UZODIMMA IN LAGOS

Governor Hope Uzodimm’s recent outing in Lagos has been widely acknowledged and commended but its significance goes beyond his demonstrable personal charisma. Far more significant is that the rapprochement he brokered or is brokering between his Igbo kinsmen residing in Lagos and their hosts gives an inkling that the (APC) administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has what it takes to reconcile Nigerians and bring back peace to the country.

Agreed, the two main dramatis personae in the peace process – Governor Uzodimma and his Lagos state counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu –  are of the same political party, the ease with which both sides agreed to go for round table talks,  after months of tension and bitter acrimony,  is a pointer that the APC under Tinubu is quite conscious of the enormous challenges it is confronted with, chief of which is to heal the wounds on the soul of the nation.

For reasons that are not difficult to fathom, Lagos state provides a suitable ambience for the party to demonstrate its readiness for this assignment, thanks to both governors for not missing the opportunity presented by the Igbo-Lagos state imbroglio. What is left is for the federal administration of President Tinubu to ensure that it gives the two gentlemen all the necessary support they need to succeed in this particular mission – of returning peaceful co-existence in Nigeria’s most cosmopolitan city.

If the Lagos venture succeeds, then the foundation would have been laid to take the message to other parts of the country and ultimately to the pan Nigerian level. For, given that Lagos is a microcosm of Nigeria, the experience that will be garnered in the current peace process will be handy in dealing with the more transcendental issue of national reconciliation.

If Uzodimma and Sanwo-Olu succeed, it may well be a coincident but it would, more significantly, mean that the nation has effectively put to use the unique experience of both men in dealing with issues that bedeviled their respective states in the last three to four years. For four years, Sanwo-Olu presided over a state at a period it witnessed what could arguably be described as its most difficult: The ENDSARS saga and the 2023 general elections, regarded as the most rancorous and most divisive in the history of elections in the country and with Lagos being a cynosure .  Agreed, ENDSARS and its aftermath might not have been handled to the complete satisfaction of all and sundry, but the truth is that it could have been worse. How Governor Sanwo-Olu did it is deserving of further inquiry for the lessons therein.

As for the 2023 general elections, it still remains a wonder that  Bola Tinubu lost in Lagos, where he presides over, and the state did not erupt in total conflagration. How he did is also deserving of further interrogation and should, in fact, provide both impetus and guide in the search for a mitigation of the perennial hostilities between the Igbo and the government and people of Lagos state.

In Imo state, Governor Uzodimma has, for three years plus, been confronted with a type and quantum of hostilities never experienced by any governor in the history of the state. All efforts by his traducers to smoke him out for a fight have failed because by nature, the governor is accommodating, tolerant, slow to anger and does not allow himself to be distracted through provocation.

As I write, pundits wonder how he has been able to maintain general peace and harmony in the state and how he was able to post the hallmark achievements in infrastructural development despite the contrived insecurity in some parts of the state; to the extent that some of those who hitherto cheered that perfidy and jeered at him are today trooping to the Imo seat of government to give him a warm hug. How Uzodimma did it or is doing it is also a matter the entire nation ought to take interest in because it cannot be for nothing that providence is throwing him up for the Lagos assignment.

Differently put, the rest of Nigeria can only be pretending that the Igbo-indigenes face-off in Lagos is entirely the problem of the two sides concerned. In other words still, a successful outing by Uzodimma in Lagos will provide an ample opportunity for the Tinubu presidency to demonstrate – as President Tinubu himself insists – that his administration will be anchored on character and competence, not religious or ethnic bigotry. Both Uzodimma and Sanwo-Olu are Christians but those who monitored the first meeting between both sides would testify to the fact that at no time did the matter of religion come up.

