Two high ranking members of President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government of Nigeria have made statements in recent times that might have revealed the ambition of some Yoruba politicians to canvass the return of the Presidency to their area in 2023. Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, former Governor of Lagos State was the one, during the last week of October this year, that urged the people of Southwest to vote for Buhari in the 2019 presidential election to ensure that power returns to the Southwest geo-political zone in 2023. At a town hall meeting in the zone, he spoke in Yoruba language to the audience translated thus: “A vote for Buhari in 2019 will ensure that power will come back to the Southwest (a homogenous Yoruba area of Nigeria). Like a veiled instruction he added, again in Yoruba, “I am sure you will vote wisely.”
Then this month of December, just a few days ago, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo went to a pivotal ancient town in Yorubaland, Oyo from where Oyo State derived its name, to meet the paramount ruler of the town, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III and gave a hint that the 2019 presidential election matters to the Yoruba people of the Southwest because the region has a larger interest in 2023.
Contrary to the opinion of these senior members of the Federal Government, the Secretary to the Government, Boss Mustapha had assured the people of the Southeast, populated by Igbo speaking people) that President Muhammadu Buhari is predisposed to handing over to an Igbo president-elect in 2023. Mustapha was speaking at the inauguration of the Presidential Support Committee in Umuahia, capital of Abia State in the Southeast.
It is this Support Group that faulted Fashola’s statement moments after he made it. Now, a Yoruba cultural organization that regularly talks politics has berated the Vice President for canvassing the return of power to the Yoruba ‘race’ in 2023. Yinka Odumakin, the spokesman of the group wondered what the Yoruba people had gained since Osinbajo became Vice-President and alleged that he had opposed all the things that were dear to the Yoruba people including restructuring. He then stated that what the Yoruba wanted was restructuring of Nigeria by means of true federalism. “The Southwest will only support a candidate with plans for restructuring,” He added.
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a well-known influential Southeast cultural organization that is also keeping an eye on what is happening in politics has also criticized the Vice President for promoting the Yoruba interest ahead of 2023. Uche Achi-Okpaga, spokesman for the group in a statement said that anything done in Nigeria without the active cooperation and participation of the Igbo would always crumble. Uche said, “I do not expect Professor Osinbajo to say a different thing. The 2023 Yoruba presidency is a plot presumably well hatched and efforts are being exerted to win it successfully as dramatized in the public pronouncements earlier by Fashola and now the bleeding utterances of Osinbajo.”
Where do all these political firestorms lead to? To start with, let us look at the equation. By ordinary political calculation, Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba man won the Presidential election in 1999 at the beginning of the present democratic dispensation and ruled for eight years. In 2007, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua succeeded him but could not complete one time before he died in office. His Vice President was Goodluck Jonathan from the South-south of the country. After all the power play, he succeeded Yar’Adua to complete the rest of their joint term. Jonathan won the 2011 general election and left office in 2015 when he was defeated and conceded victory to Buhari. From a minority ethnic group in the South-south, he had at least partially solved the dual problem of a minority ruling the country for the first time and also the fact that the South-south has also benefitted from power rotation. So, it is the Igbo speaking people of Southeast that should aspire to rule the country in 2023. In fact, the APC has been dangling before the eyes of the Igbo, the reality that Buhari has only one more term to serve if he wins the 2019 general election. After that power should automatically rotate to the Southeast. Well, the Secretary to the Federal Government raised such hope as earlier mentioned.
Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar was said to have suggested before PDP presidential primary that he would like to serve for one term only if elected in 2019 and a politician of Igbo extraction should take over from 2023. However, when asked to reiterate that commitment after winning the party ticket, Atiku has not been forthcoming. Instead, his economic development plan for Nigeria that was drawn up during his retreat in Dubai after he won PDP’s presidential primary contains six-year projections. The elongation of the plan into six years instead of four has sent some worrying signals to the people of the Southeast that Atiku may be gunning for two terms in office. The meaning of this is that the North may retain power for 16 years if Atiku wins next year, a situation which will be an upset of the unsigned convention that power should rotate between the North and the South every eight years. With the scenario of power rotation, both the majority and minority ethnic groups would have their terms in office. The quandary for the Southeast, nay the Igbo now is who to vote for to ensure that the zone provides the next President of Nigeria after Buhari. Support for Buhari in the 2019 presidential election which the All Progressives Congress, APC craves for may find the Yoruba of the Southwest trying to turn the kite that Fashola and Osinbajo are flying into a real-life aeroplane. On the other hand if the Igbo decide to help Atiku to win the election, then the zone may have to wait for another eight years before it can aim at producing a President from the zone for the first time.
This is the dilemma. APC men right on the corridors of power now double speak. Atiku of PDP prevaricates. So which direction will the Igbo votes go to in next year’s Presidential election? This is the job of political mathematicians, philosophers, analysts and activists to resolve.
