By IFEANYICHUKWU AFUBA

Ordinarily, the Igbo elite don?t believe in Nnamdi Kanu and Simon Ekpa. Who willingly supplants himself from leadership heights? The Igbo business and political elite have vested interests in Nigeria and would argue that Nigerians are better off in one united country. Majority of educated southeasterners, those you could say are struggling with life, are indifferent to the agitation for separation. They are not convinced about the practical prospects of realising Biafra. The lower social strata of citizens, the hoi polloi, acknowledge the courage of Kanu and Ekpa in confronting Nigeria?s system of injustice. Many, however, are sober enough not to be part of their foot soldiers. Yet, despite these reservations, the two separatist leaders have not gone into political oblivion. On the contrary, there?s sympathy for their plight; solidarity with Kanu and continued sentiment for their path of self determination. Take a critical look at the legal, political and civic support the detained IPOB leader receives each time his case comes up in Abuja. Now, there?s no contradiction here when we reiterate that this does not translate to endorsement of IPOB?s mission. What is playing out is basically a game of engagement.

While not subscribing to the agenda of separation, emergent Igbo outlook nevertheless insists that the region should not be taken for granted. A closer assessment of the political climate shows systematic undermining of southeast regional interests by Nigeria?s ruling elite. What makes the situation gall is the bold, assertive pattern it has taken over succession of decades, so much so that the dismissive treatment of the region has assumed unwritten Nigerian State policy. The discrimination against the zone has the effect of provocation on the people, prompting the unheeded protests that ultimately feed separation ideas. At this juncture, Igbo political thought places the background to regional resentment on the front burner. Igbo society calls out the inequity of Nigeria?s federation as far more destabilising than engineering alternative statehood. This reappraisal mitigates the controversy of secession. In the event, the stigma of anarchists being invoked on the agitators is rejected.

Do you actually expect us to crucify these young fellows, these victims of circumstance? Who created the condition that gives impetus to IPOB?s agitation? We would be betraying the truth, our duty and the people by condemning this movement. It would be different if the current authorities were taking steps to remedy the grave injustice against a section of the country. But no, the present government is faithfully continuing the discrimination from where the last government stopped.

Now, we take a look at a long tradition of regional demotion, suppression and disregard. Following are sample lists of Nigeria armed forces key establishments and their regional locations.

ARMY

1. NA University, Borno State, NE. 2. NA Depot, Zaria, NW. 3. NA College of Logistics & Management, Lagos, SW. 4. NA Armour School, Bauchi, NE. 5. NA School of Infantry, Jaji, NW. 6. NA School of Artillery, Kachia, NW. 7. NA School of Engineering, Makurdi, NC. 8. Nigeria Army Resource Centre, Abuja. 9. NA School of Signals, Lagos, SW.10. NA College of Education, Kwara State, NC. 11. NA Training & Doctrine Command, Minna, NC. 12. NA School of Supply & Transport, Benin, SS. 13. NA Intelligence School, Apapa, SW.

Ranking

North West 3

South West 3

North Central 3

North East 2

South South 1

(FCT) 1

South East 0

NAVY

1. NN School of Armament, Kachia NW.

2. NN Basic Training School, Onne, SS.

3. NN Centre for Education & Training Technology, Ile Ife, SW.

4. Naval War College, Calabar, SS.

5. Naval Dockyard, Lagos, SW.

6. NN University, Ibusa ? Ogwashi Ukwu, SS.

7. Naval College, Port Harcourt, SS.

8. NN College of Engineering, Apapa, SW.

9. NN School of Health Science, Offa, NC.

10. NN College of Accounts & Finance, Owerrinta, SE.

11. NN Logistics College, Kano, NW.

12. NN Institute of Technology, Sapele, SS.

13. NN Hydrographic School, Borokiri, SS.

14. NN Provost & Regulatory School, Makurdi, NC.

Ranking

South South 6

South West 3

North West 2

North Central 2

South East 1

North East 0

AIR FORCE

1. Aircraft Maintenance Hangar, Bauchi NE.

2. School of Finance & Accounting, Ibadan, SW.

3. Aircraft Maintenance Depot, Ikeja, SW.

4. NAF Mother & Child Hospital, Badagry, SW.

5. NAF Institute of Safety, Ijesha, SW.

6. NAF Regiment Training Centre, Kaduna, NW.

7. NAF Protection Wing, Kainji, NC.

8. NAF Institute of Technology, Kaduna, NW.

9. NAF Research & Development Institute, Osun, SW.

10. NAF College of Aviation Zaria, NW.

11. NAF School of Medical Science & Aviation Medicine, Kaduna, NW.

12. Air Traffic Services Training Centre, Kaduna, NW.

13. NAF Helicopter Flying School, Enugu, SE.

Ranking

North West 5

South West 5

North Central 1

South East 1

North East 1

South South 0.

