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Igbo Presidency: Not Now, Not Later, Unless a True Solidarity is Established

By

Dr. Sylvester Omosun Fadal

San Jose , CA. USA

Moco_f@yahoo.com

I posit that there will not be an Igbo presidency now, later or in the near future unless the Igbos wake up and build a solidarity union with a true common language of focus, goals, and linguistic thinking that must become evident through their actions. This new solidarity must be recognized by other Nigerians as having little pitfall if any, with a true penchant for wanting to lead a great nation like Nigeria . The solidarity union must establish a sense of non-controversy as noticeable in the varied existing associations that have been marred by complexities and dreary issues driven by personal greed for recognition and wealth accumulation among members.

It is becoming evident that one of the key reasons why the Igbos may never govern in Nigeria is simply the level of political greed and inter-personal conflict prevalent among them. Recognizing the high level of skills/competency, knowledge and capability of the Igbos, it is appalling that not a single, well-acclaimed, respectable Igbo indigene stands out as a potentially strong candidate to challenge for the top political position in the country. The current key Igbo political figures are busy playing secondary roles and amazing wealth in their follower-ship positions when apt, that they literally have compromised their opportunities/integrities through their actions. The secret to excelling lies in the power of unity and the willingness to build a set of solid collaborative allies, which is currently lacking among the Igbos today. Regardless of how many associations they have successfully established and the amount of money raised, there exist a high level of disunity among them. Relying and calling for zoning rights won’t make it happen for the South-East in their efforts to produce the next president. Dr. Chris Onu and Alex Ekwueme are perhaps the only few who understand that nothing tangible will come out of all the assorted groups and meetings until a true solidarity is established.

My good friend was the president of one of the associations for two years and in my discussions with him, the rambling, in-fighting, court cases, conflicts and fabricated lies and problems he experienced from his own association members led him to give it up for his safety. Despite his strong political strength and leadership capability, he was faced with a barrage of issues up to and including those who were hell bent on his defeat at all cost. Threats were made over minor issues and members who wanted to replace him at the helm of affairs planned internal coup-de-main that failed several times. In my discussion with him about this article, he affirmatively recognized the need for unity among the Igbos to help solidify them with a strong common front. As of today, there is no nationally recognized key Igbo figure that can be presented and “notably accepted” as a presidential candidate. This is not a coincidence but a highly calculated effort by several divergent political Igbo groups/individuals to ensure that a single person does not gained enormous power over others.

While groupthink is often viewed negatively recognizing some of its deadly aspects, it may be the solution to the problem that nags the Igbo associations and the complexity it faces on how to identify itself as a formidable group that must be reckoned with in the Nigerian political setting, at least at the presidential level. It has been inferred several times that the Igbos’ are better at playing second fiddle and as such they have been pigeon holed and stigmatized as a group of good followers when handsomely rewarded. Yet, in light of this characterization and/or disclosure, no key Igbo political figure has clearly cried out beside a few notables Nigerians in Diaspora. This ultimately establishes a deadly prevalence of viewing non-facts as facts due to the non-contention of the claim and/or belief. The Igbos are some of the most intelligent and visionary Nigerians I have known to possess high levels of intellect and the creative ability to conceptualize and design goods of immerse value.

Desperate calls by some Igbo indigenes are weak cries that will lead nowhere unless those that truly count, make efforts to break the boundaries of eligibility and strive through effective collaborative efforts to establish a referendum that will guide the solidarity team to a common mission of seeking the presidency with all their guts. To benchmark the effectiveness of the group, a model that is based on (a) trust, which is currently lacking among key Igbo figures, (b) acceptance of one notable figure that is supported by all others, (c) understanding the focus and importance of collaboration to insure a continuance of growth towards accomplishing the mission, and (d) development as it relates to identifying and revealing unproductive behaviors, evaluating need and establishing capacity for change is required.

