As the heat for the 2015 general elections gathers momentum, a crucial factor that must play out is the unique selling point of the incumbent president, Goodluck Ebele, Azikiwe Jonathan. Forget about the mixed reactions of the key performance indications of his almost six years stint as executive president of the country. But if there is a section of the country that is crying marginalization and not being able to ascend the throne of the presidency since independence and at the same time bearing the front burner of the return of Jonathan, it is the Southeast and precisely NDIGBO! And Jonathan and his handlers are optimizing this very sentimental approach of politics very well. This was exactly what played out in the build-up to 2011 presidential elections when the same trump card was effectively used to sway votes to the president. All the appeals for the region to be circumspect in their choice of candidate fell on deaf ears. As far as they are concerned Jonathan is what they called NWANNA, a distant cousin that his forefathers migrated to Bayelsa State in the years of yore and as such he is from Igbo speaking minority in Bayelsa. Some people went as far as brow beating any one that stands in the way of their argument. To buttress this fact some even went to the extent of justifying it to the migrating nature of AROS in Igbo land, who have the penchant to move from their initial place of origin and migrate and settle for life in a another area. This is the position they placed origin and descent of Jonathan and it sold like hot cake throughout the length and breathe of Igboland. As if to authenticate this, the president had the fortune, misfortune or coincidence of bearing names that have Igbo appellations. The name Ebele is an Igbo name which literally translates to Mercy, hence something Ebele Chukwu will ordinarily mean mercy of God. This has been used effectively by the president and his co- travelers to hoodwink the Igbos that actually he is of the same stock with the South-East. In fact somebody like former minister of information Dora Akunyili loudly emphasize the name EBELE to drum it into the ears of even the dumb that it is an Igbo name and that the president is from their side! No wonder many northerners swore over the grave of their forefathers never to see her return to office again and this they have largely achieved! As if that one is not enough to cause confusion in the land, the president also has another name that is like a worship name in Igboland, Azikiwe, the first non- executive president of the country. Of all the names in the world, this is the name that the president Jonathan decided to adopt as one of his names. Now tell me how you will divorce any iota of sentiment if the Igbos volunteer to spill blood to say that president Jonathan is their bona-fide son and must be elected president the second time. We are talking about the names of the president and people are saying of all the Ijaw names in the creek, he did not see any one meaningful to adopt but chose to answer Igbo names and somebody will say this president is dumb and clueless. To even add confusion or is it solidarity to his Igbo inclination is also the name of the village he hails from OTUOKE. OTUOKE from my little Igbo understanding is literally translated as RAT HOLE! So when you have a Nigerian president of Niger Delta extraction who have all the appellation of the Igbos right from his personal names to the nomenclature of his place of origin, his village, then something is fundamentally striking that if care is not taken, some other ethnic nationalities will start thinking in the line that Igbos have had their own shot at the presidency by virtue of the tenure of president Jonathan. And this may not be far from the truth or reality as some Northern hawks from time to time have said it that Jonathan is nothing but a president from Igboland. So even if the president is by deduction of the above analogy believed to be of Igbo extraction, what has he done for the Southeast region to warrant a bandwagon effect of handing him en bloc votes of the region come 2015. He promised a second Niger bridge in the 2011 electioneering campaign, up to this moment that project has not kicked off and it is speculated that it is a cardinal campaign pain point in the next few months when 2015 campaign will officially start. Most of the roads in the South-East are deplorable and at best described as death traps. The Enugu-Port Harcourt road, the Onitsha- Enugu Road and a host of others are acting as carnage centres sending Igbo people to their untimely graves on a daily basis, yet they have somebody that appropriate their ancentral name as the president. You cannot pinpoint any major infrastructure that President Goodluck has cited in the region all these years. Even the way President Jonathan treats most their leaders in his government leaves much to be desired. Some section of the people are still embittered on the ill treatment meted out to former minister of power in the person of erudite professor Bath Nnaji and Dr. Festus Odimegwu of Nigerian population commission. Insinuations are rife that many other ministers and government officials have committed even more heinous ‘crimes’ and are still around the corridors of power only for theirs to be shown the way out in a most shameful and disdainful manner for their stand for probity! Yet some pundits are asking if anyone can justify and rationalize why the presidents that emerged from North for thirty seven years, never took it serious to give the region an international airport a national priority. The same question goes for the proposed second Niger Bridge. To make matters worse they are so vexed that even Obansajo which grapevine has it on good authority has ancentral linkage to Igbos could not for the eight years in office to build an international airport for the whole of South-East. To them they believe that Obasanjo had the wherewithal to have ordered the commencement of a second Niger Bridge and even commissioned it while in office, but Obasanjo never did that. The big question is why the neglect of these two significant infrastructures which is of regional importance as well as serving as the national economic gateway by the