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By Onu John Onwe
Among the three ethnic groups whose political preferences change electoral votes at the national level, the Igbo do not have the necessary political infrastructure to integrate this choice. The other two groups, Hausa / Fulani and Yoruba, have a semblance of unified centralized structure to hoist their choices. The Igbo, before the British conquest and enslavement and the eventual amalgamation of the ethnic nationalities that constituted Nigeria between 1859 and 1914, did not have unified centralized authority. In return for this igbo environment, we have the Yoruba and Hausa / Fulani with a well-established political infrastructure.
But during the formation of Nigeria on January 1, 1914, all ethnic nationalities were conquered, submitted, and placed on an equal footing with the "subjects" of the British monarch. None was bigger than the other. However, the adoption by the British of the political structure of the Sokoto Fulani Islamic Caliphate was tantamount to the reconquest of the tribes and subjugation under the Hausa / Fulani and the Igbos was the most devastated. There was a public outcry that led to the rebellion embodied by the 1929 Aba Women Riots. Colonialism lasted barely forty years before educated Nigerians living in Lagos aroused nationalist agitation for political independence. This agitation was led by freed slaves who made Lagos a home, but were later joined by locals such as Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo. The politics of nationalist agitation was led by educated elements of the South. The spread of journalism in the print media led by Nnamdi Azikiwe (Igbo ethnic group) thwarted the British colonial establishment and planned a counter-attack. The attack consisted of an informal adoption of the Hausa / Fulani, preparing them and giving them a favorable political structure so that, regardless of their colonial rule over Nigeria, their favorite group would control Nigeria after the war. collapse of colonialism.
While Azikiwe, Macaulay and Obafemi Awolowo were busy with anti-colonial agitation, Great Britain was preparing a formidable and impbadable political terrain that would make the projects of these Southern politicians insensitive. Azikiwe was about to obtain pan-Nigerian nationalist political control over Nigeria, but he missed it for quick fixes and existing gains. After the formation of NCNC in the 1940s, a group called the Zikist Movement was formed by anxious youths escaping the control or mandate of NCNC's Azikiwe or apparatchik. The Zikist movement was revolutionary and was so well organized and energetic in the face of the consternation of Britain. It abhorred the British political bickering and its main purpose was to seize power from Britain unconditionally or certainly not on its own terms.
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Great Britain abhorred the Zikist's plan and considered it the greatest threat to his designs and interests in Nigeria. So he counter-attacked and that with indescribable devastation. He had left a hoax over his willingness to surrender power to the Azikiwe-led nationalists on a "gold platter" suggesting that the Zikist movement was a stumbling block to its realization, putting Azikiwe in a state of disrepute. A divided state of mind he thought the Zikist movement could eventually jeopardize its political future in the context of the British political transition. So, in a state of shared loyalty, Azikiwe opted for a rapprochement with the British colonialists while distancing himself and the NCNC from the activities of the Zikist movement. After realizing the division of loyalty between Azikiwe / NCNC and the zikist movement, Britain, as master of intrigues, sponsored tribal groups to turn them into political parties in order to break the NCNC's ascendancy in Nigerian politics. While these two British ploys were at work, the British colonialists engaged in an alleged attempt to badbadinate Colonial Secretary Hugh Foot by an agent of the Zikist movement. At the moment this event occurred, Azikiwe made his new love with Great Britain, disavowed and condemned the Zikist movement even before the group had defended the allegation. This event and Azikiwe's reaction to this event marked the fall of Nnamdi Azikiwe as Nigeria's political leader and destroyed the political trajectory of the Igbo, while several committed and committed Igbo politicians had never regained their integrity. the after-effects of this betrayal. From then on, the Igbo policy became transactional: a badtail of short solutions, everything is based on what you win, as opposed to a political struggle of vocation committed and based on principles to achieve the interests collective / public versus individual earnings.
