As is the character of most Igbos, South Eastern Presidential aspirants may not have unleashed the kind of Dollar rain aspirants from other parts doled-out to be elected as their party’s flag bearer. Meaning, the motivating factor of the delegates (as we have seen already), including North and South West delegates, is not necessarily patriotism but the concern and business of ‘any highest bidder’. For example, is Pastor Tunde Bakare so unpopular in the Southwest that he could only afford zero vote? Was there no single Christian delegate from the West who could have pitched their tent with him, rather than a Tinubu (Muslim candidacy)? Also, to get shortlisted as a delegate, you must have paid a whopping sum. So, is that money just to ensure they vote a better person? Or to flourish on their hard investments?

Trust issue cuts across every work of life, especially in Politics. It is not peculiar to Igbo political personalities as it is vehemently portrayed in certain quarters. What interpretation is giving to an Osinbajo’s 100 million Naira presidential ticket purchase? A man who was single handedly nominated by an age long ally to become a running mate. It is either he was not informed of Tinubu’s intention to eventually run, or he cared less about it. The generic interpretation given to the VP’s action is “political ambition”; whereas a South Easterner in the same situation would have been labelled “his own brother’s enemy”. And for convenient purpose, this is daily accepted and or amplified as the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I have often laughed at those who say the Igbos would have produced a single candidate and get all other Igbos to support that candidate. And I ask why they are not worried about Tinubu, Bakare and Osinbajo in one race. Or the ‘division’ which produced Ahmed Lawal as candidate in the face of APC’s Northern Governors agreement to only produce a Southern flag bearer for their party.

What better irony of conviction is there than that unquestionable affirmation about Igbos being everywhere based on their expanding business ventures, yet do not love themselves to coexist and achieve any simple goal. A truly weightless logic, too simple to spread faster than a virus. Yet, there is no ethnic group in Nigeria that supports their own to excel in business as much as the Igbos. Do not just skip this, but pause for five seconds with a thought-scan to name that ethnic group, if any. See! You are absolutely right. I got the same answer as well…. None! What’s faulty here is the foundation on which the leaders are (s)elected. Cash inducement for votes would one hundred percent of the time produce the wrong person. The Jews gave and collected cash to produce a different candidate to be crucified.

Nigerian politics as at today, has largely remained a business of personal interest, than collective progress, even in the North. The reason they thrive is because the South has viable, multiple sources of income unlike the North. So, they have been more attentive to the science of politics as it were. Whatever you give attention to, you will definitely become. There are always two sides to a coin. Like other ways to look at things.


Stanley Iwuoha writes from Dallas, Texas USA