As serious underground
alignments and campaigns have begun for the 2015 general elections which is
clearly over two years away, one major point of discussion is on how best
to carry all segments of the Nigerian society into consideration and give every
one of them a sense of belonging in the project Nigeria. A salient
component of the public conversations is the place of the Igbo speaking
nationality in the 2015 elections given that the ethnic nationality is the only
one among the tripod of Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa that has never produced
executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria right from inception of
Nigeria as an independent nation. The nearest that the Igbo have come to
realize this objective was in the immediate post independence period when the
late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of the then National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon
emerged as the non-executive President of Nigeria but political power resided
in the Hausa-Fulani dominated party of Northern Peoples Congress controlled
remotely by the then Northern regional leader Sir. Ahmadu Bello but symbolize
by the then Prime minister Sir. Abubakar Tafawa Belewa.
One leading Nigerian politician
who has carried out vigourous campaign to right the political wrong against the
Igbo speaking nationality is the former governor of Abia state Chief. Orji Uzor
Kalu who is a founding member of the ruling national party- Peoples Democratic
Party. Orji Kalu is perhaps one notable political heavyweight from the South of
the Niger that enjoys significant name recognition in all parts of the country
and he has leverage on these monumental political advantage to raise the tempo
of advocacy for the rest of the Nigerian society to consider supporting
a good Nigerian statesman of Igbo extraction to emerge as the democratically
elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria come 2015general
elections. In spite of the fact that he has unduly suffered political
setbacks and witch-hunt from the man he single handedly helped to make the
governor of his home state of Abia state, this great mind Chief Orji Uzor Kalu
is not deterred in his selfless campaign to ensure that an Igbo Nigerian
statesman becomes the President of Nigeria even when the political characters
that populates the South East today have betrayed the collective agenda of the
people of South East Nigeria by already canvassing support for President
Jonathan who has not even signified intention to vie for election in 2015 and
indeed whose administration has not favored the South East with any significant
infrastructural development over the last three years that he has presided over
as the President of Nigeria.
Recently, in one of his
elaborate foreign trips to drum up support for the Igbo, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu
had the privilege to address the British Parliament whereby he laid bare the
case of the Igbo in Nigeria and canvassed actively for support for an Igbo
Nigerian statesman to become through popular mandate of the rest of Nigerians
as the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In a voice laden with poetic
wisdom, Orji Kalu had told the global audience thus; "My people are known
as the Igbo and our language is Igbo. Igbo people constitute one of the
three largest ethnic groups in Nigeria- what Nigeria historians have come to
term the tribal tripod. The other two are the Yoruba and the Hausa /
Fulani".
"The primary Igbo states
in Nigeria are Anambra, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi and Enugu (if justice and equity
reigned there should have been 6 or 7, instead of 5 States). Due to their
mobility, the Igbo constitute between 25%- 60% of the population in some other
Nigerian state such as Delta, Rivers, Lagos, Kano, Cross River, Kaduna,
AkwaIbom and Plateau, to mention but a few", he stated.
Continuing, the irrepressible
human rights campaigner stated further; "Although my people mainly and
primarily inhabit the south-eastern part of Nigerian, they have, however
spread, like ants in the savannah, to every nook and cranny of Nigeria, Africa
and the globe - Thriving, building and enriching themselves, their
environment and others in all facts of life as they do so".
He went deeper into his rich
collection of philo-political thoughts and offered the following wise saying;
"The veteran American diplomat, Henry Kissinger, hit the nail on the head
when he aptly observed that: “The Igbo’s are the wandering Jews of West
Africa…… gifted, aggressive Westernized; at best envied and resented, but
mostly despised by the mass of their neighbours in the Federation.” Henry
Kissinger, MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Tuesday 28th [Foreign
Relations, 1969-1976, VOLUME E-5 Documents on Africa, 1969-1972]".
These words of wisdom were
uttered by Chief Orji Uzor Kalu before the British Parliamentarians just as he
was able to masterfully raise a professorial question whether the Igbo speaking
people in Nigeria are subject to a carefully scripted native law of discrimination
which has made it impossible for an Igbo Nigerian statesman to ever emerge as
President of Nigeria and he graphically narrated the factual proof that
concluded that it is only just and right that the rest of Nigerians should
offer the Igbo speaking person the opportunity to serve them as their President
in 2015.
His words; "The Igbo in
Nigeria have become the receptacle of anger, hatred, envy and frustration
oozing out of their fellow compatriots. But this is on the level of the
transaction between private citizens. How about the place of the Igbo in
respect of the manner in which public affairs are conducted by the Nigeria
federal Government and its agencies?"
The simple answer is that the
rain has continued to beat the Igbo.
Not done with citing
international political scholars, Orji Uzor Kalu also quoted from a well known
Nigerian diplomat and writer Chief Ralph Uwechue who incidentally served
as the president-general of OhanaezeNdigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural
group, who categorically stated of the Igbo, in a paper entitled Igbo
are nation builders that; “to the Nigerian project, the Igbo have given a
great deal yesterday, are still doing so today, and have a lot more in store
for a much greater tomorrow.’’
Like most thinkers, Orji Kalu
concluded by persuading the rest of Nigerians to considerate imperative that It
is time for the bloody rain to stop beating the Igbo people and for all forms
of political discrimination against the Igbo institutionalized in Nigeria to be
radically uprooted.
"Igbo people are already
drenched and soaked to the point of suffocation. It not only in the best
interest of the Igbo but also in the best interest of the Nigerian people for
the sun to rise and shine in us all".
He used the opportunity to campaign
for all poor Nigerians irrespective of ethnic and religious affiliations, thus;
"Permit me to use this opportunity to appeal to the British government
through this distinguished gathering to increase funding for special projects
that benefit the underprivileged in Nigeria and Africa in general".
He argued persuasively that the
proposed legislation in the UK parliament to reduce aid for health,
education and infrastructure, amongst others, while committing more funds to
war areas such as Mali with the provision of arms and ammunition will be
counterproductive both in the immediate and medium term. Nigeria, he rightly
told the British political elites, needs increased funding to meet our
development challenges, the biggest of which is achieving the millennium
development goals (MDGs). "This intervention will bridge the gap between
the rich and poor countries, thereby making the world a better place for all of
us and our children", Orji Kalu argued.
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