Last week, prominent members of the Igbo community reiterated their call for the emergence of an Igbo president from the 2023 elections. Among them was a former Chief Judge of Anambra State, Professor Peter Umeadi, who said: “Other tribes should not decide for the Igbo who should be their candidate and the platform on which that candidate should run in 2023. It is our belief that the easiest means to achieve our ambition is through All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). But we have to unite to be able to achieve what we want.”
With measured words he carefully buried any controversial undertones, making it difficult to fault his logic. No one can begrudge the Igbo for deciding that their best shot at the presidency would be under the aegis of the APGA. But he will only be right if all Igbo people decide to unite under the APGA. If the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), or any other prominent party for that matter, also choose to field Igbo candidates, then Prof. Umeadi, who is believed to be nursing presidential ambition of his own, may find that the selection of a candidate for the Igbos is not as straightforward as he has construed it to be.
Less reserved and more gregarious, however, was President General of Ndigbo United Forum(NUF), Godson Ezenagu, who pontificated that the principles of natural justice and equity dictate that the next president of Nigeria should come from the Southeast lest the Igbo develop a conviction that they are a marginalised tribe. “What we are talking about is alignment,” he argued, “and we are talking about equity, conscience and principles of natural justice.” Not done, he explained further: “All things being equal, when three persons are eating and you have six meats in the soup, it is expected that once you take one, the other one will take one and the rest take one and it has to go two rounds. But when a region takes one, two, three, it means they are cheating the other regions, and you know Nigeria came to be by amalgamation. If the voice is not the same thing, there will be no amalgamation and the question is how long can you perfectly go on marginalizing the other region? If Nigerians will understand it, they should know that denying the Igbo a chance to become the Nigerian president is further dividing the nation and could lead to anarchy because it is injustice. Let me tell you; as long as Nigeria keeps kicking against a President of Igbo extraction, the more the country will suffer. How long shall Ndigbo continue to miss in the affairs of the government? The economy of the country is down; Naira is falling every day; Nigeria is in jeopardy and it is only an Igbo man that can fix Nigeria. Igbo Presidency is feasible and it is the only way to avoid catastrophe, restiveness, victimization and unrest in Nigeria.”
While Eneagu’s powers of observation continue to serve him well, his deductions veer considerably toward the extreme. The principles of natural justice do give room for fair hearing or representation, but the onus is on the Igbo to produce a suitable candidate for the elections. It is not clear how he came about the logic that Nigerians are kicking against an Igbo president. In a country as heterogeneous and diverse as Nigeria, the argument for rotational presidency must recognise that there are over 200 ethnic groups and about 371 tribes in Nigeria. How well will the system hold when the Ibibio and Tiv begin to demand a president from their areas? Political parties, not tribes, win elections, and if the Igbo are to stand a fair chance at the presidential elections, then it is not the principles of natural justice and equity that will serve them, but a strong and acceptable candidate bearing the flag of a strong party.
There is no indication that a president of Igbo or any other tribal extraction will fix either the continuing decline of the Nigerian economy or the organised waves of terrorism and banditry laying siege to the North and South, or the other myriad woes bedevilling the country. More than the peculiar principle of rotation Eneagu suggests, an ideological candidate, a strong and principled character, a powerful party, and perhaps the pledge of restructuring the nation may find himself more favourably positioned, regardless of tribe, to secure the majority votes at the 2023 elections.
