لنستخرج كنوزا من المعرفة و الإبداع و العلم و الأفكار
Cultural Gold Standard
Let me begin this piece by first laying the cultural and moral foundation of right political conduct and its applicability to the just concluded Nigerian elections, including the respective roles played by the major ethnic groups with particular reference to the Yorubas, Ndigbo and the Hausa/Fulani ethnicities in advancing, retarding or otherwise deflecting the moral argument as the case may be. What is life without morality?
As the reader may have noticed perhaps with some sense of alarm, our contemporary world is in a terrible state of flux and anarchy with good old morality and timeless principles founded on basic Christian, Islamic and other religious and cultural values and traditions being actively undermined, suppressed and in some cases, tossed out the window by super charged liberals in the West seemingly on cultural demolition rampage. This is why liberalism continues to be regarded in several informed quarters as a curse despite its pretensions, allurements, seductions and beguilements to the contrary that fool even the righteous and lulls them into a state of complacency and indifference to their own perils.
It is, therefore, incumbent on those who cherish their cultures and traditions to fight back and beat back this insidious force to submission and erase it from the face of the earth. Unfortunately for now, the much needed mass awareness and consciousness have yet to take hold in the West in critical mass. But it is coming as the recent election results in the UK and Australia have demonstrated. France is next. Germany will follow suit. The United States is already on the cusp of massive change in the forthcoming 2016 presidential election, which will make the 2014 mid term election a child’s play as the people are fed up and sick and tired of liberalism gone rougue. And before long the liberal house of cards in the West will crumble, its corrosive materials destined for the public landfills. Before that happens the struggle of our time must continue.
Long dismissed and cast aside as social misfits and outcasts in most traditional societies, they’re coming out flaming with vengeance, determined to settle old scores once and for all and redraw the boundaries of morality to encompass their weird tastes and immoral proclivities. And with liberals in power helping them along in the West, social taboos are being clothed in the garbs of the “new normal” in order to remove their social stigmas and bring them into the mainstream of society. A tiny minority of rebellious and petulant individuals bent on upending our moral order is changing our world as we knew it from time immemorial and remaking it in their warped and demented images before our very own eyes.
These renegade revisionist forces are particularly hyperactive, relentless and ruthless too, in their modus operandi and have succeeded in co-opting, through sundry tactics of threats and intimidation and in some cases outright bribery via political campaign contributions (which are western politicians’ Achilles heels), big businesses, politicians and even religious bodies to their immoral causes. Even the Vatican, which is supposed to be the last man standing and the bulwark against unbridled hedonism, is now speaking from both sides of its mouth in fundamental matters of Christian morality even as several Christian denominations have totally and completely caved in to the demands of unabashed secularism. It’s a shame that our world has lost its moral compass and drifting aimlessly at sea.
In all their diversities and complexities and the onslaught of secular attacks traditional principles, however, there are certain similarities and commonalities existing amongst different cultures that have remained permanent and eternal from time immemorial with regard to their value systems. As we all may know, a value system simpliciter is a system, i.e. an interrelated body of dos and don’ts regulating social behavior of individual and group members of any society.
The human race is governed by broad based value systems embodied in different cultural systems as universal cultural standards of behavioral conducts and expectations. In virtually all departments of life, observance and adherence to established and cherished principles; whether by individuals, groups, institutions or nations, as the case may be, is not only respected but celebrated and rightfully held up as beacon for others to emulate as the gold standard.
The reason for this is to hold up that particular standard as the gold standard, deviation from which elicits moral and/or legal sanctions. Thus when a particular conduct meets or approaches the goal standard, it is applauded and celebrated by society. Conversely, when a particular conduct veers in the opposite direction, it elicits condemnation and censure. All of this is possible because society functions maximally on the basis of “shared” values deviation from which is a threat established moral order.
A man in want who is tempted by another but refuses to take bribe in the course of his official duties is acting on a cherished cultural principle of personal integrity embodied in both his immediate and universal cultural frame of reference that he had already internalized in his socialization process. Ditto for the man who, lacking material comfort, finds a fortune at the back seat of a taxi cab and nevertheless turns it in his find to the rightful owner.
It should be noted that not all individuals in similar positions and circumstances in life would do the same, and many would in fact do the exact opposite of pocketing the bribe or the find as the case may be, and even thank God for His “blessings” while at it. Society praises, rewards and celebrates the former as worthy example for others to follow in similar circumstances, and frowns at, even punishes the latter as immoral and disgraceful conduct unworthy of its members. This is one of the most primordial, time honored methods of social control that has stood the test of time.
Either way, such moral pronouncements and judgements may or may not lead to any formal legal actions either for or against the individuals concerned, because as students of jurisprudence perfectly understand, the boundaries of law and morality are not necessarily co-terminus though intersecting and overlapping at several points in great many areas of life. Every minute of the day situations present themselves in life that call for the application of this social tool.
In the last general elections the Nigeria society has been deploying this cultural gold standard in evaluating the conduct of several individuals associated with the elections, either as referees, contestants, party officials and members, and the electorates. In the body of the contestants for example, candidate Goodluck Jonathan has been grabbing all the accolades not because he won the vote but because he lost it. And it’s not just because he lost it but because he accepted his loss in good faith without howling and throwing up mud to rubbish the election and endanger the peace and tranquility that the nation deserves because the nation is greater than any individual whether wronged or not. In so doing so, however, Jonathan did the unthinkable and unimaginable in Nigeria and thereby stole the thunder from Buhari’s victory and the celebration it ordinarily would have been entitled to and truly deserves.
In other words, Jonathan’s exemplary conduct sucked the oxygen from Buhari’s victory lap or at least enabled him to share the spotlight with Buhari. I have observed more people praising Jonathan in defeat than congratulating Buhari in victory. It cost Jonathan nothing to write his name glowingly in history. A simple phone call put across in the perfect moment followed by a concessionary statement was all it took because great deeds need not cost an arm and a leg. Jonathan is already being called a “national hero”—all because he chose for the first time to exhume and observe a cardinal and fundamental cultural norm that seemed to have been buried deep in Nigeria’s political landfill for a long, long time and became almost extinct as cherished value. Should this lead to a cultural revival of sorts in the political arena, history will celebrate Jonathan as a true national hero for reawakening the nation’s cultural consciousness.
