Ever seen a tripod standing on two legs? Such a tripod can never have balance but will keep wobbling until it spills its contents.
This best describes our country, Nigeria. Selfishness and greed have shoved equity, fairness and justice to the background such that the country has continued to careen from one crisis to another. Despite strident cries to right the wrongs of the past, the selfish among Nigeria’s political leaders have continued to manipulate the system in their favour, not minding that this, more than anything else, is responsible for the country’s backwardness in the midst of plenty.
However, an opportunity beckons for the healing process to begin at the incoming Ninth National Assembly where lovers of truth and justice have been clamouring that the South-East should be allowed to produce the next Speaker of the House of Representatives.
As a matter of fact, the South-East actually initiated this process by correcting its mistakes in 2015. The area gave the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and its candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, greater number of votes in the last general elections than it did in 2015 when the candidature of Buhari and his party did not jell with the people and so irked the president we got stuck to the infamous 95:5% sharing formula.
Prominent Igbo politicians took up the gauntlet in this dispensation and ensured that the president recorded a much better outing, scoring the constitutionally mandatory 25% in three out of the five South-East states, marking it out as the most improved region. The expectation, therefore, is high that this time around the area will no longer be stigmatised by its past but shine like burnished gold in the incoming government.
Therefore, the president and the APC hierarchy must see to it that principal offices in the political leadership of the country are equitably distributed among the different areas. The President is from the North-West while his vice is from the South-west. The North-East has been penciled down for senate presidency while the chairman of APC is from South-South.
The question begging for answers is where the South-East, the third leg of the tripod, is? It is shocking to even moot the idea of ceding the speaker’s position to the South-West, which has already produced the Vice President whereas the South-East is yet to get anything. Haba! Is Nigeria that ungodly that even natural justice should be bludgeoned on the altar of greed and selfishness?
The leadership of the APC and President Buhari should ensure inclusiveness and that no section is treated as being more Nigerian than others and no one person should be allowed to grub so much while compatriots starve.
In those days of anomie, South-East was also schemed out on the flimsy excuse that it had no qualified candidate. Thankfully, that puerile argument is no longer tenable. The South-East now has the finest of them all in the person of Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, an experienced returnee lawmaker. He was in the House between 1999 and 2003. He headed the Works, Lands and Housing Committee and was rated the best legislator in Nigeria by a United Nations democracy study.
Nwajiuba is accessible, intelligent, suave and alien to the bringandage of do-or-die politicsinherent in our climes. His ability to network and build friendships across the six geo-political zones is legendary. That is why his emergence and interest in the speaker’s position has received groundswell support and upset the apple cart of established mercantile power-brokers.Certainly, Nwajiuba, a holder of doctorate degree in law, is the bridge builder that can pull Nigeria together. He stands head and shoulders taller than other contenders for the post irrespective of overbearing godfather endorsement. Nigeria will be the loser ifdisingenuous interests rob the National Assembly of the huge asset that is this young man.
He is being blackmailed for belonging to a different political party. Everybody knows that this is not true. Everybody knows how God used the Accord Party to prevent the eclipse of this bright hope of the nation by the amalgamation of evil in the Imo APC. It is common knowledge too that he never left APC but only ran election on the platform of Accord Party under special arrangement, which even boosted Buhari’s performance in Imo State. That is why today, the highly cerebral lawmaker is running his campaign for the plum Speaker’s seat on the slogan of ‘APC One Accord’. How elegant, how so brilliant!
It is this kind of ingenuity that has endeared him to many across the country. It is not about making tours and issuing dubious and unverified claims of supporters; it is about the pulse of the people, which the party must not disregard.
There are many reasons APC must consider zoning the speaker’s slot to the South-East. It is theirs by right since other areas have been settled. The South-East deserves to produce the Speaker and that is the truth. They are not fighting with any tribe or person but insisting to be accorded their rightful dues in a country in which they are equal stakeholders to give Nigeria balance and save her from self-atrophy.
Of course, we recognise this quest will not have the support of all, even among some ‘Judasic’ Igbo. We know those who starve their conscience to serve their stomach. Nevertheless, conscience, they say, is an open wound, which only truth can heal. It is in their best interest to retrace their steps now before the train of a new Nigeria under Buhari rolls out of the station.
This is especially as the South-East has a peerless lawmaker, who possesses all it takes to lead the House. He is an uncommon achiever, which can be deduced from his performance during his first outing in the House and in his present occupation as chairman, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, where he has proved his mettle unscathed.
Nigeria can ill afford paying lip service to unity. That has led to describing the country, as mere geographical expression. This generation of Nigerians must ensure that the country is made real. It begins with accommodating all sections and views of citizens. Nwajiuba’s emergence will bring the South-East from the cold into the mainstream political leadership of this country.
Such is the fastest route to arresting various agitations for self-determination. It is self-evident that excluding some section of the country from decision making process is clear signal that, they are unwanted or second class citizens. That is not acceptable.
Therefore, all men of good conscience and lovers of truth must step out to be counted. They cannot afford to remain silent while Rome burns. It is the inalienable right of the South-East to produce the next Speaker of the House of Representatives and God, through whose providence Nwajiuba got to the House, has graciously presented this country with a man in whom the charm, intellect, wisdom and resilience coalesce to steer the ship of next NASS to great heights sans unnecessary executive-legislative acrimony.