It is time characters of various kinds in Igboland stop insulting the people and bringing and encouraging strangers to do the same to their people. Governor Rocas Okorocha, a man I respect for the office he occupies, is the latest character in this show of shame. On Tuesday, July 3 in Owerri, the Imo State capital, he organised what should pass as private a rally to show strength, given his recent demystification by the same forces he is struggling hard to serve, and branded it ‘Igbo Mega Rally for Buhari 2019’.
What was the deceit? It was not Igbo rally, not even All Progressives Congress Igbo rally. The man was trying to test out if he was still capable to deliver and this obviously would have been at huge expense of the citizens, many of who are still being owed salaries, pension, gratuity and sundry allowances. That is one plank of the matter. The other, would be that Okorocha who is a governor of a state of the Southeast extraction should have spared the Igbo the spectacle of an incumbent governor being humbled, made to bite the dust and possibly being mandated to make restitution by staging a rally in his territory to publicly re-pledge loyalty.
Mustapha told the Igbo that except they voted President Buhari for second term, they could not produce the president of Nigeria. Others in the gathering joined him in this hollow postulation. The position is condescending to a people with significant population and rich antecedent, not forgetting their quality contributions to the attainment of Nigeria’s independence
No Yoruba or a northern-state serving governor will be made to pass through such demeaning ordeal, no matter what his private and political sins are. Everyone knows Okorocha is more close to former President Olusegun Obasanjo than President Muhammadu Buhari and that he shares more qualities and style with the former than the latter. If in this era of obvious realignments, the leadership of his party got hints of mo s they were not comfortable with, the right thing to do should be to draw his attention, get clarification and reassurance, if such still makes sense in politics of today; and not to make him the first incumbent governor to be stripped of party control. They did not just do so; it was done in such a manner as to say: you and your people don’t mean much in today’s power equation in Nigeria; you either fall in line or we apply the whip and whip you into line. That is it. But the height of insult came from another angle-Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Mustapha told the Igbo that except they voted President Buhari for second term, they could not produce the president of Nigeria. Others in the gathering joined him in this hollow postulation. The position is condescending to a people with significant population and rich antecedent, not forgetting their quality contributions to the attainment of Nigeria’s independence. It is also very insulting. That position is above Mustapha to hold and if he was mandated by the President to say, then it is a big minus to them and our collective desire to build a nation where everyone can be
happy.
I have done extensive research and I am yet to read where anyone gave the Yoruba such a condition before they could ascend the Presidency. Of course, no other person or political party would dare say such a thing, knowing the stuff the people there are made of.. Certainly, the Igbo people will not take it and would make sure the offending political party pay for it, even if it is a slip. I love them for that and much more. We are in this country; I have seen how we all begged the Yorubas countlessly, to take the Presidency.
The same for the North. I can’t imagine one man telling the North that this is the pre-condition for you to occupy any office in Nigeria. You try that, be sure hell will be let loose. Unfortunately, the Ndigbo (Igbo nation) have their sons who have been groomed and let loose to keep acting in the servitude to which they are consigned by their political masters from other parts of the country. It is a tragedy. The Igbo leadership and their people should be weeping for themselves and their land. They should weep over the calamity they collectively put on themselves and their children yet unborn.
The other day, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria from Igboland said Igbo didn’t need a political party. That they should rather play at the centre. That SAN has been that way. When the Igbo were in Nigeria People’s Party led by the father of Independence, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in the Seconds Republic, this man was in National Party of Nigeria, a party with its roots in the North. More than 40years after, he is still kicking against his area the-East, a zone which has virtually remained under-developed since after the civil war. This is to tell you who holds the correct
view.
Unfortunately many think like this senior lawyer, and whereas, the manner the Yoruba and Fulani /Hausa gained and established political relevance and ascendancy do not in any way support such political view.
*Egbu, a social affairs analyst, lives in Lagos
