Elliott Ugochukwu-Uko
The East is currently passing through a peculiar season. The authorities seem determined to crush the agitation without engaging the agitators. The regional leaders, though undoubtedly overwhelmed and embarrassed by the uncontrollable slide into economic crisis enabled by the endless weekly sit-at-home shutdowns, they strategically choose to ignore them, in the hope and knowledge that the senseless enforcement of the shutdowns, by whoever, will ultimately destroy the goodwill the agitators have been hitherto enjoying from the masses of the region.
The Governors are right on this score and the agitators are about to find out that they are inadvertently burning off the goodwill and support, freely given them by the people.
This untidy state of affairs, briefly blinds the authorities from realizing that this error of judgement on the side of the agitators, does not in any way resolve the crisis, it may only weaken the agitators’ support base. But as long as the underlying causes of the frustrations and loss of faith that inspired the agitation, has not been identified and addressed, the possibility of things returning to normal, remains remote.
This is the deep truth the authorities do not want to hear. They seem only interested in crushing the agitation, without correcting the mistakes that gave birth to the agitation.
Even though the agitators number in their millions, the bulk of their strength derives from the huge sympathy of the masses of the region, who share in their travails, and agree with their struggle because they feel the pain of the issues that inspired the agitation in the first place and also disagree with the lethal force applied by government against the agitators.
The people seek and desire a level playing field for all. They want to be treated as equal citizens. They wish for an egalitarian, merit-based, fair and just society, where equity and justice reign. They want a fair structure, equitable distribution of infrastructural developments and federal appointments, a just security and law enforcement.
They want to be able to go to their farms and return home alive. They want to feel a part of the country, have a sense of belonging, and assured that the country belongs to all. Absence of all these, pushed them to identify with the agitators. They agree with most of all the stuff they hear Nnamdi broadcast over the radio.
They watch in horror as the agitators are killed in cold blood whereas blood thirsty terrorists are addressed as businessmen bandits. They note with pain that the vicious Fulani herdsmen, raping, beheading, slaughtering and destroying homesteads at will are never pursued, arrested and prosecuted.
They noted with shock that the authorities remained mute when the Fulani herdsmen claimed publicly that they owned every inch of Nigerian soil.
They are horrified and paralyzed with fear when they note the spirited efforts and attempts by government to carve out other people’s ancestral lands and hand same over to the same Fulani, in the guise of “Ruga”, “historic cattle routes”, “cattle colony”, “grazing reserves”, “National livestock transformation plan”, and now “Senatorial farm estates”.
Still reeling from shock, they see that the government that can’t protect them from the onslaught of the dreaded Fulani herdsmen and other armed bandits and kidnappers, sees them as 5% people and dot in a circle people.
This alienation, leaves them no other choice than to stand with their children. It is this huge unwavering support from the masses that not only makes the agitation formidable, but also makes it imperative that all the issues that gave birth to the agitation, be identified and addressed.
Therein lies the folly of struggling and strategizing only to crush the agitation without addressing the root causes.
And now to the connection between bad governance, nepotism, weak institutions, weak electoral process and loss of faith that inspired agitation for secession.
I gleaned from the agitators that they simply do not believe that their votes will ever count in Nigerian elections, some of them have witnessed the writing of election results in hotel rooms, seen ballot box snatching and experienced systematic disenfranchisement of whole communities through deliberate delay of, or total denial of election materials.
They know the role security agencies play, they also know the section of the country almost all the heads of all the security agencies hailed from. They watched helplessly as very unpopular candidates are foisted on the people.
They believe that voting only gives some degree of legitimacy to the broad daylight fraud called elections.
Most importantly, they finally accepted defeat and gave up when they saw that the political class had no desire whatsoever to reform the ugly situation.
These Igbo artisans, traders, students, professionals and workers engaged in all kinds of vocations and scattered all over the 36 states of Nigeria, connects themselves through town unions and organisations such as the agitating groups.
They are a largely disrespected and disregarded army of very bright minds, unhappy with the state of affairs in Nigeria, especially the unjust dichotomy visited on Ndigbo.
It is believed that there are about 23 million Ndigbo resident in northern Nigeria and about 12 million in western Nigeria. Governor Dave Umahi gave us this figures when I took Nnamdi to visit him 4 years ago.
Regardless of the accuracy or inaccuracy of the figures, it is safe to assume that there are roughly over twenty million eligible Igbo voters in Nigeria. Imagine what 20 million votes would do in a free and fair election.
How come Ndigbo returns the least volume of votes, at every election? I will tell you.
