Midnight Theme to Oko:

 

I am going, heaven knows where I'm going

We could have been together, heaven knows

I'm done and heaven knows, it's all over

What Have I done to be savaged

Of what sin am I accountable

Only heaven knows, not Oko

Oko, motherland, here I come

The land of my birth and childhood

The land I knoweth of

I toiled the land to build my political future

With the strength thou giveth me

So I can fulfill thy pledge in honesty

I knoweth of no other way

Oh, land of my fathers

I have been forsaken by my own

Brethren who giveth me the path

To lead and flourish, and grow

The land that I dwell, produced and multiplied

The land was not mine, they took it away

Land of my forefathers, hear me

Because I cry aloud and in agony

I shall never forget my land

Oko, where my palmwine is brewed

Fresh and tasty with folklore

With abundant food and concubines

Oko, here I come, coming home

Land of my fathers, where I belong

Oko, I love you and will love you

You are my everlasting home

 

Unlike L.L. Cool J's "Going Back to Cali" to see the sun, the stars, Hollywood Walk of Fame, the beautiful beaches and life at its best, the aging Alex Ifeanyi Ekwueme will be heading back to Oko "sleeping in darkness" reciting why life is making him blue. In contrast, Mathew Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo, the bigot and war criminal, no one, absolutely no one wants to prosecute will be dressed in his Islamic Jihad flowing gown singing on his way to a second term:

 

Blood is thicker than water

My brothers have delivered

They came from the wilderness

Fighting the lions and tigers

Never did they give up for my sake

Prepared to overcome all predicaments

To deliver their favorite son

For the promised land is theirs

I am the morning and the night

For their redemption and salvation

In time of turmoil and hopelessness

In time of distress and anger

The Almighty Lord has spoken

The people listened to the word

And our path is through with glory

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done

Let's give praises to the Almighty

Not only does it pain me that Nd'Igbo’s greatest challenge in today's Biafranigeria is finding a political strategy as a game plan to work toward a party platform with its principles relative to Igbo ideals, but it has been a case of misplaced confidence, trust, team work and lack of organizational effectiveness to bring about a perfect Igbo union, never-minding the political atmosphere of Biafranigeria.

As Ekwueme heads down to Oko, his homeward bound ending his political career, he lacked the political wit to grasp what the game was all about, thus his second humiliating defeat at the PDP primaries in which Obasanjo came out smoking, again.

It was no political tragedy for Nd'Igbo that Ekwueme lost again in  a platform of which he was the architect. It is also quite disturbing when the Igbo "elite " deviates to the blame game on the circumstances that led to Ekwueme's defeat. I have been hearing a lot of noise in many quarters and mediocre complaints that Ekwueme may have lost in the primaries because of Nd'Igbo’s disunity, especially of the Diaspora and the new elite who refused to agree with the jumbled and bellicose old Igbo elite of the Diaspora.

The emergent elite, however, argued that for Ekwueme to prevail in Igbo leadership, he must consult with Igbo grassroots, the elders and commoners, and provide his agenda detailing his commitment to the Igbo interest as well as his roadmap for bringing the Igbo nation back to the mold of our founding fathers whose footsteps he was supposedly emulating.

But one thing we must bear in mind about Ekwueme's devastating and humiliating defeat is, since the concerned Igbo citizens who found themselves in all nooks and corners of Biafranigeria’s political discourse, blaming their Igbo counterparts for not giving Ekwueme all the support he needed, the blamers failed to put in place adequate media coverage as a propanganda tool.  There was no  moral and financial support from them of a substantial sort.  Obasanjo had all that in place from his backers.  It is noteworthy that Ekwueme did not consult Nd'Igbo when he started his political campaign this second time around. Instead, he wooed the caliphates and picked the "Northern ruling elites" as his campaign team. How stupid?

