OGU BUNDU NWADIKE, M.A
Saturday, September 3, 2022 presented a very auspicious opportunity for Ndigbo to be given a well-researched expo on the most plausible ways to get fully reintegrated into the grids of national politics and national leadership.
The platform was the public lecture that the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) organized in honour of their patron, Engr. Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Sunday, September 4, 2022.
The resource person was His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma, the Executive Governor of Imo State, who once again drove his well-reasoned convictions and conclusions on how Ndigbo can regain their paradise lost in Nigeria.
Governor Uzodimma advised for more acts of patriotism and nationalism from Ndigbo, as Ndigbo will need other regions and zones of Nigeria to forge the required faith, trust and confidence with the rest of Nigeria.
He admonished against what he rightly saw as “nzogbu nzogbu, enyimba enyi” attitudes by Ndigbo to national politics and national leadership, as it does more harm than harm to the efforts being made to reintegrate Ndigbo back to the mainstream politics and leadership of Nigeria.
In all instances, Governor Uzodimma made reference to the political nature and culture of the legendary Rt. Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who stooped to conquer for the then Eastern region, earning prime positions for the East and Easterners in national politics and leadership in both the first and second republics of Nigeria.
It’s clear that along the lines, probably with the outset of the so-called third republic, things began to fall apart. Other regions, like the Western region, were striving to gain the space occupied by Ndigbo in Nigeria.
But instead of tenaciously remain focused and refuse to be distracted, some privileged Ndigbo decided to run faster than their shadows and creating the improbable impression that Ndigbo were still embittered by the loss of the war and were still hell-bent at parting ways with the country.
That led to the situation where the crafty wild west region edged out the East and occupied the position of Ndigbo in national politics and leadership. The rest is history.
Apparently, what Governor Uzodimma has been saying and doing is that rather than tarry on starry stray path of desperate and frantic push for their rights and privileges, Ndigbo should return to the drawing board and restrategize on the best approaches.
And for Governor Uzodimma, that’s as simple as stooping to conquer. In the fantastic paper the he delivered at Chief Iwuanyanwu’s 80th birthday public lecture, the governor, inter alia, suggested the salient causes of the problem thus:
“However, I must admit that as a race, we have our flaws. When we reflect on where the rain started beating us, we will come to the inevitable conclusion that we have made some mistakes, more from the heart than from the head.
“But the greatest of all is that we are weak in negotiations. We are often not as diplomatic as we ought to be. Perhaps, our greatest bane is the “nzogbu nzogbu, enyi mba enyi” spirit in all of us. This spirit probably deluded us into believing that we can do it all alone or into hoping that someday “manna” will fall from heaven and give us the day.
“In the book already referred to, I made it clear that our desire for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction can only be accomplished through negotiated agreements as no one ethnic group can produce the president of Nigeria without the support of the other ethnic groups.”
However, what the current reality holds is that Governor Uzodimma has been going the extra mile to galvanize Ndigbo for a better participation in the political processes of the country.
And it’s observable that the governor has been leading by example in that regard. His presence in comity of Nigeria political leaders is very visible in the public domain. He has become the face, the eyes, the ears, and probably the hands and feet of Ndigbo in Nigeria.
History will remember him for good because of his real genuine efforts at replicating the political nature and character of the founding fathers of political leadership of Nigeria as populated by Zik, Akanu Ibiam, Michael Okpala, Mbaonu Ojike, Dennis Osadebey, Alex Ekwueme, and a host of others that played politics with the head and not the heart.
Hopefully, if the “nzogbu nzogbu, enyi mba enyi” spirit will be sidelined, Ndigbo will reclaim the grounds that they have lost in the political turf of Nigeria. So help us, God!