Those who objectively consider the matter must pity the Igbo over who they may have decided to vote for as President in nine days’ time. As we pity the Igbo, we commend Mr. Peter Obi for his help. He managed to evade the charge by major opponents brandishing ethnic paintbrushes to whitewash his quest for the presidency.
After failing to cast Obi as an Igbo candidate, the major competitors hurried back to their regions to promote the February 25, 2023, presidential election as an ethnic and religious battle. The strange thing is that Mr. Obi’s opponents are justifying their ethnic campaigns by claiming that the Igbo are doing the same thing. Or indeed that they started it.
We have read some of their shocking justifications. A friend of mine from the core North says that voters in Nigeria are “less interested in policies; it is almost entirely about what tribe the President comes from.” Another commentator that I hold in the highest esteem wrote to me privately that he does not like Bola Tinubu but must vote for him to win.
“I still want the fellow to win, if only for one reason and one reason only: to safeguard our land for our children and grandchildren. We already have five Igbos in the (Lagos) State Assembly and one in the House of Reps. An Hausa man is Commissioner For Water Resources!!! When he wins, we will sort ourselves out!”
This has been an agonizing moment for me as an Igbo. The toxic situation we are promoting has made me recoil, tune out, and switch off from all political conversations. The psychological burden is too much to bear for me as it is for any Nigerian that hitherto adapted and acted without regard to tribe and tongue in our relationships. I cannot say that I shall vote for Peter Obi because we come from the same ethnic group. It does not matter that we are following the rest of Nigeria who see him as the fittest for the job.
Do the Nigerian electors vote according to their tribe and religion, and not necessarily for the best qualified and capable? Usually, when people say this, they refer to voters of the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba stock.
The facts speak otherwise, especially with the Igbo.
Since the dawn of the Fourth Republic in 1999, Igbo voters consistently chose presidential candidates of other ethnic groups, and against their kinsmen. Until this year 2023, where it appears they will vote for Peter Obi who happens to be from the South East, the Igbo have consistently rejected their sons at the polls.
In 1999, the three major parties were the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Peoples Party (APP). Their standard-bearers were Olu Falae (AD, Yoruba), Olusegun Obasanjo (PDP, Yoruba) and Ogbonnaya Onu (APP, Igbo). Onu, the Igbo, was persuaded to step aside to allow an all-Yoruba contest for the presidency. The Igbo automatically supported a YORUBA for the Presidency; they had no candidate.
Four years later, an Igbo party was born, and a great Igbo patriot was fielded in battle. However, to prove that their prior support for the Yoruba was not a fluke, the Igbo again overwhelmingly voted for the same PDP candidate of YORUBA origin in 2003. They did this at the expense of their fearsome hero, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi and Eze Igbo Gburugburu. If this were a First Republic contest, Ojukwu would have “lost his deposit.” He flopped spectacularly in all but one of the five South East states, rejected by the same people who adored him as their war hero.
This profile of Igbo ethnic vote was not altered in 2007, when both Governor Orji Uzor Kalu and the Ikemba stepped into the ring as candidates. The Igbo voted for a FULANI and rejected both of their sons. Ikemba’s case was more pathetic because the newcomer, Gov. Orji Kalu, finished in a more respectable fourth place while he (Ikemba) was pushed further down to a sixth place! Also rejected by his kinsmen was Prof. Pat Utomi, one of the most respected Igbo from Delta State.
Unlike Gen. Muhammadu Buhari who continued to soldier on, the Ikemba retired from elective contest after his defeat. In the 2011 election, the Igbo denied him their votes, in place of an IJAW. There was a cast of half a dozen Igbo candidates, including Prof. Pat Utomi, that the Igbo’s failed to vote for.
As they did with the Yoruba in 1999 and 2003, the Igbo in 2015 again voted for an IJAW over their illustrious son, Chekwas Okorie. This was the one vote that went bad for the Igbo because their votes failed to elect a President, the first in four election cycles. The specious propaganda mounted against those opposed to the ultimate winner spared no efforts to cast the Igbo as ethnic bigots. An unabashed media and dishonest intellectuals cast Goodluck Jonathan as Igbo, just as they also sought to promote Obasanjo as an Igbo in 1999 to harvest ethnic votes for Falae. Obasanjo, they said, must have been fathered by an Igbo police officer. In Jonathan’s case, his middle name (Azikiwe, named for the pan-Africanist) was proof that he must be of Igbo origin. Their secondary objective was to profile the Igbo vote as an ethnic, rather than an altruistic, effort to select the best person for the job. This will make it easy to sell their politics of ethnic propaganda.
Dr. Kingsley Muoghalu, an Igbo of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), was considered as one of the best candidates in the 2019 presidential election. He was not only roundly rejected nationwide but also shunned by his kinsmen. The Igbo voted overwhelmingly for another FULANI. For the second time, the Igbo vote failed to elect a President.
In the current presidential contest of 2023, the Igbo appear from all indications to want to vote for a kinsman for the first time. Are they going to vote overwhelmingly for Labour Party because Peter Obi is Igbo? Or are they responding to a national voter favorability rating for their kinsman, as reflected in various recent polls? Does their enthusiasm reflect what they already know about his capacity and competence during his time as governor?
Contrary to what many believe, Peter Obi is not popular among the political elite in his home state of Anambra. He is certainly not a darling of the Igbo political class, which thoroughly detests his style of governance, which he popularized as “not giving shishi” during this election cycle. This is why, despite his popularity among the youth and common folks, he was not able to influence the last two elections in his home state since leaving office. We also remember that when he was selected as Atiku Abubakar’s running mate in 2019, all hell broke loose in Igboland. The disgusted political elite class questioned the choice.
So, there you have it. The South East political class, which represents Igbo, has not endorsed Peter Obi and many among them make no bones about it. We watch in bemusement as the current governors, including from his home state, grit their teeth in anger as they behold surging crowds following Obi on the campaign trail. From the fringes of politics, we see influential Igbo businessmen like Chief Arthur Eze, professionals like Osita Chidoka, and diehard politicians like Emeka Ihedioha join forces with Abia and Enugu governors to pitch their tents, actively or surreptitiously, with a candidate of FULANI extraction. Similarly, we also see APC governors (Dave Umahi of Ebonyi and Hope Uzodinma of Imo) team up with a PDP senator (Chimaroke Nnamani, Enugu East), to stoutly support a candidate of YORUBA extraction.
What is the point of all this? We see the retreat of members of the political elite in the major ethnic groups to line up behind their kinsmen. This is understandable and expected. What is not acceptable is the narrative currently promoted by them that (a) this is a fact of Nigerian history and (b) the Igbo started it by backing Peter Obi. The Igbo political elite appear not to be backing Peter Obi. No South East governor has shown up at any of his campaign rallies or uttered a word of support for his candidacy. The governor of his home state publicly declared that Obi is wasting his time because he cannot win.
The support that Peter Obi is getting in the South East region is like the support he receives in Edo, Delta, Rivers, Lagos, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba, and other states. This support is powered by an angry, apolitical youth mob that call themselves Obidients. If they can frustrate the machinations of the political elite when the votes are being cast and counted, it is certain that Peter Obi will gather the mandatory votes in the states to surge to victory in 11 days’ time. It is, therefore, possible that the current effort to reduce Obi to an Igbo candidate is diversionary, perhaps an effort to cover the searchlight from exposing the pernicious propaganda being mounted in parochial enclaves to halt his surge.