Barely a month to go, the much awaited presidential election shall hold. It looked as if it would never come but it has. Politicians are about their game, selling vile propaganda and deceiving the gullible. They are making issues out of nothing. Their trademark lies are on parade before a beleaguered people looking for salvation long in coming.
There are streams of innocent blood, wasted on the altar of brigandage and lust for power but they care not, even as the country burns.
However, Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party has stirred enough interest to upstage traditional permutations. He is on trending everywhere, especially among the youths, who agree with him that it is time to recover their country from the stranglehold of the corroding ancients.
Over time, Obi, who was derided for lacking a structure, has made the mass of Nigerians his structure. Obi who was dubbed a social media warlord, has taken over the national landscape in real terms. Obi, who was touted as Igbo candidate had gone beyond to assume a national toga.
However, that is where the problem is. Is Obi an Igbo candidate? I think not. So, Igbo or not, let Nigeria win.
Nevertheless, the way the Igbo respond to Obi’s candidacy and the outcome of this election will determine the shape of things to come.
That is why I wish to share this piece by Chinweizu to Igbo leaders, entitled: ‘Plan for Obi’s Election Result’ and hope it helps.
There is a possibility that the Peter Obi campaign result, if not properly handled, could be disastrous for Ndigbo. I, therefore, suggest that you guys at Anya-Ndi-Igbo should do contingency planning on ways to handle it to avoid the dangers.
Consider these three scenarios and the dangers they pose:
Case #1: Peter Obi is declared winner by INEC
Ndigbo have a track record of not knowing how to behave safely in victory or what looks like their approaching victory.
Examples: (a) Daddy Onyeama’s reckless and notorious boast in the 1940s that “Igbo domination is only a matter of time”; this provoked fear of Igbo domination in other Nigerian nationalities, and they took steps to prevent it.
(b) Zik’s pointless threat in 1946 to the Brits and their Nigerian ‘stooges’.
“I must warn that when Nigeria comes into her own, and we are in power … every one of them [the stooges], indigenous or alien, shall be held to strict accountability and shall be impeached for high treason against the safety of the State of Nigeria.”
Of course, forewarned, those he threatened made sure to deny him power.
(c) A bloody and ominous example is the spontaneous triumphalist reaction by Igbo masses in January 1966 to the UPGA multi-ethnic coup that Nzeogwu publicly led.
The unwise pattern of killings helped create the false impression that it was an Igbo coup. Furthermore, the boastfulness of the Igbo masses together with their thoughtless taunting of their hosts in the North and their insensitivity to the possible perception of the coup by other Nigerians helped trigger the countercoup and pogroms.
So, given their character and lack of a wise and centralised leadership, how are Igbo likely to react to an Obi victory? Will some try to appropriate and turn the Obi-dients Movement into an Igbo affair? An Igbo project? What should be a wise response? How can Igbo, both the prominent and the masses, be trained to follow a wise path?
Case #2: Peter Obi is rigged out
The danger here is that the Igbo may feel even more desperate about their plight in Nigeria and rally totally behind the Biafra agitation and its brainless leaders. If that happens, the damage being inflicted in Igboland by Simon Ekpa’s followers and enforcers will intensify.
So, once again, the question is: How are the Igbo likely to react to an Obi defeat? What should be a wise response? How can they be trained to follow a wise path?
Case #3: Backlash organised by Nigeria’s anti-Igbo politicians.
Should Obi emerge as winner, it is most likely that some anti-Igbo politicians will attempt to neutralise him and his movement by whipping up Igbophobia. And should Obi lose, some anti-Igbo politicians are likely to seize their opportunity and push for a final solution to what they see as their Igbo problem by stomping their boots on a people they’ve knocked to the ground.
So, once again, the question is this: How are the Igbo likely to react to an anti-Igbo campaign triggered by an Obi victory or defeat? What should be a wise response? How can they be trained to follow a wise path?
I suggest the Anya-Ndi-Igbo leadership should give these scenarios their urgent attention and work out safe solutions and carefully guide Ndi-Igbo to successfully implement them.
Anya Ndi-Igbo might consider quietly sending cautionary advisories to leaders of Igbo organizations, asking them (1) to educate their members about these dangers and (2) to urge their members to exercise restraint and self-control and not go firing off unguided missiles into the arena of public opinion.
The Igbo should keep to themselves their personal opinions on the matter and let Anya Ndi-Igbo orchestrate public statements on their behalf.
And by orchestrate I mean this: Anya Ndi-Igbo should play the role of a coach who, while staying out of the playing field, makes the game plan, watches the game closely, works out moves and signals them to the players on the field. In this case, it should give prepared statements to select organisations and persons to make publicly.
I hope that helps.
#Dons Eze
Why do we only rest in peace, why don’t we live in peace?
We often cry when friends and relatives die but while they were alive, we didn’t care much about them. When they are being buried, we’ll do everything possible to attend but couldn’t visit or speak with them while they were alive.
We keep malice with people around us and sometimes wish they would die or suffer harm. We envy successful people and flock around them but avoid the poor among us. Yet we claim to profess one faith or the other.
Moses Bliss captured these absurd attitudes in this quote: “Humans cry for the dead and keep malice with the living, then envy the successful and avoid the broke.”
We act in very strange ways that are difficult to understand. What a nebulous life we live! In our quiet moments, we should endeavour to ask ourselves why we cry over the dead we never cared for; why we keep malice with people around us over very minor issues; and flock around the wealthy and avoid poor friends and relatives. Whatever answers that come to our minds, we should reflect on them and decide to change today because our journey on earth is very short.
#Ricky Martin