 

Amazingly, Minna, the hometown of the nation's biggest criminal, Ibrahim Badamosi Babaginda, was Ekwueme's first port of call to kick-start what would eventually be the end of the road in his out of the blues political career. When he set up a preparatory committee to study the possibilities of launching a final campaign to be nominee of the party he founded, who was there? On his 70th birthday bash, who were the dignitaries that graced the occasion? Of course, his best cronies from the house of the Northern caliphates and "ruling elite." So why do we seem to be heartached and psychologically broken that Ekwueme lost? Why did the Northern caliphate turn their back on him and give their votes to Obasanjo via Atiku Abubakar? Could it be they dragged him into the mess to show how vulnerable, gullible, and stupid he was? And what's all the fuss about Nd'Igbo’s political errors? Did Nd'Igbo learn from their past mistakes? Absolutely not. It will happen again, that's just the way we are - a finished people.

Abubakar made his point clear. He would rather deal with the devil he knows than the one he has no clue of. Ekwueme should have figured that out if he wasn't politically inept. Now that he has been made to look like a fool with his nationalistic ideals, the second time around, and knowing the fact that a sound political strategy was required of him and his sloppy campaign team, taking full cognizance of  the power of incumbency, he went to slug it out with Obasanjo on the same party platform in the primaries.  That was a poorly  calculated plan for  projecting  the so-called Igbo agenda, or for defeating Obasanjo - the bigot and  his ineptitude?  Ekwueme  had bad political advisers and an array of confused Igbo Diaspora who in their right thinking minds believed they knew it all.

It is undeniable that the Igbo Diaspora who bundled themselves to endorse Ekwueme's presidential candidacy were pursuing a show of their own personal interest aiming at political favors in "Aso Rock." They lacked vision and miscalculated. Thanks to their tardy work, Ekwueme is gone. Case closed? Not so, Igbos, once again are divided into Ekwueme's pros and cons.

The irony of this wholelot of drama could be drawn from a set of Igbo Diaspora arrogance and pseudo-eliticism. When one decides he or she is better off, alas, not willing to listen to the other on the ground he or she has a better take to the status quo, it results to more confusion and chaos. That's the trend now and no one seems to be seeing it.

How long will this drama be playing? To be honest, I really don't know and have no idea when the time to quit for resolve will arrive. Never in my entire life have I seen a people so confused they do not know how to go about things in putting their acts together and having things done. Ekwueme's pros are all over lauding his achievements in Igboland, that he did this and did that; that he was the brain behind Sam Onunaka Mbakwe's success in Imo State; that he helped grant his relatives government scholarships and influenced the establishment of Fedral Polytechnic in his home district; that he made sure his relatives "school bill" went through, via the Central Bank of Biafranigeria in order to see his kin not go through immense hardship while studying abroad; that he manipulated the Students Advisory Board of Biafranigeria Ministry of Education to give his kith and kin easy approval. Really? Big deal!

The above are now some of the numerous excuses made by Ekwueme's loyalists whose lacked  vision as to why he shouldn't have dabbled himself in an act that is politically suicidal, for which his apologists now blame Nd’Igbo.  Blame Nd'Igbo for what? However, one would presume Nd'Igbo’s lack of political strategy, if the blame game should be given its dues, would be the “yahoo elite” whose political ideals stop at  flaunting  their degrees at yahoo.com. Take for instance, in most Igbo related forums where these endless and meaningless debates have taken up a common faire, every "Dick and Harry" is saying the same thing simultaneously. Everybody, the "elite" who raised funds in U.S. currency for Ekwueme to match Obasanjo's huge boxes of the Naira, Biafranigeria currency, blames the semi-literate, their 419 partners and the half Igbo casts who either had something to gain from the goodwill of the caliphates or had parents who feed from their crumbs, as a result, kowtowing, military service and paying homage, the done deal that sealed the fate of the Igbo nation.

The Igbo intellectual heavyweights, particularly of the Diaspora extraction who either spent quality time and money for Ekwueme's presidency in return for political appointments and inflated contracts should have themselves to blame.  They should not blame the hard working Igbo who is out there making the best of a bad situation, struggling to survive, and with no "Godfather" on his side. Also to blame is the greedy and “infallible” bunch who spent time for over three and half years claiming to be the messiah to Nd’Igbo’s  dark age. After all their failures, the know-it-all garrulous "elite" is now blaming the gods and the psychics for misleading them.

