Igbo will lose nothing, absolutely nothing, but would have gained everything. My pity is to the poor masses because the suffering and massacre will continue, and may result in the disintegration of the country. What Charles Soludo in his shallow reasoning and treacherous ambition is trying to do is to pull Ndigbo back to Egypt, when the rest of progressive Nigeria is offering Ndigbo a lifeline to escape the bondage of Pharaoh. Peter Obi, by coming out to contest and commanding such a worldwide appeal, has already erased the stigma of the civil war and pulled the Igbo man back into reckoning. He has restored the broken third leg of the tripod of political power in this country. This is what prophet Soludo is not seeing, blinded by his prejudices against Obi and his inordinate and treacherous ambition for the political limelight.
And what brought us this far? It is the Igboman’s resolute and decided stand against the Caliphate’s bizarre rule since the inception of Buhari’s rudderless administration eight years ago. It is not timid squirming under the shadow of the Cabal as Soludo is suggesting we should do. In fact, his attitude and school of thought are what is puffing up the Cabal and making them assume what they are not. At last, the Igbo nation has seized to be a traditional hunting ground for spineless vice president and minister of information who holds the cow while they are milking it!
What have we got to lose standing on our feet and saying no to tyranny and misrule? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Rather the whole progressive Nigeria is running to us to escape clueless unqualified leadership and calamitous rule of the Cabal, and also to define a new narrative for politics as never before. The Cabal are now the ones that are jittery. It pays to take a principled stand no matter the situation and for how long. It is just a matter of time before one’s position will be vindicated.
The outrage of Ndigbo and the rest of Nigeria is not so much what Soludo said in the way and manner he presented them. Is he not aware, as the governor, he is the father of all Anambrarians irrespective of age and status; therefore one would have expected him to invite Peter Obi as a son and discuss his concern about Obi’s candidacy, and his preference for an ageing and terminally sick kleptomaniac drug baron of very low integrity and questionable character instead, in the name of political structure. And if my understanding of structure is people, not buildings, it is only a dead and insensitive structure that will still be standing for APC after the calamity of the last eight years.
My exposure to American Politics taught me that no politician goes against the mood of the people who elected him unless he resigns first. Yes, the Anambra people elected him, and he, Soludo, admitted Obi will likely win the Anambra state; so that is the mood of the Anambra people. And so his vulgar and infantile eruption against Peter Obi is indeed a direct insult to the people of Anambra state and betrays him, Soludo, as a political neophyte. He will live to see the painful result of his misadventure.
We, Ndigbo, should be careful how little intellectual knowledge or wealth puffs us to the point of losing our senses. And that is why I admire and praise the Yorubas for their maturity, humility and native intelligence. Of all Tunubu’s monumental failings, no Yoruba governor has come out to challenge or publicly castigate him, not even his state governor. Does that mean they’re dummies? No! It shows them to be wise. Ndigbo has had so many outstanding intellectuals, past and present who remained submissive and amenable to Igbo authority and collective will; people like Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Chinua Achebe, Ogbonnaya Onu, Barth Nnaji and even late Pius Okigbo who was regarded as an icon in Soludo’s field of economics. So Soludo should please be careful before he catches the fever of the proverbial bird, Nza, in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, if he has not already done so. He should be careful because all the people he is fronting for, as many believe, can only use and dump him. He can go and ask Umahi, Ameachi, Okorocha, etc – (Izu ka nma na nne ji); tete-a-tete is best between blood relations.
Odumegwu Ojukwu made us understand that power is taken, not given. Peter Obi is boldly taking power from the Cabal. The event of the last APC and PDP primaries should convince any fool that the Cabal can never willingly hand over power to an Igboman. All of a sudden, the zoning formula, for which the blood of baboons and monkeys would have flowed during the tenure of Goodluck Jonathan, was terminated. Even if for any reason on earth the Cabal is made to voluntarily hand over power, which I strongly doubt, they’ll give it to the likes of Orji Uzor Kalu to ridicule and prove that the Igbo are not capable of ruling Nigeria. God forbid! Why didn’t they pick the younger cerebral, agile and vibrant Osibanjo in preference to Tinubu? Indeed, fools don’t see.
And talking about Obi’s investments as being worthless, my question is: Were Obi’s investments worthless when they were made? As an economist, Soludo should have known that the value of investment fluctuates with time; and if over eight years after leaving office that investment was mismanaged, Soludo should be blaming his immediate predecessor, not Peter Obi. To the Obi-dients, Soludo’s assault should be a wake-up call to tighten loose ends. More effort should be geared towards demystifying the myth of so-called structure in the political equation, especially in rural areas where hunger is strengthening the structures. When Obi visited flood victims and offered financial help, it does not mean he violated his policy of not giving ‘shishi’. He is only responding to the exigencies of the time and situation. Extraordinary situations deserve extraordinary measures; necessity knows no law. The situation in rural areas fits into this axiom. And this is where 40% of the voters reside. The hawkish opponents are definitely exploiting it to the detriment of the Labour Party.
Finally, my Igbo brethren, let us take advantage of the advent of Peter Obi to put an end to our policy of political compromises, and learn to stand firm on principles, like Afenifere, PANDEV, and the Middle Best forum. That is the only way to put an end to the caliphate’s arrogance and bring about restructuring and desired change. We lost nothing from our principled stand on Buhari’s emergence, which will soon expire. And we will lose nothing even if Peter Obi contests and loses. Instead, it will earn us more respect and followership. So let us turn our backs to the likes of Orji, Uzodinma, Nnamani, and others, whose only purpose is to collect stipends and take us back to Egypt. Going by the mood of the nation and all predictions, PETER OBI HAS ALREADY WON THIS ELECTION. He can only lose to FRAUD!
N. Okezie Okeugo
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