Chiedu Uche Okoye
In Nigeria, we have had our own fair share of conflicts, which are not unconnected to Nigeria’s multi-ethnic composition. Nigeria, a heterogeneous country, is composed of more than 250 ethnic and linguistic groups, such as Ijaw, Kanuri, Fulani, Gwari, Bini, Nupe, Urhobo, Hausa, Ibibio, Igbo, Yoruba, and many others.
It is Nigeria’s multi-ethnic nature that informs our adoption of federalism. The practice of federalism, it is believed, will guarantee the speedy development of the federating units that make up Nigeria. And federalism makes it easy and possible for the federating units in a country to embark on developmental initiatives based on their cultural peculiarities.
However, our adoption of the federalist structure has not hastened the development of Nigeria. Rather, political conflicts, which are traceable to ethnic rivalry, which has existed among the people(s) of Nigeria, have been rocking Nigeria. Before Nigeria became a politically independent country, the foundation of our country’s unity was shaken with the northern people’s threat of secession in the 1950s.More so, the political parties that existed in the first republic were not truly and wholly nationalistic in outlook and orientation. They are more or less ethnic-based political parties. The Action Group (AG) was to the western region what Northern People’s Congress (NPC) was to the northern region. And, the NCNC was thought to belong to the Igbo people of the eastern region. The formation of ethnic-based political parties from the first republic to the fourth republic shows that Nigerians are deeply conscious of their ethnic origins.
More so, Nigerians, who belong to diverse ethnic groups, are suspicious of one another. An Igbo man views Yoruba and Hausa people with distrust because he is prejudiced against them. Likewise, people from other ethnic groups are very wary of the Igbo people and will impute bad motives to their actions. So, when the young army officers executed the January 15, 1966 coup, which caused the death of Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, our prime minister then, it was tagged an Igbo corp. Because Igbo military officers and top politicians were not killed in the putsch, it reinforced the belief and theory that it was an Igbo coup. They said that the coup was executed to enthrone the Igbo political hegemony and dominance of the Nigerian politics and leadership architecture.
Consequently, there was a counter-coup in July 1966, which led to the death of Aguiyi Ironsi, who was Nigeria’s head of state, then. Thereafter, there was genocidal decimation of the Igbo population in the northern part of Nigeria. It was that egregious state of things that prompted the military administrator of the eastern region, Col Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, to lead the Igbo to embark on a secessionist war, which raged between 1967 and 1970. The war caused the death of millions of people and destruction of property.
But, after the end of the Nigeria-Biafra war many years ago, has the rest of Nigerians forgiven the Igbo people for fighting a secessionist war? Are the Igbo people not viewed with distrust and treated as second class citizens in Nigeria? And they are stereotyped as corrupt. And when sectarian violence breaks out in the north, they’ll be targets for extermination.
To make matters worse, Nnamdi Kanu’s resuscitation of the pro-Biafra sentiments has not helped the Igbo cause in Nigeria. Until its proscription, the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) members’ calls for the creation of the state of Biafra, which were strident, threatened the continued existence of Nigeria as one country. Their agitation for the creation of the state of Biafra elicited this question: what does the Igbo want, Nigerian Presidency or the Republic of Biafra?
At this juncture in our country’s political odyssey, what Nigeria needs now is a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction. Since the inception of Nigeria, save for the brief period when Aguiyi Ironsi was the head of state of Nigeria, no Igbo man has ruled Nigeria.
In the first republic, when we practised parliamentary system of government, Nnamdi Azikiwe couldn’t become the Prime Minister of Nigeria because the departing British overlords helped Alhaji Tafawa Balewa to become our Prime Minister. They believed that Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, as our Prime Minister, would be amenable to the dictations of the British imperialists. And in the second republic, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s attempts to win the Presidential election on the political platform of NPP ended without success.
But, now, in the fourth republic, the Igbo people fluffed a golden opportunity to produce a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction when they betrayed the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme at the PDP convention in Jos in 1998. At that time, he was in a pole-position to emerge as the PDP Presidential candidate in the run-up to the 1999 Presidential election. Had he won that PDP Presidential ticket, he would have become the President of Nigeria as PDP was the most formidable political party in Nigeria, then. But, his Igbo compatriots who were top members of PDP sold him down the river for pecuniary and selfish reasons.
Since the end of the civil war, the Igbo people have not reached a consensus on an issue, not to talk of their fighting to achieve a common objective with single-mindedness and uncommon resoluteness. Now, the Igbo people work at cross-purposes regarding issues that are critical to the development of the South-East. This has become their Achilles’ heel and major drawback in their quest to produce a Nigerian President of Igbo origin.
But, above all these, fairness and political equity demand that all political parties should present only Igbo politicians as their presidential candidates in the 2023 presidential election. If the political parties do this, it will be reenactment of what happened in 1999. And, it will assuage the Igbo people’s feelings of hopelessness and disillusionment and assure them that Nigeria belongs to them, too. We should remember that the Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani had taken turns to rule Nigeria. So, let us help the Igbo people to produce the President of Nigeria: it is a path that will lead to the deepening of our national unity and cohesion
Okoye writes from Uruowulu-Obosi Anambra State