Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother - Politics - Nairaland
Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother (1262 Views)
Ndigbo And Ikwerre Fight Dirty Over Celebration Of Igbo Day In PHC / What Ndigbo and ANAMBRA Must Do To End The Killing. / Opinion: Ndigbo And Hypocrasy, The Case Of Dr Ngozi Iweala (2) (3) (4)
| Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by sarrki(m): 7:22pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
One of the pictures that went viral last week of Ohaneze Ndigbo leader, Professor Ben Nwabueze, hugging former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, was mischievously exaggerated. One version made Nwabueze look like a frightened, forlorn child embracing its mother. Of course, it wasn’t meant to be anything of the sort. But even from the more respectable versions, it is difficult not to come away with the impression that the photograph is symbolic of the growing feeling in the south-east that after a long, harrowing spell in the wilderness, Ndigbo might well be on the verge of finding rest in the bosom of the PDP. I can live with that, if it was only a sad thing – which it was. But it’s worse than sad. The unspoken emotion conveyed in that photograph is that of a lost and confused people so desperate to find their way that any way now appears the right way. Is it resentment, desperation, amnesia or a malignant combination of all these? I don’t know. But whatever it is, it is a tragedy worse than sadness, and here is why. After the civil war, 1998 was the best chance for Ndigbo to regain their footing on the national stage. That year, one of its most outstanding political leaders, post-military era, Alex Ekwueme, was gunning for the presidential ticket of the PDP. Ekwueme was not just another politician. He was one of the finest breeds, a reminder in more ways than one, of the legacies of the great Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first governor general and ceremonial president. For four years, Ekwueme was vice president to Shehu Shagari and, remained, till that government was brought to an abrupt end by a military coup, one of its shining lights. That is not the end of the story. When the military regimes of Ibrahim Babangida, and later, Sani Abacha, decided to take the country for a long, expensive ride after years of useless experimentation with transition to civilian rule, Ekwueme was among the few who shunned their hubris. He was the leader of the G34, a group of mostly seasoned and principled politicians, determined not to accept Abacha’s plan to sit tight. It was a dangerous thing to do at the time, but Ekwueme and others – including members of the civil society – refused to be cowed. They stood firm until Abacha died unexpectedly. At the Jos convention, however, when it was time for the political elite to reward the sacrifice of Ekwueme and others by putting him forward as the PDP’s presidential candidate, the music changed. The PDP, this same PDP posing as the messiah of Ndigbo, betrayed Ekwueme. They betrayed him on the cusp of what was potentially the best chance of Ndigbo to return to the national stage. Just like it happened at the last October PDP convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the same General Aliyu Gusau, the most dangerous man alive in the PDP and harbinger of Governor Nyesom Wike’s misery, was the one who told PDP leaders in Jos that the military did not want Ekwueme. It was Olusegun Obasanjo or nobody. It was a personal betrayal for Ekwueme, but a collective humiliation for Ndigbo – a humiliation from which the nationality has yet to recover. If the betrayal of Ekwueme and the humiliation of Ndigbo was, well, a matter of political expediency, the 16 years of the PDP that followed did not show that the ruling party at the time had much respect for Ndigbo. It’s true that Obasanjo had a few serious-minded and competent Ndigbo in his cabinet, but the most influential were the thugs – those who kidnapped governors or helped with other dodgy deals. It didn’t also help the image of Ndigbo that in a series of accidents apparently designed to make them look incompetent and irredeemably transactional, two presidents of the Senate – Evan Enwerem and Chuba Okadigbo – were toppled within one year over largely spurious allegations of name misspelling and corruption. It was a deadly political game in which a few influential Igbos did not mind complicity or the tragic irony in being their own worst enemy. Till the end, Atiku, the new surrogate mother of the south east, was a part of the Obasanjo government. To be sure, the man had his own problems with Obasanjo, but like Siamese twins, both were joined at the hip. In the eye of history, they must both take credit for the good, the bad and the ugly. Did President Goodluck Jonathan offer Ndigbo a better PDP deal? Jonathan was Obasanjo’s response to the southern minority’s displeasure over years crude exploitation. But beyond the “Ebele” in the middle of his name, Jonathan also represented Obasanjo’s token appeasement to south-eastern cries of marginalisation. He was the single stone that might have killed two political birds: exclusion and resentment. But it didn’t happen. Under Jonathan’s PDP, Nigeria made more money from the sale of crude oil than General Yakubu Gowon might have dreamed of when he said spending money, not making it, was Nigeria’s problem. The government promised to finish the East-West Road (the most strategic in the area), build the Second Niger Bridge, dredge the River Niger, expand and modernize the Onne Port, and tackle erosion. Nothing happened. Okay, almost nothing happened. The completion of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, for example, was divided into four parts and awarded in 2014 at a cost of N32 billion to four different contractors. The government was supposed to pay 15 per cent or N4.8 billion to the contractors. It paid only N100 million, which the contractors collected and left the site. By the time Jonathan was voted out in 2015, local contractors – including those handling the projects listed – were being owed over N900 