Buhari: What to do with the South East

It’s quite amazing; but the more Bob Marley smoked his ganja, the more he sang lyrics that made sense. The reggae maestro could well have had Muhammadu Buhari and his supporters in mind when he sang the above lines.Soon after General Muhammadu Buhari selected Professor Yemi Osinbajo to run with him for Presidency on the […]

It’s quite amazing; but the more Bob Marley smoked his ganja, the more he sang lyrics that made sense. The reggae maestro could well have had Muhammadu Buhari and his supporters in mind when he sang the above lines.
Soon after General Muhammadu Buhari selected Professor Yemi Osinbajo to run with him for Presidency on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), I met a young man from the South East who told me in no uncertain terms that APC and Buhari had made a terrible mistake. First he said the ticket would lose because they would not vote for it; in the alternative, he said if it won, their people would press on with the demand for Biafra so they could have their own separate country. I reminded him that Buhari had done everything to win the support of the South East, reason why he chose Dr Chuba Okadigbo and Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke as his running mates in the 2003 and 2007 elections, respectively. I reminded him that on both occasions, the people of the South East refused to vote for Buhari’s ticket and it was time he looked in another direction, hence the wisdom behind the choice of Osinbajo this time.
Equally, when the so-called six weeks’ extension was foisted on us, I met an old man, probably in his late early 70s, holding a walking stick, inside a bank in Central Area, Abuja. That one also told me that if Buhari won the 2015 election, they would declare their own country and proclaim Abuja as their capital! Before I could ask for the raison d’être of making Abuja their capital, he had stormed out.
The South East’s outright rejection, for the fourth time, of Buhari’s aspiration to lead Nigeria democratically, could be located in the perennial tension between the Igbo and the Hausa- Fulani, dating back to the civil war, perhaps even before then. Till this day, many people from the South East would tell you that their attempt to obtain Biafra in 1967 was torpedoed by Hausa-Fulani, hence the hostility.
I didn’t understand why they thought that voting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and President Jonathan in 2015 represented their brightest chance of realising their political goals, whatever they are, in this ever changing country. I didn’t understand why these people are implacably opposed to not only Buhari’s aspiration but the presidential quest of any Muslim northerner.
Now that power has been won without their votes, how should President Buhari treat them?
In my opinion, there are two or three things Buhari should do to see if he could persuade the people of the South East to like him. Firstly, he should champion the creation of an additional state for them. If the number of states in the South East is brought to six like the other regions, the feeling of rejection and inferiority complex of the people can be eliminated. A sixth state for the South East can also give the people a sense of belonging and reinforce national unity. Only Buhari can do this, never Jonathan, and not anyone else.  Opposition to the sixth state for the South East could expectedly be led by Buhari’s North West. With his moral authority and strong personality, Buhari should be able to convince the North West and the rest of the country to see the wisdom of creating the additional state for the South East as an imperative of nation building. Down the line, President Buhari can win the support of 24 states needed to pass a constitutional amendment for a 6-state structure for the South East. Buhari’s determined presidency and majority seats in the national legislature can get this done soonest. Buhari can consult APC, Dr Alex Ekwueme (even though the man has refused to congratulate him on his election victory), Professor Ben Nwabueze, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Arewa Consultative Forum, Yoruba elders, constitutional experts, etc, to achieve this. Secondly, Buhari should put the Ministry of Petroleum in the hands of a trusted person from the South East, someone like Ogbonnaya Onu or Oby Ezekwesili.
Thirdly, Buhari must urgently do two things about the 2nd Niger Bridge. First, he should bring down the cost of the bridge; secondly he should get it completed ahead of the 2019 schedule given by Jonathan. The 2nd Niger Bridge shouldn’t be seen as a South Eastern project, it must be treated as a national priority. It’s a shame that the country’s only link with that part of the country is a crumbling, collapsing, overused, 50-year old bridge. For the South East, this is the form justice and magnanimity in victory should take.  Time is of essence.
There should also be movement on the Orji River power potential. Buhari has the onerous opportunity to bring the power plant to fruition in order to compliment sources of electricity generation in Nigeria. There’s also the need for a coal-powered plant in Enugu to add to our energy capacity.
Back in the Second Republic, President Shehu Shagari also did two things for the South East; in 1979, just nine years after the civil war, he chose Dr Alex Ekwueme to run with him and they won power, and then pardoned rebel leader, Ojukwu. Finally, two things are evident in 2015; presidential election can be won without votes from the South East. Secondly, by voting the way they did in these elections, the Igbo people have basically led themselves to the boys’ quarters of Nigeria’s dynamic party politics. It is left to President Muhammadu Buhari to make qualitative and historic concessions to the Igbo and magnanimously return them to the main house of the Nigerian politics!