Nigeria appears ready for an Ibo presidency. The question is whether the Ibo are ready for themselves, contends NNAMDI EBO
For decades, the story of the Ibo in Nigerian politics has been told as a story of exclusion. Since the end of the civil war and the Federal Military Government’s proclamation of “No Victor, No Vanquished” on January 15, 1970, the Ibo of the five South-Eastern states have struggled to be fully integrated into the Nigerian political and social firmament.
But to tell it only as a story of what Nigeria did to the Ibo is no longer honest. Many strides have been made. Ibo marginalisation by Nigeria has abated considerably and is no more an issue in the sense it once was. What confronts the Ibo now is far more painful: the Ibo marginalisation by the Ibo themselves, against their very own.
Consider the record since 1970. Out of the three major tribes — Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Ibo — the first two have produced Military Heads of State and Presidents. The Ibo have not. For years, that was explained with a familiar jinx: “Nigeria is not ready for an Ibo presidency.”
That jinx is now broken — not by the Ibo, but by other Nigerians. Somehow, the North appears to have relented in giving the South-East a chance. A major politician from the North-West, Rabiu Kwankwaso (Hausa-Fulani), agreed to serve as Vice Presidential candidate to a major politician from the South-East, Peter Obi (Ibo), in a Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso perfect alliance ahead of the Nigerian 2027 general election.
Grasp what that means. A Northern heavyweight was prepared to play second fiddle to an Ibo man for the highest office in the land. Other groups are now ready to support an Ibo to Aso Rock. The door said to be shut for fifty years has been opened — from the outside.
And yet, inside the house, the door is being slammed shut by the Ibo hands. It appears that Peter Obi is destined to break this jinx of “Nigeria is not ready for an Ibo presidency”! Suffice it to say that other tribal/ethnic groups are now ready to support an Ibo to Aso Rock but the Ibo themselves. It is interesting to note that all the five South-East Governors and few powerful Ibos, who are Ibo haters themselves, are against their own going to Aso Rock — most unfortunate!
This is the Crab Mentality. Or, if you prefer, the Crab Syndrome. It is vindicated by this intra-group opposition or factionalism given their turncoat/betrayal narratives. Conversely, from the generality of millions of Ibo, their perspective is brutal: this Ibo opposition to Ibo is labeled as betrayal, jealousy, and a lack of solidarity — “crab mentality” or “pulling down their own.”
That is what crabs in a bucket do. When one crab tries to climb out, the others do not push it to freedom. They pull it back down. No one escapes, and all perish together, convinced they have done something clever.
This anomaly, epitomised by these few but powerful Ibo men, is anathema to what Peter Obi must stand for them: The Ethnic and National Unification of the South-East with the rest of Nigeria. Obi’s candidacy is not merely about one man’s ambition. It is about whether the South-East can finally be unified with the rest of Nigeria through rotation and unrestrained power sharing.
That is the political angle that matters. Purely a political angle based on rotation and unrestrained power sharing in Nigeria. If rotation means anything, it must mean that power circulates, that no region is permanently a spectator, and that competence can come from any part of the federation. The Obi-Kwankwaso alliance tests that principle in its purest form.
These Ibo political neophytes are not driven by any ideological disagreement with Peter Obi, or any local elite competition, but by political opposition predicated on just “pulling down their own.” There is no alternative vision. What is offered instead is sabotage dressed up as strategy, envy dressed up as principle, and betrayal dressed up as independence.
And the cost is not Obi’s alone. It is borne by every Ibo trader in Kano, every Ibo student in Lagos, every Ibo family in Abuja who wants to believe Nigeria can belong to them too. When our own leaders signal that even we do not believe in ourselves, why should Nigeria believe in us?
We can remain crabs in a bucket, perfecting betrayal and jealousy while we remain at the bottom. Or we can unite behind our best chance, discipline our differences, and climb out together.
The cliché in Nigeria is that Ibo should concentrate on trading and leave other Nigerians to politick for them, since they’re not good politicians. Peter Obi is set to bury that cliché if a few powerful goons of his own fellow Ibo are ready to cooperate. Are they ready? That’s the elusive question. If Obi fails at the ballot box because a few of his fellow powerful Ibo kith and kin, I doubt whether “Amadioha” the alusi (spirit force) in the traditional Odinani cosmos of Iboland will smile at the betrayal of their kinsman.
Peter Obi may or may not become the President of Nigeria in 2027. That is for Nigerians to decide at the ballot box. But the Ibo must not be the reason he fails. We must not be the authors of our own defeat. If Nigeria is ready for an Ibo to proceed to Aso Rock, the Ibo must finally be ready for themselves.
These immature, pessimist, polarizing, defeatist, political escorts and Ibo reverse irredentists from the Southeast should allow Peter Obi’s political ambition and the political reintegration of the collective Ibo people of the South-Eastern geopolitical zone of Nigeria to be decided at the ballot box, by millions of the Nigerian electorate, not by the Ibo enemies from within Iboland.
Ebo is a Political scientist, Lawyer, Historian, Scholar in legal literature and politics & Public affairs analyst