It’s the only election I have seen where the defeated candidate is being endlessly toasted even as the winner is growing more and more pathetic by the day, suddenly dazed and frightful if not altogether frozen by the enormous responsibilities suddenly thrust upon his shoulders and dialing down expectations as reality stares him in the face. Who would blame president-elect Muhammadu Buhari for seemingly developing cold feet? The learning curve will indeed be steep in democratic governance, and he will be compelled to undergo on-the-job training. He may not be new to power but he’s certainly new to democracy, and there is a gulf between the two that he must hasten to bridge. And all of that as Nigerians begin to pile immense pressure on him to deliver the goods he had promised them repeatedly with “immediate effect,” for uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. The difference between command and control dictatorship and give and take democracy will soon make itself known to President Buhari right from day one.
Test of Leadership
Excuses will not short in coming and the public will be inundated with a litany of excuses. That’s right. In the place of the deafening high sounding electoral promises repeated ad nauseam will be excuses. First in line: we’re pointedly going to be told that they all met “empty treasuries” as reason for their non-performance and non-delivery on their electoral promises. As a matter of fact this is currently being rehearsed by governors-elect at the state level preparatory to its probable adoption and amplification at the national level by the president-elect either before or after his inauguration.
Related reading: Nigeria’s Economy: President-Elect Buhari Will Face Fuel Shortages, Low Revenues And Boko Haram.
The dress rehearsal has begun—the failure conditioning game with full press corps and must be thwarted. Are these not the problems they promised to fix? Are these not the issues they campaigned on and promised to address? Part of my job is to hold leaders accountable to the people as well as help promote enlightened citizenry. Politicians will make excuses if they know they can get away with it and it is the job of the people to deny them escape routes and hold them accountable. These excuses therefore are clearly designed to reduce or even altogether eliminate the impact of the inevitable crisis of expectations on the part of the Nigerian people, which I had written about in my last piece. See http://africanheraldexpress.com/blog8/2015/05/09/buhari-a-blast-from-the-past-is-no-answer-for-the-future/.
Watch out for the drumbeats of “empty treasures” lamentations gushing out of official quarters at all levels as the new governments take off. Whether they get away with it or not will of course depend on how Nigerians in general react to these self-serving claims and cynical attempts at executive absolution by those who had promised them El dorados only a few weeks ago. It will be interesting and indeed gratifying to observe later on that Nigerians are in no mood for self-serving excuses from the APC and its hirelings in the media. Oh they want to rule so bad and perform some miracles for Nigerians that they were ready to kill for it and destroy others’ reputation? Great! Here are the keys to the Villa and state government houses. Grab them all and begin your great leadership show, baby. Now you have the proverbial yam and the knife in your hands and all you have to do is cut it. But read our lips Sir: No excuses here!
Now, it should be made absolutely clear to the incoming administrations of whichever parties at both state and national levels that the test of good leadership is not meeting a “full treasury” at inception but taking what you have and building on it rather than expecting the treasury to be running over and busting at the seams at inception and then just sit back and spend like drunken sailors. Their predecessors never received state and natural treasuries running over with petro-dollars when they took over power in their times, so why should they expect more with rapidly falling oil prices these past several months on which the nation depends for sustenance and development? Are they nuts or what or they just dropped from another planet?
It is therefore incumbent on the incoming administrations to build up their respective treasuries and begin to implement their programs and not expect full treasuries built up by their predecessors and left behind for them to fritter away. And if per-chance they happen to meet empty treasures, all well and good and nothing to whine and wring their hands about. Let them settled down, get down to business and refill their treasuries as their first order of business because governance is not a one man show but a system that runs on auto pilot. The revenue departments of government do not wait for a governor or president to be sworn in before filling up the treasuries—one naira and one kobo at a time. It is incumbent on them to broaden and deepen their revenue bases to pull in more revenues.
That is where the rubber meets the road in leadership. Therefore all the whining currently going on in the states about “empty treasury” should stop forthwith and the governors-elect must put on their thinking caps and develop revenue generating policies as a critical component of their leadership capacities and capabilities—not just winning elections by hook or crook and going to sleep. The real work of governance—the heavy lifting—is only just beginning.
It comes with the territory. Doesn’t it? They were not elected just to come in in flowing agbadas and babaringas with retinue of aides and settle down to spend what others had produced and left behind for them but to produce their own wealth for their states by developing and implementing economic and income generating programs and opportunities for their states. This is so basic and elementary that it requires no restatements or reminders here.
If they had done their homework well, they ought to be fully abreast of the financial health and economic statuses of their respective states coming in, and therefore ought not to be taken by surprise. The revenue profiles of the federal, states and local governments are not secret matters but open to the public. And if the incoming leaders are as clueless as seems the case, and now running scared, it’s an indication of big troubles ahead. Nigerians should begin to take note of these matters early on because they’re being gradually conditioned and programmed to settle for less than they had bargained for during the electioneering campaigns.
It’s a psychological warfare going on hence I’m spending this much time dwelling on this issue before moving on to the main topic of this piece. It is important to let Nigerians understand this: the treasury is never meant to be full at any time as revenue receipts come in through one door and go out through another continually to meet both recurrent and capital expenditures. A full treasury therefore indicates a complete state of inertia in governance in which nothing is happening, including payment of salaries and project execution, amongst others. At this point in time in the fiscal year, not much should be in the treasury this early in the year because budgets are based on logical expectations or hypotheticals not actual revenue receipts already sitting there budgeted and just waiting to be spent.
It’s like counting your chicks before they’re actually hatched based on mere egg count. Well, that’s not how it works in real life. You count your chicks after not before they’re hatched. Some people think just because so much is budgeted in a given year, so much is actually received. That is not the case as actual revenue receipts could be more or less. When it’s more it results in budget surplus and when it’s less it results in budget deficit. Do these politicians crying about “empty treasuries” understand that or it’s just plain mischief making? No, they don’t for the most part sadly, including Buhari who ought to know better having once been a governor and military ruler. All they’re interested in is playing politics by pointing accusing fingers and beclouding important issues unnecessarily in order to score cheap political points. Do these people need some lessons in fiscal matters? Maybe they need executive orientation classes.
Throwing unsubstantiated corruption charges around with reckless abandon by political office seekers is just as outrageous as acts of corruption themselves committed by public office holders. Nigeria is full of the Lamido Sanusi types who rush to the megaphones to cry wolves where there are none in sinister efforts to tarnish the image of their political adversaries. It’s up to the public to be wary of the antics of such individuals by demanding proofs and the media should be able to help in this if it does not have vested interests in encouraging and promoting such blatant falsehood, rumors and speculations.
Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion but facts are sacred. And when opinions are nicely and seductively dressed up as facts lapped up by gullible masses who couldn’t care less about their substantiation, society is in perils. Incidentally and quite ironical too, Buhari dealt with this issue of false allegations the military way by promulgating the notorious Decree N4 during his military regime. But that is going too far in a democracy because it cuts both ways: discouraging false reports and at the same time shielding corrupt officials who should be exposed, shamed and punished appropriately.
I make no excuses for corruption in any shape or form but suffice it to state that not all cases necessarily involve corruption and swept under that rubric. Some are legitimate revenue shortfalls leading to liquidity crunch or “cash flow” issues as happens in business all the time. Therefore, to expect a full treasury busting at the seams betrays fundamental ignorance of fiscal matters and governance itself. It doesn’t mean the treasuries should be “empty” either, and I’m sure they’re not. So much for the cry-babies taking over as “governors.”
Political Prostitution
The cultural gold standard is a double-edged sword that cuts either way. As earlier indicated, it either rewards or punishes particular conduct. While it celebrates Jonathan’s concession of defeat on the one hand, it is condemning some other particular conduct on the other. Presently the cultural gold stand is being applied to the conduct of the PDP party members who are defecting or to use Nigerian parlance “cross carpeting” to the victorious APC after the loss of PDP and Jonathan in the presidential election even before the remaining elections had been concluded.
All cultures frown at deserters whether in combat situations in the military or in political warfare and Nigeria is no exception. PDP deserters are now the butt of jokes and subjects of vitriolic attacks with even president-elect Buhari and APC Chairman Chief John Odigie Oyegun cautioning them to have a rethink of their actions. They will not be considered for political appointments he warned. Good message there by Buhari. He knew they’re cross-carpeting in order to secure contracts and political appointments from the winning party for themselves. They have no personal principles or core beliefs, and are in politics for mercenary purposes and not to serve the people. How the hell they got themselves elected or represent their constituencies in the first place testifies to the weakness of democracy itself.
Worse still, they have even been labelled “political prostitutes” which is one of the most shameful characterization to be associated with anybody in Nigeria. Political prostitution is as immoral and sinful as sexual prostitution, which only the truly morally depraved individuals can be proud of. Chief Oyegun in particular, had harsh words for the deserters, pointedly describing their actions as inimical to Nigeria’s democratic development. What a shame for the deserters when the leaders of the party they have fled to are giving them such cold shoulders, in fact, tactically rejecting them.
Related reading: PDP Crisis: We Will Expose Saboteurs- Post Election Committee
This is the moral censure that is germane to social control. The cultural gold standard sifts them out and trashes them as cultural dregs and garbage. They tilt towards whichever directions the wind of fortune blows at any given time even if it means betraying their own political parties, leaderships and constituencies. The system is working in identifying and shaming them while they’re at it.
Related reading: Nigeria’s Jonathan says friends abandoned him after defeat
In the same token, the South/West has similarly come under attack for betraying the South in general and Jonathan in particular, and hanging out with the North for the first time in a historical move that not only broke the mold but appeared particularly opportunistic, selfish and self-centered. The sudden volte-face by the Yorubas after denouncing the North and in particular Muhammadu Buhari as the very embodiment of evil for decades, has rightly elicited hostile reactions from society save for those who are parties to this unholy marriage and their co-opted constituents and sundry hirelings.
How could Professor Wole Soyinka and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of all people, for instance, be eviscerating Buhari for the last several decades as the embodiment of evil right up to the last election in 2011 only for them to turn around and embrace him as paragon of virtues and righteousness and the angel Gabriel himself in 2015? How did that come about? Was it a failure of judgement on their part in demonizing Buhari all these years in politics particularly in the previous three presidential election cycles in which they had summarily declared then candidate Buhari unelectable?
I’m clueless about this and must therefore ask for some help. Can somebody please explain to me the logic or political theory behind that other than selfish motivation and crass opportunism? That’s all I see here in this treacherous political gymnastics on the part of these and other turn-coat Yoruba political leaders. Can somebody tell me how the thrice rejected Devil of yesterday suddenly became transformed into an angel overnight that Wole Soyinka and Bola Tinubu, like Biblical Saul, got converted on the way and became two of Buhari’s top tier disciples? Miracles are happening in Nigeria, folks. To so blatantly sacrifice a cherished principle on the altar of political expediency smacks of crass opportunism.
Which begs the question: Have they been wrong all along on Buhari, who had placed their late mentor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo under house arrest and imprisoned several notable Yoruba politicians following his coup in 1983. And have they now suddenly realized this at their old age? Have Nigerians been wrong all these times for rejecting Buhari, not once but thrice in previous presidential elections?
If yes, Buhari deserves unreserved apologies from Soyinka and Tinubu and indeed all Nigerians for thrice rejecting his presidential bids causing him pain that made him to unleash mayhem on innocent Nigerians during the previous elections. If yes, Nigerians must fall on their faces and beg Buhari for forgiveness in their gross misjudgment, and Tinubu and Soyinka should forthwith lead that penitential Jihad to Aso Rock at the Court of Buhari and seek his face in penitence.
No, Tinubu and Soyinka had not been wrong on Buhari all along and suddenly realized their error of judgement. No, they’re not making up for their historical errors. No, Nigerians were not wrong in thrice rejecting Buhari and should have been rejected the fourth and final time, because they were dead right then but dead wrong now. What explains their 180% swing is crass political opportunism based entirely on self-interests rather than overarching principle of morality, which enjoins, rewards and celebrates constancy and consistence of conduct in observance rather than in breach.
Wherever and whenever such volte face occurs in the polity, the golden cultural standard of standing up for a cherished principle must be applied. And applying it to the actions of the Yorubas in the South/West in the last general elections inevitably results in wholesale condemnation of their electoral volte face. This, for me, is not a matter of political expediency or sentimental effusions. It is simply a matter of principle. Period. What is life without principle? Chief Obafemi Awolowo late Yoruba foremost leader and political god was widely regarded and respected as a man of principle who would never yield to crass opportunism as his political successors have so shamelessly done.
It does not mean that individuals or groups cannot change their political allegiance in the face of fundamentally changed circumstances. Of course they can but not so flippantly and cavalierly on flimsy, self-serving excuses. The changed circumstances must be so fundamental and game changing as to warrant the wholesale abandonment of a cherished principle and turning coat.
