Last week, we laid it bare without equivocation that by the dictates of both our written and unwritten laws, it is the turn of the South-East to produce the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It’s worthy to note that since the appearance of that publication, nobody has controverted our facts. However, power is not given, it’s taken. The South-East cannot sit idly by and wait for the post of the President to be trusted upon their laps, they must reach out and take it. We are not going to go on a wild goose chase to elucidate the strategies that these great citizens of Nigeria can deploy to assume the position of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we will situate the strategies mostly within the context of already deployed smart political strategies that yielded political results since 1999.

The principal strategy to attain the highest office in the land is cohesion among Ndigbo generally and collaboration with other peoples of Nigeria. They must speak with one voice and queue behind their strategy. The power of unity and one mind is too strong to be defeated. Unity is the state of being one. We must note that unity is not the absence of diversity, it’s the presence of harmony and agreement within the diversity. The mere fact that there are people from the South-East in all the political parties in Nigeria is not in anyway a sign of disunity, it is a sign of diversity. Indeed, it would have been a minus for them if there are not some of their people in all the parties because those major parties that do not have them would now hide under their absence to pretend that they are zoning the position of the President to other zones because there are no members of the party from the South-East. Thank goodness that we now have tangible personalities as members of the two major political parties of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. It is a lack of political strategy to regard your brothers and sisters in other political parties as your enemies, they are simply your opponents in the game of politics. I remember how I was personally vilified by some Ndigbo when I advised them to join and support APC in 2019 to make our chances better in 2023. Most of them have called to apologise and this is quite gratifying.

My strategy then was simple. Buhari will win the second term, whether Ndigbo supported him or not. He had the power of incumbency, which is still very potent in developing countries, especially Nigeria. He is from the North-West with an overwhelming comparative numerical advantage over other Geo-Political Zones. They have 7 States. Unknown to many people, the North-West had never been fortunate to complete a second term, whether military or civilian. All their former Presidents or Heads of State, before Buhari, were either murdered, removed or simply died in office before completing their second term since independence. Buhari presented the first opportunity for them to complete their second term and with their comparative numerical advantage, they were sure to sail it true. Buhari still had avalanche of political credit as at 2019 and his cult personality in the North had not evaporated. There was no corruption scandal against his person that diminished his spartanic personality as at 2019. His main allies in the South-West were still with him and there was no internal division as per his primary nomination. That was why even Obasanjo’s destructive magic against any incumbent he didn’t like in Nigeria could not work against Buhari in 2019. He was bound to win and he won.

It was based on those irrefutable facts that I concluded that if Buhari must win the second term, it will be in the strategic political interest of Ndigbo to support him and APC in 2019 and I screamed out my strategy, “Ndigbo for Buhari 2019 and Buhari for Ndigbo 2023”. In any case, will we be talking about a President from the South-East today in 2023 if Buhari did not win in 2019? Buhari, having won the first term in 2015, had only 4 years left, which terminates in 2023. If Atiku of the PDP had won in 2019, he would have been there till 2027, meaning that Ndigbo wouldn’t talk about the post of the President till 2027. That was why I said that Ndigbo would wander in political wilderness for 8 more years if Buhari did not win, meaning that even if Buhari won and did not do well for them, they have only 4 years to endure rather than 8, because he must leave by 2023. Thank goodness, Buhari won and we can now talk about possibility of a President from South-East in 2023. Let us now work together in unity to achieve a President from the South-East.

Unity is so important in the existence of men that even God acknowledges that nothing will be impossible for men to achieve once they are of one mind. “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do”. (Genesis 11:6). God was not surprised about the possibility of men achieving whatever they imagine if they are united because He gave them that power. When Jesus came down to earth he told his followers in Matthew 18:19, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven”. Can you imagine how much Ndigbo will accomplish if they are united? Indeed nothing shall be impossible for them. It then implies that all our political problems and challenges have their foundation, first and foremost, in our disunity. Democracy is about numbers and unity provides the foundation for such numbers. In the South-East today, you have some crying for secession, some screaming for the post of the President and some have even shamelessly started becoming chief spokespersons for other aspirants from other Geo-Political Zones, principally for pecuniary purposes. We must sit back and re-adjust immediately. It’s our turn to produce the President of Nigeria and we must stick together if we are serious about obtaining it.

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This sense of unity was exhibited in 1998 by the South-West. They made it clear that the President must be zoned to them. When PDP did not clearly assure them, they left PDP and negotiated with APP. When APP refused to give them explicit commitment, they pulled out of the talks and formed the Alliance for Democracy (AD). They were unanimous in AD about their request for the post. When Nigeria elites saw the level of their unity in their quest for the post, they decided that it will be in the strategic interest of the country’s unity to cede the post to them. The Head of State then, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, had to amend the laws then to reduce the conditions to be fulfilled before qualifying to be registered as a political party, just to make sure that AD qualifies to be registered as a political party. This unity rattled Nigeria elites and compelled them to cede the post to the South-West. They simply went to South-West and pulled out one of their own, Obasanjo, whom they were sure was pro-Nigeria and made him President, despite the fact that PDP had the least number of Yoruba in their Party. Obasanjo lost his Ward, Local Government, State and Geo-Political Zone, yet became President.

Ndigbo can borrow a leaf. No matter their Party, they must insist that the primary ticket of the party should be ceded to a leader from the South-East in the interest of equity, justice and fairness. They must look for a pro-Nigeria leader who will be acceptable to the rest of the country in each of the party and queue behind the person. All the aspirants in each party from the South-East should embark on intense consultation among themselves to ensure that they present one person eventually for the presidential primary election. Obasanjo was the only powerful person from the South-West that contested under the PDP, and it was an easy sail for him during the primary election. Olu Falae was the only Yoruba to contest under the APP-AD Alliance for the presidential election of 1998, because the AD had before then consulted among themselves and made a choice between Olu Falae and Bola Ige, where Olu Falae emerged. Ndigbo can do the same. Once every party has produced a candidate from the South-East, the rest of the journey will be easier.

The South-West  took the issue of their unity to the next level in 2003 when the second term Presidency bid of Obasanjo came under heavy challenge by Buhari from the North and Ekwueme from the South-East. Despite the fact that they didn’t vote for him in 1999, they unanimously rallied round him in 2003 and voted for him massively. Their main Party, AD, did not field any presidential candidate, making Obasanjo the sole candidate for the South-West during the 2003 election. He won easily. It cost AD a lot. Indeed it destroyed the viability of AD as a political party as it lost 5 out of 6 States to PDP. I recall how H. E. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as Lagos State Governor under AD, in solidarity, openly voted for Obasanjo to send a message to all citizens of the South-West to stand by their kinsmen, irrespective of party and ideological differences. They were driven by interest not party and they have been consistent till date on this trajectory that saw them produce President under PDP, Vice President and Speaker of the House of Representatives under APC. Ndigbo can borrow a leaf from this strategy come 2023. They should identify their best, irrespective of his party and collectively support him, even if it leads to the extinction of some political parties in the South-East. The whole idea of a political party is a vehicle for the formation of a government. A people should not cling to any political party that is not catering for their interests and cannot help them win elections.

Ndigbo should be ready and willing to punish any party that fails, neglects or refuses to grant them the ticket. History shows that people can only cede power to you if they love or fear you. The South-West under the Jagaban has carried out this method with admiration. To be continued .