Indications are rife that the clamour for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction may be another way of putting the South East to national ridicule. A survey conducted by News Echo newspaper has revealed, an Igbo president without a restructured Nigeria would lead to the impeachment or death of the head of government within his first six months in office.
It was veteran politician, elder statesman and leader of the Wawa Chief C. C. Onoh who first made this earthshaking revelation in 2002. In an interview he granted to National Star magazine on April 22, 2002. He said “First, before talking about the presidency we must first secure Nigeria. And to secure Nigeria, we must restructure the country. And to my people Ndigbo, any of us who wants to be president of Nigeria must first remember the late head of state, General Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi Ironsi, a brave warrior, and how he was assassinated in cold blood”.
Onoh was making an allusion that any Igbo who becomes the president of Nigeria in the present circumstance without any recourse to restructuring would likewise be killed like Ironsi. In view, the Igbo would be exposed to dangers which he would play along with to survive or act independently and pay with his blood.
Not long ago, First Republic parliamentarian and Nigeria’s pioneer minister of aviation, the respected Chief Mbazulike Amaechi who is now 91 years old, equally stated in a newspaper interview that, Nigeria must be restructured if the country would get it right. He insisted that any Igbo who emerges as president with Nigeria as currently constituted would be impeached. Even, there was a vicious attempt to remove Senator Pius Anyim Pius as senate president but the conspiracy failed.
Recall that all of Senators Evan Enwerem, Chuba Okadigbo and Adolphus Wabara were all impeached when they were president of the senate during the supervision of retired General Olusegun Obasanjo as president. Thus, Amaechi alluded that, without a restructured Nigeria, any Igbo president would still suffer the ugly fate of the impeached Igbo presidents of senate namely Enwerem, Okadigbo and Wabara.
It must also be pointed out that the experience of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, first indigenous governor general and later president who was the commander in chief in the First Republic, was quite unpleasant. Zik, it must be revealed, inspired and mentored a galaxy of Eastern minority politicians, technocrats and diplomats.
For instance, through Zik’s initiatives, Chief I. U. Akpabio was made commissioner of education by the premier, Dr. Michael Okpara. The same applies to Chief S. E. Imoke who was appointed commissioner of health. Zik inspired and mentored Chief Anthony Enahoro, Okoi Arikpo, Emmanuel Endeley, Mathew Mbu, Eyo Ita, E. O Eyo and a few others. Yet, most of them worked against Zik.
For instance, Imoke in 1954 as a member of the Eastern House of Assembly, sponsored a motion for Zik to be investigated for a case of bribery and corruption being rumoured against him. In the same line, in 1957, E O. Eyo, himself then also a member of the Eastern House of Assembly, again, brought a motion for Zik to be investigated as he alleged that the former Eastern premier was using government money to fund his private African Continental Bank (ACB). Later, Ita Eyo championed the Zik Must Go campaign of that era.
However, despite the factual findings of this survey, any Igbo who feel strong about the presidency of Nigeria are encouraged to go all the way. Given the manner the Igbo is usually discriminated against in the allocation of resources it is doubtful if anyone elected will not be hunted like in the cases above.
