By Fredrick Nwabufo
There is nothing as fatal as a
blow from a “consanguineal fist”. A cut
from a “sibling” hurts deeper than that from a stranger. I have been inflicted
severe cuts – caustic verbal attacks – by some Igbo persons for advocating a
president of Igbo extraction in 2023. While some of them are irritated by the
attention that I have been able to generate for the cause, a few others see the
“advocacy” as a means of cutting deals for filthy lucre.
The fiercest opposition to the
cause, “president of Igbo extraction in 2023”, has been the people for which it
is championed – the Igbo. While some of
my kinsmen argued that they want restructuring and not the presidency, a great
number of them say that they only want to “secure Igbo-land economically,
politically and security-wise.” But when you ask them, how they intend to
actualise these “dreams”, they just let off inchoate pieces of babble. As a
matter of fact, most of these objurgators are just fortune seekers pinning and
angling to benefit from “anything Igbo.”
I recall when Ifeanyi Uba,
senator-elect, Anambra South, was trying to make an inroad into the fold of the
dominant party at the national assembly, he was brutally hacked down with
vicious criticisms by his own people. I have reflected pensively on what the Igbo
political agenda could be, but at every point I become sectioned with a brain
fag. What do the Igbo really want?
I have written a couple of
essays, expounding the reasons the Igbo deserve the 2023 presidency and why all
Nigerians of dispassionate interest and untainted conscience must support the
group in actualising this noble goal. I still believe, for the sake national
cohesion, the southeast region deserves a shot at the presidency. But it
appears they are not ready for it.
In my essay, ‘With Buhari’s 4+4,
Igbo presidency in 2023 is now non-negotiable’, I wrote: “I believe healing
will begin for Nigerians when political justice is seen to have been done to
all. At that point we can build a country defiant to disunity. But political
justice must be done to all to get to this stage.”
However, I failed to add:
“Political justice must be demanded when it is not given”. How can justice be
done to a people who have resigned to hopeless fate? How can a people who are
stuck in political stasis be called to the table for negotiations? How can a
people who are on the path of no certain destination be taken seriously?
Really, I was surprised at the
reactions to the essay by most Nigerians from the north and the south-west. I
have messages from reputable Nigerians across ethnic divides in my phone log,
telling me that it will be grave injustice if the Igbo are schemed out of the
2023 presidential race. I remember one retired general asked at the end of his
message to me, “But what is the southeast doing about the 2023 presidency?” I
only responded with a “smiley OMG”. But the answer to that is, “nothing; just
whining, blowing hot air, fantasising about restructuring and mouthing off
about Biafra”.
Luck is when opportunity meets
preparation. I can see the southwest positioning itself strategically and
making the necessary noise and calculated connections for a 2023 presidential
bid. I cannot begrudge a people who are resolute about what they want, and who
are, most importantly, feisty about their destiny. The cake will certainly be taken by a fiercer
cat; it will not be handed to a gutless kitten.
You can demand political justice
when it is not given; injustice only persists because you allow it.
Fredrick is a media personality.
Twitter@FredrickNwabufo
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