Yesterday, I tweeted that I won’t be advocating for an Igbo Presidency until some conditions are met. I saw many people upset. Without seeing reasons, they feel I have betrayed them. A lot of Igbos are so angry that it has blinded their sense of political calculations. A Thread.
I will fail myself if under the current situation in Nigeria, I decide to be chanting Igbo Presidency with no clearly defined strategy to win the support of other ethnic groups. The Igbos have a lot of rebranding and reaching out to do. No Igbo political pressure group on ground!
Now, to agitate for an Igbo Presidency requires a whole lot of rearrangement, realignments due to the current political trend in Nigeria. As it stands, no Igbo politician has been able to build any structure or structures that can be used to reach out to others.
In the late 1980s, Major General Shehu Yar’Adua rtd, led others to form the People’s Front, a political pressure group. Atiku, Kwankwanso, Tinubu, Sergeant Awuse, Ajanaku, Gbazuagu Gbazuagu etc were members. The group was very formidable. It was a very big structure!
Peoples Front met with other smaller groups across the country and formed a merger that later became the Social Democratic Party, SDP. Abiola became the Presidential flag bearer of that Party and even won the 1993 presidential elections.
Abiola won in almost all the Northern states including Kano because he enjoyed the Yar’Adua structure through the Peoples Front. When the 1993 election was annulled by IBB, that Yar’Adua structure never died. It remained and was being oiled even after the death of Shehu Yar’Adua
When Abacha died and Abdulsalami Abubakar approved formation of political parties and announced election timetables, the Yar’Adua structure-The People’s Front arose again. That structure aligned with others to back Olusegun Obasanjo who late Shehu Yar’Adua served as Deputy.
Ekwueme lost the PDP nomination because his candidacy was backed by weak structures even though he was the best. The Yar’Adua structure through the PF aligned with all the retired military men and military apologists and produced Obasanjo. It was drama at the Jos convention.
After Obasanjo’s Presidency, it was the same Shehu Yar’Adua’s structure through Peoples Front, that produced Musa Yar’Adua/ Goodluck Jonathan as President and Vice President. When Musa Yar’Adua died, Jonathan had to enter a deal with the Yar’Adua structure to win 2011.
The crack in the Yar’Adua structure which Jonathan has benefitted from and other factors made him to lose the 2015 Presidential elections.
When Buhari was kicked out through the IBB led coup in 1985, he started building his support base as Mai Gaskiya. Even while serving his House arrest in Benin, Buhari was building his base and his followers came to see him as Mai Gaskiya (The Truthful Man).
Buhari used Islam and its teaching to accumulate support from the Talakawas, the poor and others. He spread across the 19 Northern states as Mai Gaskiya. He attended any Islamic events and spoke to the people especially on the rots in Govt. He was largely seen as clean.
When in 2003 he ventured into politics, he already had structures across the 19 Northern states where most see him as the new Uthman Dan Fodio. He unsuccessfully used those structures in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 Presidential elections.
Buhari defeated Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 when he merged his structures with that of the South West through his alliance with Bola Tinubu who was a member of the People’s Front led by late Gen Shehu Yar’Adua.
This historic limelight is to help my brothers to understand that everyone who have been President of Nigeria rode on a structure that had negotiated and aligned with others emerge. The Igbos must do as others have been doing, reach out, negotiate and align and garner supports!
To agitate for an Igbo Presidency is not a bad idea so long as the agitation is backed by the building of bridges, closing of ranks, negotiations, political shuttles for diplomacy and all that.
It becomes foolish when you think that only votes from the five states of the South East can produce an Igbo Presidency. It also foolish when you think raising your chest to high heavens, chanting at the top of your voice can actualize an Igbo Presidency. Get down to work!
