Orji
Uzor Kalu’s solution to end Nigeria's problem
By Odimegwu Onwumere
Some persons say that the time Nigeria is in is not
the time to talk loudly of who the next president of Nigeria should be. These
persons are also not interested of where the next president should come from.
They are of the concentration that the time should be used to identify with the
sitting president on how to move Nigeria forward while his first term lasts.
It is nevertheless appalling that many anti-Igbo
believe that the clarion calls by Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu for Igbo presidency in
2015 is nonsensical and brainless as it sounds. To their miscalculation, what
they say that they are interested in is a president that is educated, but most
especially, a president that is honest and widely exposed in the politics and
how the economies of the world are run.
Dr. Kalu says that Ndigbo are not in lack of these
outlines, although he believes the contrary that the problem of the country is
not about education, but about the diversion of justice in most folders. After
all, there has never been a Nigerian leader who did not have one form of
education or the other, and it will not be expected of a person to have all the
educations of the world. This is mainly the reason there are specialists
assigned to different legislations in any government.
Ndigbo have reputable sons and daughters that are
embraceable in leadership positions and have proved their mettle in the
different areas of their calling. Ndigbo are untainted and do not wear the
apparel of tribalism, but a fitting one they have always wore that
they are ever willing to serve and redeem the country.
Ndigbo have shown that they do not lack the
presidential credentials; and this was proved by Rt. Hon.
Nnamdi Azikiwe (now late), who because of the peace and unity of the country
performed higher-than expectation, though tagged a Ceremonial President. It
behooves Nigerians to learn to reverence the intelligences of Ndigbo, and
should stop telling lies against the Igbo when they deem such fit. Is it not
said that Leadership is sought and must be deserving?
Conceivably, Ndigbo have a far reaching force in
economics, monetary and every other aspect of education that will set the
record of Nigeria straight. Ndigbo have the intelligence, dynamism and are
always current in different fields of human endeavours.
It is not that Kalu is saying that being Igbo,
Hausa, Yoruba, Ijaw, Ibibio, Kanuri, Bini, Eshan, Fulani, Efik, and so on is a
decisive-factor of being president, but that it is the turn of Ndigbo to
produce the president of this country, owing to the political equation of the
country.
Those who know what Truth is all about will
understand that our bigger brother Orji Uzor Kalu is not holding water in his
cheek whenever he is making any statement on the issue of Igbo presidency.
Who will say that the bouillabaisse and consommé
that his or her mother cooks is tasteless? It is not out of place that Kalu
says that Ndigbo have been neglected for so long in this country and are not
asking too much for the presidency come 2015.
In his ebullient manner and love for Ndigbo and the
peace of Nigeria at large, Kalu is right to say that Ndigbo won't compromise
the presidency in 2015 and he is committed to ensuring that Ndigbo clinched the
presidency in 2015.
Many
Igbo socio-cultural groups have bought into the Igbo presidency project the
anti-Igbo thought was a joke of Kalu. They say that on the Igbo presidency they
stand.
And
to those that say that Ndigbo are not united in their quest for 2015 Igbo
presidency bid, Kalu says that such a people are just selling their hard-to-buy
figment of imagination. Kalu believes that Ndigbo are more united now than
ever.
Kalu
organizes Ndigbo – both schooled and educated with good political
reasonableness – for the sophisticated and debonair leadership of Nigeria.
On
the line, Kalu has strategies towards the actualization of this extremely-large
project of Igbo presidency aspiration come 2015, but they will not be outlined
here. He is of the confidence that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) remains
the best platform to actualise Igbo presidency, except proved otherwise. This
statement was made in Dakar, Senegal, while he addressed a gathering of select
Nigerians in that country.
In a lecture Kalu delivered on “Leadership: Key
factor to a better Nigeria” at the Professor David Ijalaiye Annual Lecture
series, organised by the Equity chambers of the Obafemi Awolowo University
(OAU), Ile Ife, Osun State, he says that it is Igbo presidency; Ndigbo will not
conciliate for any other position other than the post of the President in 2015;
and if other tribes think that Ndigbo do not matter in the political posturing
in the country, then the voting will not be a Nigerian affair, but ethnic.
Kalu says: “In 2015, what will happen is that the
Igbo will vote for the Igbo, Yoruba for Yoruba and Hausa vote for Hausa. Then,
we will all come to Abuja to discuss and determine who should be Nigerian
president. Anybody who thinks that it is going to be a straight ballot thing to
produce the President in 2015 is only fooling himself and that is our
position.”
Kalu continues to fight against injustice. And this
is for the interest of the good people of the country. He frowns that what the
country has gotten since 1967 when the military came into governance in the
country are not good leaders and those trained to man office but reluctant
politicians who are ever ready to take over the leadership of the country even
when they are not leaders in a country of about 160 million people, blessed
with great natural and human resources.
