We wrote the first part of this article soon after the 2019 Presidential Election (vide VANGUARD NEWSPAPERS of March 15, 2019). We predicted then that the 2023 contest would be a straight fight between former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and the National Leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In all haste, we proceeded to say that for all we know, to the average Northerner, there is no difference between the PDP and the APC. It was, therefore, clear to us then that the same forces that rigged in Buhari in 2019, would also rig in Atiku in 2023. Consequently, Tinubu would be thoroughly beaten.
Forty months on, what has changed in this direction? Nothing, absolutely nothing!
The 13 Daniels of the North came to judgment. They were wiser than the rest of us. In fact, for that master stroke, they deserve a medal, a gold medal for that matter. They stepped in to save the soul of the APC for their future use.
If the primaries had gone the way the Buharists wanted it – Northern candidates for both the APC and PDP, the APC by now would have scattered into several unrecognizable pieces. All that was required was for Jagaban to pull out of the APC and the party would be lying prostate – gone forever!
They reckoned, and correctly so, that it would be better to give Bola Ahmed Tinubu that pyrrhic victory at the primaries and then ambush him at the main election. In other words, let him continue to win the battle and lose the war. He will not claim they did not help him.
If you want to be reminded of how the Northerners are focused on the agenda of a Northern President, you only need to think back at the speed with which Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State stepped down for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar at the PDP primaries. That was a speed directed from outside the arena of the primaries, and if he had waited for five minutes, Gov. Nyesom Wike would have clinched the victory.
By their reckoning, Atiku is the next President of Nigeria. At the appropriate time, the Northern Daniels will still come to judgment by telling their people where to fix their thumbprints!
The only annoying thing, though, is the impunity with which these people are doing what they have always done. So early, they have despatched emissaries to continue to spread the results of the coming election. They are all over the place. In his venom titled “FULANIS OWN NIGERIA”, Usman Umar Sokoto sums it up most succinctly, “… presidency goes to another Fulani in PDP who will rule for 8 years”.
“What is your party? Obedience!”
The only challenge facing the Fulani establishment today is the Peter Obi Revolution. That revolution is real. It is catching up like wildfire in the harmattan. You can only ignore it at your own peril.
Suddenly, youths in the country have woken up from their deep slumber. And they are determined to make themselves count at the 2023 polls; and they will count.
Opponents – particularly members of the two leading political parties claim that the Obi Revolution is only on social media. Good! Where else could they have been? The two leading political parties have failed to tell us on which media they are – social or anti-social. Do the two leading political parties hate the social media? Do they hate being promoted on the social media? The social media is the peoples media and that is where the voters are.
There is also the absurd claim that the Revolution does not go beyond Jebba and Lokoja. Put differently, it is dominant only in the South. This is merely restating the obvious. Which party in Nigeria does not have a particular area of dominance? From the very beginning, has there ever been a political party that did not have dominance in specific areas? We know of none!
In the particular case of the Revolution, we are looking at a movement that will be capable of sweeping a major part of the South and picking up at least 25% of the votes cast in many Northern states; and it will coast home to victory.
There could be efforts to frustrate the Revolution at every bend. For sure, they are extending the period for voter’s registration. That is the attractive announcement to make. But that is not to say that even if you register 50 million people, 50 million cards will arrive. In essence, the extension will only be as useful as the number of voter’s cards that INEC decides to issue. Voter’s cards only have meaning if they arrive in time to be used for the elections. We hope there are no efforts along the line to truncate the issuance and delivery of the voter’s cards!
Ndigbo have been asking for an opportunity to produce a Nigerian President. Barring any accident or any major shift, we see the Peter Obi Revolution as the nearest opportunity for an Igbo Presidency in the next four decades!
In view of the foregoing, is there any reason why Ndigbo should not take this fight to integrity? Who should be talking about this? Ndigbo have many people on ground to do this job. Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, a prominent Igbo leader, fell short of placing a curse on any igbo man who will accept a vice presidential slot. That was at the peak of the struggle to have the presidency zoned to the igbos. The curse can now be appropriately directed at those that will jeopardize the Obi Revolution.