billion. Not that there was no money to pay: Nigeria earned an estimated N51 trillion from the sale of crude oil under Jonathan. But paying money for honest work or investing for the public good was just not a PDP thing. It’s a party of money and power, but not of value. As we say in my neck of the woods, “PDP! Share the money!” Those liabilities have now been substantially settled; while two years ago, contractors on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road were paid the 15 per cent, after which they returned to site. But a vocal section of the Ndigbo elite is too anxious trying to find a surrogate mother to remember the past much less care about the future. Egged on by the leadership of Ohaneze and Afenifere, neither of which has sponsored any candidate to win a local council election, the vocal minority campaigning for PDP may just be about to repeat the mistakes of the past. The politics of resentment has been, at times, inflamed by the comments of President Muhammadu Buhari or the perception that his appointments have been tribal and incompetent. Or that his government has been heavy-handed in dealing with separatist agitations in the south east. I don’t agree with the latter part; that letting Nnamdi Kanu play with fire is the best way to go. And even if those who criticise Buhari’s clannishness are right, embracing PDP is like embracing burning coal. Apart from some prominent politicians jumping ship one way or the other or the new PDP leadership apologizing at gunpoint for God-knows-what, there’s nothing about the party that demonstrates that it’s about to turn a new leaf. There is yet no evidence that this is a party we can trust. Instead, the comments of the high-profile defectors suggest that they left because they were frozen out of the “pie-sharing” in the last four years and only returned to the trough because they think that is where their appetite would be best served. It’s not about inclusion, a new philosophy, or a fresh perspective for the south east or anywhere else for that matter. It’s about dem-dem. There was a time in Igboland when the tail, no matter how nourished by filthy lucre or inexplicable wealth, would not dare to wag the dog of hard work and personal achievement attained by striving. It now appears that something is broken. The tail not only wags the dog, children hardly out of diapers are leading the dog by the nose. Who bewitched Ndigbo to the point where they are not only making Buhari’s 97-5 per cent gaffe sound like a deserved admonition, but are actively working to achieve an electoral equation, which may well be: Ndigbo + PDP = 2027? It is a desperate state, one in which just about anyone looks like a surrogate mother. Tragic. Ishiekwene is the managing director/editor-in-chief of The Interview and member of the board of the Global Editors Network https://www.thecable.ng/ndigbo-and-the-search-for-a-surrogate-mother 2 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by sarrki(m): 7:27pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Any Ndigbo not supporting the progress of the southeast is a nuisance Like The Otondo Parading themselves as afenifere 4 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by modath(f): 7:28pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
The unspoken emotion conveyed in that photograph is that of a lost and confused people so desperate to find their way that any way now appears the right way. Yikes!!!  8 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Nobody: 7:30pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Na Igbo go kill all of una 5 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by hammerFC: 7:32pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Afonja write wateva u like. Nigeria media is a fraud. There is no credibility, just tribalism, envy and hate. Absolutely no Journalism, just tribal bigots. Can Afonja go one day without Igbo? No! Igbo is like a drug to dem and Yorubas are addicts. 4 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Racoon(m): 7:35pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
It's disgusting when "unity" beggars employ all manners of senseless tactics to cajole or coerce others who are sagacious enough to see what lies ahead & avoid it.Nigeria is a contraption skewed to unjustly favour a particular region. So in alaigbo, we don't listen to any baba soope demigod orders neither do we do surrogacy because of political survival or expediency.You misbehave we tidy your Bleep up for you. 3 Likes |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by TooNoisy(f): 7:37pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Life is indeed very funny. Very funny that the Igbo continously berated the Yoruba for voting a Fulani man but they are now doing exactly the same thing with Atiku. So much did they want the VP slot that they threathened to vote for Buhari if Atiku did not give the VP slot to the South East. The same Atiku that said he did not need a single vote from the South East when he was running against Jonathan for PDP primaries in 2011. Now Buhari is the main enemy... the bigot who hates the Igbo. But they forget that the first two times Buhari ran for president was with an Igbo running mate. With Chuba Okadigbo in 2003 and Ume Ezioke in 2007. He did not hate the Igbo in 2003 and 2007 but he suddenly now hates the Igbo because a Yoruba man is his running mate. The truth is that Buhari realised that the Igbo dont have the numbers and would not build bridges with other ethnic tribes. The Igbos represent only 12% of the voting population and most of their votes are on social media. Until the Igbos understand that they do not have the numbers and the only way they can be politically relevant is to build bridges with other tribes they will continue to need a mother to carry them. I do not see power returning to the South East till 2035, unless they change their game. 13 Likes 5 Shares |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Racoon(m): 7:38pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
