Opinion
NO TO IGBO PRESIDENCY!
By Dr jalarth Uche Opara
Yes to a Nigerian Presidency Built on Merit, Integrity and Excellence Read my lips: NO IGBO PRESIDENCY! No mincing of words, no tongue-in-cheek expressions, no ambiguity, and certainly no playing with words. I mean every word of it.
Nigeria, since independence, has remained entangled in the suffocating web of tribal politics.
We have experimented with regional balancing, ethnic calculations and the politics of whose turn it is. Yet, decades later, the results remain far below the expectations and aspirations of the Nigerian people.
Through this revolving door of tribal entitlement, we have repeatedly voted along ethnic lines, hoping that our turn at the table would usher in the promised land. Sadly, each succeeding administration has left millions of Nigerians yearning for better leadership and governance. Not even the ethnic constituencies of incumbent presidents have been spared the biting realities of hunger, deprivation, insecurity and economic hardship.
We have all complained. We have all cried. We have all waited for the promised land. Yet, for many Nigerians, that promised land remains a mirage, a beautiful destination that exists more in political imagination than in lived reality.
Tribal presidency is a fraud against the collective aspirations of the Nigerian people.
It is a fraudulent bargain when the justification for supporting a presidential candidate is that he belongs to our tribe rather than that he possesses the competence, character and capacity to lead.
It is an intellectual betrayal when we sacrifice national interest on the altar of ethnic sentiment and then expect the miracle of good governance. What, exactly, does an Igbo presidency guarantee the ordinary Nigerian? What does a Yoruba presidency automatically offer the Hausa man? What does a Hausa presidency guarantee the Igbo trader, the Ijaw fisherman, the Tiv farmer or the Nigerian living in the forgotten corners of this country?
Nothing automatically!
The stomach does not recognise ethnicity when it is empty. Unemployment does not discriminate between tribes. Corruption does not ask for your state of origin before it empties the public treasury. Insecurity does not spare a victim because he belongs to the ethnic group of the president.
In the same pit of hunger, deprivation, corruption and uncertainty, we find ourselves biting our fingernails in the struggle for survival.
So, can we finally jettison this obsession with an Igbo presidency, a Yoruba presidency or a Hausa presidency? Can we outgrow this retrogressive mindset of “it is our turn” and embrace the more progressive question: Who is best prepared to lead Nigeria out of its misery?
Let me make one thing abundantly clear: My unwavering support for Peter Obi is not an expression of Igbo tribal sentiment. Neither is it a religious bargain. I am not supporting him because he is Igbo or because of any religious consideration.
Those are narrow, myopic lenses through which we have viewed our politics for far too long, and they have yielded painfully little for the common good.
My support must stand or fall on the strength of his character, competence, record, ideas and capacity to deliver the Nigeria we desire. And the same standard must apply to every other presidential candidate.
No one should be exempted from scrutiny simply because he belongs to our tribe, shares our faith or carries our party’s flag. We cannot continue running on a treadmill and expect to make physical progress. For decades, we have been running the political treadmill of ethnic entitlement, changing the faces at the top while millions of Nigerians remain trapped in familiar cycles of disappointment.
We have changed the occupants of the presidency; have we changed the quality of our expectations?
Come 2027, can we dare to try something different? Can we silence the blinding noise of tribal politics long enough to hear the voice of reason? Can we abandon the dangerous assumption that the presidency is an ethnic inheritance to be passed around among Nigeria’s major tribes?
Let us move from tribal entitlement to national meritocracy; from emotional loyalty to critical evaluation; from party worship to patriotic responsibility; and from the politics of identity to the politics of integrity, excellence, competence, accountability and good conscience.
Let us place every presidential candidate on the same moral and intellectual scale.
Assess their integrity. Examine their honesty. Scrutinise their records. Test their competence. Evaluate their policies. Question their consistency. Examine their understanding of Nigeria’s problems and the practicality of their proposed solutions. Measure their capacity to unite this country, protect its vulnerable citizens and deliver measurable improvements in the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
Nigerians should be allowed to make an informed choice.
Let the candidate who weighs highest on the scale of character, competence, integrity, vision and proven capacity earn our votes, regardless of tribe, religion, culture or political party.
If that candidate is Peter Obi, let him earn the presidency on merit, not ethnicity. If another candidate demonstrates superior qualities against the same objective standards, let that candidate earn our support instead.
That is what a mature democracy demands. That is what national interest requires. That is what patriotism should mean.
I am not asking the Igbo to abandon their legitimate aspiration to produce a Nigerian president. No ethnic group should be denied that possibility. I am asking Nigerians to abandon the idea that ethnic identity alone constitutes a qualification for the highest office in the land.
An Igbo president is not, in itself, the problem. Neither is a Yoruba or Hausa president the solution merely by virtue of ethnicity. The problem is the belief that the presidency belongs to a tribe before it belongs to Nigeria.
Our collective aspiration should not be to enthrone a tribe but to enthrone good governance. It should not be to celebrate where the president comes from but to examine where his leadership will take us.
Nigeria does not need a president who merely represents our ethnic ancestry. Nigeria needs a president who represents our collective aspirations.
No to tribal entitlement. Yes to national excellence.
No to the politics of “our turn.” Yes to the politics of “who is best qualified?”
No to voting with our ethnic emotions while our children inherit the consequences. Yes to voting with our conscience, our intelligence and our eyes firmly fixed on the future.
Come 2027, let us stop asking which tribe should produce the president.
Let us ask which candidate can produce the Nigeria we deserve.
At the end of the day, the ultimate prize is not an Igbo presidency, a Yoruba presidency or a Hausa presidency.
THE ULTIMATE PRIZE IS A BETTER NIGERIA!
Jarlath Uche Opara
jarlathuche@gmail.com