The Founder of Igbo Youth Movement (IYM), Evangelist Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko, has regretted that Ndi Igbo do not stand a chance in 2027, as unacceptable to Ndi Igbo as it may sound.
Ugochukwu-Uko, who is also the Secretary of the Eastern Consultative Assembly (ECA), noted in an interview that Igbos stand a better chance of producing the Vice President in 2031 and President in 2039.
According to him, it could come from either the current ruling party or the opposition.
He emphasized that an Igbo man will govern Nigeria at God’s appointed time but that those hustling for next year do not have variables in their favour.
Uko stressed that those who may be picked for Vice President in 2031 in preparation for Southern Presidency for 2039, seemingly stand a better chance.
Read excerpts of the interview below:
Evangelist, you’ve been very silent for a long while now, are you satisfied with the state of affairs in the country today? The economy, the politics, the frightening insecurity, etc?
I don’t talk all the time because I don’t play to the gallery, neither do I chase clout. I speak only the truth and you know that the truth is usually offensive. Nigeria has a thousand problems, but I believe they are all solvable if we tell ourselves the truth and honestly approach the problems with sincerity. Our unitary structure is largely responsible for the horrific prebendalism and impunity which inspire corruption and mismanagement.
Its common knowledge, persistence oppression, dichotomy and repression, sectarianism, sectionalism, injustice and inequity etc., inspire agitations and discontent. Religious and ethnic irredentism create violent insurrection, as can be seen in the North Eastern region.
One misguided North West Governor suddenly introduced religious law 25 years ago and that set the country ablaze, costing thousands of lives and inspired Boko Haram, as ten-year olds at that time grew up believing him that their religion’s laws should be imposed on the country, taking away peaceful coexistence and stability, even as continuous stubborn opposition to restructuring the polity created fear of the future and loss of faith in the system amongst certain sections of the country as presently constituted, inspiring agitation for cessation.
These problems simply persist only because we obstinately refuse to accept the truth and sincerely address the root causes of these many man-made crisis. The minute we agree to sincerely address these issues, our problems will disappear and the beauty, riches and greatness of this country, will manifest.
Nigerians are hungry, angry and afraid to travel by road, due to insecurity, kidnappings and corruption ravaging the land, resentment everywhere.
I largely agree with you. Addressing the root causes, instead of scratching the symptoms of the problems, is actually the way to go. I’ve been in the trenches fighting for justice and equity for decades now and I know that the cabal holding Nigeria down and resisting positive change, are in the minority, but they are powerful, influential and very strong. They need to repent so Nigeria can be saved. No angel will come from outside to save Nigeria. We must face reality and make sacrifices to jointly work for a new Nigeria anchored on true federalism and devolution of power. That’s the first thing we need to do and every other thing will fall in place.
How do you rate President Bola Tinubu’s administration so far? And his second term chances.
Everybody knows I deliberately refuse to take sides in political contests. I wish him and his opponents well. I rather choose to remain apolitical. I advise him to address corruption, insecurity, witch-hunting opponents and charges of nepotism and insensitivity to the plight of the very poor. I plead for real time relay of election results, fairness in appointments. The latest CBN appointments where his region alone got 70% is wrong. But I commend him on the courageous removal of the very injurious fuel subsidy, and the unholy dual currency exchange regime, which he unified, Nigerians are grateful for lower and reduced food prices, bringing down inflation and availability of fuel etc. His courage is legendary, I admire his courage, but he should allow for a free and fair election to retain people’s confidence in the electoral process.
I’m not working for or against any candidate or party. I pray for peaceful elections. I never join the usual madness and frenzy every election season. My decades-old activism is built on advocacy for the infrastructural development of every region and the restructuring of Nigeria. My region crave to see a global standard Seaport, an international Airport with a functional Cargo wing, Railways, Dry Port/Container terminal and an industrial hub/ export processing zone/ international trade centre etc. My people somehow believe that these deliberately denied infrastructure will transform our zone. In fact, lack of these infrastructures actually inspire the loss of faith in the system that drives the regrettable agitation. I have no interest in individual politicians. I wish all of them well.
Ndigbo still insist on the presidency of Nigeria. Do they stand a chance now?
I sincerely don’t know. 25 years ago, I mobilised students and we marched on the streets demanding Nigeria give Onye Igbo a chance to govern the country for a season for equity. But sadly, presently Ndigbo are not sitting well now. One of them packaged himself as a messiah for last election and also for next year’s election whilst others in the ruling political party are hoping to emerge as Vice President for 2031. So, you see that this reality means these two forces will work against the other, thereby cancelling each other. I don’t think Ndigbo are well positioned now. We stood a better chance in 2023. My answer is that I don’t really know God’s plan for Ndigbo.
