The conspiracy against the Igbos can no longer be explained away or misconstrued as political naivety or miscalculation on the part of the Igbos. Events playing out in the polity confirms that there is a deliberate orchestration to subjugate, exclude, and marginalized the Igbos in the governance architecture of the country.
In the wake of IPOB self-determination agitations, some prominent northerners came out to say that the Southeast can’t stampede them to concede the presidency to the region through the secession plot. They asserted that if the southeast wanted the presidency, they should get involved in the democratic process.
Frankly speaking, that position at that time was sarcastically and mischievously maintained because their computation was based on the traditional political dynamics where the North often dominated the south politically.
Against that background , it was then a luxurious contemplation to figure out the possibility of a southeasterner gaining national acceptance to change the entrenched political equation and dynamics.
In their parochial political computation, no southeasterner can upstage the political disequilibrium of winning the presidency any time soon.
Then it happened that Peter Obi came over, squared up against formidable political juggernauts and gladiators, on a platform of a comparatively unpopular party and conquered convincingly to the consternation of political pundits who were short of words to describe the revolution but to helplessly tagged it the ‘Obi Tsunami.’
Accordingly, since the idea of a southeasterner not winning the presidency was shattered by the Obi Tsunami, the handlers or supposed owners of Nigeria were stripped naked to expose not only their naivety and ignorance of socio-political dynamism in an evolutionary society like Nigeria, but also their conspiracy against the Igbo Presidency.
They were exposed for us to know that they would do everything within their power to stop an Igbo man from being a president. Hence the the February 25th rape. It doesn’t matter if Nigeria goes up in flames one thing must never happen, and that is an Igbo president!
The question is why would Nigerian not have an Igbo man as president? Where is the one Nigeria if other federating units are not allowed to occupy certain offices in a multiethnic Nigeria?
Several excuses have been advanced as the reason for the exclusion and marginalization of the Igbos. I have heard people say that the north is afraid of Igbo presidency because of secession, which was demonstrated by Ojukwu and led to the civil war. The idea is that the Igbos do not believe in one Nigeria. But this is mendacious and a concocted lie.
To debunk this unfounded mendacity, I can tell you that the Igbos are more nationalistic than any other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. For example, an Igbo man can be found everywhere in Nigeria. They are not only found everywhere, they have built concrete houses and married in those places.
It takes a sense of belonging, a spirit of nationality, a demonstration of faith in one Nigeria for someone from the east to go as far as Sokoto, Kano, Bauchi, and Bornu in far north to build a concrete house and live in. What other Gospel of Nationalism and Patriotism is more genuine and authentic than that?
On the contrary, how many Hausa/Fulani especially the Fulanis built houses in the south talk-less of the southeast? They travel there with their mat, live in kiosks all of their duration there and leave with their mat. Yet they don’t perceive that as an expression of distrust and disbelief in one Nigeria.
Regrettably, the issue of dividing Nigeria is what the anti-Igbo proponents conjure to deny them presidency.
We must understand that the anti-Igbo conspiracy predated the civil war. The declaration of Biafra was an attempt to procure an answer to the question of anti-Igbo conspiracy. It was the persecution and killing of the Igbos in northern Nigeria that necessitated the demand for Biafra.
The truth, from my vintage position is that the self-styled landlords of Nigeria are intimidated, affrighted, and insecure about the enormous economic potentials of the Igbos.
Their fear is predicated on the fact that the Igbos are industrious, dexterous, innovative, and creative in almost every sphere. The entrepreneurial spirit of the Igbos is a cause for concern for the Hausa/Fulani elites.
Secondly, the Igbos are very smart to conned. You don’t use them anyhow, they rather use you, that’s they outsmart you. Lazy people don’t feel comfortable in the presence of diligently hard working people like the Igbos.
Again, it must be understood that the gospel of one Nigeria which the north claims to be preaching is heretical and hypocritical. It is a gospel according to the ‘Book of Oil’ in the South.
Truth be told, the North never believed in one Nigeria but the Oil in Nigeria. The singular fragile cord that binds the north and south of Nigeria is oil. Nothing more! If the Oil were found in the North, there wouldn’t have been one Nigeria since in the sixties.
Therefore, the politics of excluding the Igbos from the presidency is never a strategic factor for the integrity, unification and preservation of Nigeria as they want us to believe. Rather, it’s an expression of a complex of fear and insecurity.
The fight against Peter Obi is the fight against Igbo presidency, take it or leave it. They feel that Igbo presidency will empower the Igbos to be more sophisticated, dominating everywhere. And of course, that is the truth and power of industry. But is it a crime to be creative and innovative? But that’s the ‘crime’ of the Igbo man in Nigeria and the very reason Peter Obi is in court rather than in Aso Rock.
Barr. Ajibola Ekor Ubi,
Legal Adviser,
Labour Party,
Kuje.
08066226032
ajibolaubi@gmail.com