|
|
|
Ndigbo: How Now?
Comfort Obi
 |
I don’t know whether to join my Igbo
brothers in protesting the alleged
marginalisation in the sharing of political offices by the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), or not. I have read all their protests, their misgivings, their sense of abandonment, and I have tried to feel some pain, and/or be in the mood of one being persecuted, as they obviously are. But no. I feel nothing. I don’t feel cheated. Or persecuted. I’m like everything is okay, just okay, and that, after all said and done, it would be business-as-usual.
My opinion is that Ndigbo suffer from persecution syndrome. We always feel everybody is against us. We are always complaining. Atimes, I’m like, may be we are suffering from an inferiority complex. But bloody hell! We are a proud people. Brilliant. We are full of ideas, innovative, and we are industrious. If only we can outgrow this feeling of being persecuted always... if only we can forget that we were the group which surrendered during the Nigerian civil war which ended in 1970, then, we can get on with our lives.
But we cannot. We always feel that boldly written on our faces is the sticker: “you are a conquered group”. Yet, if you ask me, I’ll say we are the architects of our woes, especially, our current woes. What is the story?
Since after the general elections, and since the PDP began to share offices, Ndigbo have been crying blue murder. They are the only group who are buying advert spaces in newspapers protesting the PDP sharing formula, which by the way, has not become official yet. They are the only ones issuing press statements alleging marginalisation. While they are shouting themselves hoarse, and threatening fire and brimstone, other ethnic groups remain calm and collected, working underground, planning, to place their people where it matters most. While they are doing this, they tell nobody what they are doing. They hold meetings which are not made public. And they get results.
Ndigbo started shouting for the “spoils of war” as soon as elections were over. In fact, they had began to fight, even one another, over offices, barely 48 hours after the presidential and National Assembly elections. At the Concorde Hotel Owerri, one re-elected honourable member told me, rather loudly: “Can you imagine that this notorious 419 man (names withheld) is aspiring to be the speaker of the House of Representatives?” He himself was interested in the same position, which was why he called his competitor a 419ner. Two weeks ago, I got a text message from a Pan-Igbo organisation which Think Tank said it “Notes with alarm, the jostling for the various political positions in the Yar’Adua / Jonathan government. The Hausa/Fualni have the Number one position, the South south, the Number Two, we have lost the Number three. Why can we not get the Number 4 post? The Speaker is a government post. The chairmanship of the ruling party which we want is not government one. It is a party affair which the South east deserves. We frown at the attempt to ask us to choose one.”
Two days later, this text message, obviously a press release, found its way into in the media, but with mischievous headlines. “The South east insists on PDP chairmanship.” Not true. That was not the import of the statement. What it was saying was that nobody should ask Ndigbo to choose between the number 4 position and the chairmanship of the PDP; that they would prefer the Speaker’s position, and would in addition want the position of the chairman since it is a party affair.
Since then, some Igbo groups have followed up with the demand for the position of the Speaker. From the PDP point of view, it seems that desire will not come to pass. If the zoning formular of the PDP is anything to go by, then Ndigbo has completely lost. From the beginning, it was obvious that neither the Number One, nor Number Two positions was theirs. They lost any hope of getting those when former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, was inexplicably denied a shot at the presidency. Odili is South south, but his wife, Mary, is Igbo. What is more, Odili's side of Rivers State can comfortably claim being Igbo. We held the number three position for eight years, but ended up disgracing ourselves by the high turn-over of Senate Presidents – four within eight years. Except Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, I quite can’t see what we gained from that position. Perhaps, the tenure of the immediate past Senate President, Ken Nnamani, would find a place in history. He headed a National Assembly which, in its twilight, was bent on dragging his brother, INEC chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu, in the mud. But I digress.
So Ndigbo are crying. Having written them off the first three positions, personally, I don’t see why the Number four position would elude them. The South west which produced the president for four years is bent on being relevant in the next eight years. It is bent on producing the Number 4 position – with the support of the party. I am happy that it is a woman that is being considered for the position. Those who are saying one of the reasons she shouldn’t get it is because she is a woman should hide their heads in shame. They are ne’ve-do-wells. As for those who are saying she didn’t get enough education (she has a diploma in law), my answer is rubbish. What was the educational qualification of disgraced Salisu Buhari when he was elected speaker? And what is the educational qualification of the immediate past Speaker, Aminu Bello Masari? The bottomline is: Does she qualify to be the Speaker? My grouse: Her husband is South south. But again, I digress.
So, Ndigbo have lost all. But that is what bad leadership brings. Ndigbo are not blessed with a leadership with vision. Their leaders are busy fighting one another. The Ohanaeze Ndigbo is factionalised. In the heat of the elections, a faction ordered Ndigbo not to vote for the PDP, even though the handwriting was clear on the wall. It endorsed a candidate it knew wouldn’t win. In the face of the not-too-free general elections, Ndigbo – this same faction – have been the most vociferous in condemning it. When traditional rulers, elders and leaders from other ethnic groups were paying congratulatory visits to President Umaru Yar’Adua, then President-elect, I saw no Igbo group do that. They were busy feeling persecuted.
That was what happened during the National Census. That was how Ndigbo ended up in the minority, population-wise. Our leaders neither mobilised our people, nor did they raise a strong voice when Igbo people were being prevented through threats and physical attacks from coming out to be counted. In other areas, the opposite was the case. When the figures were made public, they began to cry wolf where there is none.
Now the perennial complainants are busy threatening any Igbo man who would take any yeye position in this administration. They talk as if they can influence any. The yeye positions they are talking about are the chairmanship of the PDP, which by the way, I agree is empty, considering that former President Olusegun Obasanjo will be the Chairman, Board of Trustees. Yet it is something. They are even lucky they are being considered. What if it went to some other ethnic group too? They don’t want their people to be Deputy Senate President. So, why don’t they create positions for them? From the recent appointments made by Yar’Adua, it is obvious Ndigbo should start counting their "blessings." Those are prime appointments. And none is Igbo.
Ndigbo will continue to lose until they put their house in order. They will continue to lose until a new leadership emerges in Igboland. For now, Ndigbo are last in everything, almost. See what the Aliko Dangotes, the Mike Adenugas, the Femi Odetolas, and the Wale Babalakins are doing. They are busy buying up Nigeria, investing for their people. But for a few Igbo youngmen (and women) who are struggling to belong, others are busy showing power by using siren, and walking around with bodyguards and illegally acquired mobile policemen, and intimidating their people. Some of those who are struggling to make it are being pulled down by their people.
The next eight years may seem far. But I think not. If a new leadership manages to emerge in Igboland, then the people will start planning long before then. Otherwise, Ndigbo will keep complaining, moaning and crying. It is sad.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
