By Rotimi Fasan
It came a little as a surprise, if for nothing but its loud echo of life under an odious dispensation, one governed by the ethic of unaccountable power- but it was all the same a little surprising to see media photographs of Igbo leaders locked out of the venue of a summit planned to hold at the Concorde Hotel in Owerri.

The summit, we have been told, was meant to chart a course for the Igbo nation post- 2011. A major issue that came up for discussion at the defiant meeting that held outside the hotel was the question of how to produce a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2015.

Which is to say that the Igbo leaders have no wish to upset the apple cart of the leading aspirants, none of who is Igbo, battling to clinch the presidential crown in 2011.

This is another way of saying there is no way their aspiration for 2015 could possibly upset any of those competing to be president next year. Or so we must believe.

Indeed reports indicate jubilation on hearing the news from Owerri in the camps of Ibrahim Babangida and Abubakar Atiku, two contenders for the presidential slot of the PDP, who have made promises that would seem to suggest they have the ears of the Igbo leaders in Owerri with regards to 2015.

Both Babangida and Atiku, it will be recalled, have promised not to stay more than a term in office, at the end of which they would ensure a Nigerian of Igbo extraction takes over from them as president. Need we say some Nigerian politicians have been known to renege on similar promises in the past? But that is a matter for another time.

The point at issue now is that these two politicians in question have promised not to stay beyond 2015 should they win the nod of their party and Nigerians to steer the ship of state for the next four years. Which then leaves us with Goodluck Jonathan, the President and leading aspirant of the PDP who wants to retain his tenancy of the presidential villa.

Jonathan has not told anyone that he would not stay beyond 2015, just as he has not agreed to the idea that the presidential slot of the PDP was at any time zoned to the North.

In his first direct comment on the matter, last week, Jonathan made it clear that the presidency was not one of the positions of the PDP that was ever zoned to any part of Nigeria, to say nothing of the North.

Waxing lyrical, he based his claims on the authority of the PDP constitution, his being part of the PDP power house and the common sense fact that the PDP constitution cannot be superior to the Nigerian Constitution.

From the foregoing, therefore, President Jonathan would seem not to be walking in stride with the presidential aspirants of the PDP from the North. Nor would his non-committal to a presidency of Igbo extraction satisfy those who gathered in Owerri.

Could this have informed the lock-out of the Igbo leaders that assembled at the Concorde?

There was a hint of this in the comments of some of the Igbo leaders, especially as nobody seemed able to provide meaningful explanation for the police action that resulted in the lock-out.

The police commissioner claimed ignorance of the matter, in the same manner the Imo State government washed its hand off it, equally claiming ignorance of what led to the closure of the summit venue. But the security personnel at the venue attributed their action to ‘orders from above’.

All of which would seem to be pointing at a higher authority than the Imo State government. Which then brings us to the question: Could Abuja, not Jonathan, have ordered the lock-out of the Igbo leaders, and on what grounds did it do this?
Some reports said something about the Igbo leaders’ plan to proclaim someone, presumably one of the presidential aspirants, as their preferred choice for the 2011 election.

Even if this were true, not minding how it could and would be operationalised among the mass of Igbo people- the truth of this claim would still not justify government intervention in the matter.

And if the purpose was to forestall a breakdown in law and order, following what was said to be disagreement (over what?) among the conveners of the summit, the issue could still have been better handled without the buck-passing that could only lead to speculations as to the motive for state intervention in the matter, and the source of the order to lock up the summit venue.

The action of the police is a throwback to how Nigerians were treated under the military. It was under the military that things like this happened without anyone providing any explanation for it. One would not want to believe that the treatment meted to the Igbo leaders had the authority of the president behind it.

There couldn’t have been any need for that. Weeks back, the East or some political leaders from the zone had given what would amount to tacit support for and endorsement of the President’s right to contest the presidential election.

Even if the people that gathered in Owerri were out to promote an alternative view and, possibly, aspirant in the light of their promises for a presidency of Igbo extraction in 2015, they would be acting within their rights as Nigerians.

That didn’t call for any form of intervention on the part of the state. Aside being Nigerians, many of those in Owerri were people who have served this country and continue to do so in high capacity.

They are deserving of courtesies that should be extended to people of dignity, with right to associate in a manner permitted citizens by our constitution. It is for this reason that the police authorities must explain the source of the order to lock out the leaders who went to Concorde, failing which the Imo State government or President Jonathan should compel them to do so.

Otherwise, we might all be laying the ground for more violations that can only make 2011 a year to look forward to with foreboding. Happy Golden Jubilee Nigeria!