APC should take a new direction by running an inclusive government. This can only be possible if they can bring in South East as Senate President to redeem the negligence of them by the Buhari administration between 2015-2023.
Don’t be bored if I choose to start by saying that provided that the President is Yoruba, and the Vice President, is Hausa/Fulani, it can only be fair for the Senate president to be Igbo. Don’t say I am marginalizing sub-ethnic groups in Nigeria by projecting only Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba because if it is the case, Ijaw, a sub-ethnic Igbo group couldn’t have become president before Igbo, a major ethnic group in Nigeria. It can only be justice for the Igbo to take the third office in the hierarchy of political offices in Nigeria should we sincerely consider the true state of Nigeria’s heartbeat.
Walk with me. Did you realize that Igbos are justified in their argument that they are marginalized in Nigeria? Don’t blame them. If one of a triplet is not treated in the same measure as his others, the world will blame him if he keeps quiet. The Igbo has been denied their place in Nigeria, directly and indirectly over the decades of Nigeria’s nascent democratic era. They have not risen above the office of senate president since 1999.
Have they presided over the seat of Senate president for long? It can be true! Nnamdi Azikiwe was the first. He assumed this position on January 1, 1960, and left on October 1, 1960. Three years later, Nwafor Orizu took over on October 1, 1963, and left on January 15, 1963. The fourth republic under Obasanjo as president had five (5) Igbos as Senate presidents, but none of them stayed in office for more than three (3) years. Except for Senator Bukola Saraki, who stayed as senate president for only one term (primarily) because wasn’t re-elected in 2015, David Mark and Ahmed Lawan have stayed out their two terms in office. By logic, isn’t it okay to ask: would they have completed their terms if they were Igbos?
Will APC still neglect Igbo with Yoruba as president, just as the Hausa have done under Buhari? The Buhari administration claimed that Igbo did not vote massively for him in 2015 and 2019 hence the party ensure that Igbo did not clinch the office of senate President; they elected another Hausa man as president. Isn’t that a glaring act of marginalization? The highest office Igbo had in Nigeria since 2015 was the Leader of the Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe and later senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu. But did that help APC to get votes from Igbo in 2023? NO!
There have been unpatriotic sentiments making the round again that because South East did not overwhelmingly vote for Tinubu, they should not be allowed to take the senate presidency. But, does victimizing Igbo justify the idea of a government of national competence instead of national unity as espoused by Tinubu? Is there no competent Senator from the South-East? Zoning the office to the entire South can only be a smokescreen to further marginalize Igbo just as APC did in the build-up of the presidential primary of the party as they tactfully zoned the ticket to the entire South when their interest was South West. Will Tinubu maintain this status quo? I think APC/Tinubu should run a balanced government where Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are well represented.
To face realities, APC needs to convince Nigerians that they have come in for good. Tinubu should govern differently from Buhari in terms of inclusivity. Marginalizing South East won’t help Nigeria. If the South East are agitated that they are not well represented in Nigeria, won’t these subtle means of relegations embolden their demands for a referendum for their secession? South East has two senator-elects. One is Orji Uzor Kalu. He is a ranking senator. Having been elected in the low chamber of the national assembly before becoming a two-term governor and then ascending to the upper chamber of the National Assembly, even sitting as the Chief Whip, he deserves the next step based on competence if the Bola Tinubu administration will start with justice.
Senator Umahi is another senator from the South East, but he is a newbie to the Senate; he has just been elected Senator. Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe is another fine Igbo legislator who could sit in as senate president, but he is from the minority party in the senate, APGA. Taking the senate president’s office to South-South will be a bold side-lining statement from APC against Igbo because the immediate past Deputy Senate President, Senator Agege is from South-South. There is just no justification for relegating Igbo from the office of senate president this time.
If we can state the truth, the 2023 presidential election had three ethnic groups on the ballot. Each group did their best to elect their ethnic candidates to the office of president. Hausa voted Hausa, Igbo voted Igbo, while Yoruba voted Yoruba, mainly. It will be political victimization to hang one region for voting their own. Nevertheless, APC should use this opportunity to build its base in the southeast. With Senator Orji Kalu as Senate president, there is a lot to gain for APC given that he is one politician whose politicking cuts across political divides in South East. Without disparaging the influence of Senator-elect Umahi, he is no match for Senator Orji Kalu when it comes to galvanizing South East politically.
APC should take a new direction by running an inclusive government. This can only be possible if they can bring in South East as Senate President to redeem the negligence of them by the Buhari administration between 2015-2023.
Izuoma Ibe
Convener, NiBERNET –Nigeria Beyond Ethnicity & Religion