By Jide Ajani, Deputy Editor
The 2011 presidential race is approaching the second bend with the front runners continuing their quest for the votes of the various geo-political zones. The South East geo-political zone, is the major hunting ground for now. Securing Igbo votes has become crucial, especially for President Goodluck Jonathan; former military President Ibrahim Babangida; and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Yet, there is this seemingly nagging suspicion that the National Security Adviser, NSA, General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau (rtd), is doing something under the table.
* The Voyagers and Their Promises
It is becoming a voyage of sorts. President Goodluck Jonathan’s camp made the first move to attempt to corral support from Ndigbo. A supposedly bankrolled summit with a view to getting an endorsement, the courting of state governors from the region – the latest of which is the defection to the PDP by the Abia State governor, Theodore Orji who first dumped his Progressive Peoples’ Alliance for the All Progressive Grand Allaince, only to make the full cycle by returning to the PDP the government of which he had been a member for eight years. Then Ibrahim Babangida met another group of Igbo leaders.
At the meeting, Babangida made some profound statements, the most important being his support for an Igbo President in 2015 to according to him, “close the chapter on the civil war”. A commitment is already on the ground that he could facilitate that in return for a possible support. His statement was still being debated when Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, a week ago, told Ndigbo to have an open heart to the 2011 elections and admonished them not to lose the historic opportunity staring them in the face. Bottom line, Atiku also promised to enthrone an Igbo as president in 2015; that he, Atiku Abubakar would spend one term in office and hand over to an Igbo.
However, whereas there is yet no open politicking on the part of the National Security Adviser, NSA, General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau (rtd), those close to him insist that a joker may be in the offing. “I’m sure you know how Vincent Ogbulafor emerged at the last minute as national chairman of the PDP”, a source close to the NSA told Sunday Vanguard. All these, in a simple quest to get the support of Ndigbo in the forth coming presidential primaries of the PDP
A People and Their Politics
But a politician talks about the dilemma of Ndigbo. In a paradoxical manner, two supposedly dissimilar events stand out. The first was between 1994 and 1995.
It was at the Constitutional Conference of the late General Sani Abacha.
At that conference, Second Republic Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the late General Shehu Yar’Adua,
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and others sought to make the best out of a nasty situation. A few notable politicians were in attendance and, to be fair, the 1999 Constitution has its first signatures from deliberations at that conference. It was Dr. Ekwueme who first pushed for the issue of rotational presidency and zoning which the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was to enshrine in its constitution. But some people saw in Ekwueme’s position an attempt to divide the country along ethnic lines.
Then on the night of Sunday, February, 12, 1999, in Jos, Plateau State, at the presidential primaries of the PDP, another event was caused to have an unsavoury relationship with the first. The contestants for that coveted PDP presidential ticket included two sons of Igbo land – Dr. Ekwueme and Chief Jim Nwobodo.
When it was the turn of Nwobodo to present his manifesto for the brief five minutes allotted, it was a shocked delegates’ pack that heard Nwobodo break into Hausa language in making his presentation. The kernel of Nwobodo’s statement, according to translators at the Jos Township Stadium, venue of that convention, was that the delegates should vote for a person that would keep the country one and not any other person who would lead to the breakup of the country. On the face of it, that was a nationalistic call.
But some observers at the convention ground immediately termed the attack to be at the person of Ekwueme. This was based on an alleged working relationship that had been struck by the Olusegun Obasanjo camp with Nwobodo that he would get a Senate seat if he supported Obasanjo.
Ekwueme eventually lost that contest to Obasanjo. The trajectory here is that an otherwise sagacious approach to power sharing on the part of one Igbo, Ekwueme, was what another Igbo man allegedly used against him.
* Ndigbo and the Mire of Zoning
Ndigbo ole ketere (What is in it for Ndigbo)? Aga-akpayakpa (We have to negotiate it)! Just before the war, the Igbos were known to have populated the civil service and other areas of government in Nigeria. Interestingly, apart from the vice presidential slot of Dr. Ekwueme in the Second Republic, Admiral Ebitu Ukiwe was appointed by General Babangida as Chief of General Staff, CGS, when he became military President on August 25, 1985. However, by October 1986, after the October 1, celebration imbroglio in Abuja regarding the order of precedence, Ukiwe was fired. Dr. Chu S P Okongwu and Kalu Idika Kalu were Babangida’s Ministers .Atiku was to choose Senator Ben Obi as his vice presidential candidate on the platform of the Action Congress, AC, in 2007. They still remain together till date. But in the distribution of ministerial appointments and some other public offices, a group of Igbo leaders visited President Goodluck Jonathan to lament the increasing replacement of Igbos from high profile political appointments.
