By Samuel Anayo
In a country where no Igbo man has ever become Executive President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and where a supposed conspiracy against the emergence of an Igbo man to that coveted seat is appearing real, whenever you talk about it, someone will quickly say you are being emotional or sentimental.
Funnily enough, they are often the same people who will turn around and accuse you of tribal bigotry.
But let us be honest with ourselves.
The Yoruba nation has produced two Presidents – Olusegun Obasanjo and Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Any time it is the turn of the South to produce the President, somehow, a Yoruba man takes it, even when a qualified and capable Igbo man is available.
Obasanjo ‘picked’ it when Alex Ekwueme, who many considered even more qualified at the time, was available.
Tinubu “grabbed” it when Peter Obi was not only available but had demonstrated enormous national support in 2023.
Even the Vice-Presidential slot almost-historically given to the South-East has gradually been taken away. Osinbajo occupied it, even when prominent Igbos such as Ben Obi, Dr Ngige, Rochas Okorocha and others could have filled that role.
Now, if Tinubu wins in 2027, he could remain in office until 2031.
After that, power could rotate back to the North for another eight years – 2031 to 2039.
Where, then, does that leave the Igbo nation?
By then, the Igbo people will understand just how strategically important the South-South has become in Nigeria’s political calculation. Gradually, the Igbo nation is being pushed to the brink of political irrelevance.
Or do you think the balkanisation of Nigeria into six geopolitical zones was merely an innocent administrative arrangement?
Look at Atiku Abubakar’s political calculations.
He followed the subtle replacement of Igbos in the presidency by Obasanjo. In 2007, OBJ foisted Goodluck Ebele Jonathan 2023 on Yar’Adua and many believe he took that decision for a reason.
In 2023 Atiku picked Ifeanyi Okowa from the South-South. It could have been Nyesom (N)Wike.
Today Rotimi Amaechi is the vice presidential political candidate for the Northern presidential hopeful.
Is this pattern not becoming consistent?
The calculation is simple: find someone from the South-South with Igbo colouration – someone who can carry an Igbo name, speak Igbo to the Igbos during campaigns and appeal to Igbo sentiments when votes are needed – but when it is time to cash out politically, suddenly the Igbo ancestry becomes irrelevant.
That is what (N)yesom Wike’s political journey has taught them
Believe it or not, the South-South geopolitical zone has successfully positioned itself in Nigeria’s political equation and is gradually edging out the Igbos from the national power equation.
Congratulations to Anyim Pius Anyim for emerging as the South-East Stakeholders Mobilisation figure in the APC/Tinubu 2027 Campaign Council.
Congratulations to Senator Engineer David Nweze Umahi, CON, Deputy Director-General, Infrastructure, Mobilisation and Sensitisation.
Congratulations to Hope Uzodimma, Secretary of the Tinubu 2027 Presidential Campaign.
And to you, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, Governor of Enugu State, the most dangerous of them all, whose actions speak louder than words, congratulations on becoming the South-East Zonal Coordinator.
You all have every right to make your political choices.
But history will also have the right to judge those choices.
When a people who have never produced a President suddenly find some of their own political leaders working to prevent one of their own from getting to that position, It calls for question if a kingdom divided against itself can ever stand.
This is bigger than Peter Obi. It is about whether the Igbo nation will continue to be spectators in Nigeria’s highest political office while other regions strategically negotiate their way to power.
“He who sells his brother to a stranger for a penny should not be surprised when the stranger returns to buy him for even less”.
A day of reckoning is coming
Samuel Anayo writes from Jos
anayosamuel2@gmail.com
