Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
A former governor of Enugu State, currently representing Enugu East Senatorial District, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, has advised the Igbo to reflect on the looming reality of the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, emerging president of Nigeria next year.
Nnamani, in piece titled: “The Igbo Insularity and It’s Yoruba Wahala”,
said it was not too late for the Igbo to reflect on, and carefully x-ray the imminent reality of Tinubu winning next year’s presidential election.
Asking the Igbo several questions bordering on their relationship with the Yoruba, the Senator, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Cooperation and Integration in Africa/NEPAD, noted that the Yoruba were not the problem of the Igbo.
“How did the Igbo get to this? Who sold this massive Con job? Who are the snake oil salesmen? Why the perceived mistrust of the Yoruba? We never fought? Our properties never seized? Our businesses thriving in their Homelands? Blossoming inter-marriages with multiple off springs? Common language etymology.
“They stayed out of Nigeria/Biafra war until the Benin expedition. Fajuyi died for Ironsi’s sake. Bola Tinubu gave his financial life line to Igbo Ben Akabueze,” he said.
Nnamani added that President Olusegun Obasanjo had highly dependent Igbo people, including himself, that the retired general was mentoring.
According to him, “He (Obasanjo) calls me son and seriously shared confidentiality with me. That I will carry with me to the Lord’s vineyard. Our properties were returned immediately in the second quarter of 1970 with collected rent and interests.
“The ‘ontogeny’ of our revered kolanut Yoruba. My brothers where is the disconnect? Okpara and our forebears saw it. The NCNC/ NPC alliance was a colossal failure for South East. Ditto NPN/NPP. History repeats.
“AG/NCNC alliance 1956/57 was aborted. Could have provided Chief executive to either party. The AG/ NCNC alliance in United Progressive Grand Alliance, Awolowo and Okpara mired in Pre 66 Coup imbroglio.
“The UPN/NPP alliance could have done the same. The threat of Ekwueme Presidency, writers claim, added Filip to collapse of the 3rd republic. When you shift power to Yoruba, you don’t go to Kwara or Kogi, you go to South-West. But the weakness of the South-East zone is patently obvious such that they throw any bones to us and we bite.
“We must always be expected to show gratitude for any pittance. After all, we were spared with ‘no victor , no vanquished’. We should be happy and don’t worry. We can always resort to spare parts and hugging containers. For this ongoing political expedition, my Igbo people have suffered the consequences of Socio-political Insularity.”
He categorically stated that, “the two political parties with emotional capture of my people will lose the presidential election. The Igbo are out of the power echelon of an African state they helped found. Product of self-injury and own goal. We need a restart. Based on a paradigm shift. Careful but calculated risk.
“The Igbo have to retrace the steps of Okpara and Awolowo, The United Progressive Grand Alliance. An Igbo-Yoruba Alliance. It is not late for the Igbo to reflect on and carefully X-Ray the looming reality of a President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