History provides us with a great example: African Americans were in the past persecuted by the Democratic Party and some would say they still do today under the guise of helping them. As a result they flocked to the Republican Party, which freed them particularly under Republican President Abraham Lincoln with his Emancipation Proclamation decree that ended slavery followed by Voting Rights Act and the rest. Today, however, they have abandoned the Republican Party and embraced the Democrats, who were their former oppressors in Jim Crow’s south.
For insisting on personal responsibility, hard work, moral rectitude and economic self-reliance just to mention but a few, blacks now generally view the Republican Party as the great enemy denying them welfare entitlements which must be avoided. A great majority of African-Americans see only racism in the Republican Party and nothing more, even though it is the more culturally aligned party to their Christian virtues than the anything-goes-Democratic Party promoting abortion, sexual promiscuity, culture of dependency on the state, and sexual perversion, amongst others.
African Americans have now unwittingly been coopted into the wholly immoral agenda of the Democratic Party out of unfounded fear of falling into the hands of the Republicans. The few blacks in the Republican Party like General Collin Powell, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, SC Justice Clarence Thomas, renowned surgeon and presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson and a host of others suffer no such feared oppression and persecution but on the contrary thriving and holding their own as accomplished individuals who are looking to lift fellow blacks and their other compatriots up rather than permanently placing them on public welfare rolls as President Obama and the Democrats are known for.
True or false, the Republicans of today are considered their oppressors and Democrats their saviors. This would of course justify a change in political allegiance if true but perception could satisfy that requirement. In contrast, the Yorubas in the South/West have no such comparable experience in Nigeria. On the contrary, they have suo motu gone ahead to court and embrace their historical oppressors, who have exhibited no change whatsoever in their disposition to their oppressed. African-Americans went back to their oppressors because they sensed a sea change in their disposition toward blacks and the Democratic Party moved radically left and embraced liberalism as an ideology. None of this could be said of the North which has remained fundamentally hegemonic, oligarchic and infinitely oppressive.
What then is the rationale or explanation for this sudden change in political direction of the Yorubas? What are the factors that contributed to this sudden change? This act of political infidelity, to put it mildly, is utterly bizarre and out of character, considering the fact that the Yorubas poured out in droves in the 2011 presidential election, roundly rejected Buhari as unsellable political hardware, and threw their weight behind Jonathan whom they abandoned four years later for the selfsame Buhari.
It beggars belief, to say the least, and so far the Yorubas have kept mum about it and have not offered any coherent and logical explanation to this day as if to say they owe nobody any explanation. Well, they do actually, because what goes around comes around. One day—and it will not be long coming—they will be confronted with this reality and compelled to confess and atone for this political sin. To simply walk away just like that for no apparent reasons or explanation is the height of arrogance and irresponsibility for which a political price will and must be exacted.
Power Sharing Formula
With that said, there is a reason why they would not publicly offer any public explanation. The reason lies in the less than altruistic diabolical nature of the APC alliance itself which, if disclosed publicly, is apt to expose them as selfish and in pursuit of a purely regional as opposed to national agenda. Those who dragged the Yorubas by their noses into this marriage with the Northern oligarchy are not in any way, shape or form interested in the political stability of the nation for which the PDP power sharing formula otherwise known as the “zoning” was designed and implemented.
In the absence of any explanation, therefore, it is open to conjecture if not conclusion that the Yoruba move is essentially aimed at manipulating the power sharing formula in their favor with the help of the North. After all its architect, the PDP, is no longer in power to faithfully implement it. Even so, we see the formula deployed and currently playing a big role in the next National Assembly in the distribution of offices of Speaker and Senate President, which is an indication that there is no going around this formula. It has become an integral part of Nigeria’s political traditions just like federal character before it.
By the logic of that formula therefore power is to rotate i.e. shared between North and South every four or eight years, depending on the particular circumstances and exigencies thrown up by particular elections. For example, an unpopular president could be thrown out of office as has just happened to Jonathan; and when that happens, his zone could lose power to the other or another zone not otherwise entitled to it. Similarly, the death of a sitting president from one zone could cause power shift to another not otherwise entitled to it as was the case with late President Musa Yar’Adua. Impeachment of a sitting president could produce similar results of one zone losing power to another, and this consideration alone has the most chilling effects on impeachment.
Contrarily, however, a popular president from one zone could be re-elected for another four year term before power rotates to another or other zone as was the case with President Obasanjo. The particular elements of the power sharing formula have however not been well formally and publicly articulated and for now operates as a convention rather than legal or constitutional prescription carrying the force of law.
The implementation of this zoning formula by the PDP produced late President Musa Yar’Auda. In fact, the presidency having been zoned to the North precluded any southerner from vying for the office in 2007 due to the fact that Obasanjo alone had exhausted the southern ticket. That explained why no southerner in PDP seriously challenged Yar’Adua at the PDP convention because none was allowed to by then powers that be—aka Obasanjo.
In fact, President Obasanjo not only precluded other PDP southern candidates, but in fact single handedly campaigned for and imposed Yar’Adua on the PDP, who predictably thereafter proceeded to win the presidential election establishing Obasanjo as Nigeria’s quintessential and undisputed kingmaker all the way from former President Shehu Shagari back in 1979, and extending all the way to Musa Yar’Adua and Jonathan and, to a lesser extent, Buhari.
Unfortunately, death prevented Yar’Adua from completing his first term allowing Jonathan, his deputy from the south to take over even when the North had not exhausted its slot because the nation’s constitution which supersedes the provisions of any party arrangement compelled Jonathan to step in, first as acting president and later as full-fledged president. However, regardless of the supremacy of the constitution, Jonathan’s candidacy for the 2011 presidential was nevertheless challenged by the North solely on the grounds of its entitlement to the presidency by virtue of the zoning arrangement. Just like other regions the North had fully bought into the formula and regarded Jonathan as an impostor or usurper. Only on the basis of this formula could the North have legitimately opposed Jonathan’s candidacy in both 2011 and 2015 elections as he was entitled to run for first and second terms under the constitution.
