For Ndigbo: How Not To Produce An Igbo President -By Tope Oriola

Tope Oriola

A people who have risen from the ashes of decimation during a brutal civil war and evaporation of generational wealth have to be shown respect. Igbos are not being arrogant when they claim to be special. However, star performers in the class have to be kind to fellow-stars. Failure to do so breeds resentment towards the other and the self.

This piece is intended to provoke positive steps towards an Igbo presidency. Two quick caveats are necessary. I presume that ethnic and religious considerations are part of our politics and will be for a while. Consider that Muhammadu Buhari, often unfairly accused of being a religious bigot, has had at least two Pentecostal pastors from the South-West as running mates. I also presume that very many people would like to see an Igbo man or woman become president as an unspectacular citizenship right and routine matter of fairness and equality.

My focus is on ideational dimensions — discourse — rather than material factors because discourse creates and is created by material factors. I believe that Igbos hold the aces on the question of an Igbo-led presidency. While that may sound unfounded, recent events and unmitigated vitriol in national conversations have shown that there are certain issues that may prolong the quest for an Igbo president, if left unchecked.

First, do not reach out to the North. There are many legitimate reasons for Nd’igbo not to want to reach out to Northern Nigeria. The pre-independence slaughter of Igbos in the North; the civil war; episodic violence targeting Igbos in Kano, Kaduna, Jos, and the more recent Boko Haram insurgency are good reasons not to engage. Nonetheless, it is political suicide on the national stage not to play ball with the North.

Another step is to continue the “Lagos is a no man’s land hypothesis”. The visceral reaction to this issue demonstrates that it is politically acerbic and costly. It is also a debate everybody knows will go nowhere. I am not sure if I was more surprised at the notion or reaction to it. Does anyone truly believe anywhere in the world is a “no man’s land”? This non-issue should not be allowed to exacerbate tensions between the Yoruba and the Igbo. It is one thing for such comments from anonymous individuals to appear on social media; it is quite another for some political leaders to champion this non-cause. Igbo presidency requires millions of voters from all parts of the country.

Not seeing the Niger Delta as a distinct collectivity with its own interests, identities and loyalties is another way. This was a major issue during the civil war. Adaka Boro clearly elucidates in his book The Twelve-Day Revolution the frustrations of the geo-political Delta. Boro had sought to have the Niger Delta secede from Nigeria and was captured and imprisoned for declaring a Niger Delta Republic. Yet, Adaka Boro chose to fight on the federal side (where he was commissioned a Major by General Yakubu Gowon) during the civil war precisely because he felt proponents of Biafra Republic largely assumed that the Niger Delta would, without adequate consultations, secede with the Eastern Region. History is a funny thing. Treating the Niger Delta as an appendage to the South-East is not a winning strategy.

This is not an ethnic issue for some of us. For me, the key issues are: How do we ensure excellence in leadership? Is the mechanism we have adopted fair to all? Does it build inclusion and belonging? This is a humble insider-outsider perspective. Ndigbo must avoid the problems noted above.

Avoid considering the rest of the country, especially the Yoruba, as your friends. This is interesting in view of years of inter-ethnic marriages, and cultural exchanges, as evident in music, home videos, other expressions of popular culture and everyday interactions of friends and neighbours across ethnic lines. Not seeing other ethnic groups as friends is a strategy in and of itself, but it does not lead to Aso Rock.

One of the key variables in (presidential) politics is that the most positive and optimistic side often wins. Senate candidate Barack Obama stated in 2004 that, “there is no black America or white America; there is the United States of America”. When Larry King asked him: “was that hard to say as a black American?”, Obama reaffirmed the statement. Obama’s statement was not a lie but it was also not true. There was (and is) in fact a black America and a white America. The indices are incontrovertible: wealth gap, employment, education, housing, policing, etc. Would Obama have won if he had focused on these radicalised issues and glaring divisions?

The point is that visions of unity are important in fractured societies. Such visions may gradually become real. Whether or not the lives of American blacks have improved in the Obama presidency is a different subject. Kindly note that politics requires building friendships with former foes — real and perceived — and consciously choosing to stay positive. The main actors in the last elections in Nigeria would remember this lesson.

Another strategy on how not to produce an Igbo president is not to agree on a single candidate. One example may suffice. Nigerian associations in Diaspora often have imported confounding divisions. A highly revered professor from the South-East once told me about a Nigerian association in a major US city and how it was plagued by rancour. He said the Igbo pulled out from the Nigerian association and formed an Igbo association. The new Igbo group quickly split over sundry issues. Smaller Igbo groups, including an all-female group led by my senior colleague’s wife, were formed from the newly-formed Igbo association. The women-only group also suffered divisions in less than two years and another all-female group was formed. He concluded by pointing to the legendary republicanism of Igbos and the idea that “Igbos have no king”. Well, there is nothing wrong with having no king; kings are not always nice to their subjects.

However, politics requires a modicum of consensus that can only be built by coalescing around certain ideas, vision and yes, persons. Therefore, Igbo need to begin the search for presidential material. There is no shortage of such persons in the South-East. In particular, I would like to see a female president from the East. All Nigerian men and women should let us make history and elect a female president.

Why should we produce an Igbo and/or female president? Well, attention to representation has produced outstanding results in some parts of the world. Several Nordic countries have specific requirements for gender representation in key institutions of society, including boards of private corporations. Research suggests that corporations with adequate female representation are generally more profitable than those with male-dominated boards. In Canada, “geographic representation” is one of the concerns for appointment to the Supreme Court. It is designed to ensure that the Court does not get dominated by larger provinces. Such a mechanism for adequate representation enriches the judgment of the Court. Therefore, “zoning” is not necessarily antithetical to excellence.

A people who have risen from the ashes of decimation during a brutal civil war and evaporation of generational wealth have to be shown respect. Igbos are not being arrogant when they claim to be special. However, star performers in the class have to be kind to fellow-stars. Failure to do so breeds resentment towards the other and the self.

This is not an ethnic issue for some of us. For me, the key issues are: How do we ensure excellence in leadership? Is the mechanism we have adopted fair to all? Does it build inclusion and belonging? This is a humble insider-outsider perspective. Ndigbo must avoid the problems noted above.

‘Tope Oriola is Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow. Twitter: @topeoriola