Last week, one reader sent me this SMS: "Everywhere you go, a typical Yoruba person will say Igbo have made a mistake in voting for President Goodluck Jonathan. My question is this: Why is this? Is APC the only party in Nigeria? Were Yoruba not in the opposition before now? Why is everybody taking interest in what Igbo do? Why? Answer me!"
I could not answer this reader's question immediately, not for want of what to say. I guess that in trying to answer his question now, I will be addressing many others, who may be so agitated or fall into the category of those, who think or say that the Igbo have committed political hara-kiri by voting for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) instead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last general elections. Of course, the Igbo could not have made a mistake. And they have not committed any political suicide either. What the Igbo did was to stand for what they believed in. And since they did so out of conviction, they are the ones who would say that a mistake had been committed or not. It is not for those whose parameter for judgment is jaundiced to so decide. Besides, the voting pattern of the Igbo in 2015 is not different from what it has been since 1999.
For the avoidance of doubt, prior to the last general elections, the Igbo aligned more with the PDP than any other political party. In 1999, all the five states in South East voted for PDP, as Abia (Orji Uzor Kalu), Imo (Achike Udenwa), Ebonyi (Sam Egwu), Enugu (Chimaroke Nnamani) and Anambra (Chinwoke Mbadinuju) states produced PDP governors. In 2003, all the five South East states also had PDP governors (Abia: Kalu; Imo: Udenwa; Ebonyi: Egwu; Enugu: Nnamani; and Anambra: Chris Ngige), but the registration of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which had the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu as its presidential candidate, did cause some upsets. This could explain why APGA succeeded in claiming Anambra State, as the governorship election tribunal and the Court of Appeal did affirm its candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, as the authentic winner of the 2003 governorship election. With this, Ngige, who was in office for three years (2003-2006), was booted out of office, leaving the PDP with four states of Abia, Imo, Ebonyi and Enugu states.
In 2007, then President Olusegun Obasanjo ruffled the feathers in PDP, with the obnoxious deregistration of some members of the PDP, which forced some of those affected in the PDP reregistration exercise out of the political party. Some of those so forced out formed the Progressive People's Alliance (PPA), which won the governorship elections in Abia and Imo states (Theodore Orji and Ikedi Ohakim), in 2007. Whereas PDP retained Ebonyi (Martin Elechi) and Enugu (Sullivan Chime) states, while APGA (Peter Obi) held forth in Anambra, the PDP could be said to be technically and indirectly in charge of Abia and Imo, as the founder of the PPA and governors of the states were PDP members. Between 2007 and 2011, Abia and Imo returned to PDP, with the defection of the governors, members of the state Houses of Assembly and other prominent politicians, who left because of the deregistration exercise in PDP. In 2011, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi remained with PDP, while Anambra and Imo stayed with APGA (Peter Obi and Rochas Okorocha). Imo State eventually moved to the APC, with the defection of Okorocha who, in any case, was a foundation member of PDP.
From the foregoing, it is obvious that those who say that the Igbo vote for PDP is an aberration are wrong. The South East has been PDP stronghold. Even when other parties took any of the Igbo states, it was former PDP members that were governors. Therefore, Igbo voting for PDP in 2015 can never be a mistake. The people expressed themselves at the polls, aligning with a political party they felt comfortable with. This is the same way the Yoruba stood and massively voted for the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1999, Action Congress (AC)/Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2007 and 2011, ignoring the party at the centre, the PDP. If the Yoruba did not make a mistake in 1999, 2007 and 2011 by voting another political party other than the one at the centre, certainly the Igbo made no mistake in voting for PDP in 2015 and ignoring the party that would be at the centre, the APC.
No matter what anybody says, the Igbo vote for PDP, as the political party of their choice, is not different from Hausa/Fulani voting for APC in the last elections. It is not different from the Yoruba voting for the APC. And if people say that the Igbo voted for PDP because of President Goodluck Jonathan, my question is: What's wrong with this? Democracy is about making a choice. That the Igbo voted Jonathan is the same way the Hausa/Fulani voted for General Muhammadu Buhari. It's the same way, the Yoruba voted for Prof Yemi Osinbajo.
The Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba never voted for change, in the true sense of it. They voted for their kinsmen to be in charge of Nigeria. It is curious that nobody is asking why all the northern states overwhelmingly voted for Buhari. Why is nobody worried that Hausa/Fulani voted for Buhari and shunned PDP? Why hasn't anybody seen this as a mistake? Is it not because Buhari was declared winner of the election? If the result of the presidential election went otherwise, would those now calling Igbo names be saying the same thing? The Hausa/Fulani, who voted for Buhari and the Yoruba, who voted for Osinbajo/Buhari, are as guilty as Igbo who voted Jonathan. Shikena!