Kalu is not pursuing a selfish goal, but that which
will be beneficial to Ndigbo and indeed, Nigerians at large. As once a governor
of Abia State, he performed to the fullest of the dictates of the time –
1999-2007.
He has never taken Ndigbo for a ride, unlike some
people who see Ndigbo as a smokescreen for playing third fiddle in Nigeria. It
is laughable when some persons say that Kalu is aspiring to be Vice-President
to a northern presidential candidate while attracting-attention to be pursuing
the Igbo presidency in 2015.
If there is any Igbo who takes Ndigbo for granted
that person is not Kalu; Ndigbo in earnest know those who take Ndigbo for
granted, while at the same time claiming to be running for the presidency,
whereas they are actually looking for a way to sell Ndigbo less than the price
of a tuber of yam.
Those who take Ndigbo for granted are the persons
who say that in 2015, it is either the presidency or Ndigbo stay away. But Kalu
who takes Ndigbo seriously says that instead Ndigbo will stay away, “In 2015,
what will happen is that the Igbo will vote for the Igbo, Yoruba for Yoruba and
Hausa vote for Hausa. Then, we will all come to Abuja to discuss and determine
who should be Nigerian president. Anybody who thinks that it is going to be a
straight ballot thing to produce the President in 2015 is only fooling himself
and that is our position.”
While some Igbo sons and daughters say that they
are tired of the ravenousness and self-centeredness they perceived among
Ndigbo, Kalu calls for the unity of Ndigbo through Njiko Ndigbo.
Kalu betrayed nobody in the political landscape in
the country as some persons and groups are wont to saying over a decade now,
what happened was that Kalu was keen to politics that would continue to unite
Nigerians, oblivious that Nigerians are playing tribal politics. He was
inclined to this philosophy due to his love for Nigeria. When it was obvious to
him, he vowed that Ndigbo must produce the presidency. And this is where he is
now. Can anybody say that Kalu’s position on the 2015 Igbo presidency is also a
betrayal?
If Kalu betrayed anybody, Nigeria
Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the South-East would not have joined hands with
him to canvass for actualization of a Nigerian president from Igbo extraction
come 2015, because as we knew, journalists do not spare anybody with
questionable character with the kid’s glove, as the watchword of the society.
The
NUJ in the South East zone today sees through the periscope of Kalu at the
events building up to the 2015, and decided that Ndigbo should collectively be
voted-for to produce the next president of Nigeria in the 2015 general
elections.
The
journalists say they decided to take the infrequent pose, because Nigeria is in
an insecure time when justice is needed to reach at lasting solution for the
country’s problems that are largely opinionated in nature, while Kalu says that
Nigeria would continue to quiver on her expedition to nationhood and
socio-economic opulence unless Ndigbo are given a prospect to lead the country.
It is obvious today that the chance which has been
given to people from other nationalities to rule Nigeria
has failed to fix the infrastructure problems of the country and mostly, the
South-East. Kalu says that it is an Igbo presidency that will have the audacity
to address the decomposition in the country and especially, in the South-East,
which has been in negation since the uncivil war that the Nigerian government
meted out against Ndigbo 43 years ago.
In
that hypothesis, Kalu and the journalists in ala-Igbo importune with other ethnic nationalities in the country
to restore-confidence in the Igbo that the war has truly ended by electing a
president of Igbo extraction in 2015. Kalu and this group say that it is only
reasonable that since the north ruled the country for over 36 years with the
South-West and South-South holding influence for 16 years by 2015, it is the
time for Ndigbo to hold the swing.
If
Kalu betrayed anybody, the journalists would not have partnered with him in
deciding that they will continue to partner with any individual or organization
that is a proponent for the South-East to produce president in 2015.
People
bless Chris Isiguzo, the National Vice President of NUJ in the zone’s
leadership of NUJ who led the journalists that paid the courteousness call to
Kalu, for changing-the-position for the task ahead. For his love for Ndigbo, it
is to Kalu that the country is in trouble because the anointed people by nature
are not president yet; this should make Nigeria to take especially, a deep and
severe look at political developments in the country, as they impinge-on the
South-East.
Kalu
believes that anything good comes from the East and Ndigbo are the
unadulterated easterners; and save they rule this country, the country will
never be all-right. Kalu also believes that Ndigbo are now very wise and will
not sing inharmoniously again so that they are not deprived the glaring
opportunity.
But
whether any anti-Igbo presidency says that Kalu should stop talking about Igbo
presidency, when in the person’s jaundiced mindset there is no acceptable Igbo
leader, there will be an acceptable Igbo presidency, as Kalu addresses Igbo
leadership with Njiko Igbo.
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