[s] sarrki:[/s]We all are not herded cattle. 2 Likes |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Nobody: 7:47pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
I don't like trash. 2 Likes |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Officialpdpnig: 7:53pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
THE CABLE! THE CABLE! THE CABLE! How many times did I call you. .why are you this wicked? This article is fire raised to an uncontrolled inferno. Daggers from everywhere ripping, slicing, chopping. My fellow igbos una hear? 4 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by shukuokukobambi: 7:55pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
hammerFC: You're a hopeless illiterate. I thought you would have taken some time off to improve but you're simply deteriorating every day. Azubuike Ishiekwene isn't afonja as he isn't from Ilorin. He's being a top editor since before you were born but anyway, if Ekweremadu has become afonja for visiting Buhari yesterday, I guess we could accept your conclusion 3 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by modath(f): 7:59pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
hammerFC: But when it's anti Buhari/APC , Cableng & Premiumtimes are being objective right? You are cool if the the Op-Eds don't highlight una faults, failings& faux pas right? Issokay.... One day sense will find una.  3 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by shukuokukobambi: 8:01pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Racoon: Argue with your brother Azubuike Ishiekwene who is lamenting on your behalf Meanwhile, see the unity beggar crying for some love on the shoulders of his fulani master here. Can you point to a more descriptive picture of hopelessness and destitution? 5 Likes 1 Share
|
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by shukuokukobambi: 8:03pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Racoon: You're worse than herded cattle actually 2 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by stanluiz(m): 8:05pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Afonja always creating Igbo thread 247 rather than facing their own problem. Op, your Yoruba Muslims are fighting with their Christian brothers over hijab issues in UI international school Ibadan. I think you should be more worried over their religious issues that is dividing the SW before it turns to a region of Islamic extremist like the one we have in the north. Sarrki leave us alone and mind your business. Face the problems facing your brown roof region and stop opening Igbo thread like a lunatic as if your life depends on it. 3 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by haladadon: 8:05pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
TooNoisy: I will save up this page and I will quote you in 2019. 2 Likes |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Officialpdpnig: 8:10pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Let me highlight some explosive parts 1) The unspoken emotion conveyed in that photograph is that of a lost and confused people so desperate to find their way that any way now appears the right way 2) When the military regimes of Ibrahim Babangida, and later, Sani Abacha, decided to take the country for a long, expensive ride after years of useless experimentation with transition to civilian rule, Ekwueme was among the few who shunned their hubris. He was the leader of the G34, a group of mostly seasoned and principled politicians, determined not to accept Abacha’s plan to sit tight. It was a dangerous thing to do at the time, but Ekwueme and others – including members of the civil society – refused to be cowed. They stood firm until Abacha died unexpectedly. At the Jos convention, however, when it was time for the political elite to reward the sacrifice of Ekwueme and others by putting him forward as the PDP’s presidential candidate, the music changed. The PDP, this same PDP posing as the messiah of Ndigbo, betrayed Ekwueme. They betrayed him on the cusp of what was potentially the best chance of Ndigbo to return to the national stage. Just like it happened at the last October PDP convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the same General Aliyu Gusau, the most dangerous man alive in the PDP and harbinger of Governor Nyesom Wike’s misery, was the one who told PDP leaders in Jos that the military did not want Ekwueme. It was Olusegun Obasanjo or nobody. It was a personal betrayal for Ekwueme, but a collective humiliation for Ndigbo – a humiliation from which the nationality has yet to recover. If the betrayal of Ekwueme and the humiliation of Ndigbo was, well, a matter of political expediency, the 16 years of the PDP that followed did not show that the ruling party at the time had much respect for Ndigbo 3) It didn’t also help the image of Ndigbo that in a series of accidents apparently designed to make them look incompetent and irredeemably transactional, two presidents of the Senate – Evan Enwerem and Chuba Okadigbo – were toppled within one year over largely spurious allegations of name misspelling and corruption. It was a deadly political game in which a few influential Igbos did not mind complicity or the tragic irony in being their own worst enemy. Till the end, Atiku, the new surrogate mother of the south east, was a part of the Obasanjo government. To be sure, the man had his own problems with Obasanjo, but like Siamese twins, both were joined at the hip. In the eye of history, they must both take credit for the good, the bad and the ugly. 4) The government promised to finish the East-West Road (the most strategic in the area), build the Second Niger Bridge, dredge the River Niger, expand and modernize the Onne Port, and tackle erosion. Nothing happened. Okay, almost nothing happened. The completion of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, for example, was divided into four parts and awarded in 2014 at a cost of N32 billion to four different contractors. The government was supposed to pay 15 per cent or N4.8 billion to the contractors. It paid only N100 million, which the contractors collected and left the site. 5) The government promised to finish the East-West Road (the