We as Igbo people should think more about the development of Igboland. It seems our quest for presidency unsettles our compatriots and scares them stiff. We need to develop our region, improve on our relationship with our neighbours, and go out of our way to reassure fellow Nigerians that we are not angling to dominate anybody. We must accept the reality that our success in trade and commerce, attracts envy and jealousy. We have to refrain from the current online cross-ethnic insults regardless of which side started it. It generates enormous hate against us. We must address the reality that our quest for central power, frightens other regions or at least make them uncomfortable. We are usually misunderstood.
We must imbibe humility and a meek spirit. Our quest for central power seems to have blinded us to the real need of developing our region. The presidency should not be our only priority now. It turns everyone against us. Nigerians believe we are doing so well everywhere else and now we want political power as well. That to them suggests dominating them, even when I know that Ndigbo do not look to dominate anybody. They regrettably still believe Ndigbo desire to dominate the land. Again the paid social media e-rats singing the praises of one politicians while abusing another to no end creates hate. This online warfare worries me. The hate between Ndigbo and Northerners who call us drug traffickers, baby factory merchants, fake drugs manufacturers etc., while the Yoruba use unprintable adjectives on us and vice versa on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, etc. is dangerous.
WhatsApp groups deliberately established for ethnic warfare, where the minds of members of one ethnic group who dominate such WhatsApp groups, are constantly poisoned against another ethnic group who are the target for deliberate attacks, is wrong and frightening. I fear where all these will lead to. It seems to get worse every election season. That’s exactly how Hutu versus Tutsi verbal exchanges of hate led to the horrific carnage 30 years ago in Rwanda. The ongoing online abuses is quite dangerous and must be discouraged.
Many people believe that Biafra agitators are the worst offenders. Always attacking other people including moderate Igbo online. Calling them all sorts of names, efulefu, ottelectual, sabo, yariba, Fulani, goat, etc., in their belief that insulting and abusing those who don’t share their views, will give them Biafra.
I condemn the online vitriolics and slurs and warfare regardless who’s doing it. The agitators aren’t the only ones guilty. It’s really about the attempt to use the social media to destroy the reputation of the other candidate and his people, thereby presenting your preferred candidate as a saint, angel and messiah. It’s wrong because most of the stuff there are false and unverified. It’s very wrong calling a President “drug lord”, “bulaba”, “fake certificate”, ” Chicago criminal”, etc. It’s capable of offending his supporters and his people and make them eternal enemies. Also those who abuse Ndigbo online, could actually be deliberately baiting Ndigbo to respond in order to blackmail Ndigbo and paint us hateful and reprehensible. I plead God touches the heart of men and women of good who will rise up to do something to stem this hate.
You must remember that the agitators you mentioned are being manipulated by unscrupulous politicians who use and exploit the grievances, anger and emotions of the agitators to drive their own political aspirations, relevance and popularity. Help me to plead with them to repent. The agitators are victims of the Nigerian situation. Some smart fellow activated the agitation in 1999. Promising to give mostly naive and gullible young fellows a new country, where they will be treated with dignity, an El Dorado. They believed him and trusted him. It’s been 27 years now. He mobilised ordinary people, mainly ignorant farmers, Keke riders, bus drivers, bus conductors, apprentice traders, artisans, students and the unemployed, mostly youngsters, who usually make up the bulk of the agitators, making to believe that Nigeria will never treat them well, hyping their dream of another country where they’ll be treated well.
Forming critical mass, they terrified politicians who began to court them to used them to win elections. Two decades ago they broke the gates of Owerri stadium, disrupted census head count, broke into Onitsha prison and freed inmates. Until a new leadership emerged using the airwaves to spread their gospel, becoming stronger.
It’s the duty of leaders of the country to practically convince them that their region will be treated well moving forward. Deliberate effort should be made to restore their faith in the country. I was asked by the South East Governors to bring Nnamdi to a meeting to state his grievances on 30th August of 2017. The only meeting between Nnamdi Kanu and the South East Governors. I pleaded with an elderly constitutional lawyer to lead the meeting and he graciously agreed. Just before the meeting Nnamdi agreed in my sitting room to the roadmap Dr Alex Ekwueme advised.
Which is to step down the agitation for cessation and stand on the demand for infrastructural development of the region and the restructuring of Nigeria along true federalism and power devolution. That’s exactly what he presented at the meeting. But with a caveat to quit the agitation for 12 to 18 months to confirm if the authorities will begin the restructuring. But the President at the time didn’t like the demands and probably preferred crushing the agitation. I was at the meeting, and I wept over the military invasion that eventually inspired the violent streak that started five years ago. Before January 2021, the violent actions that changed everything hasn’t been introduced. Violence was introduced in January 2021 with an attack on Owerri Prison. Very sad development and very wrong action.
