2023: Igbos in the PDP are sleepwalking!

By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo 

Igbos in the PDP are sleepwalking to 2023. I have put my ears to the ground but I have heard nothing. Tepid murmurs. Shuffling of feet. Nothing else, besides snores. Where are the Igbos in the PDP? This is not a good time to be asleep. And not another season for ‘Atikulation’. 

Igbos have served the PDP faithfully. 2023 should be payback time. The PDP should stand boldly  for Igbo presidency.  Or be labelled a traitor,  a user, an exploiter. 

But I have put my ears to the ground and, I have heard nothing. Besides Atiku revving  his coming and going molue. And Wike weighing Tambuwal for faithfulness. The PDP in Igbo land  has been too quiet. Nobody is singing 2023 hymns in that church. 

Where is the Ohaneze? The last time, they broke a taboo, and pitched their tent with the PDP. 

The calculation was that  if he won he would surrender to the idea that 2023 belonged to the Igbo presidency project. It’s easier now, isnt it ? They can’t be picking their noses now. 

Where are those who signed the midnight MOU? This is the time to do the politicking. A bird in hand could be worth three in the bush of self-determination. That morbid infatuation with the physiognomy of the president won’t better the lives of ordinary Igbo traders in Kano or Alaba. 

It won’t help the man in Ogbete market shore up his sagging sense of belonging. 

The PDP has fed fat on Igbo votes. It would be treacherous for the PDP to sit astride while others initiate the campaign for Igbo presidency.  Where are the Igbos in the PDP? Atiku has been left to seize the party by the scruff of the neck? 

Is he still coming? What is Peter Obi waiting for?  Is he waiting to be a running mate again? Mbanu! Where is Abaribe? And Osita Chidoka. 

The Igbos in the PDP should find their balls,  or borrow some if they have none, and speak up. 

My people say if you are afraid to speak to power then cover your head with a basket, yell and run. 

Let them speak,  and hide if they must. 

I will keep reminding them. Their silence is deafening. Their silence is ominous.  We cant spend an age crying marginalization and when our turn comes we chicken away.  Let’s remind them whether they hear or not. 

Because our ancestors said we should greet the deaf not because they will hear us, but so that the gods can bear us witness that we bear no malice against the deaf. 

Igbos in PDP,  wake up! As we say it in Igbo land, this is no time for ‘sleepingmuruanya’ 

I hear the emperor in Port Harcourt is plotting something. He wants power to help detain power in the Northwest till 2031.  That is sacrilegious. Isn’t it?  What happened to the Igbo presidency project? Has he heard of it? 

Why can’t he embrace Igbo presidency with some  ‘workaholism’.  That latter-day messiah of the South.  The one who can do no wrong; the one that has the interests of the Igbo at heart. Is he going to opt for shortsightedness now?  The 2023  Igbo presidency project needs flyovers!  Mr Projects, this is the real project. Is he going to be a chameleon? 

Why won’t the emperor support  Peter Obi in 2023? He is not Igbo? The 2023 Igbo presidency project is not his business? Because he wants to occupy one small position, he is willing to negotiate away 2023 Igbo presidency? 

The problem with these people is that they talk too much. So sometimes they make us overrate them. When these folks talk about Peter Obi and Okonjo Iweala, you would think they are serious. The PDP brandishes Peter Obi and Okonjo Iweala, like Christmas clothes.  Now 2023 is the turn of the Igbos, the PDP isn’t enthusiastic about fielding them. 

Why? 

Why can’t the PDP reciprocate the love Igbos have shown it and field Peter Obi? Or present Okonjo Iweala. No, they won’t.  The  PDP  thinks that fielding an Igbo man will be a political mistake.  So when would it be politically astute for the PDP to field an Igbo man? 

In 2083? Yet tomorrow, the leaders of the people would fill our ears with lamentations, innuendos and insinuations,  about Hausa Fulani Hegemony. 

You won’t hear from Abaribe speak about Igbo presidency, his party and 2023. Mba… you won’t. Because there is no Buhari to insult in this matter.  Why can’t Abaribe summon the courage, his usual courage, and tell the PDP that 2023 is the turn of the Igbos and that it is non-negotiable? 

Abaribe is the most senior elected official in the PDP.  Abaribe is bold.  So Abaribe should not cower when any governor says that fielding an Igbo presidential candidate in 2023 would be a mistake. By the way, why isn’t Abaribe running? Who is marginalizing him? 

Imagine for a moment that it was the duty of the federal government to allocate presidential party tickets of the two main parties. Let me call their names now. Wike, Abaribe, Peter Obi and company would be on top of the voices screaming marginalization if anyone tried giving out the PDP ticket to anyone in the north in 2023.