This sentiment was so pervasive in the North that only a miracle could have saved Jonathan, which the liberation of the Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram perhaps might have provided. But Jonathan flunked it big time by failing to move decisively against Boko Haram until the dying days of his rule when the electoral bricks had been set and concrete poured. Now, Yoruba leaders were acutely aware of the huge anti-Jonathan sentiment in the North no matter what he did to placate them and quickly cashed in to drive the final nail on his political coffin. The massive defections of PDP stalwarts in the North was the signal and all the Yorubas—aka APC—needed to move in for the kill.
Yet the question remains as to why would the Yorubas target Jonathan rather than Buhari? This is the elephant in the room. My hypothesis is that Jonathan was targeted rather than Buhari in order to pave the way for a southern, in particular, Yoruba candidate to vie for the presidency in 2019 via the APC alliance, which would deploy its power of incumbency together with universal Northern support to plant a Yoruba man securely in Aso Rock. And this could happen whether Buhari goes for one or two terms. This explains why a Yoruba man is Buhari’s deputy president in order to smoothen the transition. In other words, Buhari’s deputy is supposed to be president-in-waiting or president in-training, if you like, who would step in at a moment’s notice to take the southern slot in the zoning arrangement.
There is the added possibility though that Buhari’s deputy would be asked to vacate his seat for Tinubu to step in after Buhari’s first term. Although all of this is still in the realm of speculation the pieces of our puzzle are snugly falling into place. However, in the event that this hypothesis becomes validated it would mean that the Yorubas who have ruled Nigeria for nearly twelve years under both military and civilian administrations with the last eight ending barely eight years ago will be back in power representing the South again so soon after Obasanjo. This is the diabolical content of the Yoruba plot.
It begs the question: Where does that leave the Ibos as the second largest ethnic group in the South in the power calculus? I hope I’m wrong in this postulation, but all indications so far point to these conclusion. But it would be extremely naïve even to imagine that the Yorubas went into this alliance with the North just so another ethnic group in the South could reap the political rewards.
To all intents and purposes they went into it solely for their own political benefits. Even a fool understands that and the earlier the rest of the South comes to grips with this looming reality the better for them. The Yorubas have moved one step ahead of the rest of the South and to sit back and do nothing is just not an option. Southern leaders should begin to meet and work out ways to address these new challenges by reaching out to the Yorubas and should that fail, plot their own political strategies to deal with this emerging scenario. It’s called strategic and proactive thinking.
Granted that the Yorubas are entitled to gun for the presidency and take care of their political interests, should they do so in total disregard of the in-built logic and imperative of the extant rotational power sharing formula? Since the Yorubas, through Obasanjo, had been the beneficiaries of presidential zoning representing the South for eight years with the active support of the entire South, including Ndigbo, shouldn’t they give way and allow another ethnic group or zone from the South to field the presidential candidate and represent the South in 2019 or thereafter as the case might be? How fair and just is it for the Yorubas to position themselves in this manner to eventually hijack power on behalf of the South by stabbing a fellow southerner in the back in order to attain their sinister and immoral objective?
For the Yorubas to attain this evil objective they had to jettison their age-old antipathy toward the Northern oligarchs, their historical oppressors. For them to attain this unholy objective, they had to betray their southern candidate and align with the North. And in doing this all caution was thrown to the wind. Yoruba elites amongst whom Professor Wole Soyinka is numbered, had to do a quick U-turn and raised their right hands for Buhari. It no longer mattered to Soyinka that he had on record been castigating and pillorying Buhari for decades on end as an implacable critic. And in doing so the Yoruba political elites have thrown a fundamental and cardinal cultural principle overboard and therefore deserve our collective censure, because they’re no longer society’s role models to be held out for social emulation. They’re pretenders and renegades, unworthy of role models and social emulation by the up and coming generations.
Ndigbo Kwenu!
Ndigbo is a chip from a different geological formation altogether: granite—as opposed to clay that is the Yorubas. Ndigbo has demonstrated conclusively that it is made of a sterner stuff. If there is any one major ethnic group in Nigeria that has remained consistent in thick and thin, Ndigbo is it. It’s nationalistic outlook, a bequest from that great pan-Africanist and towering political giant, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe has stood the test of time and weathered all political storms, including I might add for good measure, a fratricidal civil war in which they not only suffered betrayal in the hands of the same Yorubas but bounced back like a tensed spring and became even more nationalistic than the Yorubas themselves. The term nationalistic as used here simply refers to national political outlook of a particular political entity, which embraces all ethnicities and regions as opposed to regional and/or ethnic preoccupations.
In the first Republic Dr. Azikiwe’s NCNC was there at the center with the NPC from the North, leaving the regional AG on the sidelines. In the Second Republic Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NPP was again at the center with the NPN, again leaving the regional UPN on the sidelines. And in the rather short-lived Third Republic Dr. Alex Ekwueme was once again right there at the center with the SDP under which Chief Moshood Abiola contested and won the presidential election with the full support of Ndigbo and yet again leaving the AD on the sidelines.
And even in this Fourth Republic we again saw Dr. Alex Ekwueme together with Musa Yar’Adua political machine—PDM—inherited by Alhaji Abubakar Atiku being the architect of the present PDP of which he was in fact the first national chairman before Chief Solomon Lar took over. He was the leader of G34 in Gen. Abubakar’s transition program that morphed into the present PDP. He did not go to the East to form an Igbo party. Consistent with its nationalist bearings, Ndigbo cast its political lots with nationalist political parties as opposed to ethno/regional one-man shows like Buhari’s CPC or Tinubu’s AC or even its own APGA in the South/East for that matter. As indicated above, this nationalist streak did not start today but began from the very beginning of the founding of the nation in 1960. It shows Ndigbo as the veritable Light House—a beacon of light giving Nigeria a nationalistic political direction in a wholly altruistic manner devoid of schemes and clandestine plots to acquire political power on the back of another.
This is testified to by the fact that in all of these instances cited above, Ndigbo never tasted real power at the center save for the short-lived Gen. Agui-Ironsi military interregnum. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was not an executive president as we have today in the presidential system but a ceremonial president under the parliamentary system which vested executive powers in the office of the Prime Minister occupied by Alhaji Tafawa Balewa. The second highest political office occupied by Ndigbo was vice president by Dr. Alex Ekweme under Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the NPN. That’s about it for Ndigbo politically. It is fair to state, therefore, that Ndigbo has remained consistent, principled and above all, altruistic; taking into due consideration the overall interest of the nation rather than its own parochial interests.
