The Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagos State, Joe Igbokwe has explained why an Igbo man is yet to be elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Igbokwe explained that Igbos shot themselves in the leg during the 1993 presidential election when they failed to queue behind the acclaimed winner, MKO Abiola.
According to him, that single action pitched the Yoruba against them after the polls.
He said the people of the region failed to realize that politics was not business and can never be equated with business, which they were only good at.
Speaking with Vanguard, the APC chieftain believed that until Igbos woke up from the slumber, they would continue to lament and see the Presidential Villa from the mountain top.
He said, “Until the Igbo wake up from their slumber, they will not realise the need for cooperation. The 1993 presidential election provided the Igbo the opportunity to cement their relationship with the South-West because we needed to bridge that gap.
“The North was able to actualize the annulment of that election because the Igbo failed to stand with the Yoruba. It was only a few of us who stood with Abiola – myself, Ndubuisi Kanu, Payne Jackson – among others. When we put the issue before our people, they claimed that the Igbo had fought their own civil war and that it was the turn of the Yoruba to fight their own.
“I like the ruggedness of the Yoruba. While the Yoruba were confronting their issues, the Igbo were busy clapping and that is why we warned them that if with the sophistication of Yoruba leaders and this was happening to them, the Igbo weren’t safe.”
Asked if the Igbos have the hope of ruling Nigeria soon, Igbokwe said, “they don’t understand Nigerian politics and that is my problem with them. Nigerian politics is not business. After the demise of Yar Adua, what I expected the Igbo to do was to ask Jonathan to finish the four years of Yar Adua and allow the North to have their eight years.
“And by 2015, the President would have come to the South-East. They (Igbo) were cajoled with the belief that no one could defeat the incumbent.”
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