It is remarkable that since animosity broke out between Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo and the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, no governor in the South-East region has made a public statement on the issue. None of the governors intervened publicly or called for a coolheaded approach to resolve the misunderstanding. 
It is at times like this that true statesmen stand up to be counted. South-East governors have maintained silence and distance because it is perhaps in their selfish interests to see the quarrel escalate. It is not the first time that Igbo political leaders would abdicate their responsibility when it is most needed.
Four years ago, I wrote perceptively in this column that there was something demonstrably wrong and spine-chilling about politics in the South-East region. At that time in 2018, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, appointed former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, as his running mate for the 2019 election. Everyone expected the appointment of Obi would be hailed by leaders of the South-East. Everyone who thought so was wrong. PDP governors of the South-East states criticised the choice of Obi. And so did some leading politicians in the region.
I noted in that essay that Obi’s selection had split leaders of the South-East. Some PDP governors and political leaders in the region conveyed extreme outrage over Atiku Abubakar’s choice of Obi on the ground that they were not consulted before the decision was made. It was also claimed the governors were angry that Obi was picked ahead of their preferred candidate, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
That was the beginning of the demonstration of idiocy by the governors and some political leaders in the South-East. Rather than support the appointment of Obi as one of their brothers, they chose to set fire on Atiku Abubakar’s impeccable and widely acclaimed decision. That ill-advised response to Obi’s appointment triggered the question: What do South-East (PDP) governors and politicians want for their people? Remember that Obi was, at that time, a member of the PDP. So, it was a double whammy for Obi to be criticised by his fellow party members in the region, as well as by his own brothers serving as governors.
This background provides the context to understand Soludo’s recent criticism of Peter Obi and public response that has become decidedly hostile to Soludo. Believe it or not, regardless of which of the parties or politicians you support, this essay is not about the flare-up of arguments between Soludo and Obi. So many commentaries have been published in that regard.
For decades, the relationship between South-East governors and the people in the region has deteriorated owing to negligence, inability of the governors to provide the basic needs of the people, and lack of socioeconomic development of the region. The situation has worsened. Most of the governors in the region have distanced themselves from the people they were elected to govern. They do not consult with the people. They do not interact with the people. They see no reason to advance the interests of the people or undertake development projects that would benefit their people.
In the South-East region in the past two decades, the governors turned governance into a farce. It is regrettable to see elected governors abdicate their responsibility to provide for the welfare, security, and wellbeing of citizens. Living standards of people have declined incredibly fast. Infrastructure has broken down. Roads have become impassable owing to lack of maintenance. Healthcare is non-existent. Overall, problems that ought to have been stopped at the primary stage were allowed to blossom into full-scale nightmares.
While governors of the South-West agree most times to advance the core interests of people in their region, the situation in the South-East remains dreadful and underdeveloped.
The South-East Governors’ Forum lacks the capacity to pull the region together. It is a dysfunctional organisation that is heavily fractured along silly ideological lines in which each group proclaims to be the noble or humane champion of Igbo economic and political interests. The leaders prefer to brawl with one another rather than push for the security and economic wellbeing of Igbo.
Amid this cataclysmic outlook, a South-East region that is clearly in urgent need of a credible and trustworthy political leader should have seen Peter Obi’s emergence as godsend. No, they cannot see clearly because their eyes are covered with blinkers.
Four years ago, it was not only the South-East PDP governors’ opposition to Obi’s appointment as running mate to Atiku Abubakar that offended many people in the region. What upset many people were the mean-spirited, uncharitable, traitorous, erratic, impulsive, irresponsible, small-minded, and spiteful behaviour of the governors.
In 2018, people in the South-East saw in Obi’s appointment as Atiku’s running mate an opportunity for Igbo to have a presence at the topmost level of government. Although that dream was never actualised, it was lack of unity among the political leaders and governors that cut short that dream goal.
Mercifully, the situation has changed dramatically in 2022. Peter Obi is now standing tall as the Presidential candidate of a different political party, the Labour Party. In politics, four years is a long time to make an impact. Obi is now an unstoppable machine that has galvanised the youth, elders, market women, farmers, public servants, and students across the country. Within four years, his influence has grown.
Part of the reason for the transformation of Obi was the track record he set when he served as Governor of Anambra State. Obi is enjoying a groundswell of public support today because he is seen unquestionably as the best, most promising, most youthful, and most genuine of all the presidential candidates. Another strength is that the support base that Obi and his running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed have built cuts across ethnicity, religion, and region of origin of the teeming supporters.
Many people are shocked that governors of the South-East states have maintained silence since the exchanges between Obi and Soludo erupted. And yet these same Igbo leaders were at the vanguard of complaints about the marginalisation of their people and region by the Muhammadu Buhari government.
The last Igbo politician who attained a high position in the Federal Government was the late Alex Ekwueme, who served as Vice-President in the government of President Shehu Shagari, from 1979 to 1983. That was during Nigeria’s Second Republic. Since that time, for nearly 40 years, no other Igbo man or woman has held, equalled, or exceeded the Vice-Presidential position that Ekwueme held. It is in this context that many people hold the view that the President to succeed Buhari should emerge from the South-East.
For clarity, the support that Peter Obi is currently enjoying is not based solely on his ethnicity. More than his ethnic origin, Peter Obi is seen, among all the presidential candidates, as a genuine Nigerian, a cosmopolitan, and the most competent, most qualified, most appealing, most charismatic, most judicious, most distinguished, most perceptive, and the candidate most acceptable to voters.
Unity is the key reason why other regions in Nigeria continue to do better than the South-East in terms of attracting federal grants and projects, and appointment into top government positions. South-East governors and federal parliamentarians are not united. They do not work collaboratively to get the highest amount of federal benefits for the highest number of people in the region. Anything short of this is political recklessness lifted to a foremost position.