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(OPINION) 2023: The future is today

By Anthony Iwuoma

It was almost like it wouldn’t happen. The date was long in coming, hindered by sundry discomforts and convolutions in the polity. However, that future we all looked forward to is today.

That future is the long-awaited 2023 general elections. A future with hope or hopelessness. A future and time to elect backwardness or progress, stagnancy or advancement; mediocrity or meritocracy, depending on which side the pendulum swings in obeisance to the choice we make.

One clear thing no one will take away from politicians is the fact that they never change. Many of them have traversed from coast to coast, looking for delegates to corrupt. Most of them were deceived by the number of delegates, sorry, ‘dollargates’ that purportedly elected them candidates. Actually, a greater number of these delegates came as journeymen in search of some dollars to mend their churning stomach. They didn’t want to miss the opportunity of retrieving a part of the loot from the common treasury.  They wanted to see if they could milk these people that caused their hunger in the first place.

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Some came to see the grit and determination of these august people and realised that whatever made them to bumble through the neglected horrific roads to the communities must be dear to them.

Strangely, however, the vilified All Progressives Congress, APC is set to make history; to correct the wrong the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has brazenly furthered due to inordinate lust for power.

The northern APC governors in a statement after their meeting have agreed to return power to the South after President Muhammadu Buhari. That is fair and just and nobody expected the APC to be this saintly.

Buhari’s dour disposition is a decoy after all. Who could have imagined that his severe looks could stomach such a patriotic disposition? But then the man is leaving for good and would love to leave a beautiful legacy for posterity.

The governors are right in their conviction and recommendation to the president that after his eight years in office, the presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 elections should be from the southern states “in the interest of building a stronger, more united and more progressive country.”

However, they needed to be more definite on the fact that if power rotates to the South, it is only equitable that it berths in the South-east, which has not tasted power at the centre since the return of democracy in 1999.

Unfortunately, while the South-west agrees that power must rotate to the South, they also insist on producing that president. That is wickedness!  Nobody is saying South-west aspirants, including those who made others breathe, are not qualified to run. Each of them can make a good president but for the South-west having been president for eight years under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and vice president for another eight years under Prof Yemi Osibanjo, making cumulative 16 years, fighting tooth and nail to produce the president next year is the height of greed and selfishness. Where is fairness if the South-east that has not come anywhere near is shunted out again? We cannot be telling the North to allow power shift to the South whereas the South does not want power to shift appropriately among the constituent zones.

The lot falls on pace setting Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, immediate former Minister of State for Education. He was the first to purchase the presidential nomination and expression of interest forms. He was the first minister to resign from his coveted job as minister without prompting by anyone because he did not want his ambition to conflict with his interest as minister. What could be more honourable than that? The others waited to be ordered to resign by the president.

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Nwajiuba has shown enough capacity and integrity that is lacking in this country and deserves to be rewarded because, indeed, like he also said, Nigeria needs to establish rules and order. A society that is not governed by rules will end up in chaos. That is why we have so much confusion in the polity. People believe so much in money and power. Once you have either of the two, you become virtually untouchable. It is worse when you have both; it ought not to be so.

There is no gainsaying that the Igbo deserve to have the presidency in 2023. The reasons are obvious. The area has suffered untold neglect in this country as if it is a mere spectator in a football match it should be playing in the midfield. The worst culprit is marginalisation of the people.

Imagine the PTDF awarding thousands of scholarships lately with no single easterner. I hope the report is a social media hoax. The inane excuse is that they could not go to the South-east to interview applicants because of insecurity. Where is this kind of evilness done if not in Nigeria? Which insecurity are they talking about in the South-east? Did they not go to the North-east and North-west, bastions of Boko Haram insurgency and banditry? The time for Nigeria to correct these ills is now and the ball is in the court of the APC by allowing Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajuiba to fly their flag in next year’s presidential election.

One of the things the Igbo complain about is injustice. Why is it now that the Igbo should be considered to produce the next president that the parties no longer want to respect the zoning arrangement? It is interesting to hear those that argue that zoning is unconstitutional; zoning will not throw up the best candidate. It is all a lie. So, zoning was not unconstitutional until now, because it the Igbo turn.

Talking about merit, which, among the political actors in both PDP and APC is more capable than Peter Obi and Nwajiuba? PDP has already lost this election anyway by giving Atiku Abubakar its ticket. Of course, Atiku is very capable and in fairness to him even offered to drop his aspiration if the presidency was zoned to the South-east but the PDP wasted its chances.

Some jokers harp on what they call disunity among Igbo. How many Yoruba are in the race; what has happened to their unity? How many northerners are in the race; what happened to their unity? Why is the Igbo case different? The Igbo are a unique people with their unique ways. However, I expect and appeal to the Igbo contestants still in the race to do what northerners did for Atiku in PDP. Though they are all capable and can give Nigeria a good government, they should drop their ambitions and rally around Nwajiuba who is the Igbo best bet to pick the ticket and trounce Atiku in the main poll. Doing so does not belittle them in any way. Rather, it would boost their credentials as Igbo patriots, who care more about the collective good of the Igbo than themselves.

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At 55, Nwajuiba is the answer to the agitation that youths should take up the wheel and drive this country. He has also packed a lot of experiences traversing the three arms of government and is right when he says nobody has the kind of credentials he has. He holds a doctorate degree in law; he is a former lawmaker where he excelled as chairman of the works committee and was nominated as the Best Legislator in the House of Representatives in a United Nations Democracy Study published in 2002. Until recently, he was also the minister of state for education and had previously served as chairman of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND. Nwajiuba was one of the founding members of the APC.

In fact, he served as Secretary of the Constitution Drafting Committee that produced the constitution of the new party in 2013. He is the only candidate that has experience in the three arms of government, having been a lawmaker, a minister and TETFUND chair in an executive capacity and being a lawyer as well.

It is exciting when Nwajiuba talks about establishing a rule-based society. That is the main thing Nigeria lacks and this consummate lawyer has what it takes to be for Nigeria what Lee Kuan Yew was to Singapore or Soekarno to Indonesia; even coming nearer home, Nwajiuba could replicate what Paul Kagame has done in Rwanda.  He is well equipped for that.

…Iwuoma is a newspaper columnist

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