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Agbachaa oso, agua mile

Friday, February 02, 2007 Friday with
Pini Jason

After every race, a man sits down to reflect on the race, the mileage covered and the prize won. When a palm-wine taper falls from the tree, people who come to his rescue often want to know the quantity of palm-wine in his gourd, whether it was worth such a risk. A village woman was asked at a catechism class whether Jesus would come again? She looked the interviewer in the face with some bewilderment and asked: is he (Jesus) a fool? The first time He came did he go scot-free? It has been said repeatedly that only a fool keeps repeating the same action while expecting a different result. After holocaust the Jews said never again! Before the Rwandan genocide was the Biafran pogrom. But after all that, what did the Igbo say? Business as usual!

The above maxims or axioms have been prompted by the visit of Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, the PDP presidential candidate to Anambra last Tuesday 23 January 2007. According to reports, Yar’Adua met with some political and religious leaders in Anambra. Among those he met was Dr Alex Ekwueme, Second Republic Vice President, the Anglican Bishop of Awka and Dean Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, the Most Rev. Maxwell Anikwenwa, the Catholic Bishop of Nnewi, the Most Rev. Hilary Okeke, the Chairman of Anambra State Traditional Rulers Council, Igwe Kenneth Orizu and the traditional Ruler of Awka, Obi Gibson Nwosu. In tow were Dr. Andy Uba, the PDP gubernatorial candidate in Anambra, the State Chairman of the party, Tony Nwoye and the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof Dora Akunyili. It must be remembered that many of these leaders were the same people who rose against the unconstitutional impeachment of Gov. Peter Obi masterminded by some Anambra renegades in the PDP. It seems that the leaders have quickly put all that behind them.

Addressing the leaders at the palace of the Obi of Awka, the PDP presidential flag bearer said: “I came here to Awka to pay my respect, my regard and most humbly seek your royal highness support for the seat I want to occupy come 2007 general election, and that is the office of the President of Nigeria”.

He added: “My party and myself, we are seeking to reunite because our party and our President are doing great reforms and seek to transform completely our great nation so that we join other developed nations of the world…This is the vision of our President and the Peoples Democratic Party and this what is going to be my vision and those of my colleagues when we form the government in May 2007 by the grace of God”. At Nnewi he told his hosts: “We, PDP members, we are Nigerians, we are committed to our country, we are committed to its people and we are committed to the service of our people and we need your prayers…”.

The Anambra visit of Alhaji Yar’Adua immediately raises a few questions and comments. One is, is he in Anambra because his party, the PDP and President Obasanjo are doing great reforms or was he in Anambra to sell to them how his government in May 2007 will benefit Anambra people in particular and the Igbo in general? If the members of the PDP are Nigerians, are the Igbo respected as Nigerians in equal terms? How has Obasanjo’s great reforms benefited the Igbo? I ask these because the Federal Might wielded by Obasanjo has immensely empowered some Nigerians economically, no matter what they say about him. Is there any way Federal Might will benefit the Igbo as from May 2007? If yes, why didn’t Yar’Adua spell it out? What exactly is there for the people of the South East in a proposed Yar’Adua’s government?

Even if Yar’Adua made any promises, can anybody rely of such promises? The reason I ask is that Yar’Adua spoke like his master’s voice. Nigerians really have to watch him closely whether any vision he propounds is his vision or that of “our President and the Peoples Democratic Party”. He spoke exactly like a man who can only promise what he was told by the President and the PDP to promise and regurgitate only what they put in his mouth. Remember, it is Obasanjo that is running Yar’Adua’s presidential campaign and not he and Goodluck Jonathan. It is still Obasanjo’s show so far. Can anybody rely on a promise made by Obasanjo through a third party? If Yar’Adua promises anything, can anybody really hold him to it? It is the business of politicians to make promises, but how many of them deliver? Yar’Adua may be a good man, but can Obasanjo let him be himself? In short, can the Igbo buy a used car from Obasanjo?

Even more important than what Yar’Adua and the PDP promise or not is the role Igbo members of the PDP are going to play this time around. It was reported that during the visit to his Enugu residence, Dr Alex Ekwueme promised to lend his support to Yar’Adua’s presidential ambition. It was also reported that Dr Ekwueme has already set machinery in motion to ensure that Yar’Adua and Andy Uba are jointly voted for by the people of Anambra.

That is hardly surprising. It is expected of any party man. And Ekwueme was the founding chairman of the PDP. But must the Igbo trust Ekwueme this time? Before they do that is it not wise to ask what was the experience of the Igbo the last time? Does the empowerment of individual Igbo middlemen in PDP approximate the empowerment of the Igbo as a people? Is party politics for the sake of party or is it for the sake of negotiating group interest? How did the PDP Federal Government satisfy the group interest of the Igbo from 1999 to 2007? Should the Igbo big wigs in the PDP not account to the people the benefits derived from the PDP before they are called out again to vote for Yar’Adua? What is the implication of another eight years under an Obasanjo regime run by his proxies?

