By Kindness Jonah
Tracing the history of power play in Nigeria would reveal a cat and mouse race. But who is the cat, and who is the mouse? A bird eye view of the scam posture is the undoing of the rising sun, the hullabaloo in the air that Nnamdi Azikiwe and Jaja Wachukwu in their oratorical prowess could not move an inch forward in 1959 election.
Particularly Jaja Wachukwu leading the indigenous Nigerian Federal House of Representatives in 1959 called all Nigerians to disrespect tribe and clanish cleavage and vote, hoping that Nnamdi Azikiwe would win and be declared winner.
Of course, Nnamdi Azikiwe won because NCNC won even in the Middle Belt of the Northern Region. But while Jaja Wachukwu was ‘grammatizing’ at Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe in grandiloquence was rattling for central Power control, both forgot the hegemonic undercover against their natural origin.
Then came the declaration of the winner that has remained the antithesis of equanimity in the Nigerian polity. Then the Anglo Arabic Mathematics without numeric balance. Tafawa Balewa was declared winner against all public permutation.
Heavens remained static, did not fall. Then in 1964, the repeat broadcast was seemingly inimical as Nnamdi Azikiwe vowed never to stumble twice over the same stone. Sir Adetokunbo was called as Balm in Gilead. Then came in the anti climax of “operation wetie of the wild, wild west.”
What followed? The same Anglo- Arabic innuendo was cast over the atmosphere with comminatory padded peace. But the same power display pointed at the owner of the central authority.
The tottering voices of animated blood waste was the decimator of the East between 1967 and 1970. Then the same old permutator was at it again in 1979 when the old brigades were marshalled for a repeat quagmire. The same old hawks preferred their own as in 1959 and 1964. Shehu Shagari was declared winner and heaven did not fallen despite shrill cries of inequity.
Who cares a blooper whether Igbo won or wins or will win? Then the repeat miasma in 1999 saw Alex Ekwueme winning the PDP Primaries. But was he declared? Is it not a proverbial disgrace to stumble twice over the same stone?
Then came 2023. The clamour for Igbo person to rule Nigeria gathered momentum this time. But the same puller of the string has not changed like the Biblical Ethiopian skin. Hopes were high and Igbo centricism platonically touched the zenith.
But the decoder of contour lines of dissuasion never let go in the clandestine amputation prismatically catapulted to the outside world. Like Zik and Ekwueme, Peter Obi won landslide even in Boko Haram dungeon of Borno State. Peter Obi won in Lagos and Abuja, Jos and Markudi, Taraba and Yola, Calabar and Port Harcourt. But was he declared?
The umpire of INEC visited Tinubu against any just reasoning on the penultimate Friday against Saturday. The head of law in Nigeria visited Tinubu in odd days to the election and heavens did not fall.
Tinubu has been accused of Drug carrying and his opponents have made it a public that he is on the wanted list of Chicago State USA for drug offences. Tinubu did not win Lagos, the State he governed, and Abuja the seat of Power as required by the law. But Tinubu was declared winner of the election against all justifiable reasoning. Has heaven fallen?
This is the animate sore point in the calibration of political contortion and cantankerous disequilibrium in the geo polity of Nigeria. Has Britino-Sokoto line of cumulonimbus cloud of angst against the Igbo soft pedalled for Igbo rulership of Nigeria? This is the pyrrhic question that was called into play in 2023, which Igbos themselves negated and abnegated to clamour for support base to rule Nigeria: squaring the circle.
…Comrade Kindness Jonah, Convener, voice from the SouthEast.
