The Igbo question in the new PDP, Jonathan love tango
By Uju Okeahialam
Consider this an act in conspiracy theorization but it is one borne out of an out-of-the box feeling. That feeling posits that the attraction to recruit former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is not rooted in the love for him but a hatred for the Igbo race in the Nigerian political space. At worse it is an orchestrated determination to drive a wedge of division among the peoples of the former Eastern Nigeria for the political advantage of those of the other regions—since a united Eastern (Region) Nigeria is considered as one of the greatest threats to the Lords of the present estate called Nigeria.
We all recall that the echo of “Bring back our Goodluck” only gained mention and momentum after Mr. Peter Obi’s pledge to serve only a four-year term, if given the chance by the coalition. Some people saw it as one of those deceptive lines by politicians to corner votes at the end of which they will renege. Considering the caliber of those who hold Mr. Obi’s pledge as deceptive something is clear, they themselves would not be able to uphold such a pledge and so cannot imagine that another person can. Is there any wonder why you find most of them as belonging to the old political brigade, who do not find it easy to keep to their words? On the other hand, those who stood in trust of Obi point to his track records of trust and honesty. You cannot say these people who trust Obi’s pledge are that gullible, but it is that they trust and can be trusted.
The larger picture of Obi’s pledge of one term, for anyone who followed him, came before the coalition. He had previously told the Obedients that if he does not succeed in 2027, he will not offer himself again for the office. At that time he explained to the saddened Obidients that in 2031 power should go to the North and by the time it returns to the South, eight years later, he would have been past his prime. Therefore, it is good to understand that his pledge of one term is anchored on what is remaining on the place of the presidency now held in the South. And making this pledge before the birth of the coalition means that it was his goal, even in the Labour Party, all things being equal; or another party if the Labour Party (under Abure then) fails to give him the ticket. This is a strength of character and honesty that is habitual in a man. Moreover, it is the integrity of a man who believes in the Nigerian project anchored on a system of power rotation between the South and the North during this time—as the nation continues on the path of nation-building. What more can anyone ask?
But because the untrustworthy cannot be trustful, they felt that Jonathon will be a better option since he would be constitutionally constrained to serve only a four-year term—as a former sworn-in president. Therefore, it was not for any love of Jonathan but a calculation of political selfishness. After all, it is still in close memory the gang up that threw him out in an election that was his to lose. We recall that it was the strength of the betrayal, that stunk to high heavens, that made Jonathan to turn his back on the party PDP after being eased out of office. Consequently, the love for Jonathan can be said to be still absent in call for him to run on the same PDP platform. It is so glaring that it is the selfish interest of a group who are exposing their own trust-deficit. In the same way, one can say that it is not so much a love for Nigeria that Jonathan will accept to jump into the ring because he is aware of a plethora of individuals who could competently step in, than allowing himself into a situation where he will be subjected to a contest that will pluck holes into the iconic status that he has risen into. One cannot say that there is love in Jonathan for those who are luring him into the ring because of the deficit of embraces they have shown each other since after leaving office. How would one reconcile the manner they all sold out their states to APC in the 2015 election with what is being presently echoed as bring back our Goodluck—when the lackluster eight years of Buhari was let to slide without the same echo.
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It is from these thoughts that the aforementioned conspiracy, in the request for Jonathan to throw his hat into the presidential political ring is not because he is so loved and missed, but that it is a masked hatred of an Igbo person to clench the presidency of Nigeria. This is because I am once again reminded of a near same scenario of the past. In preparation for the return to democratic governance in 1998, I found myself writing electioneering material for a PDP operative in those days. One of the published opinions projected Dr. Alex Ekwueme as the candidate to beat. A student who saw my piece confessed that all I said were true but the only problem was his Igboness. The person continued by saying that if an Igbo man becomes the president, Biafra will secede.
Since the truth or fallacy of this assumption is not the intent of this piece, no further comment will be made on it. However, what I gathered from that person, who was born more than a decade after the civil war shows that there is something in most Nigerians that make them not to trust the Igbo; what more supporting an Igbo to lead this country. How is the Igbo person stereotyped in Nigeria pre, during, and post-civil war? What is the colonial connection in this that it has endured as a DNA problem to this day? This to my mind is what is being displayed in the love of Jonathan in order, they think, to dim the light of Peter Obi because he is an Igbo man. Although Mr. Obi has never projected himself as an ethnic candidate, they could not get around the fact that he is Igbo whereas he has shown himself as the most honest, able, visionary, compassionate, and strong leader of the day in the Nigerian political space.
The next line of thought is one that makes me turn to Jonathan and ask, if he has been bought into that hate of the Igbo? As much as I view him as one who has arisen beyond the prism of Igbo-phobia or Igbo Derangement Syndrome (IDS), he should understand that he is being wooed as a pawn to strike up hate between the Igbo and the other Southern minorities to the advantage of other ethnic nationalities. If he accepts the dangling carrot, aware of the position of Obi, the Obidients, and the army of good governance-driven Nigerians, who have seen in Obi the choice of a new Nigeria that is possible, he would have succeeded in cutting the delicate socio-political affinity (chord) that is holding the South-Easterners and the South- Southerners together.
Writing in 2022, I had opined that what it will take for PDP to rescue power from APC was for OBJ, GEJ, and Atiku Abubakar to endorse Mr. Peter Obi, as the PDP candidate and encourage their supporters to do the same. Unfortunately, rather than endorsing Obi, Atiku in cahoots with some others tactically drove Obi out of PDP. Instead of GEJ endorsing Obi, he maintained that gentlemanly mute comportment; only to emerge as the earliest callers to Tinubu as the (INEC) president-elect. Only OBJ did give some decodable endorsement; but was not bold enough to publicly endorse and campaign alongside him. Without asking OBJ to do what he doesn’t want to do, without discouraging Atiku from contesting, I think that GEJ should be brave to say that after six years in the political cockpit of Nigeria, another person should be given the baton.
Come to think of it, it is a maximum eight years of two terms that an ordinary contestant can enjoy being on the throne of leadership. Out of this eight GEJ held sway for six years. I know that GEJ did his best to set the country on strong institutional foundations—all of which had been knocked down by subsequent APC governments—it begs to reason a new miracle that he can wrought. What was in his ordinarily remaining two years bucket-list that he is eager to implement now? Would those things be relevant today twelve years later? Can someone else execute them? It would have been easier to digest if there is a total breakdown and he was uncontestably asked to sail the ship of state to harbor having been there before. That is not the case now.
Consequently, I urge him not only to resist being dragged into the fray, but to publicly point the way to somewhere else—and most ad rem of that will be towards Mr. Obi. The level of his support to Obi as the preferred candidate is his to decide. But I can only appeal to his conscience in these words. “Sir, you declared that your political ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigerian. For this you let go an election you could have fought with the power of incumbency. You have risen to the Olympian heights of political statesmanship in Africa and should not lose it for the spoils of power that you know will be bloody. The PDP you left may not be totally for you now since many of them imagine that you abandoned them when they needed you most against those who fought you while they were in the trenches for you. Most of all, the incumbents of today do not share your political philosophy of waiting for the peoples mandate to be given them. They like to grab it and run with it. Is that the battle you want to get into now?”
- Dr Uju Okeahialam, a Catholic Priest, wrote in from Baltimore Maryland, USA