In all of this, how would the Igbos negotiate their place in the unfolding permutations for the presidency? Where will the Igbos put their votes in the coming contest for the PDP presidential ticket? What strategies are being put in place by the leaders from the zone with a view to making the best possible choice? Would such a choice take cognizance of a long time strategic view or a pragmatic immediate?
Therefore, Ndigbo ole ketere? So, again, what’s in all of this for the Ndigbo?
The Igbo nation has only one option: Either go with the North or swing with President Jonathan. In Nigeria’s politics of clashing interests whatever decision is made today would have far-reaching consequences. In the event that Ndigbo refuse to go with Jonathan, it may not so much as hurt his aspiration because there was a certain Obasanjo who, without the votes of the South West zone went ahead to become Nigeria’s president in 1999. However, in that instance, the North went with Obasanjo. Will the North go with Jonathan now? That is an important question?
But for Ndigbo, it is not about massing solidarity for Jonathan with a view to enabling him win but more in locating the best possible option for it to remain very relevant within the larger Nigerian nation now and even beyond.
The race for SE votes
By Tony Edike, Anayo Okoli, Vincent Ujumadu
In the build up to the 2007 presidential election, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who had defected to the then newly formed Action Congress, AC, chose as his running mate, Senator Ben Obi, an Igbo from Anambra State.
His calculation and that of his strategists was that the choice of Obi would swing the votes in his favour since Igbo tend to vote en bloc.
The strategy failed to work. Atiku lost woefully in the South East. Three years on, Atiku is back in the race albeit on a different platform, the PDP. The strategy is not about to change much with Atiku likely to go for an Igbo running mate again.
And he is not alone in adopting that strategy. General Ibrahim Babangida, another PDP presidential aspirant is also likely to pick an Igbo as running mate. Indeed, the two have declared, at different fora, that they want to see an Igbo succeed them should they emerge as president in next year’s election. President Goodluck Jonathan who is from the neighbouring South South will definitely not pick his running mate from the South, but that has not precluded him from making an effort in his own way to warm his way into the hearts of the Igbo.
Gen. Babangida at a recent meeting in Minna with eminent South East politicians including the Second Republic governor of the old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo and Health Minister in the Obasanjo administration, Professor ABC Nwosu pledged to work for the emergence of an Igbo as President if he wins next years election.
A few days after the meeting, he named Prof. Nwosu as Director, Research, Planning and Strategy of his campaign organisation and declared in a newspaper interview: “I became interested in the South-East for only one reason: an Igbo presidency in 2015. That will put an end to the Nigerian civil war. It is finished. You know why we went to the civil war?
“I want Nigeria to go into record as the country that fought a civil war and in less than 50 years, the people that fought had settled so much … You can never have anything that would demonstrate that the civil war is closed if you don’t have an Igbo man as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
He recalled the efforts he made during his tenure as military president to re-integrate the South East into the mainstream of Nigerian politics, especially the creation of additional states for which the chiefs and the elders conferred on him the title “Ogugwa Ndigbo”. “I pray to live by that title and do all the jobs they expected me to do”, he said, adding, “Here again, I am faced with a situation of history and that history is to see if I could help work hard, to make an Igbo man the next President.
“Wherever I see an Igbo man as President, I will support him … I have conviction and I believe that this is the right time and I will work honestly so that when I die, I will live up to that title – Ogugwa Ndigbo”. Alhaji Atiku not wanting to be outdone stormed Enugu, the political capital of the South East on September 3, 2010, to deliver the 50th Anniversary lecture of the Enugu State Club, a lecture dripping with his sentiments for that geo-political zone.
Said he: “It is important that we recognise that the South East has indeed suffered severe doses of marginalisation. Many Nigerians would not dispute that the South East has some of the most deplorable roads in Nigeria. Why is kidnapping becoming synonymous with the south East? Why would the South East not have the same number of states as other zones? Why has it taken more than 11 years to build the Onitsha – Owerri Road, a distance of about 100 kilometres. Why has the second Niger Bridge remained on the drawing board for several years? Why has there been no functional international airport in the South East despite the huge demand? Why are the Igbo whom we appointed into high Federal Government positions being displaced? When will an Igbo man become President of Nigeria? The questions are endless”.
