Sebastine Uremadu, a professor in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State and a public affairs commentator spoke with UDOKA AGWU in Umuahia on the chances of Igbo Presidency in 2023 and other national issues. Excerpts:
Recently, Shehu Sani, a distinguished senator, called for unity among the southerners ahead of 2023 general election. What is your take on his position?
His warning that unless the Southwest and Southeast unite, getting power to shift south in 2023 may be impossible, is true. Shehu Sani is a northerner, an activist and a former senator, what he said is right. The unity of the Southwest and the Southeast is very paramount; it is a necessity, if Ndigbo truly want to rule this country. The Southwest and South-south should know that the Igbos are their brothers. The South-south should know that the South-East is their senior brother and the South-East should understand that the South-south is their junior brother. They should show love to one another. In the absence of this, those who do not support Igbo Presidency will capitalise on it and create divide and rule among us.
The South-south should know that Igbos are marginalized; if Igbos are exterminated from the face of this earth, God forbid, they will be the next target in the line of action. Just like Sani, another person that supports Igbo Presidency is my friend Yakassai. He supports Igbo Presidency in the spirit of justice and fair play. Southeast is the only region in the tripod on which Nigeria stands that has not provided the President of this country. So, Ndigbo should shun negative criticism because it cannot afford us the Presidency. They should learn from the First and Second Republic politicians- Nnamdi Azikiwe and others.
They used soft tone to buttress their point and achieved their goal. So, we should woo the northerners, anything other than that will be a disaster. So, Sani was straight forward in his remarks. That was sincerely advisory to the entire South, that the Yorubas’ should cooperate with the entire Southeast, to allow Ndigbo enjoy their quota and not to distort the quota that is due for the Southeast. The Yorubas’ enjoyed eight years of Presidency and are enjoying also eight years of vice president slot. They should keep calm by not fielding any candidate for 2023 Presidency. They should remember that other zones cooperated with them during their time. That was why we had Olu Falae from AD and Olusegun Obasanjo from the PDP. When it was the turn of the North, we had Musa Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari and again Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar. In the spirit of unity, fairness, equity and justice, Ahmed Tinubu, the Yorubas’ should jettison their 2023 Presidential ambition. Whatever they think the Southeast has done wrong, they should forgive and allow the Southeast field in their candidates in the major political parties of APC and the PDP.
The APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole and Uche Secondus, National Chairman of the PDP should ensure that their parties work in that direction. I repeat, Senator Shehu Sani is a good man and he has the unity of Nigeria at heart and that is why some negative-minded Nigerians are against him. His advice to the Southern Nigeria should not be taken as common. Raji Fashola, Tinubu with their press and social media have continued to preach to the North, to deceive the good people of the North that the Presidential rotation is between the South and the North. They don’t mean well for Nigeria.
For the unity of Nigeria and justice to prevail and to tame the agitations of the young Igbos, they should allow the Igbos to take their turn in 2023; after South-East, then Northeast and then the North Central, in that order. Presidency should rotate among the six geopolitical zones of the country.
On Primate Elijah Ayodele’s prophecy about the 2023 Presidency?
My brother, we know Primate Ayodele is a popular seer and founder, Inri Evangelical Spiritual Church, with headquarters in Lagos; but as regards 2023 presidency, his prediction should be regarded as mere prediction and not prophecy. In our time, there exists no ‘bet prophet’ because many fake ones go about dishing out predictions nowadays. However, his prediction was made based on the dictates of the times. It may come to pass or it may not. The Igbos should work very hard and try to win back the core North and other zones of Nigeria, the Northeast, North Central, South-south and Southwest, if they really want to produce President of Nigeria in 2023. It is true that it ought to be given to them based on equity and justice but they need to change their mindset about Nigeria and stop abusing other tribes of Nigeria on social media.
The elders of the Southeast need to work hard to make their youths see reason to calm down on their good demands as well as reassure the North, Southwest and South-south that they are ready to present good leaders in the major political parties, the APC, PDP and others.
Southwest cannot produce a President in 2023 because they have had their slot of eight years, providing also eight years of vice president. It is the turn of Igbos or the Southeast, after the Northeast and North central who are yet to take their turns in the rotational Presidency, depending on the dynamics of the national politics. It was based on the above dynamics that people are predicting 2023 Presidency including Primate Ayodele and not that God has told him anything. He is not a prophet! He can be a prophet, evangelist or apostle but not a bet prophet. It does not exist in our dispensation. Thank you.
What is your reaction to Governor Ganduje’s salvo on the proposed Ruga policy?
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State said Fulani herdsmen’s migration should be banned, that there is no better way to improve their lives if you don’t prevent their migration from the North to the Central and Southern parts of Nigeria. That movement should be banned, otherwise the Fulani would continue to suffer and the security problem in the country would continue. This stance of the governor is in outright negation of the views of an elder statesman, name withheld, at the age of 94 by December 2018. In a discussion I had with him recently he said that the herdsmen usually migrate to the Southern part of Nigeria mostly during dry season when both the grass and water are scarce to the sea and begin to retreat back during the rainy season because the grass begin to grow and water becomes available because the humid condition of the Southern Nigeria is not conducive for the cattle.
This is a natural phenomenon and we cannot work against nature. In the view of these two conflicting narratives, one saying ban migration and the other suggesting that migration has become part of the Nigeria pastorate hence do not ban migration. What do we do to strike a balance between the two and thereby assuage the complaints or concerns of both the Middle Belt and southern part of Nigeria that herdsmen migration has become an unnecessary evil in their midst because of the evils, killings, rape, stealing, confiscation of people’s and community lands after they have chased them away and their cattle damaging farms by eating up farm crops. To my mind, outright ban is not the right thing to do since the herdsmen and their employers who trade on cows and other domestic animals may not have their resources to build individual ranches as done in America and other developed economies where cattle are not left to graze in open areas. Hence, herdsmen should be allowed unhindered to graze on open lands provided they control and prevent their cattle from destroying people’s farmlands and crops as well as banned from carrying AK-47 rifles with which they wreak havoc on people who dare challenge their nefarious acts of destruction of people’s farm crops, rape, banditry and killings as they go about with their animals.
Instead of instituting a ban on outright migration to the South, herdsmen should be banned from carrying arms and weapons of mass destruction. They should use sticks, bows and arrows they were known to use in the past.
Again, the people they graze in their areas and communities should equally be outlawed from taking laws into their hands to attack herdsmen and their cattle as they migrate and graze in their areas. If by mistake the herdsmen and their cattle are caught destroying and spoiling farm crops, their owners can lodge petition or report to the police, who can through the law court sue them for damages and they have to pay for whatever their animals have damaged. If things are done that way, I feel that these incessant clashes between the farmers and herders would be controlled to the barest minimum. Therefore, a middle course agreement has to be struck between their two views rather than favour either of them hundred percent. A fifty-fifty agreement should be accepted and let’s allow peace to reign in Nigeria. Tanko Yakassai said we need one another in this country. Yes, we definitely need one another, the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle for the meat and other dairy products they offer, and farmers for the farm produce and harvests they offer for the teeming populace of Nigeria. A word is enough for the wise.
I have spoken as a nationalist and one who sees the unity of Nigeria and living in peace and harmony among the Nigeria tribes and tongues as something achievable and for the benefit of the nation as a giant of Africa. It is essential because the continued existence of Nigeria as one entity guarantees sanity and protection of other countries of Africa; therefore, we cannot toy with it as a nation.
