Recently, former Governor Peter Obi, the erstwhile PDP Vice Presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election threw a well-considered missile to Nigeria and Nigerians urging him to run for president in 2023. And that includes yours sincerely. In the statement, he acknowledged as follows: “All over the place, people have been urging me to go for president in 2023, but I say to them, the vehicle called Nigeria has no brain box but people are talking of changing the driver only. What can a driver of a knocked engine or car with faulty or no brain box do? Absolutely nothing until the vehicle goes for a complete overhaul. Those clamouring for restructuring are saying fix the car first , then look for a driver.’’

Obi was right in his observation of the state of the nation, and I agree with him in part. That Nigeria is in a very bad shape is not disputable.  Obi’s statement underscores the urgency of the time and the need for statesmen and patriots to come together and save Nigeria from total collapse before it’s too late, as it is only a stable nation that will hold a credible election. In- fact no one will want to inherit a dysfunctional country.  Like many well-meaning Nigerians,  Obi is advocating a new legal framework  which the National Assembly is currently reviewing. Going by the snippets of information from the submissions made to the National Assembly Constitutional Review Committees from across the six geopolitical zones, I think Nigerians from across the aisle are all agreed on restructuring as the least minimum requirement for peaceful co-existence; devolution of more powers to the states, removal of local governments from the concurrent list so as to give creation of local governments to the states, financial autonomy for local governments, the judiciary and the legislature, creation of state police, revision of over 86 items in the concurrent list, resource control and creation of one additional state for the South East to bring it at par with other zones, etc. If all these can be achieved with the ongoing constitutional review, then Nigeria would have been 80 per cent restructured.

But supposing this regime refuses to assent to restructuring as being proposed, what do we do? Should Nigeria stop existing because we have a bad driver who can’t see beyond his nose that the car need overhauling? Should we helplessly watch Nigeria face disorderly disintegration because the brain box is faulty? Buhari is not the beginning and end of Nigeria. His contract with Nigeria expires by May 2023.

I don’t expect much from President Buhari in the remainder of his years in office given his parochial and anachronistic mindset. Whereby he fails to do the needful, a new leader should have the courage to offer definitive remedies. The new driver should be able to oversight a complete overhaul of the vehicle by also ensuring that that the missing brain box is recovered and reinstalled. In essence we need not just a mechanic but a damn good one as well as a good driver. The mistake of a bad driver driving a good car is that he risks causing an avoidable accident.

This is where Obi’s factor becomes important to the future survival of  Nigeria. If we don’t fix this country because we are scared of the magnitude of the problem, who will fix it for us? We are earnestly yearning for Obi out of conviction and urging him to be the good mechanic and the good driver.  There is no better time for these two combinations to be rolled in one person than now. The country is in jeopardy, the situation of things are rather frightening. Put aside our general insecurity and other social strife and consider the fact that our inflation rate as at date stood at -18.12 per cent; Unemployment -33.28 per cent; Youth Unemployment -53 per cent; Debt Profile – N32.72 trillion; Exchange rate @dollar rate N410; and Foreign Reserve- $34.27billion.

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No matter how you frame it, the above statistics is an indication that the country is tethering to the brink and needs an overhaul. What do we do? Should we give up and like the historical Jews of old cry out, ‘everyone to thy tent, oh Israel’. Giving up on Nigeria is not an option. I believe every crisis has its own advantage. This is the time we need courageous and disciplined leaders to take the centre stage and speak on the way forward. Those who want to lead should not sit back and refuse to speak or wait for the car to be fixed first. They should be able to tell the people what they will do differently. They should be part of the solution and not the problem. They should be the workhorse and not the show horse. 

Apart from restructuring which I believe is not a magical jujitsu and solution to all our problems, security and the economy will dominate the post Buhari presidency. Given Obi’s antecedent and pedigree, he has comparative advantage over all the roadside mechanics and makeshift drivers angling to take over the steering of the state. He stands a better chance to perform and replicate for the benefit of Nigeria the Igbo miracle, which has been ably demonstrated over and over again. Nigeria, over the past 60  years, had tried and  tested the leadership of the Hausa, the Fulani, the Yoruba and the Ijaw,  and yet we couldn’t fix ordinary electricity and potable water problems, not to talk of fixing our education, health care and infrastructure. We rather grew from bad to worse, still dealing with primordial issues that ought to have been long settled.

What Nigeria has not tried and tested is the Igbo leadership. If indeed we want to succeed as a nation, I will suggest without prejudice that we leave behind all our ethnic and religious sentiments and give the Igbo a once in a life opportunity to try fixing Nigeria. In searching for a President of South East extraction, we should look for someone who has the pedigree, who must have done similar thing and we need not look farther than Mr. Peter Gregory Obi. What the Igbo cannot fix is yet to be created. I recall with nostalgia the then demolition of the Jankara Market dominated by Igbo traders by the Lateef Jankande administration in Lagos. The Igbo community sent a high-powered delegation to Baba Kekere to ask him to reconsider the demolition. He told the Igbo delegation that he heard the Igbos are miracle workers. He said he would relocate them to a virgin forest. He said he is giving the forest free of charge to the Igbo if they can conquer and subdue the harsh environment. The Igbo took the challenge. They went, saw and conquered the environment. They built an international trade centre that is today contributing over N154 billion to our National GDP. The place is Ojo Alaba. That’s Igbo miracle.  In Kano, the Igbo was allocated a desolate area called Sabon Gari to inhabit. The government provided no facility. Within a space of years, they turned Sabon Gari into a sub-urban city. They have extended development to ‘No Man’s land down to Sarkin Yaji. That’s the Igbo Miracle.

With just 20 pounds given to the Igbo after the war and their properties seized and classified as abandoned properties, they have created multi billions of wealth and today arguably the richest demographic group in Nigeria. That’s the Igbo miracle.  I acknowledge our politics is not deft. No one group is made perfect. We need to build bridges rather than burn bridges. I will expect our political elites to do more than they are doing in securing the support and cooperation of other entities in other to produce a Nigerian president of Igbo / South East extraction. I believe the place of the Igbo in saving Nigeria from collapse should form part of the ongoing national dialogue. When we do get a chance to field a president, we must field the president that will perform the Igbo miracle for the benefit of all. We can get the president if we are confident and sure-footed, but we can’t get it by insulting the Fulani, the Hausa, Yoruba or the Ijaws.  We can’t get it by destroying others and institutions around us. We demand respect from fellow Nigerians, and in our engagement with others we must show respect. We need dialogue, as dialogue remains the only route to equity, national peace and justice.