Do you believe that someone of your background can be President of Nigeria? Do you have a dream that you or your child could be President of Nigeria? Give expression to your dream by the way that you vote in this election. Vote yourself, vote your dream.
How do I mean? People of certain backgrounds are not favored by traditional ethnic alliances in Nigeria to become President. The hope of anyone belonging to any of these backgrounds becoming President lies in the country breaking away from these alliances into favoring merit and competence. If you are from any of these backgrounds, your strategic self interest demands that you break out of the hold of the traditional alliances and vote a similarly disadvantaged person like yourself and open up a new pathway of merit and competence that either you or your children can benefit from to access the highest office in the land.
The disadvantaged groups include:
1. Non-Muslims and Non-Fulanis in the North
If the political establishment that favours a Fulani Muslim political head for the North is sustained, then a Christian or a non Fulani from the North would have little chance of ascending the presidency or vice presidency of the country. When it is the turn of the North, only a Fulani Muslim would be favored. And when it is the time of the South, only a Fulani Muslim would be favored as vice president. The only hope that other groups would have would lie in the country breaking away from this traditional mindset to embrace merit and competence. No amount of political negotiation can bring it about as we have seen with the Tinubu Muslim/Muslim ticket.1. Igbos
They top the groups. Igbo man would be President, not based upon any agreement of other ethnic groups to concede the presidency to them. Never mind the Atikus of this world. He is a deceiver. Anyone who is perceptive enough to question why Atiku himself would not step down for an Igbo candidate at this most auspicious time when considerations of equity in the South demands it, would appreciate that Atiku has a delusion of grandeur leading him to promise the SE the presidency. If he should get there, the conspiracy against the South East would come up again through another character like Tinubu as the SW would again feel having been left out of power for too long. An Igbo man would be president only if Nigerians defy the political establishment and elite to vote merit and competence for the betterment of their lives and
2. Igbos
They top the groups. Igbo man would be President, not based upon any agreement of other ethnic groups to concede the presidency to them. Never mind the Atikus of this world. He is a deceiver. Anyone who is perceptive enough to question why Atiku himself would not step down for an Igbo candidate at this most auspicious time when considerations of equity in the South demands it, would appreciate that Atiku has a delusion of grandeur leading him to promise the SE the presidency. If he should get there, the conspiracy against the South East would come up again through another character like Tinubu as the SW would again feel having been left out of power for too long. An Igbo man would be president only if Nigerians defy the political establishment and elite to vote merit and competence for the betterment of their lives and country.
3. Southern Muslims
If the traditional pattern subsists, the only hope of a Southern Muslim becoming president or vice president, would lie in the adoption of a Muslim/Muslim ticket as Tinubu has done. Ordinarily, the success of such a ticket should mean that Nigerians have overcome divisions on religious lines, making it unnecessary to balance the presidency on such lines. However, as should now have become obvious, the opposite is the case. The Muslim/Muslim ticket falls into the traditional pattern of a Muslim dominated North with the addition of a presidency that excludes Christians. It does not erase the division but rather reinforces it to raise fears of a Muslim dominated country. Its success would mean that the North would only accept from the South a person who would help sustain the myth of a Muslim dominated country. If at all Tinubu should succeed the fall out would be such as to cause an amendment of the Constitution to expressly ban same faith presidency. That would seal the hopes of any other Southern Muslim accessing the presidency if the traditional pattern of alliances subsist. The enlightened self interest of any Southern Muslim would therefore lie in that person voting to break away from the traditional pattern to enthrone merit and competence, regardless of ethnic or religious background.
If you belong to any of these disadvantaged groups and you are not voting Peter Obi, you are voting against your enlightened self interest. You are voting to close the door of the presidency on the faces of your children and grandchildren.
We can also see that the traditional pattern of political alliances is equal to the traditional malaise of corruption and bad leadership. Those are its established products. Only a change from this pattern to embrace merit and competence can give hope of redemption from the chains of these twin evils.
The divisions that plague the country also come from the traditional pattern of alliances. It leaves some sections marginalized and shortchanged, leading to strife that slows governance and increases opportunity for corruption.
I dream of a better country which has room at the top for people like me. You call me Igbo. I am not the only minority. If you come from any of these groups I have mentioned here, you are also a minority in Nigeria. It’s only that you didn’t know it.
– Chuks Nwachuku