It's time for this gratuitous insult of the Igbo to stop. Saying that the Igbo made a mistake because they chose to stand for a particular political party is an unnecessary insult and, indeed, an insult taken too for. A real man must stand for something. Likewise, a group or ethnic nationality must stand for something. I would rather respect a group/ethnic nationality, which stands for what it believes in till the end than one, which says something and does another. Whereas the Igbo stood firm in what they believed in, in the last elections, some other ethnic nationalities employed betrayal, telling Jonathan they stood by him, while working for the APC. This is the difference between the Igbo and others. It's left for Buhari to decide, who to trust. Is it the man who stands by what he says or the one who says something and does another? In any case, while I am not worried about people of other ethnic nationalities, who think that Igbo made a blunder in the last elections over their voting pattern, I find it rather absurd that some Igbo themselves think so. Inasmuch as these Igbo who think that supporting Jonathan was a mistake are entitled to their opinions, I would rather say that their succumbing to the cheap blackmail of other ethnic nationalities, which would want them to think that way, is a mark of inferiority complex. It's really amazing that it's Igbo who think that their people made a mistake while Hausa/Fulani, who are the beneficiaries of the outcome of the elections, for instance, have not even said so. I have not heard Buhari make any scathing comments about the way Igbo voted. And Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State was bold enough to proclaim that South easterners and South southerners played major roles in APC victory.
It is true that from May 29, 2015, Igbo would not be President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker, House of Representatives, the fourth highest political offices in the country. However, the pertinent question remains: Is it only when an Igbo man occupies one of these offices that South easterners would benefit from the government at the centre? Now tell me, what was the gain of the South West, as a geopolitical zone, that Obasanjo was president for eight years? Obasanjo, a Yoruba, even neglected Lagos, as important as the state is to the economy of Nigeria. He also withheld the local government allocation of Lagos State. What was the gain of South South, as a geopolitical zone, that Jonathan has beenpresident for five years? Jonathan could not even complete the East-West Expressway.
Apart from empowering a few people from the zones, by way of contracts, for their selfish end, what did Obasanjo and Jonathan do to change the fortunes of South West and South South? How many roads did they build in their geopolitical zones? How many industries did they site? How many investments did they bring to their areas? Besides, I do not see any difference between now that Jonathan is president and when Buhari will be in charge. Under Jonathan, Igbo man is not President, Vice President, Senate President or Speaker, House of Representatives. What the Igbo need from Buhari, as president, are fairness, equity and justice and they will continue to excel in the country, being enterprising people. If Buhari feels that because Igbo did not vote for him, he would not give them their due, it will be too bad. By then, we will know that he's president of North and South West instead of that of Nigeria. However, I think Buhari should rather be worried that his electoral fortunes was almost zero in South East and South South and work towards changing this instead of whatever vendetta, which some people are trying to plant in his mind.
The South East heroes of the last elections are not only those who played active role in APC, to ensure that an opposition party won the presidential election for the first time in 16 years. Igbo who are in PDP, including the market women and ordinary traders in the backwaters of Aba, Onitsha and Abakalili are also the heroes. These are people who have made it possible that Nigeria still has an opposition party, with PDP controlling South East and South South. Democracy without opposition is nothing. Those who say that the Igbo made a mistake are indirectly voting for a one-party state. What then would be the alternative in a one-party state? If APC messes up tomorrow, Nigerians have the opportunity to vote it out and, perhaps, return to PDP. If every state voted for APC, the nation would then be stuck with the party, as a sole political association in the country. And democracy will die because there won't be inter-party contest or general elections.
Nigerians should rather be grateful to the Igbo for providing the platform for an alternative choice. The envy and vilification of the Igbo should stop. The Igbo have minds of their own. They made their choices in the elections and are ready to face the consequences thereof. Now that, by their voting, they have fallen into the opposition, the task before the Igbo is to organise themselves and not to cry over spilt milk. The last elections have shown that if the Igbo work together they could break the wall of Jericho. What others see as a minus today may turn out a plus tomorrow if Igbo work at it. Now, it is assumed that Igbo have an alliance with South South. The task is to take this to another level by working towards forging a broader coalition with the North for a stronger PDP. What it takes is for PDP to see the window of opportunity so provided, reorganise itself, rezone the offices, formally zone the presidency to the North and work to take back power in 2019, if Buhari is doing only one term or 2023, if the president-elect is doing two-terms. The PDP could start by wooing back top northerners, who were alienated because of the presidential ticket of the party. And the North/South East/South South alliance will evolve. When this happens, the gloaters today will know that the Igbo, believed to have made a mistake, will become the cornerstone of the house.
For the Igbo in APC, they should stand firm and claim their rights. They worked, in their individual capacities, for APC's success and deserve whatever privileges others will enjoy. However, the way such APC members, as Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Chris Ngige, Osita Izunazo, Okey Ezea, Rochas Okorocha, Anyim Nyerere and others are treated, just as the way Buhari would treat the South East, will determine how the APC will fair in South East in subsequent elections. For now, I think it's too early to say who the winners or the losers of APC's victory really are.
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