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Peter Obi’s Misleading Ethnocentrism by Osita Nwaka

March 7, 2014

The gubernatorial election in Anambra State has been contested and concluded, but the ripples it generated has not settled. That election was a make or mar political battle to the incumbent Governor, Mr. Peter Obi. There was no alternative to victory because a loss would imply a slide into political limbo. So one could understand the veiled desperation, which propelled the actions of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) leader.

The gubernatorial election in Anambra State has been contested and concluded, but the ripples it generated has not settled. That election was a make or mar political battle to the incumbent Governor, Mr. Peter Obi. There was no alternative to victory because a loss would imply a slide into political limbo. So one could understand the veiled desperation, which propelled the actions of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) leader.

As if fate programmed some of the events that preceded the election to work in his favor or expose his xenophobic side, the now late literary icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe published his personal account of the Nigerian Civil War in his last book entitled “There Was Once A Country.” The Book generated a lot of controversies and several unsavory comments were exchanged between the Igbos and Yorubas.

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Then came the deportation saga, and the better-withheld comment by Senator Chris Ngige, the gubernatorial flag bearer of the All Progressive Congress (APC), APGA’S perceived main rival.
Gov. Peter Obi capitalized on the foregoing and made the contest a tribal affair. He portrayed himself as a Messiah whose mission was to save the Igbo ethnic group from oppression by the Yoruba and Hausa ethnic groups. In an election between; not just Igbo brothers, but Anambra State indigenes, Gov. Peter Obi called on Ndigbo (that is the Igbo ethnic group) to support his candidate against his fellow Anambra indigene whom he successfully portrayed as anti Igbo simply because he belongs to the APC.

If Peter Obi could call on Ndigbo to support his candidate against a fellow Igboman in their State gubernatorial election, what will he do if an Igbo candidate is vying for an elective post against a candidate from another ethnic group? This is the same person who in defiance of truth supported Gov. Jonah Jang with 16 votes against Gov. Chibuike Amaechi with 19 votes in the last Nigeria Governors forum election. It is not about Ndigbo, it is not about good conscience, it is about loyalty to President Jonathan, at all cost.

Gov. Peter Obi’s membership of APGA, a Party tucked in the South East, does not in anyway make him a better Igboman than Sen. Chris Ngige who belongs to the APC, a National Party. The same way Sen. Jim Nwobodo’s membership of the defunct Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) a party based in the then Eastern Region, did not make Nwobodo a better Igboman than the Late Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu who joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), a party with national spread.
If Peter Obi had said “Ndi Anambra Kwenu nke ka mma”. It would have been fair enough. But to call on Ndigbo implies that he probably sees himself as an Igbo leader. Being a leader is not about wiping up tribal sentiments and instigating xenophobia to serve ones selfish purpose. A leader confronts the deprivation and inequalities facing his people. He does not psyche them to wallow in self pity, defeatism and antagonism. What has Peter Obi done for the Igbos to merit the leadership status he has subtly accorded himself? His performance as Governor is not extra-ordinary and dolling out a significant chunk of Public Fund to religious institutions that are not accountable to the government does not fit any standard definition of prudence.

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APGA leadership position does not automatically translate to Igbo Leadership status. It was not APGA that endeared the Late Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu to the Igbos; rather it was Ojukwu by his unprecedented and unmatched altruism towards his people that endeared APGA to the Igbos. Gov. Peter Obi on his part has benefited the most from APGA. He has been a Governor for eight years, he has extended his hold on power by successfully installing his preferred candidate as his successor. He is the Board of Trustees chairman of the party, and by subjecting APGA to President Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (P.D.P.) became his man Friday with its attendant benefits. Ironically, he is expecting a cruise to heroism on the wings of APGA.
The aforementioned deportation saga elicited indignation from the Igbos. But that mistake does not diminish the fact that, nationwide, Gov. Fashola of Lagos is the most friendly to the Igbos. It is unfortunate that the xenophobia propagandists have sustained the light on the negative spot. Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia State sacked his fellow Igbo brothers and sisters from other Southeastern states from his State’s employment. His friend, Gov. Peter Obi never shouted blue murder because that draconian act was not a political propaganda material. Under Gov Peter Obi’s watch, several wealthy Anambra indigenes have relocated to Lagos State for fear of being kidnapped or attacked by dare devil armed robbers, and anytime they visit their homeland, they make special budgets for their security. Having failed in eight years to reverse this trend and the resultant capital flight, shouldn’t such a Governor work towards promoting peace and harmony between his people and their host? By inciting xenophobia he destroys the very bridge that will lead him to such a State Government for mediation in times of conflict.

Gov. Peter Obi, alliance with other Igbo political office holders in the PDP is not in the interest of the ordinary Igboman. President Goodluck Jonathan’s Government is treating the Igbos the sameway a hunter treats an animal that has been incapacitated by his bullet, because those who speak their minds in our name have given him the impression that as long as he rubs their palms, the Igbo nation will queue behind him. Whether he builds the second Niger Bridge or not. Whether the deplorable Federal Roads in the Southeast get fixed or not, even if his government makes good its plan to revoke the concession license for the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex (where the ordinary Igboman developed from his sweat), the Southeast will vote for him. Xenophobia is their magic wand.

I’ve been opportune to feel the political pulse in the Southeast, having worked in different parts of the Southeast for almost a year. I shudder at how negatively orientated the average Igboman has become. His choice of a Presidential candidate is not value driven. His motivation for voting is to spite his perceived enemies.

In 1979, nine years after the civil war, the Igbos braced up politically and made it to the second position as Vice President under President Shehu Shagari. In 1999, twenty-nine years after the war, the Igbos slipped to the third position as Senate President in Obasanjo’s Government. In 2011, forty one years after the war, under President Jonathan, the Igbos have been schemed out of the Sitting Room to the Corridors of power. The Yoruba’s and the Hausa’s have retained their position on the Nigerian tripod, the Igbos opted to queue behind the South south.

The Igbos should leave Bola Tinubu and Gen. Buhari out of our political plight. The termites that gnaw away the wood live within it.

Peter Obi is making appreciable progress politically but the Southeast is not. Unless we gullibly believe, as his foot soldiers want us to, that whatever is good for Gov. Peter Obi is good for Ndigbo. But as the late Reggae legend, Bob Marley said in his evergreen ‘Redemption song’ “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds …”  “Ndigbo kwenu nke ka mma!!!”
 

-OSITA NWAKA ([email protected]) lives in Lagos.

 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters

 

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