ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
Recently, Igbo land has been faced with what could be described as existentialist challenges as a result of the seeming inability or unwillingness of some of its leaders to negotiate the best coalitions for Ndigbo and align correctly with other stakeholders in the Nigerian union for the best benefits to Ndigbo. Rather than play politics of development, many of us had chosen to play politics of emotions, thereby, causing us unwarranted and avoidable losses and injuries.
But, with his Divinely ordained and people affirmed ascension to the governorship of Imo State under the ruling All Progressives Congress, His Excellency Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma has been deliberate in his efforts to reposition the Southeast as an indispensable leg in the Nigerian tripod.
Borrowing a leaf from the strategies of great Igbo leaders of yore like; His Excellency Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Senator Chuba Okadigbo and others in their mould, Governor Uzodimma has tenaciously worked to reassert the place of the Igbo man in the Nigerian power equation. As a man who is versed in the game of politics and power play, he appreciates that Ndigbo cannot get what they want through complaints and recriminations but through negotiations and politics.
Over the past one decade, the Igbo, either through the miscalculation of some of its top leaders or as a consequence of some unfavourable conspiracies, seem to have been relegated from the scheme of things in the country. While key leaders of the APC from the Southeast seem to have focused their entire energy and resources on securing their personal business and political interests, Governor Uzodimma has gone out of his way to work for the growth and repositioning of the Southeast.
As a leader who understands the power of collaborations and partnerships, His Excellency is working with different segments of Nigeria’s political and economic leadership to reinsert the Igbo into the mainstream of political and economic discourses and negotiations. He works assiduously to remind our compatriots from other parts of Nigeria, that we are also key stakeholders in the Nigerian union who must not be discarded.
What Governor Uzodimma has embarked on is a struggle that every Igbo man and woman shall benefit from, notwithstanding, their varied political affiliations and interests, hence, this goes beyond partisanship and calls for the support of all and sundry. Ndigbo cannot continue to lament about perceived or real marginalisation, when they can actually reinvent themselves by playing the right politics and supporting the right negotiations, and none would be better than queuing behind the leadership of the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum and one of the most regarded politicians in today’s Nigeria.
MAY ALA IGBO THRIVE!
