Emma Iheanacho
Before now, some of the APC chieftains of South East extraction, amongst them, the Hon. Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, had been singing a lullaby to the Igbo that a vote for President Muhammadu Buhari is the surest way for an Igbo man to have a shot at the Presidency come 2023. Even no less a person than the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, has echoed the refrain, urging and encouraging Ndigbo to vote for Buhari Presidency in 2019, and be assured that the North will see to it that an Igbo man becomes the president come 2023. Some prominent Igbo men had come out to state expressly that Buhari is not the gateway to an Igboman becoming president. Ohaneze in turn has said repeatedly that the main thing the Igbo Nation is focused on presently is not Igbo Presidency but restructuring of Nigeria to reflect true federalism.
Sometime ago, the Hon. Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, during a special town hall meeting on infrastructure organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture and the National Orientation Agency, urged the Yoruba to massively vote for Buhari Presidency in 2019 and be assured that power will return to the South West come 2023. Interestingly, notable Yoruba leaders cautioned and reminded Fashola that the main preoccupation of the Yoruba Nation is restructuring of Nigeria and nothing else matters that much.
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Very recently, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, joined the advocates of mass regional votes, as shortcut to gaining political leverage. Surely, Prof. Osinbajo just like every other Nigerian has a right to canvass for votes for his principal or candidate of his choice. What is wrong with his position is that as the vice president of the nation, he should be above this level of talk. His focus should be more on searching for a competent and efficient person to preside over the affairs of the nation.
I know that neither Ngige, Fashola nor Osinbajo is the spokesperson of Buhari’s administration, and so cannot be spea king for him. Let’s even assume for a while that they are speaking for him, what gives them or their principal for that matter, the conviction that their grandstanding will come to be. Democracy is a game of numbers, and there is no certainty that you will arrive at your desired position if certain things are done. It is only in science that a destination is assured if all the necessary processes and conditions precedent are met. Politics is far from such scientific calling. Human beings are unpredictable, and in politics all things can never be equal.
The year 2023 is still far for someone to start making political postulations. People should not play God in the life of others. It is only God who has the ability to say for sure the conditions and situations that will play out in 2023, and not mere mortals like Ngige, Fashola or Osinbajo. For me, the three men are just playing politics and campaigning for votes. Neither Ngige, Fashola nor Osinbajo has the capacity to dictate to the North, who to support for Presidency in 2023. Even APC as a party cannot take such position because APC is not North neither is the North APC. What Ngige, Fashola and Osinbajo did in their different positions is to impress their principal and show him that they are working very assiduously for his re-election.
This tribal campaign spoke poorly of Ngige, Fashola and Osinbajo. If they are really desirous of seeing to the growth of Nigeria, they should not have reduced themselves to this low level of politicking. Why should the three men be interested in the region that produces Nigeria’s President in 2023 instead of candidates that are best equipped to fill the position? This issue of where the president comes from is a headache and strategy of the political class to constantly emasculate the ordinary citizens and keep them divided; a situation the elite benefit from. The ordinary Nigerian does not bother about the region that produces the president because such does not translate to good governance. The three men and their likes should be told to play politics that will enhance our overall national outlook. One expects them with their level of exposure to look at the big picture instead of parochial dimensions to governance.
If I may ask Osinbajo and Fashola, what direct benefit had accrued to an average Yoruba man as a result of a Yoruba man’s presidency? Did it make the life of an average Yoruba man better than that of his contemporaries in other regions? Did it improve his lifestyle, put food on his table, provide him shelter, clothe him, give him social benefits that raised his life and improved his life expectancy? Does a Yoruba man’s presidency pay the school fees of an average Yoruba man; does it remove the touts from the street; does it make Yoruba land insulated from the ills of the society or confer on them diplomatic status that make them better than their contemporaries in other regions of Nigeria? Osinbajo and Fashola should tell us what direct social/economic status a Yoruba’s presidency will confer on an average Yoruba man. Ditto Ngige, who has been canvassing similar position for the Igbo Nation. It is only the elite that benefit from such arrangements, as they have more and more opportunity to pauperise the masses. The political class should be less selfish in all their actions and let Nigerians co-habit in peace.
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The presidency of Nigeria is a serious office to be subjected to such trivial considerations. What I think as a person is that what should inform consideration for our choice of president should not be a person’s geographical region of origin but what he brings to bear – the hopes and confidence of governance he exudes. We should not situate geographical region of origin over and above competence. It is the competence and capability of the president and not his region of origin that will define a greater Nigeria, respected, consulted and considered of influence in the comity of nations.
We should rise above the politics of individuals and geographical origins determining our national leadership. I am fully sure that neither PMB nor APC can determine who the president will be come 2013. They do not have the capacity and the endowment to do so. It is only the electorate of Nigeria that has such power. That is all about democracy, a game of numbers and not a game of region or party.
Let the three men use their high offices to think of ways and innovations to improve our democracy rather than tying any region’s political future to the quantum of votes cast for a politician or political party. Let them once again be reminded that what is of most importance to the average Nigerian is good governance and the dividends thereof, and not what region produces the president. Any performing leader is widely acceptable to the Nigerian public.
Emma Iheanacho, a Media Consultant, wrote from Lagos.