Prevailing articles, comments, actions by some key Igbo political figures indicates a strong need to rule the nation. The fact however remains that desires, wants and needs mean very little unless backed by a well-planned, integrated structure, supported by professional integrity, resources and unity among others, to ensure that a common goal or mission is achieved. As it stands, I question the motivation of the Igbos to rule recognizing their level of disorganization as it relates to the fundamental importance of building a collaborative front and a team of dedicated individuals. If the desire to rule is simply to have control or to gain a piece of the pie regardless of what it takes, most Nigerians will recognize that intent and contest the effort. However, my hunch doesn’t view the intent of the Igbos negatively as I see a group of disjointed individuals with a common goal and bags of potent prides that derails them from accomplishing that common goal. I detest a one-party system, which, is literally what PDP is changing Nigeria into, and the spread of leadership based on qualification, skills and ability is what matters. Like I have wished for other ethnicities to rise to the very top political position rather than being perpetual followers, the focus of my article today is the Igbos. Rise up and solidify or shut up and continue to play your supportive roles as usual. There is nothing wrong with being in such roles. Fighting for a zoning right or calling for sympathetic support will not help you achieve the mission that has been elusive since the sixties.

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A Response to Ndubueze Godson’s Rejoinder to Tunde Adenobi's "Igbo: Dating Yoruba but Marrying Hausa/Fulani"

By

Dr. Sylvester Omosun Fadal

Moco_f@yahoo.com

Ignorance is sometimes equaled to non-significance and the rejoinder by Ndubueze does not only expose his retarded analytical skills and general character flaws but also, it shows his level of comprehension of intellectual discussion. Ndubueze’s tendency to attack the character/person rather than the subject is an obvious indication of his failure to understand the rules of reasonable discussion, augmented by competent reasoning in effort to reach a valid conclusion and an acceptable/unacceptable finding. To avoid condescending to his level of non-insight and non-intellectual brilliancy, I will not dissect his article and would rather apply a brief and finite response to shine the light on his weakness as indicated by the writing of an “oxymoron” who lacks the ability to establish a solid purpose statement, analyze, support, and validate the purpose statement with convincing evidence, in effort to conclusively reach an acceptable finding.

In his argument, Ndubueze isolated the Yorubas from the Binis stating, “By the way have you read your history lately compliments (run-on words) of the most revered Omo N’Oba Erediauwa of Bini? Did Oduduwa land from heaven chained (ludicrous) or was he a runaway thief who escaped death in Bini to form what’s known as Yoruba?” In this case, he separated the Binis from the Yorubas using Omo N’Oba Erediauwa of Benin as a resource. He unintelligently turned around and clustered the Yorubas and Binis in the same category by stating “Did you conveniently forgot (grammar usage) the overwhelming numbers (mixing singular and plural in the same sentence) of men from your tribe and countless Bini indigenes that served the Abacha led junta? Here are few (grammar usage) to get a handle, Lateef Jakande, Ebenezer Babatope, Sam Aluko, Ikimi, and the numerous Generals (Diya, Adisa, Olarewajun etc)” (logical reasoning issue). In defending an argument, it is unacceptable according to the rule of qualitative and/or quantitative research to flip flop variables. Ndubueze ignorantly used the Binis in defending his point against the Yorubas and in the same vein used both the Bini and Yoruba variables in the same cluster when he deemed it okay to do so, in effort to make a flawed point.

Sometimes, it is best to restrain oneself from displaying a level of ignorance than to make a blanket accusation of a multitude of honorable professionals because ones weak sense of emotional maturity as displayed by Nwabueze's action overshadows his or her reasoning. The good news however, is that most Nigerians were raised to recognized the importance of not isolating people by their ethnic links and as such, their love and relationship with the Igbos and all other Nigerians will remain unchanged. My objective analysis of leadership in Nigeria will remain regardless of the relative attitude of a select few like Ndubueze. There is no need to get personal as such attacks never gets the intended points across. I hope Ndubueze will learn the rules of literary engagement and how it works best. As much as I don’t know Tunde Adenobi, this response is not about a person but the purpose to encourage a dialogue of literary reasoning rather than temper-antic thinking.

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