By O’seun Ogunseitan
On a number of grounds, I fault Pa Adebanjo’s argument on why he is supporting Peter Obi. Of course I expect the usual herd condemnation and even accusations of ethnic bias, but I would rather we debate the facts without the emotions.
My first argument against Pa Adebanjo’s argument is that nothing compels Pa Adebanjo to jettison weighing who of all the candidates will be best for the interest of the Yorubas. My proof is that when Afenifere endorsed Chief Olu Falae, one of its own in 1999 for the Presidency, the apex organisation of the Igbos the Ohaneze Ndigbo and virtually all Igbo political groups endorsed another Yoruba man and rejected the choice of Afenifere. Effectively, the Igbos supported who they considered best for their interest between the two Yoruba candidates in 1999.
Of course under Obasanjo, the Igbos had the best of political positions, so they were not wrong in choosing to go with Obasanjo rather than Afenifere’s choice. There is nothing too, to suggest that if an Igbo candidate held better prospects for Ndigbo in 1999 and had prospects of winning, the Igbos would not have jettisoned Obasanjo and supported their own. That raises a smaller question of what good turn Pa Adebanjo was trying to reciprocate on behalf of the Yorubas or Afenifere and in the name of Afenifere, but unilaterally.
The second weakness in Pa Adebanjo’s unilateral support for Obi simply because he is an Igbo and in Pa Adebanjo’s words it is “fair” to do so, is the assumption that Igbos once before in Nigerian history, ever supported any choice of Yorubas, even when it was “fair” to do so. The most important sentence here, is “when it was fair to do so”. This may then take us back to what led to having two Yoruba candidates as the main contenders for the Presidency in 1999.
We must not forget, there was Alh Abubakar Rimi, a northerner who was at a time on the ballot too in 1999 and who openly confirmed he lost the PDP ticket because there was a consensus in the north that a Southerner must win the Presidency. His statement in essence, hinted that if any Igbos contested the Presidency in 1999 he or she would have lost. Effectively the Igbos did the Yorubas no favour in 1999. This reality should then lead us back to the role of the Igbos in the annulment of the June 12 Election itself, which brought about 1999 in the first place and the support of the majority of the Igbo nation as represented by the Ohaneze Ndigbo for example, during the struggles for the de-annulment of the annulled election.
Pa Adebanjo may have forgotten, but it is instructive to know that though Ndigbo had nothing to gain in the annulment of the election, they are not on record anywhere as condemning the role their sons played in bringing about the unfair and undemocratic annulment. It is not on record anywhere also, that Dr Sylvester Ugoh a prominent Igbo son who stood to become the Vice President as the running mate of Alh Bashir Tofa who lost to Abiola, and supported the annulment, disagreed with his principal and denounced the annulment anywhere. In fact, but for a handful of noble sons and daughters of Igbo land, who were prominent leaders of NADECO, all was almost as calm in Igbo land during the near-five years revalidation struggle, as it was in the core north, the base of many of the plotters and supporters of the annulment.
I am saying that effectively, it was the “northerners” whose sons annulled the 1993 Election that decided the Presidency must go to the South West, not the South, in 1999 to honour the memory of the South West’s son who won the 1993 Presidential election, but who some “northerners” stopped from becoming President. Conceeding the Presidency to the South West in 1999 was therefore not an agreement that entailed any concession by Igbos to Yorubas that anyone can say must be repaid.
The import of this fact is that the 2023 zoning to the South really offered Afenifere a chance to support and campaign for their own choice, unlike in 1999 when their choice was rejected by the Igbos. The Yoruba man the Igbos chose instead of Afenifere’s choice, essentially sidelined Yorubas in national governance, even at one point withholding the revenue allocation of Local governments in Lagos State despite the Supreme Court ruling that the funds should be released. Yet, even during that small struggle for the life of Local Governments in Lagos State the Ohaneze Ndigbo for example, is not on record as coming out strongly to tell President Obasanjo who was their choice for the Presidency then, and with whom they were chummy, that punishing Lagos State for creating LCDAS is unfair as the issue involved was a fundamental question that should worry any sub-nation.
Unlike Pa Adebanjo believes, I think Ndigbo’s support for Asiwaju Tinubu in 2023 will be the best and easiest way to disabuse the minds of many Nigerians that Igbos only bother about themselves and do not care about others. Supporting Asiwaju Tinubu, a totally detribalised, but very practical and very fair Nigerian, who deliberately appointed Igbos into high position in the civil service of the Lagos State government he ran, is one way of doing this. It is also on record that Asiwaju Tinubu is the bold initiator of many policies, including even constitutional interpretations of many things that trouble the minds of Igbos.
The superlative performance of Asiwaju Tinubu as governor of Lagos State and the long-lasting foundation for wealth-creation and prosperity that he laid in the state, should resonate more with the highly enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit of Igbos across Nigeria. I see Ndigbo going out of their way and supporting Asiwaju Tinubu and tabling their troubling demands before him with timelines, as the most practical expression of the willingness of the Igbos to truly extend a handshake of friendship across the River Niger to South Western Nigeria. It may as well be the practical demonstration of Ndigbos professed love of Yorubas who are on record till date, never to have done anything to hurt Igbos, despite the almost 70 years of mostly bitter competition between the two major Nigerian sub-nations.
Ogunseitan is a Lagos-based journalist
