Let Me Agree to Disagree With Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe. By KEMKA S. IBEJI

Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe 
KEMKA S. IBEJI 

I woke to the social media being agog with the name of the refined and gentle lawmaker - Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe. As soon as I was so greeted, I knew that the Ngwa born, calm and soft spoken, parliamentarian would have tickled the fabric of the national political engineering for a provoking and witty attention as characteristic of him. I went through the Facebook searching for what has actually happened. I could get some snippets of his submissions but they were not as detailed as I thought they should be. I made further foray of inquisition into Twitter. The issue was not trending on Twitter as I thought it should. I began to wonder if it was worth considering and if it is not one of those social media fake news. But a step further, I searched the name of the gentleman senator and I got an army of information. From the Twitter I got the full video of his interview with the Channels TV presenter Mr. Ladi. I took a seat to relish what he had to dish out.

During this great and record deserving interview, Senator Enyi Abaribe made a description of the two (2) classes of Igbos alive at the moment. First are those who want to continue the dialogue and discussion about Nigeria and the Igbos. The 2nd people are those who see themselves as already down and out. For this class, there is no hope for the Igbos in Nigeria. It is important to state here that his description is apt. I also agree with him.

Another important purview he attacked is the inordinate taxonomy of citizenship in Nigeria whereby desert, praise, blame and more are apportioned based on where you come from. Certain ethnic groups are seen as above the law. They dangle guns, murder at randomly and do all sorts of unlawful things with reckless abandon but the law and her enforcement agents look the other way while others do the very slightest and are issued punishments close to capital. Here he gave example with the armed bandits and the IPOB in relation to branding and gazetting one as a terrorist organization and the other is not treated as such even when they are seen perpetuating classical terrorism. Here again, I agree with the gentleman lawmaker - Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe.

He talked also about the brandishing of the Igbo Presidency as a bait for the Igbos. On this, maybe peculiar to his experience as informed by his position and those in his shoes, some leading members of the ruling political party may have approached them with such arguments. Here, he also asserts that with the experiences and commonplace happenings, only the unwise and unthinking will swallow the pill. In his cliché, it is impossible for a man who does not trust you with the keys of his gate to trust you with the keys of his apartments to enjoy occupancy. Here, I will agree with him but quickly disagree on a vital pinpoint.

In the foregoing, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe affirmed that for an Igbo man or woman to possibly be allowed to be the President of Nigeria, such Igbo man or woman will at least be received close to power and the happenings of government. It is at this point that I vehemently disagree with the senator. The reason for my humble antagonist standpoint is that, in the first place, power is not given. Igbos should not beg Nigeria for power and nobody else (no geopolitical zone) should.

Power is taken and not given. The Igbo man or woman should not wait for anybody or somebody to come and taunt or tease him/her with giving them power. This my view derives from the fact that it is the right of the Igbos to present Nigeria with her president of Igbo extraction in eight (8) years out of the forty-eight (48) years cycle of the rotational Presidency. It is no longer a privilege but a right and so leaving it because things have not worked out in  line with our primordial wishes is cowardly and bad resignation.

Yes, there has to be devolution of power. Yes, revenue system and the likes have to be worked on and reviewed. Yes, the demographic reality of the nation should and must be felt in the administration of the commonwealth. Yes, the country is in dire need of restructuring from the reigning systems and principles. Yes, we need strong and virile institutions of government that should guarantee egalitarianism, freedom, equity and safety of all. But sacrificing the right of Igbo extraction to an eight (8) year shot at the presidency of Nigeria is unacceptable and unagreeable by me.

Igbos must present Nigeria with president(s) of her extraction who will saddle the presidential stool for eight years. Yes I made a possible plural of the president because we may choose to have two (2) or more persons within our turn of eight years.

The Channels TV presenter was not free from my disagreement as well. He alluded to his chat with other prominent politicians like Chief Edwin Clark who he said asserted the undeniability of the Igbo Presidency in 2023. Here is where I have to disagree with both Mr. Ladi and his parties to his interviews like Chief Clark. We are sure of the Igbo Presidency of 8 years but one thing which is yet uncertain is if it should be in 2023 or 2031. But if you ask me, I will humbly say that this is where we need dialogue and final agreement because it must be either in 2023 or 2031. When I use the logical function or connective "or" in the above declarative statement, it is used in the exclusive sense of disjunction.

In other words, the leaders of the Southeast geopolitical zone should now engage the rest of the national leaders to discuss and agree on when. However, because of the natural distortion occasioned by the death of President Musa Yar'Adua and the shift of turn to the Southsouth through President Goodluck Jonathan (even when it was not yet their time), the South ran a straight sixteen (16) year reign (between President Obasanjo and President Goodluck) which naturally makes it inevitable for the north to have same straight run of sixteen years whether now or later. It however behooves on the national leaders of Nigerian political sphere to come to a discussion desk and sort out how to rejig the alteration by natural happenstance.


I am,
KEMKA S. IBEJI
Son of Ikenga 

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