Ironically, it has been said over and over again by many, myself included, that Nd'Igbo political leadership must not take any resemblance of academic influence but commitment, showmanship and pragmatism. Exactly two years ago, I warned that history was bound to repeat itself if the confusion within the "intellectual elite" in having a sense of direction toward a profound Igbo leadership continues. My prediction was accurate as projected. I also warned that "2003 will soon be around the corner" and once again, we will be heading back East "singing the same old song" crying to the gods of "what went wrong."

Sadly, the crying now continues apace. In Ekwueme's showdown with Obasanjo, which in its aftermath was presumed to have been rigged on the grounds of "illegal manipulation. The "elite" once again, despite their lack of political foresight, were quick to arrive at the conclusion and provide their own analysis on why Ekwueme may have lost so dramatically to Obasanjo.  The first Ekwueme-Obasanjo showdown which featured Jim Nwobodo in the Jos Convention and Primaries in 1999, although systematically misrepresented and miscalculated, the blame was on Nwobodo for selling out--turning in all his delegates to Obasanjo which denied Ekwueme a privilege to the presidency, an Igbo president per se.  

Enter the Igbo Diaspora pseudo-elite who endorsed Ekwueme and the heated debate for or against his candidacy, the pro-propaganda argued Ekwueme stood a better chance to address the plight of the Igbos once elected into office. But one must recollect the Igbo saying: "eshi na ishi ahiri anu uto shi," Judging by Ekwueme's past performances--Brahmin, business mogul and vice president--he was not goiing to deliver. Furthermore, the pro-Ekwueme's did not consider the impact of incumbency before dragging him into a race based on the same party affiliation which obviously ended his political career. The trouble is that Ekwueme's devastating defeat in the hands of Obasanjo, the second time around, is not teaching Nd'Igbo any lessons, at all. And the other trouble is that while Ekwueme is going back to his erosion ridden native land of Oko, his pros and campaign sponsors have made a sudden 180-degrees turn politicking on ANPP's presidential primaries, citing the two new odd couples, Muhammadu Buhari and Chuba Okadigbo. They are now caught in a cross road with exhausted option on how to dislodge Obasanjo from the "rocks of Aso." Amazing! Confused! Stupid!

Okadigbo, the once political strategist with enormous strength and hard-drinking, pot-smoking womanizer who derided Nnamdi Azikiwe's comments as the "rantings of an ant" is at it again, opportuned to be the nations second citizen in a quota, according to the party's agenda, for onye Igbo. And he has followers. Ridiculous!

Okadigbo and Ekwueme are birds of the same feather. They belong to the same cause that wants a divided Igbo nation. They have not represented Nd'Igbo under any circumstances and in any aspect of Igbo dilemma. In 1978 when Obasanjo, then a military junta lifted the ban on political activities, Ekwueme was no political salesman, nor was Okadigbo. They were, then, a newer generation who walked in as stars in the Second Republic joining a party of northern interest rather than Igbo ideals.

The problem, however, persisted. Nd'Igbo had no political agenda until Ibrahim Waziri was compelled to abandon the party he created for Zik. Zik brought in his followers promoting distinct Igbo ideals. It was too late. He came a distant third in the presidential elections, becoming a beating drum for the rogue-filled National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Ekwueme was behind laughing, dining and wining with the caliphates.   Never in his wildest dreams could he one day have imagined he would become a laughing stock. What goes around comes around.

Today, the ballgame has not changed. We still look like a finished people whose Moses is no where in sight. The Moses who would take us to the promised land and deliver us from our bondage. No question, 2003 has slipped away without a Biafranigeria president of Igbo extraction, that is, if the election holds, and if that is what we really want. The other problem lies in our being very desperate in producing an Igbo president negating the fact we must first engage ourselves and start building bridges based on the principles of the Igbo nation. What that means is, a working document, an Igbo charter or whatever the case may be, which is now inevitable  in a establishing a pattern to follow as in all organized societies if the Igbo nation is to be preserved.

Forget 2003, we lost and they won. Let's begin now in shaping our destiny.  Let's stop the blame game and get back to work in building a "national state." Let's go to the designer's table and put our thoughts together for a working document to guide us till eternity. I will once more quote the rock legend Bob Dylan who said: It's not dark yet, but it's getting there."

Ambrose Ehirim
Los Angeles, California