By Steve Osuji
QUESTION: What’s the new definition for megalomania?
ANSWER: when your ambition becomes so over-vaulting that it over-rides any other interest.
EXAMPLE: A certain Atiku Abubakar wishes so desperately to be the president of Nigeria that he is utterly insensitive of how his ambition rubs off other people, zones and ethnic groups in his country.
In a diverse and multi-ethnic country comprised of three major tribes and six geographical zones, for one ethnic group to seek to rule in perpetuity is a flagrant assault on the other groups.
After the Hausa-Fulani has ruled since 2015… after the Hausa-Fulani has dominated Nigeria’s leadership since Independence in 1960, how could another Hausa-Fulani seek to gun for the mantle of leadership once again in 2023.
Against the logic of equity, fairness and rotation of power in in diverse entity, it is crass opportunism for another Hausa-Fulani of the north to seek to grab power over the ethnic groups of the south.
Considering the fact that Igbo of the southeast has never held power at the pinnacle of governance since Nigeria’s Independence; considering their justified cry of marginalisation since after the civil war in 1970, it is obtuse and indeed a slap on the face of Igbo for Atiku Abubakar to seek to be president under the current circumstance.
A dirt-poor kid, he was shoved into the privileged corps of Customs and Excise where he rose to its apogee and made good through the cheap instrumentality of State.
Post service, he continued to suckle from the old lady even to her current shrivelled state. Though Igbo say no man spits out the chunk of honeycomb providence deposits in his mouth but even good fortune is swallowed in measured morsels.
If you have been vice president for two terms of eight years after attaining the post of Customs chief of your land; if you have contested for presidency in the last 20 years and if you happen to be among the men of immense means in the land, a time must come when you must call time to the crazed pursuit of the diadem …
What is the presidency really about? Is it in aid if service or a mindless ego massage?
The Atiku essence will surely be diminished when he jumps into the presidential fray once again for the 5th time in a row over a period of 25 years.
But his party, PDP, may be worse hit as it may bear an eternal gash if not destroyed altogether.
An Atiku candidacy is bound to flounder especially if the ruling APC plays the southern or even southeast gambit! At the end of the day, he would be left with a broken party and a mortally damaged persona… ever seen a politician frustrated to his grave?
To stand for the presidency once again is to mock himself and to spit at the party members from the south, especially the southeast.
Atiku’s insistence on running is to ratify the second class status of Ndigbo, he is telling them to their face to GO TO HELL!
He tells them they don’t count, that they don’t matter and indeed, that their members are not worthy to he president of Nigeria.
As Atiku rides against the grain of commonsense, he also does himself grievous harm: he denies himself the opportunity to statesmanship.
Finally, he seems not possessed of the acuity of mind to interrogate the likely consequences of his adventure. It needs be stated clearly that the south of Nigeria and particularly so, the southeast would find it hard to live down another Hausa-Fulani presidency.
To put it blandly, indeed unambiguously, Nigeria will not survive another Hausa-Fulani regime in 2023… something is bound to give.
▪︎Osuji is a popular olumnist