And in the course of this political journeys whatever was zoned to it by way of power sharing was zoned to it and accepted with open arms without threats and intimidation. While some might opine that Ndigbo is so disposed due to civil war defeat, the fact of the matter is that it has always been nationalistic from the very beginning as indicated earlier and was at the forefront of Nigeria’s independence struggle. Ndigbo simply does not believe in undue regionalism and ethnic politicking because they’re outgoing people in nature—expansive and territorial. This should perhaps help to explain why APGA, unlike the AC in the South/West, has failed to gain much traction in the South/East.
While I do not pretend to psycho analyze Ndigbo for the purpose of this piece, one could readily point to the overwhelming influence of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe as pointed out earlier. He was not only nationalistic but pan-African too as evidenced in the names he gave to public institutions he founded in the East to-wit: African Continental Bank (ACB), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), just to mention but a few. He could have named them after Ndigbo. He did this while his peers were naming similar institutions in their regions myopically, ethnically and/or regionally.
This nationalistic gene, I would venture to say, is similarly responsible for the dispersal of Ndigbo all over Nigeria breathing life into dead towns and cities in their legendary commercial activities which some are caricaturing as trading. What is wrong about “trading”? Wall Street is trading. NYSE is trading. All stock exchanges are in the business of trading. Such supposedly derogatory remarks are in fact evidence of gross ignorance of the meaning of that term. Commerce is the heart of national and global economies. And Ndigbo is at the front and center of it in Nigeria. Yes I want to be a trader too, because Wall Street is full of traders powering and driving the US and global economies.
Could the kindred commercial and entrepreneurial l spirits of the people be the real driving force behind its nationalistic drive in order to help protect its huge investments scattered abroad throughout the nation? That is some food for thought. It stands to reason, however, that Ndigbo would desire a peaceful climate in places it has invested heavily in and if we take a census of such places it will have the entire nation covered like a business empire of sorts.
With the kind of nationalistic political support Ndigbo had extended to one and all from other major ethnic groups across the board whether it’s the Hausa/Fulani in the North, Yorubas in the South/West and Ijaws in the South/South, is the question then would be this: Is Ndigbo entitled to the Nigerian presidency on the basis of the extant power sharing formula—zoning—which is in operation today in Nigeria whenever power rotates back to the South?
In answering this all-important question, it must be borne in mind that it is necessarily a question of political power entitlement, and not political power competition. Zoning did away with political power competition, which is replaced with political power entitlement at the level of the presidency, governorship, and all the way down to local government power sharing. The answer must be yes given that the Yorubas in the South/West and minorities in the South/South have had their fills. Given this irrefutable fact then, why are the Yorubas scheming to upstage them come 2019 or thereafter? Where is the justice and fair play in that? And come to think of it, why are the Yorubas, who always pride themselves as advocates of justice and fair play, playing this dangerous game? Fair is square not circle.
In supporting Jonathan till the bitter end while others, including the Yorubas and even PDP’s own unprincipled, fair weather members are busy jumping ship, Ndigbo has yet again demonstrated its unyielding doggedness and adherence to fundamental cultural principles of the first order. It continues to lead the way forward not through treachery, betrayal and backbiting or in expectation of political rewards, but on time honored principle of consistency, altruism and collective interests as opposed to sectional and parochial interests.
Thus while others are changing their political complexion literally overnight as an art form in unabashed oligarchic mimicry, Ndigbo, as a collective, has remained firm and true to itself over the decades—unchanging and unchangeable by filthy lucre. It has stood erect and unyielding as the Shakespearean northern star in whose place there is no other in the Nigerian political firmament. I write these things in praise of Ndigbo not to flatter it but in admiration of its dogged spirit and nationalistic bearing perhaps because subliminally my own ethnic group shares similar cultural traits with Ndigbo. Nigeria would be a whole lot better today if other major ethnic groups would take a page from Ndigbo.
Chimaroke Nnamani’s Lamentations
This is why I find former Anambra state’s PDP governor, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani’s recent interview berating Ndigbo leaders, presumably Ohaneze, for allegedly failing to place Ndigbo at the national table in Buhari’s incoming administration rather unfortunate and condescending because his gratuitous position reeks of crass political opportunism.
Be at what table and to do what? What does he mean by being ‘at the table’? To share the spoils of war with Buhari and Tinubu when his Oba in Lagos is threatening Ndigbo with fire and brimstones? What heresy! Is Chimaroke Nnamani a heretic? I’m sorry, that’s not a prescription for development but for booty sharing—in plain language, corruption.
In a recent interview with IKENNA ONYEKWELU published by the Guardian Newspaper of April 12, 2015, the two term governor of Anambra state had this say about Ndigbo leadership. Right of the bat and seemingly out of nowhere, he launched into the blame game of the Nigerian civil war, describing it as a “war of blame” on the part of Ndigbo.
“Never fight a war of blame,” he lectures Ndigbo sanctimoniously. “Was it Igbo versus the rest or eastern Nigeria or versus the rest of Nigeria, because eastern Nigeria was not synonymous with Igbo land? So, who fought? Was it Igbo versus the northern Nigeria or eastern Nigeria versus northern Nigeria? So when the states were carved up, that was the end, because the oil was gone; the oil was supposed to be the bargaining chip for international assistance. “
Now would somebody tell me what the Nigerian civil war got to do PDP’s loss in the last presidential election? Is Jonathan an Igbo man or an Igbo candidate losing to the Hausa/Fulani hybridized ethnic group? I fail to see the connection for crying out loud.
“So 57 years after where are we? That troubles me. The fact that a government can be formed with virtually zero input from Igbo land saddens me. It means that the Igbo leadership has failed. The wrong people have led us; jobbers, mediocres, have led us. When you get to the table, jobbers and mediocres negotiate for us because the Igbo man appears to be intimidated by intellect,” he continues.
“Igbo man appears to be intimidated by intellect.” Just imagine that nonsense coming from the mouth of an Igbo man about his own people. Who is he referring to in particular? Was the presidential election a contest between the East or more specifically between Ndigbo and the North? One wonders where this man is coming from. Nnamani seems to weeping more than the bereaved, which is a strange development. He seems to have taken Jonathan’s loss personally and extrapolated it into wider Ndigbo loss. Gosh, not even Jonathan’s ethnic group is reacting in this manner.
But he’s not done.
“Remember we were in control, University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, but we lost everything and went through a gradual redeeming process. However, over the years, in the years of the Nigerian union, others have done everything possible to displace Igbo intelligentsia, so that those who argue for us are not equipped, they are not intellectually equipped. At best they had first degree, when you have LLB (Bachelor of Law) or BA (Bachelor of Arts Degree), you are just starting.”