The four different centripetal and centrifugal forces pulling the region at the seams, each determined to have their way, must all repent and allow for resolution and closure. It’s been 27 years for crying out loud.
What four forces please?
There are forces even from my region who don’t want the agitation resolved. They profit from it, though they pretend otherwise. In fact, the agitators aren’t the beneficiaries of the agitation, but they don’t know it.
The four forces are, one, the pool of compradors, agents, informants, quislings and collaborators, whose discreet activities with security agencies and Government officials, keep the agitation alive even as they pretend that are working towards resolution, whereas they survive from the melee. They are unofficial advisers to the authorities, they like calling themselves “friends of Government”. They have been trusted confidants and allies of every Government since the military era. Their interference prolonged the agitation for 27 years. They are adept at blaming and blackmailing everyone else but themselves. They operate discreetly.
Group two are deadly but desperate politicians who use the agitators to advance their agendas while pretending they are helping Government to end the agitation. They sandwich their personal political ambition into the process. They fool the agitators by seducing them. They fool the Government by pretending they want to resolve the agitators, whereas they don’t want the agitation resolved, because the agitation is the energy, the oxygen and power that drives their political aspirations. Some of them are Senators, Governors thanks to the agitators. If the agitation ends today, they will abruptly become irrelevant. They are the greatest beneficiaries of the agitation. They seize and hook the agitators through their Attorneys and siblings, and manipulate everything to suit their agendas, deceiving the security agencies.
Thirdly, the Government itself. The authorities aren’t interested in addressing the root cause of the anger, bitterness and grievances that drive the loss of faith which power the agitation. They fear that may validate the agitation. They also believe that their army of “friends of Government” in the region will help them have their way, hence the prolongation of the agitation. They prefer crushing the agitation without ever addressing the root causes. And four, the intransigence of the agitators themselves, who insist on Biafra or death, Biafra or nothing. I plead with these four forces to repent, and make concessions. It’s 27 years this year. Resolution and closure is very possible, but for the agenda of the beneficiaries.
Do you think the crisis will be resolved soon?
I believe it’s very resolvable. I pray it’s resolved soon. These people who are obstacles must repent. They blackmail everyone else and present themselves as very good people. They need to repent. Ndigbo have suffered from many mistakes in the past. We should look inwards and ask ourselves, “for how long?”
We have been blackmailed for centuries. Painted black and demarketed. A little red book published over two hundred years ago, blamed Eboe slaves for the uprising that preceded Haiti’s revolution and independence between 1790s and1815, despite the fact that ship manifests of the period show that the bulk of the slaves to Jamaica and Haiti came from Accra and Gambia, confirming majority of the human cargo to come from Mandigo and even inland Congo. Very few came from the Bonny and Calabar Creeks. Yet Ndigbo were deliberately painted as difficult, stubborn, uncontrollable, troublesome and rebellious people. That painted us in very bad light and given us less friends since. That has adversely affected our image ever since.
Again, our Colonial masters invited traditional rulers from the North to the UK in the 1920s and 1930s, and made deals about the future with them. None was invited from our region. Again the errors of the late 1960s, the error of judgment of the young soldiers, the killing pattern of the first coup, Ironsi’s failure to try the January 1966 coupists, his failure to release Awolowo and the error of allowing Francis Nwokedi, Dr Pius Okigbo and Col. Patrick Anwunah, all Igbo, to draft the Decree 34 of May 1966, really painted Ndigbo in a certain unhelpful light, inspiring opposition to the decree 34. Intransigence position at all the peace meetings sealed our fate. The defeat and the post- civil war culture of desperation to escape poverty, and the unholy compliance-for-survival, adopted by our people who began to place personal interest over group interest, all have not helped us. A new unhelpful and unhealthy culture emerged, defining Ndigbo in a not so respectful light.
We are now perceived as selfish, arrogant, disrespectful people who are desperate for political power in order to dominate others. While I know that all these charges against us are manufactured out of envy and jealousy. Very reason I religiously and deliberately organised talkshops, symposia, conferences, seminars and conventions, inviting leaders, elders and youth from the South South/ Niger Delta and the Middle Belt/ North Central to events of my IYM in the 1990s to build bridges of understanding and symbiotic relationship with Ojukwu, Ben Obumselu, Chukwumerije, Ndubuisi Kanu, Onyeabor Obi, C C Onoh, MC K Ajuluchukwu, and Sam Mbakwe and many others, graciously accepting my invitation to address the gatherings.