The above chart is not an isolated pattern but represents a trend of Igbo relegation since the end of the civil war. By the laws of this structural marginalisation, the Igbo areas were allocated the least number of states and local governments; ensuring by this organic disadvantage that the zone was sentenced to the lowest receipt from the federation account. It?s the same tale of woes in the siting of projects and distribution of federal appointments. Tokenist, peripheral projects are the lot of the southeast. Accordingly, Nigeria?s steel complex would not be sited in Onitsha regardless of its choice by the technical partners. For the north-dominated military rulership, the east, an oil producing area, did not qualify to host a refinery but there were a thousand reasons why a major refinery had to be built in Kaduna, a non-oil producing State. In the last forty years have we had substantive Ministers of Defence; Agriculture; Industries; Water Resources and FCT of Igbo origin? Let those who reject the indictment of anti-Igbo conspiracy please explain these exclusions to us. And by a wonder of changing standards, no Igbo has attained the offices of Chief Justice of the federation and President, Court of Appeal.

Former President Mohammadu Buhari gave an insight into the apartheid nature of his government. Without flinching from the soreness, Buhari declared in a video in July 2015 that ?constituencies that gave me 97 percent (at the polls) cannot in all honesty be treated equally, on some issues, with constituencies that gave me 5 percent. I think these are political realities, while certainly there will be justice for everybody. Everybody will get his constitutional rights, but while the party in constituencies that by their sheer hard work they made sure that they got their people to vote and to ensure their votes count, they must feel that the government has appreciated the effort they put in putting the government in place. I see this as really fair.? The fairness turned out to be that constitutionally mandatory members of the cabinet from the southeast occupied the back bench Ministries. For other powerful positions without mandatory state representation, the southeast was ignored. Just as the zone was also ignored in a beneficiary list of $22.7b infrastructure loan obtained by the administration in 2020. When typically, after much protests at exclusion, the southeast was added to a rail transport programme, the zone was included under light rail system rather than the standard gauge provision for other parts of the country; and for linking up Niger Republic!

The surprise however, Is that President Bola Tinubu appears to be towing the same path of denying southeast her due share. While Buhari?s provincial record as military ruler and Chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund served notice of his mindset, there?s hardly anything about Tinubu to forewarn of such parochialism. Yet, the emerging trend in the government?s appointments is ascendancy of the southwest and continued suppression of the southeast. A distribution of 20 military, paramilitary and other security appointments released by the Presidency in November 2024 showed the North-West clinching 8 slots; followed by South-West with 5; North-Central closely following with 4 positions; north east 3 slots and southeast and South-South rocking the bottom with one bar each. In the federal executive council, the southeast has five members while the southwest has ten ministerial positions. If the cabinet appointments which have constitutional enforcement of at least one minister from every State, fares lopsidedly, does anyone expect the categories of appointment without set parameters to be better? And there are no apologies for the imbalance, no visible remedies towards a fairer deal. Admittedly, the Buhari era was worse, but in that frame of comparative degree, lies a huge danger ? casually accepting precedence as conferring legitimacy. The fact that Buhari?s presidency was arrogantly provincial does not absolve the Tinubu administration?s deficit in managing our diversity.

In recognition of the danger posed by the winner takes it all tendency, the 1995 Constitutional Conference proposed a variant of proportional representation. Political parties would gain stakes in the next government based on presidential election performance. Vetoed by the Abdulsalami Abubakar military transition council, the Conference decision nevertheless gauges the importance of inclusiveness in Nigerian government and politics. There seems no disputing that we run an imperial presidency. When in a plural society, a powerful presidency is privatised, or captured, to use the latest fashionable expression, it?s bound to engender extremist reactions. IPOB is one such extreme response. The other effect would be to render presidential elections do-or-die confrontations. None is an easy way to travel.

?IfeanyiChukwu Afuba is a veteran journalist and public affairs analyst.

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