So basically his proposition is to reserve Ndigbo leadership only for the educated elites with chains of degrees to flaunt. This is nothing but politics of exclusionism which is akin to the Northern oligarchic rule. You see he is indirectly copying the North and the South/West while pretending to be original in political thinking. In the North and West, the oligarchs simply point the way and the plebian simply follow them to wherever is appointed unto them. That is not the Ndigbo way of life which is founded on rugged republican individualism. That’s why I would rather be a Republican than a Democrat in the US which believes in top down approach to society dictating and imposing social and economic policies rather than freeing and empowering the individual to be whatever he can be.
While it is true that early Ndigbo leaders had chains of degrees, that was not by design and a trail of degrees has very little to do with quality of political leadership. If that were the sole criterion for leadership the founding fathers of the United States, for example, and Nigerian too, would have been outright disqualified. They were ordinary people the type Nnanami is busy disparaging and calling names.
And come to think of it: Ndigbo is intimidated by whose intellect? North’s intellect? The North parades some the least educated politicians in the land ever since the First Republic. Yet they’re master political strategists and have always been in power. And even today, it has fielded a man who could not even present a secondary school certificate. These are the people Ndigbo leaders are supposed to be intimidated by their intellect? It just doesn’t compute.
And he went on and on ranting as if Ndigbo had just lost another civil war in 2015 all because Jonathan lost! Incredible. Those of you who missed the interview can access it here: http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/04/nnamani-we-need-political-re-awakening-in-igboland/. He lost it completely. It is utterly uncalled for to descend into the depths like this because Ndigbo supported presidential candidate lost to the opposition. And for that Nnamani is running berserk asking for the heads of Ndigbo leadership and calling everyone else unprintable names.
Let’s be blunt here: To put it charitably, what he’s lamenting is the presumptuous absence of Ndigbo at the center sharing war booties with the Hausa/Fulanis and the Yorubas in Abuja. Nnamani has failed to tell us what being at the center brings to Ndigbo or any other ethnic group for that matter. If this is the mentality of Ndigbo intelligentsia it would be alarming but thank goodness it is not. I think Dr. Nnamani went rogue in this and a full reading of the interview will bear this out. What exactly is he saying here: that APC has no Igbo man or woman of substance in it?
I thought I saw Owelle Okoroacha with Buhari. I thought also that senator Ken Nnamani, former president of the senate also has Buhari’s ears and many other notable Ndigbo sons. Are these the people Nnamani is describing as a “jobber” or “mediocre” with just a first degree who is “intimidated by the intellect” to use his derogatory term? This type of mental break down and emotional hemorrhage is totally and completely unbecoming of a former governor of a state which is reputed to be the cradle of Ndigbo intelligentsia and political leadership.
If Chimaroke Nnamani is not at the table no other Ndigbo son or daughter is qualified to be there. He’s the only educated Igbo man to be there with the North, West and South. He alone can adequately represent Ndigbo because he’s the most read of the all and he wants Ndigbo to convene a town hall meeting for that presumably to weed out the traders, mediocres and those with just first degrees now representing Ndigbo and intimidated by the intellect!
I’m not so sure if Nnamani speaks for Ndigbo in this fashion. And I’m not so sure either how much of Ndigbo intelligentsia he speaks for in this fashion. But for me—a humble outsider looking in, this is gross, to say the least, and a disservice to Ndigbo.
If one may respectfully ask our erudite lecturer to educate us some more, what exactly has being at the table at the center done for the North in the last 30 years? What quantum of wealth, knowledge, education, shelter, healthcare, welfare, infrastructural development, commercial and social enterprises, upward economic mobility, scientific and technological innovation and general economic development has it brought to the North in the past 30 plus years it has been at the center?
Nnamani should tell us. He should tell us with appropriate metrics to buttress his position—facts and figures— not just puffing off. Statistics matters for enlightened discussion. If sitting at the table means greasing the palms of a few parasites while pauperizing the masses as has been the Nigerian experience thus far, Ndigbo had better things to do with its time because it does not believe in Northern oligarchy and the mafia politics associated with the North and West. Perhaps Nnamani should be told that Nigerian does not belong to the elites alone with chains of degrees they use to rob the nation blind rather than lift her up. He should be told also that democracy is the people’s business and not the exclusive preserve of the elite class. What’s more, he must be reminded that the best leaders in the world had not higher degrees and many had no university degrees at all because education is not synonymous with wisdom and competence or even intelligence, for there are somethings called native intelligence and innate leadership qualities.
With due respect, Nnamani’s proposition is a mercantilist prescription wholly at odds with the fundamental character of Ndigbo as I know it. Yes Ndigbo wants to be at the center and partake in the affairs of our nation like every other ethnic group in Nigeria. Yes it desires the presidency too, like other major ethnic groups of its caliber. Yes Ndigbo is wholly nationalist in political outlook as indicated in this piece and demonstrated throughout its history. Yes it has supported presidential candidates from other ethnic groups over and above its own in the past as indeed the Yorubas and the Hausa/Fulanis had done in the past under certain circumstances.
Yes Ndigbo is all of the above and much more, but I could not picture it sitting at the same table with pseudo and pretend nationalists of the Buhari and Tinubu genre whose antecedents reek of ethnocentric proclivities. Yes I’m not qualified and do not pretend to speak for Ndigbo but I just don’t picture it doing so out of honor and respect for its cherished political pedigree.
For all its pretenses APC remains an amalgam of ethnic champions who have successfully, it would appear for now, maneuvered themselves into power. Such a conclave of ethnic irredentists and tribal jingoists is not the place for Ndigbo. It would therefore be out of character for Ndigbo to be yoked with Buhari and Tinubu in the name of being at the center. Those who rely on the center for political patronage and spoils of office are the least developed in the nation. The economic salvation of any constituent part of the union does not depend on federal political patronage.
Governor Fashola of Lagos state, for example, has taken this truth to heart knowing that his party is not in control at the center and funding his developmental agenda with internal resources (internally generated revenues) much of which is borne by Ndigbo sons and daughters driving the state’s economy. Lagos and several other states in the South, including Delta, Akwa-Ibom and Rivers are generating tens of billions of naira internally and can do without relying on the federal government to meet their financial needs and obligations. It’s called self-sufficiency.
