Why an Igbo man should be President in 2019

Posted by Felix Okoli on Tuesday October 6, 2015 at 12:11:49:

Since Nigeria's independence, no Igbo man has even been elected President of Nigeria and for almost 50 years since 1966, no Igbo man has ever become a civilian President or head of state. That office has been held mostly by Northerners especially the Hausa/Fulani and Yorubas in the South West.

After the coup and counter-coup of the 1960s, Ndigbo have been mostly relegated to the background in Nigeria's politics mostly by the military and the only time Igbos tend to have a better opportunity to serve Nigeria was during civil rule and that showed itself during Shagari's presidency with Ekwueme from 1979 to 1983. However, Shagari's Presidency was cut short by the military once again and a Fulani named Muhammadu Buhari came into office.

Since the early 1980s, the highest political office has been held by the Hausa/Fulani msotly supported the Yorubas up till 1999 when there was a gradual transition yet again to civil rule and a new broad based political party named the PDP was formed. Under the PDP, the Igbos once again had an opportunity to become President since one of PDP's founding fathers and former Vice President named Alex Ekwueme was in the race. Ekwuwme was a candidate for the PDP presidential primaries but that primary was once again hijacked by retired military with big money bags and PDP gave the ticket to Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba man.

Since 1999 and despite the support which Igbo people have given the ruling party, no Igbo man has been supported to become the presidential candidate as the ticket mostly got rotated between the Yorubas and the Hausa/Fulani. The only office they felt was fitting for the Igbos was the office of Senate President in the 4th republic.

In the 2011 and 2015 Presidential elections, the PDP still preferred an Ijaw man to be president fo r2 terms and they did receive maximum support from Igbo people who felt they should vote for a closeby neighbour rather than voting for someone else in the far north. Through the support of Igbo votes, PDP won in 2011 and almost did again in 2015.

It would appear that Igbos candidates have not been presenting themselves for elective positions since 1999 but the truth is that the major political parties have been sidelining Igbo candidates for far too long and it would only make sense if Igbo people wake up and start voting for their own kind.

Ndigbo need to form a common front and support a single political platform rather than dividing their votes across different candidates. Recently, the PDP announced that they would be zoning the Presidential ticket to the north in 2019 and the ruling APC is also likely going to present a candidate that is not Igbo in 2019 given that Igbos did not support the APC in 2015. It is a wake up call for Igbo people to avoid voting for the PDP or APC in 2019 but rather for the APGA which has already declared that they will present a presidential candidate in 2019.

Of all the political parties that we now have in Nigeria, it is only APGA that has shown the willingness to give a shot to an Igbo candidate for President in 2019 and it would only make sense to support that party. If all Igbos vote for APGA during the 2019 elections, it would show our strength as one people. Even if APGA doesn't eventually win in totality, the votes will still be massive, and it will mark the beginning of new things to come and we would be able to better negotiate for power sharing in Nigeria's political circle.

A vote for a political party like APGA would show solidarity to the Igbo race because other political parties have show little or no regard for the political rights of Ndigbo.