President Jonathan, on his part, is working hard on the governors, some of whom have agreed to support his presidential ambition. Indeed, he has gone ahead to appoint Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State as his campaign co-ordinator for the zone.
Their networking is not confined to Nigeria. They have also been targeting foreign based Igbo, who they believe can influence their kinsmen back home to swing the votes in their favour.
An example is the just concluded World Igbo Congress in Philadelphia, US, to which the trio sent their representatives to seek support.
Dr. Wolfe Obianire, President Ijaw National Congress, INC, who spoke for President Goodluck Jonathan declared him an easterner.
His words: “”I do not need to bait the Igbo people, Goodluck Jonathan is from the Eastern Region. Nineteen states were created from the North and they still relate as the Northern Region but they keep telling you zoning is between the north and south. They don’t tell you zoning is between North-West and North-Central. They tell you, zoning is between North and South. “Then here I am from the Eastern Region and you are asking me what I am getting to the Eastern Region to be one to actualize an aspiration that will work better for them.
“Goodluck Jonathan is from the Eastern Region. His name is Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan. So, why must he bribe his brothers to get what he wants?” President Jonathan and Gen. Babangida appear to be PDP’s leading aspirants in Enugu State. Although Governor Sullivan Chime has not openly shown his hand, Sunday Vanguard gathered that he is likely to tilt towards Jonathan. Babangida supporters on the other hand are mainly those who benefitted from his military regime and his friends of many years like Chief Jim Nwobodo. Mr. Duben Onyia, a former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs is the only notable political figure rooting for Atiku in the state.
“I can tell you that our people here are solidly behind President Goodluck Jonathan because he stands very tall above other contestants. Apart from the fact that Governor Sullivan Chime has accepted to back him, as Igbo, we believe that he is our brother and could address the problem of marginalization of the Igbo since the civil war. As you can see he has already demonstrated his love for our people by appointing an Igbo as the Chief of Army Staff, a position that has been denied the Igbo for a very long time. We are happy and this gesture will be reciprocated in the coming election,” said Mr. Mike Nwakaife, a legal practitioner based in Enugu.
The picture is expected to become clearer after the formal declaration of all the Presidential aspirants some of who have already reached out to the people of the state soliciting their support. Some of their supporters have hired offices with billboards of the aspirants boldly displayed but in all, the pro-
Jonathan groups have dominated political activities in the state.
In Anambra State, only groups canvassing support for Present Goodluck Jonathan are visible in the state for now. One of the more popular groups is led by the former Anambra State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Edwin Pandolla Okwuosa who wants Nigerians to give President Goodluck Jonathan a chance in next year’s general elections, arguing that his emergence as president in 2011 will end perceived marginalization in the country.
Okwuosa, who is the acting coordinator of South East zone of Goodluck Nigeria, believes the president has, within the short period he has been in the saddle, understood the economic, social and strategic needs of the country more than the past leaders, adding that he should be given time to stabilize the system.
He described the president as an eminent Nigeria with an in-depth understanding and knowledge of the country’s problems, stressing that any attempt to stop him would not be in the interest of the Nigerian nation. “President Jonathan, having come from a minority tribe that has never tasted the presidential seat since the 50 years of the country’s Independence , and coming from the area that sustains Nigeria ’s economy, needs to be given a chance to prove his mettle,” the PDP chieftain said.
According to him, those hiding under the PDP zoning arrangement to oppose the Jonathan 2011 presidency are only exhibiting mischief, arguing that his participation in the presidential election would not change any arrangement or understanding in the PDP, “but will merely complete the Yar’Adua /Jonathan joint ticket which is expected to end in 2015 as was the case in the Obasanjo/Atiku regime which lasted for eight years.” On the structures of President Jonathan are visible in Abia State for now.
The main anchor man of Babangida in the state, Chief Reagan Ufomba, who is also aspiring to run for the governorship of the state could not be reached, but his aide, Chief Okechi Kanu said Babangida’s aspiration was on course. Jonathan’s structures are almost every where in the state. The “Goodluck Nigeria and Goodluck for me”, are set up to ward level
According to the Abia state co-coordinator of the organization, Mrs. Monica Ukasoanya, “everybody in Abia is for Jonathan. We are 98 percent for Jonathan and we are fully prepared for the coming primaries. We have coordinators up to ward level. We are 100 percent sure of getting the ticket”.
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