Dr Alex Ekwueme led the G34 that joined other Nigerian pro-democracy groups like the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, to confront the monstrous Abacha regime while Obasanjo was in prison. The G34 formed the core of the PDP. But look at the ironic situation today. Obasanjo has effectively seized the PDP he did not know when it was formed, while Dr. Ekwueme is today outside peeping through the window. Now they send a Yar’Adua to give him another assignment of herding the Igbo behind the PDP and he is excited about it. Dr. Ekwueme, in my view, can be held responsible for his and Igbo marginalisation in the PDP.

He was offered the presidency of the Senate when it was zoned to the South East. He could not see the “gift” from a group point of view. He treated it as something personal. He turned it down, because, as some clowns around him reasoned, he could not become number three after being number two! Walter Mondale, after being Jimmy Carter’s Vice President, went on to serve America as Ambassador to China. An Ambassador is way down, below the secretary of state! Politics must be about service not ego.

That Obasanjo went on to become the autocrat he is today can be traced to Ekwueme’s political decision. The choice was his. But see what it did to the nation and the Igbos. Were Ekwueme the President of the Senate, power would have been equally distributed between the National Assembly and the Executive. It would probably not have been easy for Obasanjo to swallow the National Assembly. It would probably not have been easy for Obasanjo to ride roughshod over the National Assembly. There could not have been the musical chair played with the Igbo who occupied that seat. The cause of our nascent democracy would have been better served. But then, you may never know!

Ekwueme and the Igbo in PDP must be wary of dragging their people through another round of Obasanjo’s humiliation even if through a surrogate called Yar’Adua. There is no doubt that some Igbo in PDP did well for themselves individually. But look at the state of the federal roads in the South East. Look at the state of electricity supply in the Igbo country. Electricity supply is epileptic nationwide. But in Igboland it is comatose. Look at the people who control the oil industry today. If there were oil blocks or cargoes allocated to Ndigbo, the people have not been told. See how the Igbo have been squeezed out of the aviation industry for spurious reasons.

Three major airlines have had crashes since the last two years. But only Sosoliso’s has earned the airline a permanent ban. Whereas aircraft do crash, airlines don’t. Why ground an airline indefinitely because of a crash? Now other airlines with nebulous ownership have taken the routes developed by Sosoliso. Since the Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri, build by the poor people of old Imo State came to the rescue following the closure of Port Harcourt airport, what has the federal government put in that airport? These are issues influence people’s votes!

What the Igbo must vote on is the condition of the Owerri-Umuahia federal road. They must vote on the politics of the dualisation of the Onitsha-Owerri road. They must vote on the condition of the Port Harcourt-Enugu “Expressway”. Their votes must express their feelings about the condition of the Sam Mbakwe airport. With their votes they must express their views about appointments into international organizations in which Nigeria is a member.

They must vote for the sale of national assets under the privatization programme. They must get an explanation why Abia and Imo were excluded from the Federal Government largess for oil-producing states. Their votes must obtain for them why Yaba College of Technology and Kaduna Polytechnic qualified for upgrading to university but not IMT Enugu. With their votes, the Igbo must negotiate their way into the oil and gas industry, as oil and gas producers, so that Igbo sons and daughters can join the ranks of the big time donors to presidential elections, and not just otimkpus for third term. With their votes the Igbo must express their disgust at how Igbo are treated as lepers in certain federal institutions. If the Igbo cannot revolt against the middlemen in Igboland and use their votes to liberate themselves, then, they should stop blaming Nigeria for their marginalisation.

The Igbo must sit down now and count the mileage they traversed with the PDP since 1999. They must not embrace any party just because an Igbo middleman for such party said so. All those who have been mandated to go corral Igbo votes must put on the table what is in it for the Igbo. It will not do this time that such middlemen have been settled by the party they are hawking or the federal government.

The campaign coordinators some of who have established reputation for picking crumbs and “half breads” must not expect the Igbo to follow them blindly in order to boost their purchase price. With Dr. Orji Uzor Kanu, Prof Pat Utomi, Gen Buhari and possibly Atiku Abubakar in the race for peoples’ votes, the Igbo must not be sentimental about any party or particular candidate. The Igbo must learn now to rule their world and stop begging or complaining about marginalisation. With their votes and their heads, they can end their eight-year humiliation in the hands of Obasanjo’s federal government. They must look beyond Yar’Adua and remember that Obasanjo is still the man who wants to call the shots come May 2007. Yar’Adua for now is his master’s voice.

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