By The Editorial Board – Updated
Of the remarkable things we’ve learned this presidential election cycle is how deeply treacherous and anti-Igbo some Igbo politicians and business elites are.
These subversives deployed a wide range of political warfare tools: disinformation, false testimony, blackmail, thuggery, character assassination, and economic measures to influence, coerce, intimidate, or undermine Peter Obi’s candidacy. Their political gaslighting will fail.
The most prominent among them are Messrs. Orji Uzor Kalu, Charles Chuwkuma Soludo, David Nweze Umahi and Hope Uzodimma.
These political turncoats have sold their souls to the Devil. Their toxic rhetoric, misinformation and scaremongering are purposively engineered to blackmail and sabotage Peter Obi.
It is publicly evident that these politicians conspired with their political masters in the APC and the PDP to intentionally undermine Peter Obi’s candidacy. The highest duty of care of Igbo politicians in our representative democracy is to uphold and support the will, interests and preferences of their constituency, not their political godfathers.
Overwhelmingly, Peter Obi is the will and choice of the Igbo people, and long-suffering Nigerians.
When these Igbo politicians violated the solemn oath of representation by undermining Peter Obi, the people’s choice, they subverted the people’s will and broke the social contract between them and Ndigbo. For this reason alone, they must be held accountable.
No matter the outcome of the presidential election, these Igbo turncoats must be socially proscribed, politically canceled and democratically eliminated for waging a political war against the interests of Ndigbo and conspiring, plotting and engaging in nefarious political activities to subvert the will and choice of the Igbo people.
We write this note just before the election day to ensure that Ndigbo won’t forget this treachery after the election. Not this time. Subversion of Igbo interests by political elites have happened too often to be ignored.
We must use the case against these men as a teaching moment for future Igbo politicians: If you subvert the will of the people who elected you, you pay a costly social and political price.
Let’s be clear. We have no problem with individuals having the freedom of party affiliation or choosing who to support and vote for. But we do have a serious problem, as Ndigbo should, with the elected Igbo politicians who go out of their way to undermine the collective will of the majority of the Igbo people.
It is political naïveté for these alleged coconspirators to place loyalty to a political party above the solidarity, interest and choice of Ndigbo. They can’t hide behind their parties.
Nigerian politics is still tribal, religious and zonal by all intent and purposes. Kwankwaso spoke for his Northern brethren when he announced that “Northerners will not vote for a Southeasterner (read: don’t vote for Peter Obi) in 2023.”
When El-Rufia stereotyped Peter Obi as another Igbo “trader” who can’t win, he did so to politically denigrate Peter Obi and Ndigbo. This was tribalized politics. He spoke for the majority of Igbo haters.
When El-Rufai was alleged to say that “Igbo politicians are on sale every day with a discounted price tag; you buy one and get one free”, it’s likely he had the turncoats in mind – according to an insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
When some Muslim clerics (e.g., Sheikh Ismail Murabbi Mustapha) and the Alhaji Umar Farooq Umar, the Emir of Dura allegedly called on Muslims to “vote only for your own (read: a Muslim) and vote for Northerners” (read: Peter Obi is not one of us) they were playing religious and zonal politics.
Northerners and Southwesterners understand this intrinsic political calculus: a political candidate must stand on a solid foundation of support from its political zone and undergirded by unwavering backing by his ethnic and religious groups. This is the present reality in Nigerian politics. APC understands this reality and that’s why they chose a double Muslim ticket.
Sadly, Igbo solidarity has been hollowed out and weakened by a cabal of political traitors, saboteurs and conspirators, who place party politics above Igbo solidarity and unity. These men sold their souls to the Devil in the false pretense of party loyalty. They put their narrow, personal political interests above the interests and the will of the majority of the Igbo people who elected them to represent their collective interests.
The salience of Igbo interest and solidarity over party loyalty must never be negotiable at this moment of enormous political significance, or any other time for that matter. In this presidential election, the first featuring a competitive Igbo candidate, the unity and solidarity of Ndigbo must transcend party politics and self-interest.
We are not inciting violence against these men; in fact, we are against any act of violence. We are recommending Ndigbo bring these turncoats to face political justice and make sure they never again gain political power in Alaigbo.
If the nefarious actions of these men do not result in serious repercussions for their status as politicians, that silence will send an unmistakable message to the rest of Ndigbo, to aspiring politicians, and to the Nigerian public: that Igbo politicians are commodities that can be bought and used to blackmail and bring down Igbo leaders.
The Case Against The Political Conspirators
These men intentionally conspired to sabotage Peter Obi by spreading false information about his performance as Governor of Anambra State, knowingly and falsely labeling him a “failed governor”.
They attempted to delegitimize Obi’s presidential candidacy by manufacturing falsehoods and toxic propaganda. When Soludo treacherously announced that Peter Obi “can’t and won’t win”, he exemplified the coordinated anti-Obi attack allegedly masterminded and paid for by the APC and PDP. Separately and collectively, they blackmailed and falsely accused Obi of being arrogant, dictatorial and “Hitler in the making.“
Rather than stay neutral like other Northern politicians who support other presidential candidates not from their religion or party or zone, these Igbo politicians, out of self-interest and envy, abused the power given to them by the Igbo people to campaign against the people’s candidate — Peter Obi.
We speak for Ndigbo when we say that Igbo politicians must always place the best interests of Ndigbo over their individual political affiliations and self-interests. One of the chief dangers of letting party loyalties and self-interest dominate loyalty to Ndigbo as a whole is that it leads to factionalism, weakening the political prospects of Ndigbo in general.
Unfortunately, Ndigbo must acknowledge that Nigerian politics is still a jungle democracy where primordial tribal and religious affiliations supersede all else. Ndigbo must internalize the political fact that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Igbo solidarity and unity of purpose are the success factors in Nigerian jungle democracy.
Ndigbo must present a unified front. Internal divisions, especially when they’re made public, dilute the unity of Ndigbo behind Peter Obi.
The African Mind Journal has embedded veteran political analysts to observe the election. We will dedicate our editorial space to report on the election and its aftermath.
Please make your voices heard. Go and vote. If you all vote, Peter Obi wins.
