Hating people because of their colour is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which colour does the hating. It’s just plain wrong
“I cannot thank you enough, Mr Governor, but I will be careful with your future invitations.” Curious as it may sound, the above concluding remark of Mr President’s Imo speech on September 8, 2021, is already a subject of quote-out-of-context controversy between the presidency and the public media.
Whereas the media construed the statement to mean the President’s task in Imo was not worth his while, a presidential aide said that interpretation was contorted. The president meant that lining up some 50 Igbo leaders for a meeting with him was a surprise and ambush that would make him reconsider future invitations from Imo, which prides itself as the Igbo heartland.
Who cares who is right or wrong? What matTers is that Mr President was caught off guard; he was not ready to address any issues of Igbo concern. Ndigbo are a dot in a circle, after all.
President Muhammadu Buhari is neither seen [nor does his body language show him up] as a friend of Ndigbo, politically speaking. This indisputable fact has come through over the years. He does not even bother to confirm or deny it.
These two political elements, Buhari and the people [of the South-East region] appear to have mutually agreed never to mend fences. Each time an opportunity crops up to iron out their differences and move towards harmony, it is frittered away.
Easily, the most conspicuous political enemy of Ndigbo today is undeniably the Nigerian President. Both are aware of the frosty relations and in the history of governments in Nigeria, none has turned its back on Ndigbo as this regime has done since 2015. I daresay Igbophobia is now an unofficial policy.
Also, in all the five elections he ran before 2015, Buhari failed woefully in galvanizing the Ndigbo votes. Left for him, Buhari might not have bothered on canvassing for Igbo votes in 2015 and 2019. He did that, however, to fulfil all righteousness. So he went, made no campaign promises, and the people did not expect any promises either. When you are not expecting, you will hardly be disappointed.
At his inauguration on May 29, 2015, he talked about belonging to nobody, and pundits mIsconstrued it as a born-again Buhari coming to do a new thing, embrace all irrespective of party, religion, and ethnic affiliations. Soon after, while abroad [in the United States of all places!], he came up with his infamous ratio of 95:5 political patronage. It was an undisguised reference to states that voted APC and the South-East states that did not.
That political patronage rhetoric has remained the operational guide for his government ever since, making sure that Ndigbo got nothing above five per cent in federal office sharing. In over a dozen critical areas in paramilitary and military postings, Buhari has made sure the South-East never smelt any commanding positions under his watch in the last six years.
The ministerial positions had to come because of the mandatory constitutional requirements of at least one appointee from every state. The other inclusive demands on appointments by the federal character rules were ignored possibly because it contradicted the President’s nepotic agenda.
So when a political foe like that comes visiting, naturally there will be mixed feelings over how to treat him–receive him warmly or remain indifferent to his visit? The latter was chosen by Imo people when President Buhari came. Since they neither could stand his presence and nor wanted to embarrass him, they stayed home, halting all business activities in the state. They remained home watching the television. While elders tuned in to Africa Magic, women and youths tuned in to Zee World and the provocative Big Brother reality show until it was announced that the ‘unwanted’ visitor had gone. Then Owerri cracled to life and resumed bubbling.
That was a very bold statement, more tactful than placard-carrying and catcalls. The crowd hired by the state government was so lacklustre as the silence and withdrawal of their brothers and sisters at home had drowned the initial hype.
President Buhari’s Igbo attire became the high point, not just because of the designer outfit which portrayed him as identifying with a dot in a circle, but also the unique, off style tailoring has remained a butt of jokes one week after.
Maybe, some argue, that the tailor is a Biafra apologist who decided to register his protest by sewing “patari” for the president as trouser. The elephant tusk held by the President, a Fulani high chief visiting Igboland, helped him to avoid handshakes as per the Covid-19 protocols. As the President inspected the guard of honour mounted by the state government officials who came out to welcome him, the only person he stopped to smile at was an army officer, in apparent acknowledgement of their good work at keeping the irritant separatist-Biafra agitators at bay.
The welcome address from the umbrella Igbo organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, did not reflect the mood and feeling of the people. The diplomat in the Ohanaeze President-General, Prof George Obiozor, took the centre stage. Obiozor presented issues gingerly, shying away from calling a spade by its proper name.
They were afraid to mention the twin words of restructuring and zoning when it mattered most.
The speech looked finetuned [“watered down”, if you like] either inside the Government House, Owerri, or the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja. Either way, the effect was to mollycoddle Mr President and soothe the temperament of the visitor.
Towards the end of the address, devolution of power was vaguely mentioned without the usual punch. Everything was done in the address not to ruffle the well preened political feathers of the august visitor. Yet he didn’t like the ambush, hence the promised preview of future invitations to Imo.
Compare and contrast the Owerri show with the legendary sycophancy exhibited by Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi who had prayed that God gives Nigeria another President with a good heart like Buhari’s. The governor is still waiting for his audience to chorus the usual “Amen” to end his prayer for another Buhari because the gathering thought the governor omitted critical words from his supplications.
It’s still baffling that Buhari, the clear South-East nemesis, was right before those leaders who got a rare opportunity to tell the kola nut the bitter truth but failed despite Ndigbo being the worst victim of his nepotism agenda
Ohanaeze also remained mum on the infrastructural decay in the region due to neglect, at least Enugu – Onitsha Road and Enugu Port Harcourt road.
The president who is spending billions to construct a highway to Niger Republic and connecting railways to neighbouring countries without looking at the dilapidated eastern railway and deplorable state of roads in the South-East was before them and they beat around the bush.
As far as the President is concerned, Ndigbo are not victims because, in his words, they owned the Nigerian economy. Yet, he refused to appreciate them. Perhaps, he expects Ndigbo to build their infrastructure because they own the economy while his Fulani owns the politics of Nigeria. In a very subtle way, President Buhari has disclosed his inner mind about why ndigbo are not having space in his administration. He didn’t feel they should control the economy and still have a say in the polity.
But all said and done, Imo deserves pity in their political development. The state has remained the heartland of Ndigbo in many spheres. In the days of late Biafra hero, Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Imo was where he had more ardent supporters than even his home state of Anambra. The Imo populace remain fanatical on all Ndigbo issues.
But political inconsistency has exposed the state to all kinds of characters as leaders. Since the Otokoto saga, Imo has never been the same. It’s the only state in Nigeria that has been ruled by four political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Peoples Progressives Alliance, PPA, and the All Progressives Congress, APC.
This gives insight into the political instability in the state. Except perhaps Achike Udenwa and Emeka Ihedioha, the state leadership has been graduates of the same school. It’s also for this instability that one political area, the Orlu zone, has remained in power for seventeen of the 22 years of this dispensation. Justice and fairness have different meanings in Imo State when it comes to power-sharing.
The two APC sponsored governors, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and Hope Uzodinma have in their struggle for legitimacy found themselves licking the butt of the North. Their predicament is understandable given that being in the wrong with their kith and kin, they needed to source power elsewhere. Added to the woes of Imo is the Supreme Court abracadabra that brought Uzodinma to the office and has placed him in a very delicate position. What is happening in Imo State, precisely the political restiveness, is a fallout of the wrong placement of the people’s franchise in the hands of the Supreme Court.
As we ruminate about the Buhari visit to Imo State, may it not be lost on us that at the centre of the frosty relations between South East and Buhari is justice and its use.
When it concerns Ndigbo, the President has refused to see justice in the words of Emperor Justinian of the old Roman Empire “as the constant and perpetual wish to render to every one his due.”
Truth is that the South-East people are not being rendered their due under Buhari’s watch.
God, help us.