most strategic in the area), build the Second Niger Bridge, dredge the River Niger, expand and modernize the Onne Port, and tackle erosion. Nothing happened. Okay, almost nothing happened. The completion of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, for example, was divided into four parts and awarded in 2014 at a cost of N32 billion to four different contractors. The government was supposed to pay 15 per cent or N4.8 billion to the contractors. It paid only N100 million, which the contractors collected and left the site. 6) Those liabilities have now been substantially settled; while two years ago, contractors on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road were paid the 15 per cent, after which they returned to site. But a vocal section of the Ndigbo elite is too anxious trying to find a surrogate mother to remember the past much less care about the future. Egged on by the leadership of Ohaneze and Afenifere, neither of which has sponsored any candidate to win a local council election, the vocal minority campaigning for PDP may just be about to repeat the mistakes of the past. Etc etc etc This writer deserves to be given a national award 7 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Officialpdpnig: 8:13pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
haladadon: Quote him because you have hope for 2019 in Atiku and Obi?  Bia nwokem are you a learner?  Atiku na Obi enweghi ebe ha gi azu aga. Mark it down 3 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by stanluiz(m): 8:22pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
TooNoisy:Which bridge are you talking about  Have igbos not buildings bridges since democracy return in 1999 ?Did we not vote for obasanjo a Yoruba twice ? Did we not vote for yaradua in 2007 ? Did we not vote for Jonathan a Niger deltan ? So tell me which other bridges did you want us to build Have we not be voting for other tribes even at the detriment of our own ?So because of igbos did not vote for buhari we have build any alliance with other region I guess according to your analysis politics started In 2015.1 Like |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Ovamboland(m): 8:29pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
hammerFC: One of your brothers or adopted brother wrote a wake up call call but it's afonja you direct your response to. The afonja must really be appearing to you in your dreams 4 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by hammerFC: 8:30pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Ovamboland: THAT PAPER IS A KNOWN AFONJA NEWSPAPER AND AFONJA ARE KNOWN SHAPE SHIFTERS. I ASSURE U THAT THE AUTHOR IS AFONJA AND THE NAME IS FRAUD. 1 Like |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Officialpdpnig: 8:37pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
hammerFC: The writers name is Azubuike Ishiekwene and this is his Wikipedia page below https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azubuike_Ishiekwene So he is an Afonja you say? 3 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by sarrki(m): 8:38pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Officialpdpnig: Tell them 1 Like 1 Share |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by hammerFC: 8:39pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Officialpdpnig: FRAUD! NIGERIA LOCAL WIKIPEDIA IS FRAUDULENT AFONJA HEADQUARTERS. U CAN JUST EDIT AS U LIKE. 1 Like |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by sarrki(m): 8:40pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Officialpdpnig: You also deserves a national award 3 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Christistruth00: 9:05pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
When I see the Greedy people Masquerading as the leaders of the South East I can not help but think that the Selling of King Jaja of Opobo as a slave to the Ijaws was a massive Historical blunder that set the South East back a lot politically . King Jaja of Opobo would have welded the Igbo nation together proper and set Solid leadership direction to his people over a hundred years ago. King Jaja of Opobo was such an accomplished and visionary leader and administrator that the British feared and knew he was well ahead of his time and because he was too Clever for them they had to resort to kidnapping him and deporting him to the Caribbean. |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Balyz: 9:24pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Hizzy:Una no fit 2 Likes |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by deomelo: 9:43pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
stanluiz: Read and comprehend the article all over again. Regardless of the names you listed and all the people you've been voting for, your bridge leads only to one single location, the PDP and this is the writers main contention and what you did not comprehend. 1. The PDP according to the writer shortchanges you all the time by denying the main and ultimate reward for your votes and loyalty, the presidential ticket. 2. The PDPdisappoints you at every turn, but your bridge leads only to the PDP and never in other directions where there are other opportunities to explore. 3. You just listed all the folks you've voted for to make the same point the writer made, you just agreed with the writer directly that you have a very narrow and shallow political view because since you are mentally and collectively locked and joined to the PDP, their defeat means your defeat regardless how many times they are defeated and you still won't get any presidential ticket or political reward for your blind and unconditional loyalty. Now, feel free to read the write up all over again for proper understanding. 2 Likes |
| Re: Ndigbo And The Search For A Surrogate Mother by Nobody: 9:49pm On Nov 22, 2018 |
Balyz:We are already Doing that |
Atiku Abubakar Meet With President Donald Trump Officials In The US (Photos) / Rochas Okorocha’s Gutters Begin To Collapse As He Leaves Office (watch Video) / 2023 Presidency: Apc ( Sw) Vs Pdp (se)
(Go Up)
| Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 111 |