presidents from the North as well as the South- West. To them within five years of Goodluck’s ascendency to office an international airport in one major ethnic nationalities is finally functioning and the second Niger Bridge is getting prominent attention. They are asking what did Goodluck see that other previous presidents from the north and southwest did not see. For this category of Igbos, in as much as they may not be happy with the general state of the nation, but suffice to state that their biggest desire they have been hoping for the federal government to remember them are being partially done by this administration. They also point to honour done to late Eze NDIGBO, GBURUGBURU, late Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu. He was given a head of state burial in 2012 by president Goodluck government. Jonathan attended the burial by being physically present at the burial with the then army chief of staff who incidentally is of an Igbo extraction gladdened their hearts so much. They wondered if this could have been possible with any other person on the seat of power but their own kit and kin, EBELE AZIKIWE! Despite any other short comings and perceived misgiving of Jonathan still sees the Igbos and the entire South-East as his best allies. In fact report have it that the Igbos are the first group to have endorsed his 2015 presidential ambition ahead of other regions even when the president has not declared his interest to contest the election. Way back in 2012, in a ceremony in Onitsha, maverick politician and money bag, Arthur Eze, publicly endorsed and campaigned for Jonathan for the 2015 presidential election. Even some people are now clamouring for treasonable charges on Chukwuemeka Ezeife for openly saying that Nigeria will catch fire if president Jonathan is not returned the second time. Now we hear Ohaneze, the apex Igbo speaking socio-cultural organization has directed all Igbos that have presidential ambition to drop it forthwith! This they will do in sympathy and favour of their kinsman President Jonathan. In fact a stern warning was given to somebody like Orji Uzor Kalu never to nurse the ambition of parading himself as a presidential candidate come 2015. Now some people are asking what are the pre-condition for a whole race to mortgage another four years to support Jonathan and the contentious issue is whether the Igbos are beneficially covered by Jonathan’s presidency! It is so confusing that the same people who are campaigning for the second term of the president will also be saying that it is the turn of their turn come 2015. HABA! Where is the logicality. One does not eat his cake and have it back. To some jesters and extremists they are positing that after Jonathan’s tenure in 2019, it will be the turn of the Igbos. That means power staying in the South for close to twenty years. And you think the North or other regions will just fold their hands and siddon look! But on a very curious note, what is so special in a name anyway. In actual fact if it is a question of a name the president or the wife answers that a country is adjudged, then Nigeria would have been an ELDORADO. You don’t need to ask why , because in situation where the president parades names like GOODLUCK, EBELE, AZIKIWE, JONATHAN, everything good suppose to flourish in the country. Added to this is the name of the wife of the president, PATIENCE AND MAMA PEACE. What a wonderful blessings of names of the first family. But have all these names translated to good governance. Do the bearers for once link their names to the quality of leadership and governance they give to the country. To me I don’t think so. And that is why sentiment and names may not be a very cogent electoral liability or asset in the forth coming elections. Added to this is the fact that the incumbent president is the first ever P.H.D holder of the exalted office. The difference supposes to show in the way and manner that governance is handled when juxtaposed to previous regimes. The reason being that for somebody to have gone through what the president passed through in life and in education, it must not be business as usual, there must be some semblance of innovation, qualitative leadership and radical transformation of the entire system. Granted that Jonathan’s administration must be recorded as one of the most turbulent in the history of the country, but that may not be the excuse for things to remain the way they are. It is on the basis of this that it will be a very tough decision to proffer where the pendulum will swing in the 2015 election. Will the Igbos of the South-East be hoodwinked again by a far distant cousin bearing their names yet have not recorded any significant achievement to the region. Is that name and sentiment going to form the basis of their electoral deciding factor? With the opposition still not getting their acts right, one just shivers that they may not allow sentiments to determine who wins the election, just like what happened in 2011. A credible opposition with better manifesto, programme, ideology, and a virile candidate can make the difference. But if it is still left as before where selfishness beclouds their reasoning of providing a better alternative, it may not be out of place to say that sentiments or name bearing as in the case of the South-East region may also account largely for electoral advantage in the forth coming elections. With the South-East bloc laying claims to a president that bears two of their most wonderful names, EBELE AND AZIKIWE and the South-South still tenaciously clinging on their own for a must completion of their constitutional and statutory right of two term tenancy of Aso Rock, anything can happen. Add this to the power of incumbency, disjointed opposition, deployment of federal might and resources and alleged merger of Independent Electoral commission (INEC), Police, SSS, and others with the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), your guess is as good as mine on the outcome of the presidential election, if President Goodluck, Ebele, Azikiwe Jonathan finally decides to run for the elections!
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 07:09:51 +0000
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