Abbas Yushau Yusuf
Igbo Presidency may have become silenced as agitators may have tired due to its seemingly unending realization
When pundits are asked when will Igbos have a shot at the Presidency, many Nigerians will think that the question is rhetorical or meant to tease the third most populous race in Nigeria.
By the time Nigeria get independence in 1960, an Igbo man that had the only chance to rule Nigeria was Major General Johnson Thomas Umanakwe Aguiyi Ironsi for only six months.
Since the counter-coup that swept him from office Nigerian politics did not augur well for the Igbos.
The July 29, 1966, counter-coup that removed General Ironsi from power plunged the country into a three-year civil war.
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Nigeria did not recuperate from the war until after the introduction of three R’s by General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s Pre- War and Postwar Head of state.
The three R’s of Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction made the war-torn Southeast to be rehabilitated and reconstructed.
But for the past 54 years what has been preventing the Igbos from accessing the highest office of the land?
The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,1999 regards the whole country as the constituency to which an aspiring President has to drum support before being elected.
The blunders said to have been done by Igbos of the south-east may not be unconnected with strictly aligning to one political party since Nigeria return to Democracy.
In its 21 years of Civil rule from 1999 to date, Igbos did not even play the second fiddle, they only had the chance to be senate Presidents from Evans Enwerem to Chuba Okadigbo to Anyim Pius Anyim, Adolphus Wabara and lastly Ken Nnamani.
In his four-time contest before becoming elected President of Nigeria, President Muhamadu Buhari had picked two late Igbos as running mates but he only ends up getting embarrassed votes from the southeast.
The first Igbo running mate chose by President Muhammadu Buhari was Late Chief Dr. Wilberforce William Chuba Okadigbo and late second Republic House speaker Chief Edwin Ume Ezeoke, but still, the Igbos refused to give President Muhammadu Buhari block votes during his four-time contest.
Therefore one will ask are the Igbos ready to bring the southeast into mainstream national politics like what the southwest did in 2015 and 2019.
Atiku tried to woo them in 2019 general elections but was beaten by President Muhammadu Buhari.
With the exception of Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe and General Aguiyi Ironsi that once had a shot at Nigeria’s highest office as a result of realities of their time.
The way South-east has been distancing the region from mainstream national politics it will be hard for an Igbo man to become Nigeria’s President in the near future.
If the APC agrees to the power shift arrangement it had with the southwest the pendulum will swing in the southwest and likely a Yoruba man may succeed President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2023.
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The political equation will only favor Igbos if they woo other Nigerians and aligned themselves with the mainstream National politics and deviate from banking in only one political party.
Even Nigeria People’s party of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe did not fetch him the Presidency in the second republic let alone in the 21st century when every Nigerian is becoming more aware and sophisticated with realities of the ground.
