Buhari to run a government to the exclusion of Ndigbo or any other ethnic group for that matter.”
