By Anthony Iwuoma
My friend, Nnamdi, challenged me to do a sequel to my article in my Men-o-pulse column in Daily Sun of Monday last week, ‘Before You Vote’. He asked me to do a piece on ‘now we have voted’. Due to inexplicable reasons, I inadvertently failed to submit the article for publication. Well, this is it:
The state of Nigeria now that we have voted is seemingly be becoming almost irredeemable, just like the latter state of the demon-oppressed man in the Bible, Matthew 12:43-45.
What I do not understand though is why the Igbo are always the scapegoat for whatever goes wrong in this dysfunctional behemoth called Nigeria. Whenever the country has issues to settle, they almost always pounce on the Igbo, even if it is because of a cartoon in faraway Belgium poorly depicting a religious sage. When two housewives fight, their husbands must somehow rope in the Igbo into the faux pas and until then, there would be no appeasement.
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This reminds me of the legendary Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory. The legal luminary always held the military government by the balls for their misdeeds. The Evil Genius or Maradona, as former head of state, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, IBB, was fondly called, once confessed his love for the man and admitted learning one or two things from him. In fact, Gani’s activism helped to strengthen his government and correct some of its mistakes. Yet IBB arrested Gani and detained him. Asked why despite his warm sentiments about the man, his rueful answer was that every government arrested Gani and his wouldn’t be different. Just imagine!
Well, before we wander off course, is this not what is happening to the Igbo? Otherwise, how come the Igbo are being attacked and threatened with eviction, sorry extinction, from Lagos because the All Progressives Congress, APC, lost the state to Labour in the just concluded predidential and National Assembly elections?
I never knew Peter Obi of the Labour Party contested to be president of Ndigbo. I also never knew that life-size Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has been declared president-elect, contested to be president of the Yoruba.
Yes, I didn’t know these until the miscreants made it public. However, we all know this is not correct. We know that the Lagos debacle had nothing to do with the Igbo. It was a collective rejection of the rotten status quo, which had actually nothing to do with the Jagaban, Peter Obi or the Yoruba. It was anger and frustration boiled over against the ineptitude of the system that has crushed the people irrespective of party, tribe or tongue.
That was the motivation of all residents in the city that voted. Of course, the Igbo voted, as did the Yoruba, the Hausa, the Ijaw, Ibibio, and various ethnic groups, who made no secret of their choice; but it was not against Tinubu as a person or the Yoruba as a people.
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However, it is sad that in their haste, these hoodlums, with a lynchpin mentality, forgot the culprit and went after a fellow suffering victim.
The culprit in this whole mess is Mahmood Yakubu and his fumbling Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. They are the ones that deliberately heated up the system by denying its own guidelines and left preponderant pieces of evidence on its trail. They succeeded in tainting Asiwaju’s victory and cloaking it in credibility issues.
I’m not sure the problem is Tinubu; he is definitely not the problem. I’m also not sure if the problem is Obi or Atiku becoming president and not Asiwaju; that is begging the matter. The problem is the apparent blatant muddling up of issues.
Of course, Asiwaju has all it takes to win this election. A former governor and senator, who was in the trenches and contributed to driving out interloping military from power; a detribalised Nigerian, whose generosity has built an army of loyal benefactors now fighting his cause.
I once wrote that this man should not be trifled with and predicted greater glory for him. Today, that prediction has come to pass but I’m not boasting about it like some rogue prophets, who are used to seeing three versions of prophecy on the same subject.
Nevertheless, I want to cry instead of rejoicing. I want to cry and lament instead of singing praises. Because some hoodlums have micromanaged the Asiwaju and his triumph, reducing him to a local champion.
Those raising hell about the Igbo are missing something. If the Igbo are responsible for Asiwaju’s APC loss of Lagos to Peter Obi’s Labour Party, how come Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila won in Surulere? How come the APC also lost in Nasarawa and Plateau states, even the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to Labour?
The Igbo bashers are even making a more grievous mistake by their tantrums. They have imperilled Lagos Governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu’s quest for reelection.
This should have been a time to woo the Igbo if they truly believe they are that important to single handedly defeat Asiwaju in his Lagos instead of antagonising and intimidating them.
Hate them or love them, the Igbo are a significant member in the Commonwealth of Nigeria. They have their queer, repulsing warts but nobody can drive them into the lagoon. Even if you deport them from Lagos as lunatics, their lunacy heals faster than the speed of the truck that dropped them off beyond the Niger bridge. Whether they are migrants or aliens from space, nobody can really mess with them and remain the same.
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However, they are as loving and accommodating people as they are unwisely unruly. Sometimes, their uncouth brashness exposes them to avoidable hurt, as in the instant case. Why couldn’t they just cast their votes and return home without attracting undue attention to themselves, especially knowing how they are hated? Why celebrate and shout ‘we don show dem’ on the streets of Lagos? Show who and how?
I watched some of their vicarious displays at the polling units and what I saw was a thoughtless mass of people that does not know how to comport themselves in the midst of ‘enemies’ if only to survive.
Another takeaway from this is that the North as usual has programmed the South against itself and we do not know it. The North does not want a united South because the more disparate the South, the easier it is for them to foist their hegemony on the country.
This is also one of the times I wish I were a lawyer. Many of them have dusted their ragly wigs, readying to make a kill and sell hopeless hopes to ambitious politicians. Soon the courts will be agog with all manner of legal challenges and abracadabra.
However, no matter what happens in the impending electoral battles, especially the Presidency, what Asiwaju needs now he has been declared president-elect is to offer Nigerians hope. His reconciliatory overtures are most welcome and his famous ‘you lose some, win some’, reaction to the Lagos loss is very mature and statemanly.
The acrimony and recriminations cannot help anyone whether Yoruba or Igbo.
We must not ignore Obi’s swirling phenomic impact on the country. Winning 12 states and the FCT is no mean feat. So many people have ridden on his back to relevance. Who could have imagined that an okada rider could even dream of a councilor seat in this country? But here in our ‘very before’ (apologies Zeburudaya), one won a House of Reps seat in this dispensation.
It is a grave error to micromanage the Obi revolution. It is not about the man, Peter, even though he is Okwute the Rock. Obi is just the face of the desired new Nigeria and not about Igbo versus Yoruba tribal contest. It was not the Igbo that caused the stir in Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai’s enclave of all places, where Labour Party’s okada rider scaled all odds and won a seat in the National Assembly.
By the way, what could one make of diehard anti-Obi elements, even among his Igbo kinsmen, who contributed to Asiwaju’s eight million votes? Should the Yoruba applaud or whip them? Does Anthony Chinasa Abiola, the Yoruba man gunning to represent Umuahia in Abia State the House of Assembly not inspire hope for the new Nigeria?
What the APC has going for it is the pre prepared template, which successive governments from the time of Tinubu, who actually midwifed it, have stuck with methodically. That is why Lagos is excelling but is now being threatened by misguided elements, who do not wish Sanwo-olu well.
Why scare the Igbo into desperate steps for self-preservation? Could this be the handiwork of Sanwo-olu’s haters? Maybe… But the party should not flunk Saturday’s guber poll by firing self-defeating missiles at the Igbo. This would be counter-ptoductive and most unfortunate. And for the politicians, rein hour thugs; let Nigeria live do that you have people to rule.
…Iwuoma is a journalist, newspaper columnist and public commentator