There is nothing on the ground that suggests that PDP controlled states are better developed because their leaders had easy access to the center under their control. Here is the bottom line that folks like Nnamani ought to educate themselves on before puffing off. Every federating unit should be self-sufficient economically and otherwise as were the regions of old. Period. That is the whole essence of fiscal federalism. A state is not created just so it could be dependent on the federal government to function. That would not be a state but a vassal found in unitary as opposed to federal system of government. In fact, over reliance on political patronage and crumbs from the center is detrimental to internal economic empowerment as African-Americans have since found out in the United States.
Northern Nigeria is today one the most backward if not the most backward regions in the nation which it directly attributable to its over reliance on federal political patronage despite the fact that it had been in power at the center forever. The truth of the matter is that there is only so much the center can do for the states and it has to be spread out to all the states. True development must start and end within.
This notion of federal patronage through political alignment is self-defeatist and wholly unconstitutional in that it against the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy enunciated in the Nigerian constitution providing for equitable distribution of national resources to the federating units. All states are entitled to federal largess and development regardless of political affiliation whether in political appointments or project siting, representing federal character.
This is indicated in the fact that all federally collected revenues accruable to the states and local governments are constitutionally and legally mandated and cannot be withheld, subtracted from or added to on account of sitting at the federal table or belonging to the same party at the center. What is more, the states are equally represented in federal ministerial appointments as a matter of constitutional mandate for a level playing field. The Nigerian constitution—one of the most detailed in the world—takes care of such minute details in order to ensure equity and fair play in the polity.
Federalism imposes the logic and imperatives of independent developmental pathways and governance for the federating units and therefore not subject to the imprimatur of some federal authorities to manage their own affairs.
Nnamani is therefore dead wrong on principles of federalism in which federating units are co-equal and therefore entitled to be treated as such in the dispensation of federal largesse whatever they might be. And he’s equally dead wrong on the fundamental character of Ndigbo as highly principled ethnic group disregarding for now the seeming mercantilist mindset of a few, like Nnamani, who want to be at the table at the center at all costs even if it means sitting with and sharing the tables with ethnic gladiators who had consistently stabbed Ndigbo in the back—yes even now. That is tantamount to dinning and winning with the Devils, which would be out of character for Ndigbo.
Now with that said, I do not presume to know Ndigbo more than Nnamani being an Igbo son of high repute, but the Ndigbo I had read about in my history and political studies and the Ndigbo I have come to observe first hand in my interactions with them in contemporary times, had reinforced my understanding of the people as truly republican in nature and character relying not on government largesse for their sustenance but on themselves for their personal and collective developmental needs. Well I don’t know about you but that is the type of ethnic group I would love to be associated with, not the parasitic ones that rise and fall with governments being unable to stand on their own feet.
Ndigbo is a self-reliant ethnicity in which every individuals strives to be counted amongst the successful and accomplished whether in education or in business and thrives in self-development projects. This is testified to by the fact that it is the only ethnic group in Nigeria to embark on the development of an international airport in Enugu as self-help project long before the Federal government was shamed to take it over. No other ethnic group has embarked on such a gigantic project all by itself. There are other numerous examples including of course the rebuilding of its war ravaged infrastructures. Encircled by other ethnic groups—some friendly, others hostile, it has managed to break out and lead the nation right from independence. Before the first Nigerian military coup by Major Ifeanyi Nzegwu, Ndigbo was in near total control of the federal civil service and foremost in higher education and the military, producing the first army general in the Nigerian military in the person of Major General Agui-Ironsi. And you ask, how come?
It’s the spirit of republicanism that has permeated the psyche of the people which is almost absent in others. Could you imagine how the United States, for example, would become if African-Americans would take a page from Ndigbo? Too bad the Obamas and the Democrats would not allow that to happen because they would lose their permanent political base in the African-Americans. The republican spirt of the people therefore precludes them from federal dependency, the type being advocated by Nnamani. Regrettably, this character trait is not shared in large enough measures by other ethnic groups particularly our brothers and sisters in the North for whom the loss of control of the levers of power at the center could very well mean certain death and therefore suicidal even to contemplate.
No sir. Let the Yorubas go ahead and enjoy their party with the Northern oligarchs to their hearts’ content while it lasts. And in the end when the party is over (as every party necessarily must have a beginning and an end) you see the Yorubas storming out in pain with broken noses and bloodied eyes, don’t bother to ask what happened to them. Having read this piece this far, you should know what happened to them. They got whacked in their faces by the oligarchs. Then and only then will the wisdom of Ndigbo reveal itself in stark relief for nay-sayers like Nnamani to see.
I will not say more about what lies ahead for the new political configuration in Nigeria. But let me just say this by way of conclusion. Whether we like it or not, it should be clear enough even to the politically naïve, that the North has finally recovered its long lost political power after fighting for it for over a decade. And it’s not about to give it up anytime soon to any anybody but a fellow Northerner, least of all the treacherous and unprincipled Tinubu and his Yoruba political gladiators crudely angling for power. It will take another life for the Yorubas to pry it away from its hands. The Yorubas seem to have forgotten in a hurry that the North breathes power. It is its oxygen for crying out loud. Deprive the North of political power and you could be charged for genocide and crimes against humanity.
One thing I know is that the North is not stupid. They have not forgotten what Obasanjo did to them in denying them the presidency and keeping them in limbo since 1999. He not only reneged on his alleged promise to do just one term in office and hand over power back to the North but brought in Jonathan to succeed Yar’Adua and had him run for election on top of that. These are cardinal sins in the eyes of the Northern oligarchy which will not be forgotten and forgiven that easily and quickly because to do so could mean suffering a similar fate again in the hands of the Yorubas.
Ndigbo’s principled steadfastness will not only carry it through but endear it to the hearts of many discerning Nigerians as a peace loving ethnic group not given to vaulting political ambition and the acquisition of raw political power at the expense of others. Not for Ndigbo riots and violent political protests. Not for Ndigbo political plots and backstabbing. Nigeria owes Ndigbo a huge debt for playing the role of stabilizer of the polity when others are losing their heads and their minds. Ohaneze, the pan Ndigbo cultural organization, is on the right path. And history, the ultimate judge of the affairs of men, will prove it right in Nnamani’s lifetime when the APC dance of death begins.
Franklin Otorofani is a Nigerian trained attorney and public affairs analyst resident in the United States.
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