Peter Obi and Igbos Should Beware of Repeating Same Mistake Zik and Awo made

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Peter Obi and the Igbos of Nigeria on their way to repeating the same mistake Ogbuefi Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo had made.

Herbert Macaulay arguably the least tribalistic among our founding fathers was the first leader of the Nigerian Nationalist Movement when he was forced by poor health to consider an early retirement and he decided to pick Nnamdi Azikiwe as his successor when he could easily have picked one of his fellow Lagosians or Yoruba Deputies.

He chose the man he believed to have the best credentials and leadership qualities and potential to lead the Movement and to put the Colonial Masters and the British Government at the time to where they belong and to lead the struggle for self emancipation and independence for Nigeria.

It did not take long, however, on hindsight, for Azikiwe to turn the National Movement into a political party totally dominated by members of his own Igbo tribe as time goes by and just renaming it the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroon NCNC only by name.

It soon became clear to all and sundry that the NCNC had metamorphosed into a full fledged Igbo- dominated Party over time.

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Obafemi Awolowo as the founder of the Egbe Omo Oodua in London in collaboration with Individuals like the late Bode Thomas and Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Fani Kayode Senior and the co- operation of late Kabiyesi Sir Tadenikawo Adesoji Aderemi who had been crowned the Oonirisa, Okirikiribiti Jigbini bi Ate Akun, Arole Oodua in 1930 and who had reigned till 1980 and was only a few days short of 50 years on the throne by which time he would have qualified to be deified and proclaimed as an “Olofin” in Ile Ife Mythology.

Since Nnamdi Azikiwe had no qualms turning the National Movement into a political party, Obafemi Awolowo and his comrades in the Egbe Omo Oodua also had no regrets at all turning the cultural group into a full- fledged political party which he quickly renamed as the Action Group and the rest History.

Today, History is about to repeat itself with Peter Obi breaking away from the PDP led by Atiku Abubakar to pitch his tent with a weak or moribund Labor Party in Nigeria which up to that point was a low key political party that had not gathered enough moss to pose any serious threat to any of the existing Political Parties if Nigeria like the PDP or the APC and NNPP led by former Governor Kwankwaso of Kano.

What I see happening today in Nigeria is the effort by majority elements in the Southeast to merge the Labor Party with the relics of APGA which had been previously dominated by the Igbos and for the Igbos of Nigeria to now completely take over the Labor Party and never draw a distinction between the Labor Party per se and the National Labor Congress which today is threatening to declare an indefinite strike to cripple or irredeemably paralyze the new APC Government of Nigeria for their own permanent political gain or advantage which is really going to be a huge mistake and something similar to the same mistake Nnamdi Azikiwe had previously committed,
as I hinted earlier in this write-up.

Both Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar all agreed that the subsidy cataclysm in Nigeria was tantamount to organized crime and they were dead right on that. It was Daniel come to judgment in my own opinion.

New President Tinubu has long come to the same conclusion but the methodology to removing the subsidy or how to go about it without causing a major disruption to Nigerian economy and social stability is now the only bone of contention at this point, if you ask me.

I am of the view that the immediate suspension or removal of subsidy is the right way to go, if we truly love Nigeria and want to team up to save her.

My point is that there has got to be a better way to resolve this subsidy imbroglio without bringing down or tearing apart or burning down the country as being suggested by some shenanigans and some economic saboteurs among us by calling for a needless and an indefinite strike that does no one any good at this point, all things considered, I might add.

There are more than two ways to skin a cat for sure.

We have got to chose the least harmful and the least disastrous for a nation already in distress and crying for a savior to bail us out.

I rest my case.