Who emerges President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo after tomorrow’s elections, to be conducted by the election committee headed by Chief Ejiofor Onyia?
Will the Nze Ozichukwu Chukwu-led Ohanaeze leadership deliver on the expectations of Ndi Igbo worldwide who have been waiting with bated breath for the new leadership under a president-general who, in line with the 2004 Constitution of the body, must come from Rivers State?
Can Nze Ozichukwu Chukwu deploy his famed man-management skills and political savvy to navigate the labyrinthine intrigues trailing what, by all accounts, is expected to be a watershed election in Ohanaeze history?
What, with allegations that one of the candidates is not an indigene of Rivers State, or that he has what is akin to dual indigene-ship? Assuming he wins, will the other candidates accept the outcome?
What steps are being taken to guard against validating the allegation that has always been used to create division between the Igbo of the South East and their kith and kin in other states; that the latter are regarded as inferior Igbos to be exploited and put down at will?
Thus, will the various stakeholders subsume their narrow personal or self-serving interests under the larger collective Igbo interest at a time that the race faces its most daunting existential crisis?
These, and more are some of the posers that ought to adumbrate the Igbo consciousness, going into the election.
Tomorrow’s election has generated considerable interest for at least two other reasons: First, is the requirement for the incoming president to possess the stature to stand toe to toe, with various leadership cadre in the country particularly leaders of other socio-cultural groups and political leaders from the south east geopolitical zone with governors leading the pack.
The second is the argument that the president who will emerge must be an “authentic” Rivers indigene. That three intending candidates had cause to hold a press conference where they ‘disowned’ a presumed front runner justifies the need for caution moreso when it is acknowledged that one of the major problems plaguing Ohanaeze and by extension the Igbo race is the perennial failure of consensus, a seething disunity that is often ignored but never chased away.
Of course, there is the ever present fear of the process running into some legal headwinds, something that we have witnessed time and again. Will this election be an exception? Hopefully, the answer will emerge within the next twenty four hours.
It could be useful if the wise men and women who make up the electoral advert their minds to the following questions:
Would the history of inter-ethnic relations between the Igbo and the other ethnic groups in the defunct Eastern Region have been different, perhaps more constructive and productive, if the great Zik of Africa had allowed Professor Eyo Ita to remain as the leader of Government Business after the former was ditched in the former Western Region?
Would the defunct Eastern Nigeria Development Company (ENDC), the umbrella body under which many economic enterprises in the defunct Eastern Region were established have collapsed, when ODUA Group (Western Region) is striving as a behemoth and the NNDC (Northern Region), is still alive in whatever shape?
How would the outcome of the elections guard against a repeat of history, the deepening of suspicion, the widening of the historical fault-lines between the South East Igbo and the Igbo in the other states thereby encouraging others to prey on the indiscretion of the mainland ‘Igbo’?
The Igbo, particularly of the South East, is almost synonymous with the word ‘marginalisation’. Is there a game plan to remove that from the psyche of those who would feel ‘robbed’, ‘excluded’, ‘humiliated’. ‘dispossessed’, even marginalised by an outcome that casts a doubt on the ‘Rivers-ness’ of the incoming President?
I say these without prejudice to the high respect in which I hold the former Inspector General of Police IGP Mike Okiro (retd), a man of great education and intellect, a police officer of no mean distinction, an unassuming and unpretentious brother of the Catholic faith, a Nigerian public servant of unimpeachable integrity, a humble person who would be expected to lead with distinction should he be become the next President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
My only worry is that given the controversy that has trailed his candidacy over the delicate issue of his state of origin, it matters very little whether his accusers are right or wrong, whether his Police record or that of our alma mater the University of Ibadan shows reads that he is from Rivers State, if elected, he would most likely preside over a disjointed Ohanaeze at this point. And that will be an unmitigated disaster because, divided we have always fallen, divided we shall always fall.
Without prejudice to his right to contest, Is it not possible for my elder brother, Dr. Okiro to sacrifice his ambition for another candidate, say, the urbane Senator John Mbata who, as chairman of Monier Construction Company (MCC) of Sam Mbakwe fame, could be expected to be guided by the spirit of that great man whose leadership Imo State almost reenacted the magnificent era of the legendary Dr. Michael Okpara, late former premier of the defunct Eastern Region?
That said, Mbata has had an equally illustrious career in the service of the country. Before retiring into full time entrepreneurship, he served with distinction as a member of the Senate between 1999 and 2007. He was at various times chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, member senate committee on defence, works and housing, women affairs, information, as well as local and foreign debts.
An unpretentious and unapologetic Igbo man of Ikwerre extraction, he possesses the character, competence, reach and generational quotient to unify Ndigbo and create the impetus for not only for the progress of the Igbo geo-political areas but a sustainable Igbo renaissance in Nigeria where mutual co-existence and amity would reign supreme.
We live by the choices we make.
May God guide us aright.
