By Okey Ndiribe,  Asst. Pol. Editor
Former Governor of old Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife has been involved in several of the recent meetings Igbo leaders have convened to fashion a common position on whether or not to support President Goodluck Jonathan to realise his perceived  presidential ambition in 2011. He gave a deep insight into the thinking of the Igbo political leadership and insisted that Ndigbo want the presidency in 2015.

Given the background of the recent past in which  the South-East and South-South zones  are known to have taken a common position on national issues, what could be responsible for the seeming withdrawal of support of  the Igbo for President Goodluck Jonathan’s  presidential ambition next year?

The first thing that needs to be said is that it is not possible for everybody in the South-South not to talk of the South-East to support President Jonathan as a presidential candidate for next year’s general election.

Second, if you go to the South-East  more than 85 percent of the people are in support of President Jonathan. The elites who are quarreling among themselves, have other things they are fighting for especially their selfish interests. They have been asking for all kinds of positions.

The third point is that we are not leading cattle; our people have their brains and are capable of making their own decisions. You cannot  tell the people of the South-East to follow you without reasoning and expect them to follow you; you have to convince them. What we set out to do was to get information from different groups in the country including those from the North and the South-South,  then go home and discuss with the people. That was the strategy of the Igbo Think Tank.

When we went to discuss with the Northern group, we got swept off. What is worse, some of our own people began to talk of the interest of the North instead of what we came for. Contrary to the agreement we had before going, a communique was proposed at the end of the dialogue. When I wanted to point out that our plan did not include having a communique, the person who acted as Chairman at the meeting did not allow me to talk. I don’t think that our people tell too many lies but I saw something in one of the national newspapers today (Tuesday), concerning that meeting  which indicated that nobody was disallowed from speaking. That is a total lie.

The fourth point is that so far, there is no group in the South-East  that has said it is opposed to President Jonathan’s candidacy next year. Many people are asking question as to why the Igbos should adopt him without reaching any agreement with him concerning the interest of the South-East. Even at the Igbo Political Summit which held at Enugu recently, the communique that was issued indicated that Jonathan was adopted by the zone but subject to certain conditions.

At the summit, the communique was presented in a manner that sent a clear message that it was a reaction to the so-called understanding between the South-East and the North. Finally, what the groups in the South-East are saying is that we have not finished negotiating with President Jonathan yet. They have also said that they don’t want the Vice-Presidential slot for the zone. How do you agree without negotiating?  Nobody has ever agreed without negotiating. The Igbos want support for the presidency in 2015 from any of the groups approaching
the South-East for negotiation.

Is it this demand for support for Igbo Presidency in 2015 that Igbo leaders are presenting to all the presidential aspirants including President Jonathan?

Exactly; after President Jonathan would have completed his term in 2015, the only zone in Nigeria which should produce the next Head of Government is the South-East zone.

But it has been argued that the North-East is also waiting to take its turn?

Who are those saying that? Where did Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister during the First Republic hail from?  People should not say what is not true. Let me add that it sounds fraudulent to just talk about North-South rotation within the context of the zoning arrangement. Zoning as we know it has meaning within the context of the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.

You cannot  talk about North-South zoning because that kind of zoning, can ensure that no Igbo man would ever become the President of this country. When you insist on North-South zoning, any strong zone in the North or  South could monopolise the presidency. President Umar Musa Yar’Adua who died earlier in the year hailed from the North-West.

Who are those contesting for the office of the President now? You must have realised that within the PDP the main contestants now are from  the North-East and North-Central. But if you have a strong candidate from the North-West, that zone would still retain the presidency. North-South zoning is fraudulent. Th
at is not what is in the PDP constitution; I support zoning as it is contained in the PDP constitution. The North-South type of zoning is an antithesis to the real zoning I know about.

I also need to let you know that the North did not deceive the South-East; what happened was that some  members of the South-East delegation did not play the role they were supposed to play during the dialogue we had with Northern leaders.

Suppose a presidential aspirant   like former military President Gen. Ibrahim Babangida  offers the Vice-presidential position to the South-East would it be rejected?

That offer has already been made.  That is the main point I have been making since I began speaking  to you. Some of the people who are fighting battles and using other excuses are actually defending their own selfish interest. But what most of us in the South-East are saying is that we may be politically hungry but decide to starve if we do not like the type of food that has been offered to us. The position of Vice-presidency doesn’t excite Ndigbo again.