Millions of my people, from the treatment they receive from Nigeria and the behaviour of the political class, do not believe that there’s hope Nigeria will ever reform and therefore, do not have faith in the survival and progress of this unwieldy system.
They think Nigeria is so muddled up by a very greedy and unthinking leadership class, so riddled with corruption, bad governance, ethnic and religious divisions, to ever make any meaningful possible and positive changes.
Many of them feel offended, when you ask them to go and vote in elections.
They think that you are grading him as a pawn in the Nigerian chessboard by that suggestion.
The lack of trust in the electoral system, led to a lack of faith in the country, which in turn inspired a lack of hope for the future, which informed the desire for a better world, which drives the agitation.
That is the truth about our situation.
In late 2014, about seven years ago, two separate delegations visited me in Enugu. Both groups came from the North. Igbo leaders domiciled in the North. Organisations I’ve been working with for decades.
They complained that a certain Igbo leader in Kogi appealed to them to mobilise support for General Muhammadu Buhari, because they believed that President Goodluck Jonathan may not win re-election in the 2015 elections which was just few months away. They didn’t agree with him. They said they were contemplating boycotting the election, because, according to them, nobody cared to reach out to them.
I told them that I held meetings the previous week with over 16 different agitating groups in Igbo land, and that I was surprised they too told me that they were going to boycott the election for a different reason.
The told me they do not believe in Nigerian elections and that Nnamdi, who hadn’t become well known at the time, called for boycott of the election in his broadcasts from London.
I was later invited to chair their joint meeting which I politely declined.
Weeks later I learned that the aggrieved agitators and the aggrieved Igbo groups from the North, had decided to boycott the elections, though for different reasons.
I saw clearly that the disregarded, looked-down-upon motley collection of organisations of second hand clothes sellers, patent medicine dispensaries et al, scattered all over Northern Nigeria, who organised themselves together in late 2014, had become a potent force, whose decision to boycott elections may invariably affect President Jonathan adversely.
I watched closely as the groups of disaffected organisations grew in number, resolute on staying away from the election of 2015. And the coalition of agitators, also shared the agenda of election boycott, even as the two major candidates and their handlers, didn’t have any idea about what was going on.
They concentrated on the big names and elders who they thought would deliver the votes.
I placed a call to a senior special assistant at the Presidency ( office of the first lady ), Mr Ike Neliaku, advising him to try and reach out to these people who say they will not vote. He probably didn’t understand what I was hinting at. I also unsuccessfully tried to hint other Igbo top notch about the error of completely ignoring the large army of agitators, even though I always insulate myself from partisan politics. They didn’t understand what I was talking about.
Mr Neliaku had arranged for me to have audience with the first lady, a few months earlier, over the allegations that the Igbo leaders of thought were opposed to President Jonathan. I later met with her a second time the same day in the company of Prof Ben Nwabueze, where the issues were ironed out.
We told her that the ILT wasn’t opposed to her husband but that we had argued for a legitimate CONFAB whose report would be binding on the state, as opposed to a CONFAB without legal backing, whose report could be confined to the archives, as events have vindicated the ILT on the issue.
I also saw that the political class had over time become addicted to certain entrenched behaviour. They lack the knack to sniff out amorphous and inchoate movements that may have the capacity to alter the equation in future. They merely concentrate on older well known influence peddlers, regardless of whether such old politicians still had the estimated political clout or not.
In conclusion, the millions of angry Igbo voters, who refused to vote in 2015, must have effected the outcome of the election one way or another, by that decision.
The fact that the over 40 million Ndigbo consistently present very poor showing during general elections, should worry the leaders.
Proof that a sizeable chunk of the Igbo population has been gradually losing interest in Nigeria over time.
On every major election day, you see Igbo youths playing football and engaging in other activities. They shun Nigeria’s electoral system. They think it’s a joke.
I will continue to plead that our leaders reach out to all and begin to rebuild and rebrand the land, learning from mistakes of the recent past.
The agitators should be engaged and the political class should seek ways to restore trust in the system and faith in the land.
We have pretended for too long.
Ndigbo have robbed themselves for years, declining to vote.
Check out 2019 Presidential elections results:
Abia- About 300k votes
Anambra- About 560k votes
Ebony- About 360k votes
Enugu-About 310k votes
Imo- About 480k votes
Now, kindly Google the 2019 Presidential election tabulated results from other states, and you will be shocked.
If you dig deep into the reasons over 90% of Igbo eligible voters, do not bother to vote, you may no longer wonder why the loss of faith in the system continues to drive the agitation.
To be CONTINUED.
