Nigeria needs a president who sees every part of the country as his own — Ekweremadu

..Says Igbo Marginalisation, a reality that borders on exclusion

DEPUTY Senate President,  Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday, said that the bitter quest for the presidency by the various ethnic extractions of the country would continue until Nigeria has a President who  sees every part of the country as his or her constituency. 

According to him, a President who is committed to reuniting what he described as a highly polarised nation and reawaken the giant in all parts thereof will end the recurring cries of marginalization among various ethnic groups of the country, adding that the President Nigeria needs must ensure that people are not mistreated on grounds of their electoral choices or where they come from. 

Ekweremadu spoke in Abuja at the public presentation of the book, “The Audacity of Power and the Nigeria Project: Exclusion of the South East in Nigeria’s Power Politics and the Spectre of Biafra” authored by Godwin Udibe and Law Mefor. 

The deputy Senate President, who was represented by  Hon. Dennis Amadi, representing Ezeagu/Udi of Enugu state in the House of Representatives, said to address Igbo marginalization, there must be true restructuring and federalism because if there had been a normal federal arrangement, the hue and cry over marginalisation by Ndigbo and other parts of Nigeria would not have arisen. 

Stressing that marginalisation of the Igbo is real, he said, “the cross of Ndigbo in the Nigerian state is heavy; Igbo marginalisation is real; and as the authors argue, now borders on deliberate exclusion.”

Ekweremadu  said the worst disadvantages suffered by Ndigbo are not just those imposed by structural imbalances such as fewer number of states and local governments or the lesser revenue accruals, political representation, federal employments and political appointments arising from the imbalances and willful injustice. 

“The greatest marginalization and disadvantage suffered by Ndigbo is the willful dissembling and discarding of true federalism, which the founding fathers of Nigeria adopted in order to live together as one nation in which no one is oppressed and every component part is able to thrive. 

This awkward form of federalism has boxed Ndigbo to a tight corner and caged their potentials and ingenuity. “It would be recalled that in the First Republic, the defunct Eastern Region was rated the fastest growing economy in Africa. At that time, oil had not started flowing in commercial quantity in the Region. 

Nevertheless, the Eastern Region as well as the other regions recorded unprecedented and yet to be unequaled development. “The State of California alone, in the USA, is one of the largest economies in the world. 

It reminds us that in a true federal state, Ndigbo would have been the most unlikely people to cry about marginalization because they have what it takes to compete with the developed economies. “Sadly, in the context of Nigeria’s federalism, Ndigbo are like a shackled lion. 

They have abundant mineral resources but cannot exploit them because minerals are vested in the Federal Government in an arrangement that robs Peter to pay Paul. 

Ndigbo cannot independently secure their territories to make them safer for citizens and more attractive to investors because policing was centralised since 1966. “Whereas Igbo communities and public spirited individuals build schools, roads, hospitals, and other socio-economic infrastructure, the South East states cannot build certain infrastructure because only the Federal Government has the constitutional powers to build them. 

“In other words, Ndigbo are a people who have what it takes to fly but are condemned to crawl because others are crawling. This is the tragedy of the Nigerian project.

” Ekweremadu, who noted that “restructuring is not an emotional issue, but a political imperative for Nigeria to make the desired progress”, however disagreed with those who see the calls for restructuring as tantamount to call for disintegration.

Credit: Henry Umoru