The seeming cold war between the president and some Igbo leaders has refused to die down one year after the election that brought Mr. Buhari to power. Although, while the president has since moved on with the business of governing Nigeria, these Igbo leaders are yet to find the humility and discipline to accept the fact that President Buhari is no longer an opposition candidate, but now the leader of this nation and to engage him constructively for the good of their people.
A lot has been said about President Muhammadu Buhari’s hatred for Ndigbo and how he is fighting the Igbo nation, denying her strategic appointments in his government. Some Igbo leaders are even insinuating that the president is actually the one creating the resurgence of the Biafran agitation through his politics of hate.
But does President Buhari really hate Ndigbo and seek to diminish the Igbo nation? On the other hand, do the Igbos actually have any love for Mr. Buhari himself? Are they trying to make things any easier for the president and themselves? If President Buhari does hate the Igbo people, what exactly are their sins against him? Today, an average Igbo man is being made to believe that the president is the problem of Ndigbo, and should therefore be hated by all. They have been made to believe that any Igbo man who supports Mr. Buhari must be a saboteur who wants to remain perpetually enslaved to the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy.
In 2003, President Buhari, the then presidential flag bearer of APP, picked a full blooded Igbo son, Senator Chuba Okadigbo, as his running mate for that year’s presidential election. Again, in 2007, he picked Chief Edwin Umezoke as his running mate, having won the presidential ticket of ANPP for that year’s presidential election too. On both occasions, the Igbo nation rejected Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and her sons who ran alongside him at the polls. If Buhari hates Ndigbo, would he have chosen Igbo people as his running mates on two occasions – persons who had the potentials to succeed him if he had won power on any of the attempts?
In 2015, however, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari’s relationship with Ndigbo reached a new low as the Igbo nation bared its fangs of hate and descended into the politics of hate, bitterness, isolation and greed. What Mr. Buhari suffered in the hands of Ndigbo and others was enough to break him down, mentally and emotionally. I must hasten to add that there is absolutely nothing undemocratic in the overwhelming majority of Ndigbo not voting for President Buhari as they have done on a number of other occasions. But let’s tell ourselves the truth, the Igbo nation made it a personal matter with her belligerent posture against President Buhari’s candidature.
For instance, Igbo leaders were at the forefront of the widespread agitations against Mr. Muhammadu Buhari and his ambition to become Nigeria’s president. Again, among all those who went to court to stop his candidacy, a majority of them were Igbos. Igbo leaders pulled their hate train, moving from one place to another demonising Gen. Buhari as the greatest enemy of Ndigbo, while extolling Mr. Goodluck Jonathan as the greatest lover of the Igbos. Even APGA, the so-called Igbo party also went to court to stop Buhari’s candidacy, through the efforts of a former senator from Anambra North. This was in addition to APGA being the first political party, even before the PDP, to endorse President Jonathan’s fruitless second term ambition.
But why do the Igbo leaders and, as a matter of fact, some other ethnic leaders hate President Buhari with such intensity? The answer is corruption. The very reason they hate President Buhari is also the reason they loved President Jonathan. These greedy leaders have special inclinations for corrupt, weak and hopelessly profligate leaders like ex President Jonathan. Their aversion for a strong, prudent and accountable leadership is legendary – and in spite of his shortcomings, that is what President Buhari vehemently represents.
Today, President Buhari, the celebrated Igbo hater, has not only giving the Igbos important appointments, but he is set to do for them what their inglorious messiah, ex-President Jonathan could not do in six years, capturing in his very first budget, the Second Niger Bridge, the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway and other South-East roads, which became deathtraps under Jonathan’s six year rule. And more are coming – projects he intends to deliver according to schedules and specifications.
In one of my reflections, I had wondered why APGA, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and other Igbo groups were so quick to endorse President Jonathan for a second term mandate. The answer is greed. Mr Jonathan never inspired anyone, and if he ever loved Ndigbo, he would not have left the Igbo land in a worst state than he met it.
Chris Chukwubuzor Azuka is National Coordinator, Save the Dream Nigeria Project, and can be reached through [email protected].