Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, says the South East must play strategic politics to be at the centre of decision-making going forward, lamenting that the zone had never been as politically fragmented and disconnected from the centre as experienced in recent years.
Mbah spoke when he received the leadership and members of the City Boy Movement, a movement dedicated to President Bola Tinubu’s reelection, at Government House, Enugu, on Tuesday.
Mbah recalled that the political forebears of Ndigbo had always been strategic and were not known for sentimental and isolationist politics, saying that Ndigbo could not afford to play on the margins of Nigerian politics and decision-making tables going forward.
“If you go back in history and talk about our forebears, they were always willing to have a handshake across the Niger whenever it became necessary. For us as Ndi Igbo, we have never played politics that is driven by sentiment. We have always been very strategic and that is what has been bequeathed to us by our forebears. We cannot allow that to be eroded before our very eyes.
“We are not even at a table where critical national issues are discussed. If you look at the order of protocol in this country today, the order of succession, we are nowhere. I think we should be at number six, which is the Deputy Speaker.
“As I said, our forebears had never played a politics where they are on the sidelines, where the Igbo man was not at the table where decisions about this country are made. But I am glad that we are trying to retrace our footsteps.
“We have never, as a zone, until recently, been so fragmented. But I want to believe that such fragmentation has somehow ended. We are all speaking from one page now in terms of leadership in the South East,” Mbah said.
He commended President Tinubu’s economic policies, saying that although they came with initial economic challenges, they had helped to ease macroeconomic pressures, while addressing uncertainties, such as in foreign exchange that scared foreign investors.
While commending Igbo young businessmen and professionals for embracing the Tinubu Administration, the governor expressed strong belief that Nigerians would reelect Tinubu, especially as the dividends of the Renewed Hope Agenda increasingly trickled down to the masses.
“We must not allow ourselves to be deceived again. We have to align ourselves to be strategic; and the way to be strategic is to be analytical, be very objective, and deal with reality rather than be delusional. We know what the political reality today is. It is up to us to embrace the winning and leading team.
“Given the policies and programmes of the Renewed Hope Agenda, the president will easily win his reelection. We need to be extremely smart to get ourselves in the centre of the game so that we are not on the margins again,” he concluded.
Earlier in his address, the South East Coordinator, City Boy Movement, Obinna Iyiegbu, also known as Obi Cubana, lamented that the South East had lost a lot of ground through isolationist politics, but was quick to add that the region had equally learnt its lesson on the need to build strategic alliances to serve its immediate and future needs and aspirations.
He regretted that whereas Ndigbo were one of the tripods upon which the nation had always rested in every respect, other regions now win presidential elections without the votes of Ndigbo due to the type of politics played by the region.
“So, as young professionals and businessmen and women, we have come out to tell our people that we are solidly behind Mr. President. We are solidly behind his reelection bid. Ala Igbo has to be taken to the centre.
“We have to be connected to the gas, we have to be connected to the rail, a lot of things we expect from the centre.
“Again, we cannot be fighting everybody or whoever is at the centre of power today because when it gets to our turn, we need support from every zone for us to be able to produce a president of Igbo extraction,” he concluded.
Also speaking, the State Director of the Movement, Prince Emeka Mammah, and its State Patron, Chief Charles Mbah, commended Governor Peter Mbah for making the Movement’s work easy in the state through the enormity of transformations going on in the state under his leadership.
They promised to work to ensure landslide victories for Tinubu and Mbah.
