2023: Umahi’s Defection To APC ‘Highly Opportunistic’- Prof Al-Bishak

Veteran journalist and professor of African Literature at the Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State, Mallam Al-Bishak says the defection of Ebonyi State Gov Dave Umahi to the APC is ‘opportunistic’ because ‘there are Igbo in the APC that have toiled for the party all along’. He also made a case for the PDP to zone its presidential ticket to the Southeast in 2023 to justify Ndigbo’s investment in the party. He spoke with Chinedu Aroh.

Is Gov Dave Umahi’s defection to the APC the best way to draw the attention that Southeast is truly marginalized politically, especially pertaining to the presidential quest of Ndigbo?

Well, the political marginalization of the Ndigbo is self-induced. The Igbo have nobody to blame but themselves. Let the Igbo ask themselves this very important question: how come they are frontline leaders in the economy, education and other sectors except politics? The Igbo man is a shrewd politician in business; that is why he succeeds there, but falls by the wayside politically. The greatest Achilles’ heel of Ndigbo is uncompromising self-will and lack of political tact. The Igbo man must understand that he cannot rule this country unless he gets the support of other sections of the country. Yet, the constant threat to the unity of this country is another political albatross for Ndigbo. Their constant claim that they are marginalized does not wash with the average Northern talakawa (poor), who feel even more marginalized than Ndigbo because the Igbo man can come to the North and start businesses, build houses and send their children to school and become important people in society, which the talakawa cannot afford despite their brothers occupying the seat of power.

It may be too early to comment. But Dave Umahi’s defection to the APC at this moment is highly opportunistic, and will get him nowhere because a tree does not make a forest. There are Igbo in the APC that have toiled for the party all along, and stand in a good stead to emerge as presidential stand-bearers of the APC in 2023. I’m talking about the likes of Rochas Okoroacha, Ogbonnaya Onu and Ken Nnamani.

But like I said in my last interview, the scale tips in favour of Southwest that joined Northern forces to produce President Buhari. So for the Southeast to produce president in 2023, it must win the support or concession of the Southwest. There is, however, the possibility that an Igbo man from the Niger-Delta could be fielded by the APC. Rotimi Amaechi is a possible candidate.

Do you think PDP would be unfair to the Igbo if it did not zone its presidential slot to the Southeast come 2023?

Politics is a game of wits. It has no permanent friend or enemy, but permanent interest. Its major objective is to capture power at the council, state or national level. So it strategizes on how best to capture power. In the process it makes compromises via political horse-trading. So if by its calculation, an Igbo candidate cannot win the presidential election in 2023, PDP may not toe that path.

Talking about fairness, the direct answer to your question is that it is quite unfair to Ndigbo if PDP does not give them the sole right to produce the president of the country in 2023 no matter what. This is because the PDP constitution has documented that power shall rotate between the North and South (irrespective of the party in power). Therefore Ndigbo invested their human and material resources in the PDP, especially in the last presidential elections in the hope of getting the presidential ticket in 2023. To deny them is painful.

The hard truth is that an Igbo man can emerge president in 2023 if the proper groundwork and horse-trading is done. It is sheer laziness and opportunism for PDP to deny an Igbo man the chance in 2023. It thinks that fielding a Northern candidate like Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso or Aminu Tambuwal or even Atiku Abubakar with an Igbo running mate will fetch it the presidency. It is a dumb calculation. Northerners are not stupid to want to cling to power ad infinitum.

Let me shock you. Northerners are not fanatical about producing the country’s leaders because it has really not benefitted them economically as the Southerners. What they want is good leadership and concrete benefits, irrespective of which section produces the president. They want equity, fairness and justice. The North has been the worst of it by producing the country’s leaders because the Northern leaders will sacrifice the comfort, development and progress of their people to satisfy people in the South for the sake of unity. Look at the regions of the country in terms of economic, social, educational and infrastructural development: the North is very backward. Even under the present APC leadership, the Northerners are not happy. They suffer insecurity and economic hardships more than the other region. So how has the country’s leadership benefitted them? Even in terms of appointments, the Southwest has more appointees than any geo-political zone in the country, as revealed by the Presidency before last year’s general elections. I guarantee you that any major political party that chooses an acceptable Igbo man from the South combined with an acceptable deputy from the North will win the presidential election in 2023. Further, the North is highly politically conscious and understands the import of written or gentleman’s agreement. In 2023, the North, as a bloc, will not insist on producing a Northern president. Those selling the dummy to the South are the PDP Northern presidential aspirants who have an exaggerated opinion of their political strength and influence. And naive Southern politicians, like Nyesom Wike and Uche Secondus, buy into it. PDP can field an Igbo man in 2023, and work underground with political forces on how to accommodate the interest of the North represented by a good deputy from the North, and still produce the country’s president in 2023.