Teachers, students, researchers and indeed all followers of Nigerian Government and Politics will agree with me that the Igbo nation had made and is still making enormous contributions and sacrifices towards nation-building in Nigeria.
During the era of British colonialism and imperialism, the Igbo nation was at the forefront of the nationalist struggle to wrest power from the British colonial overlords. This is where Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe's NCNC comes to mind. The NCNC as a political party at the time became a veritable weapon for the fight against colonialism and the struggle for independence and the enthronment of self-determination and self-government which was realised on 1st October, 1960.
At independence, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe accepted to form a coalition government with the NPC at the centre in what was popularly called; NPC/NCNC coalition government. The late sage equally accepted to serve as a ceremonial head of state and in his words: "To join the NPC in building a strong, peaceful, united, prosperous and a virile nation".
Six years after, the first military coup sacked the first republic and the NPC/NCNC coalition government, but the coup plotters led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu could not take over power. However, the mantle of leadership of a troubled nation fell on Gen. JTU Aguiyi Ironsi by virtue of his rank as the most senior army officer in Nigeria at the time and the General Officer Commanding the Nigerian army, GOC.
Gen. Ironsi presided over a nation that was terribly enthnicised, tribalised and divided following the aftermath of the Nzeogwu coup. In his wisdom, he suggested the introduction of a unitary system of government as an experiment to reunite Nigerians and heal the wounds of the coup. The Supreme Military Council, SMC which was the highest military ruling body at the time voted in favour of his suggestion for a unitary system.
Unfortunately, the Northern military members of the SMC went home and were incited against Gen. Ironsi's regime and the unitary system as a ploy to enthrone Igbo hegemony otherwise known as Igbo political domination which was their earlier interpretations of the Nzeogwu coup. The northern soldiers became so bitter, but instead of coming back to tell the head of state that they were no longer comfortable with the unitary system which Gen. Ironsi would have gladly accepted and dropped because all he was doing was to placate the North which suffered loses during the Nzeogwu coup, they hatched their own coup against their supreme commander.
On 29th July, 1966 northern soldiers executed their own coup as planned; they captured Gen. Ironsi at Ibadan where he was attending a State function alongside his host, the military administrator of Western Region, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi and later got the duo assassinated. Gen. Ironsi sacrificed his life for the unity of Nigeria. No sacrifice could be greater than this.
After the assassination of Gen. Ironsi, a mass hunt of Igbo soldiers and civilians began in the North and the West. Many were killed while those who were lucky escaped to the East. This was followed by the "Araba riots" in the North where northern youths took to the streets of Northern Nigeria, demanding secession. Gen. Yakubu Gowon who emerged head of state of Nigeria had the mandate of pulling the North out of Nigeria and he initially accepted it. In fact, his maiden broadcast was tailored towards declaring norther Nigeria a republic and a sovereign state. It was at dying minute that British and American diplomats in Nigeria advised Gowon against secession. Hence, his broadcast was poorly edited in a rush that the area where he stated that; "the basis for unity in Nigeria no longer exists", was not expunged.
The mass pogrom of Igbos all over the nation outside the East and the failure of peace talks in Nigeria and in Ghana led to the declaration of the republic of Biafra by Gen. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who was military administrator of Eastern Region, which was the last option at protecting the Igbo people who had been gruesomely slaughtered in other parts of the country. But it turned out to be the worse case scenario as the rest of Nigeria ably assisted by Britain, USA and the Arab world swooped on Biafra and killed our people mercilessly in their millions throughout the 30months civil war.
After the war, all attempts for an Igbo man to smell the perfume of the presidency has been collectively frustrated. In the second republic, all the Igbo could get was a Vice President in the person of Dr. Alex Ekwueme under the NPN presidency of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. The third republic was stillborn, following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by Chief MKO Abiola of the SDP. The fourth republic saw the Igbo man at the vanguard of nation-building with Dr. Alex Ekwueme and others forming the PDP in 1998 preparatory to the 1999 general elections. The Igbos were still denied the presidency as the powers that be preferred Obasanjo to Dr. Ekwueme. Again, all the political parties at the time; PDP, AD and APP zoned the Presidency to the West and the presidential election became a contest between two Yoruba men; Obasanjo of the PDP and Olu Falae of AD/APP alliance. The argument then was that the arrangement was to compensate the Yoruba people for the annulment of the June 12 presidential election and the death of Abiola.
Time has come for Igbo people to be compensated with the presidency for all the sacrifices and contributions they have made towards nation-building in Nigeria. This is why we call on all political parties to zone the 2023 presidency to the Southeast the same way all political parties zone the presidency to the West in 1999. Presidency for the Igbo nation is long overdue and 2023 is the year of the true healing of the wounds the Igbo nation has suffered in Nigeria.
May God bless all of us as we look forward to the granting of this demand by all political parties in Nigeria.
APC.
Governor Umahi is the answer.
Ogbuatu Simbad
State Publicity Secretary APC, Ebonyi State.
Publisher: Don Martyn L.O Nwosu
Ikeduru APC Media Hub
08032950897
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