Igbo Marginalisation and Misguided Fingerpointing  

The Advocate

By Onikepo Braithwaite

Onikepo.braithwaite@thisdaylive.com

Party Primaries

The season of Party Primaries, is upon us. But, as we prepare for the eighth general elections in this Fourth Republic, scheduled to hold early in 2027, it shows that 27 years on, our Politicians do not intend to make any significant changes, as sadly, we are still having the same old debates without any outcomes – more or less, moving on the same spot without any traction. 

Nigerians are still debating about true Federalism and devolution of powers, State Police, State creation and so on. Why? For State Police, for instance,  all that is required is the amendment of Section 214(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria(as amended) (the Constitution), instead of this fruitless, never-ending debate on its pros and cons. 

Admittedly, there has been traction in respect of the Local Government Councils (LGC), with the plethora of decisions that Governors cannot just wake up, dissolve LGCs at will and replace them with Caretaker Committees – see APC & Ors v Enugu SIEC & Ors (2021) LPELR-55337(SC) per John Inyang Okoro, JSC; and more recently, what the AGF, Prince Lateef Fagbemi. SAN coined as the “Local Government Emancipation Judgement”, AGF v AG Abia & 35 Ors (2024) LPELR-62576 (SC) per Emmanuel Akomaye Agim, JSC where it was held thus: “The State Government not being a democratically elected local government council, cannot exercise the power of such Council by retaining, controlling and managing local government allocations from the Federation Account. In the light of the foregoing, I hold that the States’ retention and use of money standing to the credit of local governments from the Federation Account paid to it for the benefit of Local Government Councils, is unconstitutional and illegal”. This decision freed up LGC funds to go directly to LGCs, thereby recognising them as a truly independent tier of Government, as envisaged by Section 7 of the Constitution. 

Even though the  Constitution has had six alterations so far, aside from making some changes here and there, which appear to be of more benefit to the Politicians and not necessarily to Nigerians generally, there haven’t been significant amendments or a comprehensive remaking of the Constitution, to cover most of the gaps that have been identified over the years; all we have are incessant debates on the same issues! It appears that whether majority of the Legislators are new or returning in any election cycle, they all, more or less, have the same ideology – self-interest, self-centredness and self-preservation, with an occasional overlap with the interest of Nigerians.

Party primaries are one of the most pivotal ingredients of any democratic process, as party members/delegates choose or vote for the candidates who will represent the party in the elections, for all elective positions. Nigerians hope that this time around, Politicians will let internal democracy reign and make better choices at the primaries, which will hopefully translate to good governance. Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022 (EA) provides for several methods to conduct primaries to select candidates – Direct and Indirect Primaries, and Consensus Candidates. See APC v Sheriff & Ors (2023) LPELR-59953 (SC) per Adamu Jauro, JSC (Dissenting), where his Lordship stated thus: “It is political parties that provide the platform for citizens of this country, to select their leaders at the general election. It is therefore, essential that political parties practice internal democracy, and act by democratic ideals within their parties”. I concur. 

Marginalisation of the Igbos: Real or Imagined? 

This is the time to address this Igbo question of marginalisation frontally, because if they handle themselves better than they did in the 2022 primaries, they will become stronger as a group. Since President Bola Tinubu, GCFR won the 2023 Presidential election, the complaints about the Igbos being marginalised, has become louder. But, if the allegation of marginalisation is true, is it the making of the Tinubu administration or a combination of factors? 

1) Igbo  Politicians 

During the 2022 Party Primaries, the APC zoned the Presidency to the South, while the PDP made it a free for all race. In the APC, South Easterner, Senator Orji Kalu, even before the primaries, declared his support for Senator Ahmad Lawan for Presidency. His excuse was that, if the APC wasn’t micro-zoning the Presidency to the South East, he would support Lawan from the North East, a zone that also hadn’t had the Presidency in the Fourth Republic. He didn’t support his fellow South Easterners like Ogbonnaya Onu, David Umahi or Emeka Nwajiuba. Uju Ohaneye also stepped down for President Bola Tinubu, and not any of her fellow Igbo candidates. Out of a total of about 285 South East Delegates, David Umahi got the highest number, 38! The other two got one vote each –  probably self-votes! Assuming that the 40 or so paltry votes secured by the APC South East aspirants was out of their own 285 votes, who did the other 245 delegates vote for? Non-Igbo aspirants. Can anybody then say that these delegates of the ruling APC, were serious about realising an Igbo Presidency? I think not. They weren’t even willing to take the first step, towards achieving the goal.

Similarly, in the PDP Primaries, South East Presidential Aspirants, Senator Pius Anyim and Sam Ohuabunwa scored 14 votes and 1 vote each, respectively, to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s 371 votes and Nyesom Wike’s 237 votes. Dr Bukola Saraki, Udom Emmanuel and Governor Bala Mohammed, also beat all the South East aspirants. 

