ColumnsNigeriaOpinionPoliticsRevisiting the Pathway to Nigeria’s President of Igbo Extraction

Probably by the end of the coming week, many people would have gotten used to the fact that the 2023 Presidential Election has been won and lost. Again, with the Southeast not able to produce a President after an intense run by Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Moving on from here, what is next in the bid for actualizing the vision for a Nigeria’s president of Igbo extraction? No doubt the 2023 Presidential Election has not reached it’s terminal point. It could be challenged in court, as LP and PDP disagree with the outcome. However, for now, the aspiration for an Igbo to become President in 2023 has reached it’s terminal point and perhaps, it is time to think ahead.

Peter Obi, it would appear, now have a second chance to build a political platform, with which to bid for national alliance and re-launch a national campaign. It is important to observe that no Nigerian of any ethnic group or religious persuasion can become president without a formidable alliance across the board. Sadly, not many Southeast voters understand this. But it won’t change that reality. The pathway to Nigeria’s president of Igbo extraction remains as I have always stated; one: build a good regional platform and use it to negotiate power; alliancing with Southwest and Northwest or Southwest and Northeast. This calculation is based on the results of the 2023 Presidential Election which shows that LP had a dominant outing in Southeast, and significantly decent outing in South-South and Northcentral. Assuming this remains constant, and based on beneficiaries of the Obi-Datti movement, the Labour Party or Peter Obi, must make a deliberate effort towards a profitable alliance. In this instance, a far more intense alliance with two major zones or the Northwest, will deliver the expected result. This however, must not be seen as a quick route. It must be seamlessly pursued. Growth must be  steady, incremental and focused towards an end. Regional or local elections in those places must be intensely contested, as part of these efforts. To make it even easier, considering PDP’s abysmal outing throughout the Southeast, an LP/PDP alliance might accelerate the chances of Nigerian president of Igbo extraction. This, provided all interests are harmonised, might secure the desired end in latest, the next 8 years.

But again, the alliance is not the only route.  Nigeria’s President of Igbo extraction can be achieved on the platform of the APC. As it stands now, PDP is terribly weakened to be able to deliver that on its own without an alliance. LP has remarkably displaced PDP in some of its traditional strongholds. The only major party that appears to be intact and in a good position to deliver is the APC. Importantly,  when PDP jettisoned its own zoning arrangement, APC remained committed to theirs. Therefore, it is clear that in the future,  APC will not abandon it’s zoning arrangement. However, efforts in ensuring that the party fields a Southeasterner as it’s presidential candidate in the next sixteen years must start now. Southeasterners in APC, or who intend to join the party, must be willing to invest ten to sixteen years in the party. Other things being equal, at the end of the long wait and investment, it is predictable that there will be a Nigeria’s president of Igbo extraction, based on the party’s North/South rotation agreement which the party honours. The option of hijacking the APC is not on the table because it is politically impossible, as it stands now. So, the long wait and investment is of extreme importance and will go a long way to strengthen the support a Southeast candidate will get in the party, when the time comes.

Aside these options, it is practically impossible to mount on Nigeria’s seat of power through a small and an untested political platform. The party will always fail to get the required number and spread across at least twenty-four states of the federation. So alliance is not optional, it is a major requirement that must be fulfilled to be able to achieve the desired end result.

The two options are equally viable and effective. However, in choosing a pathway, it is important to note that it is better to plan and work, while aiming to win in sixteen years, than to waste time and dissipate energy trying to grab power in the next 4 years and keep failing to realise it. Therefore, the exact framework for winning an important election as a Presidential contest in Nigeria, must be put in place. Not a hit and run approach, but a sustained and strategic approach.

Even more, both options can run concurrently and be pursued by Igbo political players. While Peter Obi leads the LP and PDP alliance, or the LP and other political parties’ alliance, other Southeastern political players can lead the same charge in APC for a set time. In both instances, the Southeast must inject new and firm players into it’s political fold. Considering that a lot is changing, Southeast will benefit immensely by positioning younger players, as necessary building blocks for the ultimate goal and may be, possible undertakers of the vision, in anticipation that this might be a long term goal, given a careful consideration of prevailing political realities.

Ebuka Onyekwelu (Staff Writer)
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