You must have witnessed or read about the sham called public hearing which took place in all the geo-political zones during the week. You must have seen or read about the gathering of those over-dressed thugs, who represented us at the venues carefully selected by the organisers of the unfortunate public hearing.
You must have known how armed policemen locked out millions of Nigerians who wanted to storm the public hearing venues to oppose the third term bid. You must have read of the courageous display of our youths, who in spite of harassment and intimidation, set up roadblocks very close to the public hearing venues all over the country and displayed placards that expressed our general position that we do not want third term.
Also, you must have heard what each of the so-called leaders of our people said at the critical moment. As you would expect, I am not particularly worried over the position taken by most of the governors, especially, the PDP governors, who claimed that all the citizens in their states mandated them to vote for third or indefinite term. We all know why they said what they said and why they chose to misrepresent us the way they did. We also know what they expect to gain from this civil coup. So, I do not intend to waste your time trying to make any sense out of their betrayal of our trust.
As a stakeholder, I only want to express my regret that we have all been unfortunate to have the type of leaders that have no respect for the feelings and genuine aspirations of the people of Nigeria.
I feel more so in the case of Ndigbo whose quest for a socio-economic and political deliverer has continued to go unsatisfied, year after year. It is painful to learn that ever since the Biafran State ceased to exist, after the civil war, Ndigbo have consistently failed to get a true leader or a crop of political and cultural leaders whom everybody could trust that when the stakes are down, they would not chicken out and leave Ndigbo bare and unprotected.
It is no longer news that because of this unfortunate reality, the so-called Igbo leaders have always led the way when, as they would say, the need arises for concessions and alliances in order to preserve the so-called Nigerian Federation. This, I believe has been the root cause of the abysmal political outing of Ndigbo since the 1970s, because as has been the case, they always end up being used and at best are compensated with second fiddle positions that benefit only the immediate beneficiaries and their families and, perhaps ,friends.
As an Igbo man, I am ashamed to learn that Ohanaeze claimed 50 million Igbo had already given support to the discredited third term bid of President Olusegun Obasanjo and PDP governors. I am ashamed because such a curious pronouncement was allegedly made at a time when Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum and South-South Peoples Assembly (SSPA) ignored the PDP governors in their zones and responsibly stood their ground that third term bid was unacceptable to them and their people.
As a newsman, who has keenly followed the political development of the South-East and Ohanaeze, it sounds rather curious to me that such a vital research was actually conducted by Ohanaeze and South-East governments, which I cover day and night, without my knowledge. I do not want to say no such data were ever collated, but I feel particularly alarmed to learn that the opinion of a whopping 50 million Igbo could actually be sought by the organisations that I know so well without any of the enumerators, or people they interviewed bothering to ask me, or any Igbo man and woman that I know anywhere in the world, what we think about the issue. So, I am really worried, not just because the claim sounds too hard to believe and swallow, but also because it is the direct opposite of what I thought was the feelings and sensibilities of Igbo people, most of who have suffered so much impoverishment because of the import and other policies of the Olusegun Obasanjo's government.
I am worried, not only because of the negative impact of such a decision at a time like this, but also because I suspect that something must have gone wrong somewhere. It is either that I have all along misjudged the sensibilities of my people, the Igbo, or that Ohanaeze was either deceived by some people or is deliberately deceiving the rest of us.
If Dee Joe Irukwu actually said that, or more precisely, if Ohanaeze that he leads is actually claiming that 50 million Igbo have endorsed third term, why did the same Ohanaeze lead us all to waste so much energy, ink and paper, talking and writing about Igbo Presidency project? Collating a data that involves 50 million souls is obviously not a day's job; so it is strange that Ohanaeze, which has been sounding so convincing over its great pact with the South-South zone, should suddenly change tune overnight. Or have Ndigbo and their leaders been playing a game all this while? Why must Ndigbo always be the group that would end up being mocked at the end of each political battle in Nigeria?
As a passionate Igbo son, I have always looked forward to the day our deliverer, our Moses, would come to take us out of this frustrating political bondage, where Ndigbo are only thought to be eligible for certain limited political positions. The recent understanding between the South-East and the South-South, which Prof. Irukwu and Ambassador Mathew Mbu, the Southern Forum Leader, have so eloquently presented at various fora as evidence of breakthrough in their united quests for political emancipation of their peoples, had appeared to me as a solid signal that the coming of Ndigbo's political deliverer was at hand.
I had thought so, not because I reduced the issue of political deliverer of Ndigbo to a simplistic concept of producing the President of Nigeria in 2007, but because I reasoned that if that understanding with the South-South had been resolutely maintained, even if Ndigbo finally conceded the slot to the South-South, it would have become obvious that Ndigbo had found a central leadership anchor through which they can speak with one voice; an anchor, through which they can take a hard political position and stand by it, come rain, come sun. This, to me, would have meant the dawn of political emancipation and development.
But if what we hear today is true, Ndigbo as a race and South-East geopolitical zone are once again effectively divided over the much-publicised quest for one of them to become President of Nigeria in 2007. Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State and Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State and their supporters are now on one side of the divide while Ohanaeze, with Governors Achike Udenwa of Imo, Sam Egwu of Ebonyi and Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State and their people are on the other side.
And if you ask me, this tragic division, which looks like the final straw that would bring Ndigbo on their knees once again, is because unlike the other ethnic and political groups in Nigeria, Ndigbo is still wandering in a harsh political desert without a credible and accepted leader or leaders, 36 years after the much principled Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, left Uli Airport at the end of the civil war.
As Ndigbo lament this development, my question remains, when would Ndigbo get their political deliverer? When?
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