By Emeka Alex Duru
Any person or group, waiting for the seal on activities for 2023 politics to be officially lifted, may not be in the race, after all. It has all started, technically. Politics is a unique engagement; one in which a day seems like a year and vice versa. In it, the orthodox and unorthodox, find a mix. When the Chinese say that a journey of 1000 kilometers starts with a step, it is eloquently expressed in politics. It is a game where the driving force is self-interest expressed in power contestation.
The daring outing by the governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu and the prompt interjection by the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, clearly indicate the agenda of the South West and the North in the imminent scramble for the 2023 presidency. Akeredolu, chairman of Southern Governors Forum (SGF), took the first kick. At a recent meeting of the SGF in Enugu, the governors resolved that it is a southern president in 2023 or nothing. Akeredolu drew the point home later, showing where his minds points, when he said that the leaders of his All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South West were waiting for former Lagos state governor, Bola Tinubu, to return from London and decide whether he will be vying for the presidency in the 2023 general elections or not. Baba-Ahmed fired back, asserting that the North is not for sale and that the heavens will not fall if a northerner is again elected the next president of Nigeria.
Give it to the two and by extension, the North and South West which they represent. They are not merely entertaining the public or suffering fools gladly. They have tested power and know the gains, hence unwilling to give up. Edmond Burke, the 18th century Irish statesman was right that “those who have been once intoxicated with power and have derived any kind of emoluments from it, even though but for one year, can never willingly abandon it”. Senator Edward Kennedy of America’s famous Kennedy political dynasty, put it succinctly that no one rides on convoy and willingly gives up. This explains the so-called sit-tight tendency among leaders of third world countries, especially Africa. To guard against the bug, sophisticated political systems peg term limits to some offices, especially the executive. Others, find ways to manage the temptation of staying put by fashioning out loose arrangements that ensure equity to the component units. This is where power rotation principle finds accommodation.
But in our system, where politics is not driven by identifiable ethos, everything is sacrificed, including agreements by the players. It is a matter of everyone working for his interest or as expressed in street lingo, ‘I Before Others’ (IBO) and the winner takes all.
You may need to situate the outings by Akeredolu and Baba-Ahmed on this standpoint to be able to appreciate their larger pictures. After all, it was the late Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, who said that if you do not blow your trumpet, nobody will; as others would be busy blowing theirs. The governor and the NEF spokesman understand the game.
It is the East, in this case, the South East, that is ironically pushing out itself from the calculations of 2023, no thanks to the timidity of its political elite. Curiously, the zone has been shouting and lamenting marginalisation in all aspects of the national life, particularly political leadership. And rightly so! Since the commencement of the present dispensation in 1999, the West has had a shot at the presidency through Olusegun Obasanjo, the North through the late Umar Yar’Adua and President Muhammadu Buhari. The South-South had Goodluck Jonathan. Earlier, the North had produced Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Alhaji Shehu Shagari in the first and second republics, respectively. In the days of the military, the North had – Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammad, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar- and the West had Obasanjo. Except the breezy six-month era of General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, the East has not had any taste of the office.
Coming also against the backdrop of the crushing defeat at the 1967-1970 civil war and the poor management of the attendant reconciliation programme, the zone has been at the receiving end of the unfair political system in the country. This is even when the people have exhibited greater commitment in the unity of the country through their expansive interactions and investments in all the geo-political units.
You would therefore, expect a people with such history of deprivations to be in the vanguard of power shift to their area. But this, unfortunately, is not the case. Rather, the politicians from the East are further retreating in their cocoons in sheer timorous mode as the 2023 date draws closer. Neither those in the ruling APC nor the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PD), are offering any hope. How for example, can it be explained that in the last Southern Governors’ meeting that took place in Enugu, only the governor of the host state was present, – Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, sent deputies; Anambra was completely absent? The day the senate voted on electronic transmission of results in the Electoral Bill, only Senators Enyinnaya Abaribe and Orji Kalu (Abia), were at the chambers. Other senators from the zone chickened out of the plenary.
As it stands, less than a year and half to the 2023 presidential election, there is no particular individual or group of politicians from the East that can be looked upon as the arrow heads of the area in the contest. They lean on chance and are not consistent, wanting to reap without struggling. Such characters, according to Benjamin Disraeli, 19th century British Prime Minister, do not have date with destiny.
Bestselling author, Anthony Robbins, further reflects their lethargy in his book, ‘Awaken the giant within’, thus; “At one time in our lives, we all had a vision for the quality of life that we desire and deserve. Yet, for many of us, those dreams have become so shrouded in the frustrations and routine of daily life that we no longer even make an effort to accomplish them”. South East politicians have the desire for the high office of the president but lack the courage to dare. It does not work that way. There must be guts before glory. They must sow to reap. Fortune smiles for the brave.
If they think that the efforts of Governor Akeredolu and his South –West colleagues is to wrest power from the North and hand to their zone, they are making the mistake of their life. Power is not given, it is taken.
The politicians from the East are the problem of the zone. It is their failure to provide genuine leadership to the people that has created room for elements on the fringes of lunacy to prance about, assume positions of influence and act as champions of the masses in the area.
South East political elite must start announcing their presence in the political arena if they want to be reckoned with. They have just few months to get their acts together or the East may again, lose out in 2023.
*DURU is the Editor of TheNiche Newspapers, Lagos (08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)