Ndigbo must repair our broken alters, regain the trust and confidence of our neighbours and compatriots. That’s the way to go. We must work towards healing the wounds of the past. I implore Ndigbo to put our house in order, by correcting these lies against us and focusing on the development of our zone.
Insulting other ethnic groups and their icons and leaders, will only make us more enemies than friends. I’ve been consistent in presenting this unattractive truth for decades now. I worked very closely with all genuinely respected Igbo leaders, and I am telling my people the bitter truth they may not like to hear. The online hatred, activated during elections/power struggle, will hurt us in the future. We must bring the social media warfare to an early end, before it leads to something unpleasant.
Do you think President Bola Tinubu is popular enough to win next year’s election?
I desire to see two strong political parties that will make elections tough and tight. I want to see elections where ethnicity and religion will not influence vote pattern. I pray to be alive and see the day Nigerians will vote for the best candidate regardless of his region and faith. But we sadly aren’t their yet. Tinubu has become stronger as many Governors have joined his party lately. But Atiku Abubakar is no push over. He is a very experienced politician with nationwide support. Those underestimating his reach may be making a mistake. I wish both of them luck. I won’t take sides.
What has happened to Igbo Presidency?
An Igbo will govern Nigeria at God’s appointed time. Those hustling for next year, do not have variables in their favour. Those who may be picked for Vice President in 2031 in preparation for Southern Presidency for 2039, actually stand a better chance, it seems. The idea of desperation and giving God deadlines is wrong. Only God will do it for us. Both the ruling party and the opposition stand chances to produce Igbo President. Not only the opposition.
We don’t stand a chance now, it sounds unacceptable to my brothers and sisters. But that is the truth. Unless of course you want me to please the emotions of some of my people by lying to them. We stand a better chance of producing the Vice President in 2031 and President in 2039 and it could come from either the current ruling party or the opposition. Ndigbo will produce a good Nigerian President in God’s time. In fact the ruling party have a litany of hopefuls for Vice Presidency in 2031, five years away.
They include Hope Uzodinma, Orji Uzor Kalu, Rochas Okorocha, Dave Umahi, Charles Soludo etc. Umahi stands a greater chance to earn the trust of the six regions, because of his performance as Ebonyi Governor and his current deliveries as Works Minister. I don’t get along with him. We quarrelled bitterly over the handling of the agitators. We’ve not spoken in 9 years, but I know how Nigeria work. I know that any Igbo politician adored by Ndigbo will not resonate well with other regions.
Moreover, I saw Nigerians reject Olu Falae in 1999, and preferred Obasanjo whom his region rejected. I know the kind of Igbo politician the rest of Nigeria will trust. Social media hype is different from reality. The Igbo man who will govern Nigeria maybe a Senator or Governor today. God works in mysterious ways. God is not a man, and he doesn’t follow our emotions. The things that impress man does not impress God. Yes, an Igbo man will someday give Nigeria a very brilliant and sound leadership, but not from next year’s election
What Ndigbo need now, is a sincere appraisal of our conditions and to identify reasons responsible for that and honestly address them. We need to take seriously the infrastructural development of our region. We must set long term, mid-term and short-term agenda. We must reconcile with our estranged neighbours and brethren. We must refrain from anything that paints us as arrogant, self-centered and insensitive to the needs and feelings of others. We must deliberately court friends and sustain friendship. We must repair broken relationships and widen our net. We must relate to others with respect especially our hosts. As targeted and envied people we must deliberately remain tolerant, meek and gentle. We should ask ourselves: Who are our friends in Nigeria? How come all the other ethnic groups easily bonded against us between 1966 and 1970.
What do we do wrong that piss them off to team up against us? Why did our Efik brethren team up with the black scorpion and his 3rd Marine commando and chased us out of Calabar? And Isaac Borro led Nigerian soldiers through village paths into Port Harcourt? Have these suspicions and mistrust been assuaged? If not, when? Are the North West, North East and even the South West comfortable with Igbo Presidency? Do we have the support of the Middle Belt and the Niger Delta? Is it just enough to glibly mouth “it’s our turn” without addressing the stumbling blocks that hinder our acceptance by others?
An Igbo man will govern Nigeria at God’s time. It won’t be achieved by insulting others in social media or by descending on and tearing into shreds compatriots who have different views and different candidates. That behaviour will give us more enemies than friends. We must endeavour to heal past wounds. And be very cautious and mindful of inciteful propaganda against us like “ewu n’ebe akwa” song of early 1966 which inspired the hatred towards us that powered the 1966 pogroms. The signs are there for the discerning.