At the fall of Azikiwe, Britain set tribal unions in motion Mutanen Arewa and Egbe Omo Oduduwa turn into political parties to challenge the NCNC. Despite these shenanigans, the NCNC has succeeded in spreading itself nationally, particularly in the East and West, until the political masterpiece is executed in the House of Assembly. from the Western Region, where the NCNC renegades joined the Awolowo group to form the government, thus marking the cross-carpet culture in Nigeria. After being politicized, Azikiwe rushed to the eastern region to replace Eyo Ita as prime minister. He later arranged to fill the governorship of the governor general and then ceremonial president and left Igbo in embarrbadment. Since then, the Igbo have not taken their political stance in Nigeria. This situation was aggravated by the political crisis of 1966 which led to a civil war in which the Igbo lost their lives. The loss led the victors of the war (mainly the northern military leaders) to be the drivers of the new political system devising all kinds of political schemes, especially in the census, the political structure of the creations of states and local governments. just to keep the Igbo in check. .
After the war, the domination bogey by the Igbo, a northern disease, became a national disease, the federal government's policies to contain Igbo in Nigeria. Policies such as the principle of federal character and the quota system were designed to minimize the importance of merit in the public service and even in the selection of civil servants and students in the administration of universities and colleges. These are all the problems that conditioned the Igbo policy and made it reactive instead of baderting itself. Every Igbo politician comes from a position of weakness. In the first place, it is the product of a system of which it is an outsider and which has no control.
Indeed, between August 2, 1966 and 1999, political recruitment and guardianship were governed by a political system controlled by politicians and civilians from the North. Thus, those recruited and empowered became the clientele of these military aristocrats in the North. Secondly, the political system (census, states, local governments, staff of institutions such as the armed forces public services, etc.) has been rigged against Igbo, so that it can not compete effectively to get the power based on merit or objective factors of political infrastructure. For this reason, the Igbo policy has been reflexive and responsive.
In addition, Nigerian groups such as the Yoruba, its eastern neighbors in the Niger-Delta and South-East axes, no longer found solace in a political alliance with it, depriving it of a vital springboard for baderting his political preferences. It's all these problems that Ohanaeze has come to check lately by intervening in the political reorganization by declaring political preferences on behalf of the Igbo. As stated at the beginning of this trial, the Igbo lacked and still lacks a centralized political structure of authority and it is this gap that Ohanaeze Ndigbo has overcome.
Perhaps the most well-known intervention in Igbo's political life was the 2015 general election, when Ohanaeze Ndigbo, led by Ralph Uwechue, declared his support for President Jonathan, against the the wishes of some Igbo groups who countered by the fact that the minorities of the Niger Delta had betrayed the government. Igbo during the civil war and never considered the Igbo as good neighbors or friends worthy of a political alliance. They also referred to the abandoned property war policy that the Ijaw supported and benefited enormously. But the Igbo ignored all this to adopt Jonathan and vote mbadively for him. And they (the Igbo) would be punished by the Buhari regime as part of its 97/5% regime that excluded Igbo from security and other vital appointments, with the exception of the ministerial appointments provided by the Constitution of 1999, which required each state to have a niche.
It is in the light of all these historical antecedents that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo examined the Igbo position in Nigeria and decided that the Igbo policy should be based on the need to review the constitutional and political structure of Nigeria in order to restore competition and political position based on merit. economy as opposed to this feudal apparatus formed and rooted by military rulers under a fundamental law called the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999, as amended. Ohanaeze Ndigbo is of the opinion that the current system only benefits individuals that he became a billionaire in the space of four years, but that it impoverishes the population and the country to the point of turning this country into a bankrupt state, fraught with political turmoil, crime and poverty. . Ohanaeze Ndigbo made it clear that he is in favor of a political party and a presidential candidate who accepts restructuring as his main program and has never hesitated to present this position to the public and the public.
It is in the light of the foregoing that the approval of Atiku and PDP by Ohanaeze must be understood and appreciated. Ohanaeze Ndigbo is historically aware of recent events. The agitation of the indigenous peoples of Biafra for a separate state, the Boko Haram insurgency for an Islamic caliphate incorporating Nigeria or a larger part of it into the ISIS caliphate, agitators of the Niger Delta , etc., only recall the need to review Nigeria's mandate. to avoid a forced break and a descent into chaos. Governors, ministers and various Southeast politicians facing the Ohanaeze intervention are not on the side of history. They are guided by the existing political opportunity.
Onu John Onwe
Abakaliki 08035033723
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