Nigeria Should See Beyond 1967!
There are good men and women in all the regions in Nigeria, with character, competence, and good education to lead Nigeria comes 2027, but what is JUSTICE?
1.
1999
Chief Samuel Olu Falae and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; all from the South West, Ogun, and the Ondo States respectively. In the end, Obasanjo, candidate of the PDP, who was projected and backed by the northern elites won the election against Chief Falae of AD/APP. That lasted for 8 years.
2.
2007
Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, PDP
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, ANPP
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, AC
In that election, Yar’Adua, the candidate of the PDP won the elections but unfortunately died in the office which made Mr. Goodluck Jonathan assume office as provided in the Constitution. What this meant was that it was an act of God that Jonathan became the president of Nigeria.
3.
2011
Northern Elites in 2011, wanted to force Jonathan out of office, but a few, like Gen. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbomudia, who spoke sincerely to his friends in one of the Conferences at the Villa in favor of Jonathan to run which they reluctantly accepted.
4,
2015
Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, PDP
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, APC
Note: in 2015, because the North said that it was their turn to produce the president, perhaps, Jonathan is on the mission of “Against the Run of Play” he lost to Buhari.
5.
2019
Since the Presidency by this zoning arrangement supposes to remain in the North till 2023, PDP, zoned their Presidency to the North. And if you are in doubt, all the 12 Presidential candidates at the PDP Port Harcourt 2019 Convention were from the North which produced Atiku Abubakar as PDP Presidential Candidate as he ran against Buhari and lost.
Nigerians, is it not heavy-handed deceit for people in the regions who benefited from the zoning of the Presidency to tell Nigerians that the President could come from any part of the country?
6.
2023
The elections of 2023 were significant in so many ways. First, it produced two front-line south-south presidential candidates, who were both former Ministers and former governors of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi of the APC and Barr. Eyesom Wike of the PDP both came second in the primaries.
Since the PDP refused to micro-zone her presidential ticket to the Southeast, Mr. Peter Obi, left PDP for the Labour Party (LP). On the whole, Atiku Abubakar, secured the PDP’s Ticket, Bola Ahmed Tinubu won that of the APC, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, bears the ticket of the NNPP, and Mr. Peter flew the LP ticket. And even as a late entrant, Peter Obi’s candidate, an Igbo man, was largely rated as an underdog. But as the event unfolded, a new crowd-pulling name emerged called the “OBIdent” Family, which remained in the political lexicon of Nigeria to date. The rest of what happened in the elections is left for you to asses, hence, in the end, an Igbo man showed that he can be trusted with Nigerian votes, but it is only the “System” which started after 1967 refused to trust an Igboman.
8.
2027
SADLY, nobody talks about me!
They say these against me…
That I led Nigeria into a Civil War
I don’t play national politics
I can’t be trusted to keep Nigeria as one. That the Southeast States are in crisis. Ohanaezs Ndi-Igbo is not organized and united. That I must either breathe through the North, South-West, or South-South, etc.
MY DEFENSE
To the spirit of history and posterity, if there is any Nigerian who is more Nigerian, it is the Igbo
But who caused the Civil War of 1967-1970? True to history, the Igbo man and woman only wanted a united and thriving Nigeria and had worked for it hence cannot kill what she built.
Besides, on January 18, the war ended with “No Victor, No Vanquish”, then, why is the mistrust even after the 2023 elections?
From 6 July 1967- 15 January 1970, is over 50 years. We have over 5 million Igbo population persecuted at all fronts over what they knew nothing about, what could this be called?
That Igbo man and woman don’t play national politics, how logical does it sound?
The Yoruba were in opposition(AD), when the Northern Generals made Obasanjo the President, evidently to placate the spirit of the Southwest over the annulment of June 12 1993 Elections allegedly won by MKO, Abiola.
What about the argument about Southeast States being in a crisis? Before 2016, over 10 LGAs in the Northeast, were in the hands of Boko Haram, yet Buhari won the elections of 2015, I can’t remember any LGA, in the Southeast that was temporarily fully occupied by any Non-State actors. You can’t say much for the Northern States Check your Security Tracker, Southeast States, irrespective of the present security challenges, is still the safest in Nigeria. I stand to be corrected!
DOES IT MEAN NO TRUSTED PERSON FROM THE SOUTHEAST IS NIGERIAN ENOUGH TO BE MADE THE PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA? Because all those who became president of Nigeria were made by people.
Obasanjo was made President!
Yar’Adua was made President!
Jonathan was made President!
Buhari was made President,
And Tinubu was also, made president in 2023.
The Igbo survived the war, they accepted the peace agreement, they invested in the country, yet are not trusted in the country they believed so much in and had and still investing heavily unlike any other region, then, why can’t an Igbo man or woman be President in 2027?
John Mbonu Uchenwoke-Ekperechi,
Writes from the University of Nigeria.
