Nigeria’s 10th Senate President and the incumbent Chairman, the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Adolphus Wabara, has regretted that he might not be alive to see an Igbo man become the President of Nigeria given what he described as calculated political manipulations against the race.
The 75-year-old Diplomat and elder statesman who made the lamentation in an exclusive chat with Vanguard said he could still not reconcile why the political hawks in Nigeria were afraid of the Igbo man.
He said: ” I may not be alive to see an Igbo man become President of Nigeria. It’s so painful and it gives me concern. I don’t know why Nigeria does not seem to have trust in us.
“But the fact remains that an Igbo man can fix Nigeria if given the opportunity. But unfortunately, some forces seem not to be comfortable with this.
” The Igbo man has proved his mettle and thrives virtually in every field of human endeavour, yet, Nigeria does not believe in allowing him to come to power. There is no doubt we will make Nigeria great if allowed to be President.
” Unknown to these forces, as long as the Igbo man is down politically, the entire country will be down! Nigeria has nothing to lose but all to gain if an Igbo man is allowed and supported to take a shot at the Presidency”.
Senator Wabara further argued that Igbo are the most de-tribalised ethnic group in Nigeria, “which has sacrificed, and is ready to sacrifice so much for the unity of Nigeria.”
” It’s only when an Igbo man becomes the President of this country that we can right all the wrongs stagnating Nigeria.
” An Igbo President will not behave like Buhari or Asiwaju. We are not tribalistic. An Igbo man will deny himself or his brother a position if that position is not justifiable.
” An Igbo man believes in ‘ live and let’s live’. An Igbo man will be a President, and if you get to his office and speak Igbo, he will tell you: ‘My friend, Igbo is not the official language here!’
“We can only speak our language at home. But go to official quarters today even the Central Bank, and you will be wondering if you are in Hausa or Yoruba land .”
On the way forward, Senator Wabara renewed his earlier proposal for a six-year single tenure for President.
This, according to him, will help eliminate the desperation for a second tenure and all that goes with it, and also allow every geo-political zone to produce a President once every 36 years.
Insisting that every geo-political zone has competent hands that can pilot the affairs of the country if given the opportunity, the former Senate President, strongly advocated the adoption of the proposal.
Former Vice President, and the 2023 presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had last week, also proposed a six-year single tenure for President.
Similarly, the Labour Party candidate, Mr Peter Obi, proposed a five-year single tenure.
Senator Wabara who backed the proposals by the duo, said he was the first to mute the idea during the controversial third-term debate in 2007.
” I was one of the early advocates of six-year single tenure. If you go into the archives of the Senate, in my speech during the third term debate, it was one of the points I raised in my submission termed ‘ My People, Oh My People’.
” I said it loud and clear. I even went further to propose a political mathematics that will make every geo-political zone produce the President within 36 years.
” Let nobody be deceived, our diversity must be guaranteed constitutionally. From what we have seen so far, everybody comes and changes the goalpost, particularly when it is the turn of the South East. Otherwise, how can you explain that the zone that dominates virtually in other sectors has not been able to become the President through the ballot papers? Anytime it gets to our turn, some people-mathematical engineering and changes will come up just because they want to deny the Igbo man his opportunity to fix Nigeria”.
