Buhari, Southeast And Obiano’s Initiative -By Ifeanyi Afuba

Surprisingly, one or two sections of the Anambra elite are unimpressed with Governor Willie Obiano’s interface with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, May 13, 2019 on the state of federal projects in Anambra State; during which Obiano reportedly lobbied for more federal appointments for citizens of the State.

For some people of the southeast today, the apt description of Willie Obiano, may no longer be the Governor who revolutionized community development with the triple phase N60m community project initiative. It is not now politically correct to identify him as the man whose turnaround of the education sector has brought Anambra’s schools successes at international competitions. The reference to the debonair chief executive, in this season of suffuse political emotions, is hardly about the signature Awka flyovers and ongoing international conference centre. Nor does the state workforce appreciative epithet of ‘bank alert governor’ resonate in these circles. For this restive population, Obiano is more readily defined as the Igbo Governor strangely collaborating with President Muhammadu Buhari, whose presidency has brazenly discriminated against the southeast.

This isolating – perception of Chief Willie Obiano is built on the choices of the April 2019 presidential election won by Buhari’s APC. Obiano had initially embarked on a presidential bid by his party, the APGA, with retired major – general John Gbor as the candidate before eventually switching support towards Buhari’s reelection. This was against the backdrop of clamour for ethnic solidarity in favour of the PDP which had Peter Obi as vice presidential candidate. To realise the ethnic card, John Nnia Nwodo, president of the umbrella Ohaneze association, engineered the adoption of the PDP’s Abubakar/Obi ticket by the non partisan socio – cultural body. The surge of emotions had the effect of distorting the support for Buhari as betrayal of the Igbo cause; with infantile demands for apology to the Igbo nation still being made on Obiano four months after the election.

It is amazing how mob mentality can so easily upturn settled wisdom. Yet, the condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus Christ did not become right because it was endorsed by a howling mob. Beyond the grudges borne against President Buhari’s sectionalism, what has played out in the campaign against the working Willie is the virus of political intolerance. Nwodo’s leadership of Ohaneze was so fixated on the idea of a vice president from the southeast 34 years after Alex Ekwueme that it would not even allow the Anambra and Imo State Governments their dissenting views. The make or mar meeting had to be hurriedly manipulated before the scheduled time!

Not even the prosecution of the APGA presidential project would be allowed in this socio – political [dis]order. The invidious propaganda was mounted that the APGA presidential bid was merely a ploy sponsored by the APC to reduce the block votes accruable to Peter Obi. The tale was told by otherwise intelligent people that since the APGA had no chance of winning the election, it had no business being in the race except as a spoiler to the PDP in the southeast. You were left to wonder if the APGA was formed to be clapping for the PDP. What did APGA as a party stand to gain from a PDP presidency? In its sixteen years in power, the PDP was obsessed with the status of Africa’s largest political party. This imperial character represented and still poses an existential threat to APGA. On the two occasions of 2011 and 2015 presidential poll when APGA adopted the PDP presidential candidate, the APGA’s grand gesture was reciprocated with massive rigging against the APGA’s state and national assembly candidates. As incredible as it sounds, the regional gospel of the 2019 election to all practical intent, sought to divest the APGA the right to propagate its ideology; grow the party; contest elections and seek alliances cum coalitions for power sharing. Every other thing in the southeast had to stand still for the prosecution of a vice presidential slot!

Consequently, Governor Obiano’s electoral choice of Buhari and post election engagement with the President meets with a mental barrier among sections of the southeast society. It is largely a problem of mindset, fanned by sentiments and a sense of frustration. This is not saying that the people of the region do not have genuine grievances against President Buhari. They do. And it is not merely about marginalisation in infrastructure and appointments; but the President’s attitudinal disregard of the zone. Nevertheless, a boycott of the Buhari presidency would be simplistic, irrational and counterproductive.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored, Aldous Huxley reminds us. And the presence of a powerful central government; nay of the Buhari presidency is a reality that Obiano at the risk of being misunderstood at a time of emotions, is moving to engage. Various development models underline that regular communication is key to the realisation of stronger ties and integration of groups. This tends to underscore the potential closing of gaps between the southeast and Buhari’s regime through the Obiano initiative. In this context, the promise of the Anambra State Governor’s advocacy for the southeast in the recent meeting with Buhari comes into bold relief.

The impression created in some quarters that Governor Obiano is working at cross purposes with the Igbo interest cannot be sustained in the face of the Governor’s demonstrated commitment to the Igbo cause. When other Governors chose to play safe, it was Obiano who stepped forward to hold a memorial for the victims of the 1966 pogrom and civil war as well as host the Ohaneze summit on Nigeria’s restructuring. From inception in 2014 to date, the Obiano administration has paid upkeep allowance to retired players of Rangers Football Club. This pan Igbo spirit is again expressed in the appointment of three senior special assistants from Enugu and Imo States in the administration.

Has the return of President Mohammadu Buhari hurt the Igbo presidential project? Not in the least. Buhari’s reelection means the Igbo can take a shot at the Presidency in four years time rather than waiting for eight years if another candidate had won.

Afuba is editor of Anambra Times