But perhaps the most significant and necessary support that is needed for Governor Uzodimma to succeed in his mission in Lagos is the one that should come from his kinsmen back home in the Southeast. This is no longer the time to play politics with the matter of Ndigbo and their hosts in Lagos or in any part of the country for that matter. It should have nothing to do with whether or not  an Igbo man won the last presidential election since even if an Igbo is the occupant of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa right now, it would not transform Oshodi or Alaba into Ariaria or Ochanga.

 Uzodimma and all those involved in the talks should be given all the necessary support by other Igbo leaders irrespective of partisan affiliation.

Happily, the optics, so far, shows that he is working closely with the other four Southeast governors irrespective of the fact that minus Ebonyi state, the other three belong to different political parties. Equally reassuring is the caliber of Lagos-based businessmen who, though might be of diverse political persuasions, have rallied round Governor Uzodimma in this task.

It may look like a contradiction but the reason why we should not “play politics” with the matter in question is that this is the first time  a political approach is being adopted in finding a solution to the perennial issue of hostility between Ndigbo and their Lagos hosts. For progress to be made using this approach, there should be no grand standing and there have to be a lot of self introspection which would not be possible if politics is brought in. Fortunately, Governor Uzodimma has not shied away from this.

As a matter of fact, it was the Lagos-based Igbo leaders, themselves, that acknowledged that a political approach has become necessary.

In agreeing with this, Uzodimma has harped on the need for a change of tactics on the part of Ndigbo. He says: “If you have been applying one style to solving a problem and it has not worked, you need to change the style. It is time for Igbo to change their style because what we want is result”. He then proceeds to illustrate his change of style theory thus:

“The story we told 50 years ago is what we are still repeating today. The Igbo need to be innovative. I have been in politics for over 40 years and I know that what one man can do in 200 years, a responsible government can do that in one minute. So, we should stop over laboring ourselves. We have been developing ourselves and our communities, contributing money and building town halls, drilling water boreholes, providing light and building town markets. But when you go to some parts of the country, the government will be putting transformers and sinking bore holes even where human beings don’t live”.

I have chosen to reproduce the above statement credited to the Imo state governor at a meeting of Igbo leaders while he was in Lagos because, in my view, it represents the most vivid illustration of what a political approach connotes. The imagery of building a bore hole where no human beings reside whereas some communities in other parts of the country struggle for  years to sink the same bore hole is an apt description of the plight of Ndigbo. Granted that such a system is deplorable, what Governor Uzodimma is saying is that neither self pity nor the “they don’t want us” mentality would solve the problem. Only being in main stream national politics can. Who are these “they” and why should Ndigbo, whether deliberately or inadvertently, help in escalating such a warped idiosyncrasy?

In other words, what Governor Uzodimma is saying is that it is in the best interest of Ndigbo to always endeavour to be in main stream national politics since they will remain vulnerable playing outside it. This is what he means by getting result and not always finding liberty in history. Of course, self effort, for which Ndigbo have tremendous flair, is good but for how long will they continue to struggle when, in the imagery cited above, governments even sink bore holes where human beings do not live.  This is what the governor means by a change of tactics.

He is not the first Igbo man to advise his kinsmen to stop bemoaning their past. Nearly forty years ago – in 1985 to be precise – erstwhile Chief of General Staff in the General Ibrahim Babangida administration, Ebitu Ukiwe, had, at a gathering of prominent Igbo leaders in Lagos, reportedly said that Ndigbo should stop behaving as if the civil (Nigerian) war ended the previous day.

Between then and last week when Governor Uzodimma virtually reminded his kinsmen of that admonition, many other well meaning Igbo leaders have spoken in a similar vein.

I am aware that Uzodimma’s  critics may go to town with accusations of playing the agent for those who want to put down the Igbo perpetually. Yet, the same man says to the same people: “Stop calling yourselves tenants in Lagos. It pains me”  Nothing else can work for both Ndigbo and their hosts, in any part of the country, other than an honest appraisal of the Nigerian situation in this manner.

● Okere is DG, Imo State Orientation Agency