ON IGBOS & PETER OBI

This post was first published on Facebook, on 29th September, 2022.

I saw the video of Emeka Ihedioha, the former Imo state governor in the presence of other supposed eastern politicians, negating peter Obi’s candidacy & calling anyone of them that supports PO, a saboteur.

First, there is a trite saying Ndigbo have, which is: Igbo enwe eze. This aptly captures the Igbo society’s pattern of decision-making. The Igbos have never looked to government or its elected officials as tools for social engineering or change, and this dates to the time before the civil war.

The political class in the East are not a hallowed, revered sect in Alaigbo. As a matter of fact, asides Ojukwu, I can’t readily call to mind any towering Igbo leader that all Igbos largely defer to as spokesman for the tribe, & whose influence is trans-generational.

Mind you, this is not because the Igbos don’t have a generous supply of influential sons and daughters worldwide. In fact, we don’t lack them.

So Ihedioha coming out to speak for 'Igbos,' and saying, 'We only know two parties,: APC and PDP’, is unconscionable. You don’t have an audience, sir.

But then again, the Igbo political class have never been for the people, and have never looked out for the interest of their region.

Asides Enyinna Abaribe, I don’t know anyone who represents an interest beyond their own. That is why they don’t last in the consciousness of Ndigbo beyond their tenure, & none have any structure others can climb on.

Perhaps they know that, anyhow it goes, the Igbo man will be fine. Also why I have never, until now, been keen on an Igbo president. He will simply do no good for the region and only embarrass us n’ezi.

But an Igbo proverb says, "A masquerade that turns against its minders in a stab of arrogance, risks the humiliation of being deserted in the market square."

An Igbo man has no problem calling the bluff of any 'leadership' structure, no matter how revered.
Igbos typically, don’t defer to any central body, religious or political, to give it instructions on how to advance as an ethnic group.

Nnamdi Kanu was able to sell an idea to those IBOP youths because he held out to them their most resonating ideals as Igbos: Freedom and Self-reliance.

If Peter Obi doesn’t win in the East (this can never happen!), it would not be because a toothless political class influenced their decision.

It would simply be because they woke up that day and prized the value of opening their shops, over going to queue in their respective wards to vote, a major problem I agree, the East has.

Without doubt, a bad culture the Igbos must unlearn is; apathy to politics & voting. Unfortunately, this happens because nobody tells an Igbo man how to spend his resources, which includes his time.