There are, however, some categories of Igbos who should be exempted from the curse. Some Igbos wanted to eat Senator Ike Ekweremadu raw for saying that PDP will not vote for Peter Obi. Given his exalted position in the PDP, did anyone expect him to be campaigning for Peter Obi who is the flagbearer for the Labour Party? Of course, no! It is like expecting Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state to mount the rostrum and ask the people to vote for Peter Obi. Those are leaders who are bound to campaign for their party!
Okowa’s nomination as Atiku’s running mate has received a lot of bashing – mainly from people who do not wish PDP well.
In picking Okowa, Atiku did his mathematics well. If not Okowa, who else? Some have said he should have picked Wike. People who pocket a small snake out of kindness, would soon find out that there are limits to kindness! Again, who from the South-East Region can beat Okowa’s reach across Delta, Edo and other states? None!
A word of caution for Peter Obi. Peter Obi is one candidate who does not have a written manifesto yet. As it were, his manifesto is in his head. Among all the candidates, he is clearly the undisputed heavyweight champion, when it comes to demonstrating a clear understanding of the problems and prospects of Nigeria. He has at his fingertips, the solutions to virtually all the challenges facing the country. He easily earns the name, Mr. Statistics, because at the least prompting, he reels out the statistics of everything about every country in the world.
All the same, apart from the fact that you are contesting this election on the platform of the Labour Party – the Workers Party – Nigerian workers are very critical in this recruitment exercise. The workers are not particularly out to recruit a president who will cut off all the fringe benefits they have been enjoying. Those stories of how you turned yourself to a fuel attendant as Anambra Governor, “buying fuel only when you were in the car and paying cash” should be kept to yourself. You should not pitch yourself against the workers, because nobody is in public service “to accumulate poverty”, to employ the elegant phraseology of the Late Chuba Okadigbo. Some of those fringe benefits could be the very reason why some of those people are in public service. These are little things that matter. During the campaigns leading to the 1979 election, our late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, promised that if he became president, he would stop the service of tea in public offices. He also promised to ban the importation of stock fish and second-hand clothes – items on which many Nigerians earn their livelihood. We cannot now say for sure that those little things for which he was applauded at the campaigns, did not contribute to his not becoming president.
We insist that it is alright to preach austerity measures, not poverty. Poverty is not the stuff of which success is made. Rather than crying over spilled milk, there are numerous bigger elephants in the house.
We have written, perhaps with monotonous regularity, of the presidential fleet in Nigeria. At the last count some seven years ago, Nigeria had some ten aircrafts in its presidential fleet and about three more planes were being expected at the time. The fleet was said to be costing close to N20billion in annual maintenance! The US has always had only one aircraft – AIRFORCE ONE – in its presidential fleet. Britain has none. Britain has a thriving airline – British Airways. When the Queen of England or the British Prime Minister has to travel, all they do is to cordon off one side of the plane and put her or him there. Passengers never have a way of knowing that they are flying in the same aircraft with an important functionary, because that functionary and members of her or his entourage board last and disembark first. Shouldn’t our presidential candidates begin to tell us how they will address this heavy baggage?
Again, what of the nebulous CONSTITUENCY PROJECTS – a monster that gulps billions of naira of taxpayers’ money annually?
Whichever direction you look at in Nigeria, there are mountains of colossal wastes! Should we leave all these and be talking of trivialities? Come on! True, Government House is not a restaurant, but nobody wants a stingy president.
In all, the 2023 election portends a win-win situation for Ndigbo – even when they lose, they win. If Peter Obi wins, they have a president. And if Atiku Abubakar wins, they have a vice president.
Most importantly, Peter Obi’s victory will open a window of hope for the minorities in Nigeria, who, otherwise, by current arrangement, have been constructively eliminated from producing a Nigerian president, because of the accident of geography.
So, the struggle continues!