My point? Even if the 285 South East delegate votes in the APC Primaries couldn’t  have won the primary election, if all the votes had been given to David Umahi for instance, who was the South Easterner that scored the highest, he would have secured the third and not the sixth position in the primaries, an indication that the Igbos are seriously committed to their quest to clinch the Presidency. Similarly, if the 100 PDP South East votes had gone to Senator Pius Anyim, he would probably have come third in the primaries. This type of cohesion would make the South East bloc stronger and formidable. 

However, in the case of Peter Obi who secured the Labour Party ticket, the South East voted en masse for him. This shows that the aspirations of the Igbo people, are not in alignment with those of their so-called politician representatives who pick the candidates in the party primaries that will run for elections. For example, despite Imo State having an APC Governor, Hope Uzodinma, the Igbo candidate, Peter Obi, then of the Labour Party, had a landslide victory of almost 353,000 votes, while President Tinubu of the APC came a distant second with just over 66,000 votes. After Nigeria’s designation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in November 2025, I saw a video on instagram in which a few Igbo men who reside in the US, were celebrating that Nigeria has been so designated by President Trump. They couldn’t hide their immense joy. And, I thought to myself that, such energy would be much better channeled into infiltrating the major political parties and the non-Igbo electorate to secure their buy-in into their agenda. Meanwhile, it appears that the South East Governors aren’t even looking in that direction for 2027. They all seem to have pledged their support, for President Tinubu’s second term bid.

The sum and substance of this is that, if Politicians continue to be selfish and self-centred, also allowing “cash to be king” in party primaries, the highest bidder will always emerge as candidate. Despite Section 121 of the EA criminalising bribery and corruption in the nomination of candidates and elections, if money and everything else but internal democracy are prioritised, we will never have the best outcomes. Can this then said to be marginalisation, or the choice of a group of politicians who aren’t necessarily in sync with the people they represent? Unfortunately, in the type of democracy Nigeria is practising today, the electorate only get to vote at the polls for the candidates who emerge from the primaries, they don’t really have a say on who emerges. It’s time good, decent people who have the mindset of “what can I do for my country?”, and not “what can my country do for me?”, flood all the major political parties as members. If not, we may not see the change we desire. 

2) Constitution and Policy

Section 3(1) of the Constitution provides for 36 States in Nigeria, and even though the geographical zones are not mentioned in the Constitution, for administrative, developmental and political purposes, Nigeria is divided into 6 geopolitical zones. The idea of geographical zones were extracted from proposals made by former Vice President of Nigeria, Dr Alex Ekwueme, GCON, during the 1995 Constitutional Conference under the military regime of General Sani Abacha, and this geographical zone initiative was implemented around 1995/1996. 

The Northern States ended up with an unfair advantage, as North West has 7 States, and if the Federal Capital Territory is lumped with  the North Central zone, that also makes 7. The 3 other zones, North East, South South, South West have 6 States each, while the South East zone, the ‘Igbo States’ has only 5 States. The South East zone is obviously the most disadvantaged, as it has the least number of States, which translates to the least number of representatives in the National Assembly, the least number of State Houses of Assembly and the least number of Ministerial appointments. This is an indisputable fact. Unfortunately, it is possibly more difficult to create a new State under Section 8(1) of the Constitution which provides for State creation, than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle! To this extent, the marginalisation of the South East appears to be real, not imagined, as this amounts to discrimination against the South East with the least number of States, which is contrary to Section 42(1)(a) of the Constitution. In Lafia Local Government v Government of Nasarawa State & Ors (2012) LPELR-20602(SC) per Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, JSC, the Apex Court held inter alia thus: “Section 42 of the Constitution guarantees to every citizen of Nigeria, freedom from discrimination on the basis of belonging to a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion. The discrimination complained about must emanate from a law in force in Nigeria, or any executive or administrative action of the Government. This includes laws made by the legislative Houses and legislation made by Local Governments, and this includes policy statements. The rights are enforceable against the State, and not against individuals”. This marginalisation is a creation of the Constitution, and Government policy. 

3) Ministerial and Other Appointments 

It goes without saying that even though Section 14(3) of the Constitution provides that appointments must reflect Federal character, if one Minister were to be picked per State, the South East would have the least number of Ministers. But, the proviso in Section 147(3) of the Constitution provides for ‘at least’ one Minister per State, meaning that the President can decide to appoint more Ministers from the South East, to put them on the same standing as the other zones. Ditto for other appointments.

Conclusion 

The approach of a new election cycle, is the best time to take stock and strategise as to how best to proceed. The Igbos cannot continue to blame the Tinubu or previous administrations for marginalising them, while ignoring the omissions of their own politicians/representatives, and not apportioning any blame to them. Sections 3(1) & 8(1) of the Constitution, must also be fingered as big culprits in this matter. The administration that created less States in the South East, and Sections 3(1) & 8(1) of the Constitution designed to maintain this status quo, must also be fingered as big culprits in this matter.