Two high ranking members of President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government of Nigeria have made statements in recent times that might have revealed the ambition of some Yoruba politicians to canvass the return of the Presidency to their area in 2023. Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, former Governor of Lagos State was the one, during the last week of October this year, that urged the people of Southwest to vote for Buhari in the 2019 presidential election to ensure that power returns to the Southwest geo-political zone in 2023. At a town hall meeting in the zone, he spoke in Yoruba language to the audience translated thus: “A vote for Buhari in 2019 will ensure that power will come back to the Southwest (a homogenous Yoruba area of Nigeria). Like a veiled instruction he added, again in Yoruba, “I am sure you will vote wisely.” Then this month of December, just a few days ago, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo went to a pivotal ancient town in Yorubaland, Oyo from where Oyo State derived its name, to meet the paramount ruler of the town, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III and gave a hint that the 2019 presidential election matters to the Yoruba people of the Southwest because the region has a larger interest in 2023. Contrary to the opinion of these senior members of the Federal Government, the Secretary to the Government, Boss Mustapha had assured the people of the Southeast, populated by Igbo speaking people) that President Muhammadu Buhari is predisposed to handing over to an Igbo president-elect in 2023. Mustapha was speaking at the inauguration of the Presidential Support Committee in Umuahia, capital of Abia State in the Southeast. It is this Support Group that faulted Fashola’s statement moments after he made it. Now, a Yoruba cultural organization that regularly talks politics has berated the Vice President for canvassing the return of power to the Yoruba ‘race’ in 2023. Yinka Odumakin, the spokesman of the group wondered what the Yoruba people had gained since Osinbajo became Vice-President and alleged that he had opposed all the things that were dear to the Yoruba people including restructuring. He then stated that what the Yoruba wanted was restructuring of Nigeria by means of true federalism. “The Southwest will only support a candidate with plans for restructuring,” He added. The Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a well-known influential Southeast cultural organization that is also keeping an eye on what is happening in politics has also criticized the Vice President for promoting the Yoruba interest ahead of 2023. Uche Achi-Okpaga, spokesman for the group in a statement said that anything done in Nigeria without the active cooperation and participation of the Igbo would always crumble. Uche said, “I do not expect Professor Osinbajo to say a different thing. The 2023 Yoruba presidency is a plot presumably well hatched and efforts are being exerted to win it successfully as dramatized in the public pronouncements earlier by Fashola and now the bleeding utterances of Osinbajo.” Where do all these political firestorms lead to? To start with, let us look at the equation. By ordinary political calculation, Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba man won the Presidential election in 1999 at the beginning of the present democratic dispensation and ruled for eight years. In 2007, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua succeeded him but could not complete one time before he died in office. His Vice President was Goodluck Jonathan from the South-south of the country. After all the power play, he succeeded Yar’Adua to complete the rest of their joint term. Jonathan won the 2011 general election and left office in 2015 when he was defeated and conceded victory to Buhari. From a minority ethnic group in the South-south, he had at least partially solved the dual problem of a minority ruling the country for the first time and also the fact that the South-south has also benefitted from power rotation. So, it is the Igbo speaking people of Southeast that should aspire to rule the country in 2023. In fact, the APC has been dangling before the eyes of the Igbo, the reality that Buhari has only one more term to serve if he wins the 2019 general election. After that power should automatically rotate to the Southeast. Well, the Secretary to the Federal Government raised such hope as earlier mentioned. Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar was said to have suggested before PDP presidential primary that he would like to serve for one term only if elected in 2019 and a politician of Igbo extraction should take over from 2023. However, when asked to reiterate that commitment after winning the party ticket, Atiku has not been forthcoming. Instead, his economic development plan for Nigeria that was drawn up during his retreat in Dubai after he won PDP’s presidential primary contains six-year projections. The elongation of the plan into six years instead of four has sent some worrying signals to the people of the Southeast that Atiku may be gunning for two terms in office. The meaning of this is that the North may retain power for 16 years if Atiku wins next year, a situation which will be an upset of the unsigned convention that power should rotate between the North and the South every eight years. With the scenario of power rotation, both the majority and minority ethnic groups would have their terms in office. The quandary for the Southeast, nay the Igbo now is who to vote for to ensure that the zone provides the next President of Nigeria after Buhari. Support for Buhari in the 2019 presidential election which the All Progressives Congress, APC craves for may find the Yoruba of the Southwest trying to turn the kite that Fashola and Osinbajo are flying into a real-life aeroplane. On the other hand if the Igbo decide to help Atiku to win the election, then the zone may have to wait for another eight years before it can aim at producing a President from the zone for the first time. This is the dilemma. APC men right on the corridors of power now double speak. Atiku of PDP prevaricates. So which direction will the Igbo votes go to in next year’s Presidential election? This is the job of political mathematicians, philosophers, analysts and activists to resolve.