WHY I HAVE BEEN SILENT FOR THREE YEARS: A HARD TRUTH WE MUST CONFRONT
For over three years, I made a conscious and deliberate decision to refrain from commenting, writing, or contributing to any discourse on igbo platforms especially Ohafia.
It was not out of arrogance. It was not because I had nothing to contribute. It was out of sheer disillusionment with our pattern of reasoning.
In our clime, once you dare to hold a contrary opinion, once you refuse to chorus the popular sentiment, you are immediately branded a sell-out. An outcast. This intellectual intolerance is dangerous, and it is antithetical to democratic growth.
Politics, especially at the national level, is not played with emotions. It is not played with sentiments, bitterness, or self-righteous isolation. Politics is strategic. Politics is about negotiation, compromise, and broad-based alliances.
Let us be brutally honest with ourselves: Ohafia or Ndị Igbo alone cannot go far with this insular and limited mentality of “only us.”
To be relevant, you must reach out. You must build bridges. You must align with other people and other interests to achieve your collective goals.
Even within Abia State, the political arithmetic is clear. Ohafia is just one Local Government out of seventeen. To gain any meaningful ground, to produce a Governor, to control the State Assembly, to attract state patronage, you must necessarily align with the remaining sixteen Local Governments. That is the irreducible minimum of Abia politics. No single LGA can do it alone.
More importantly, we should not selfishly patronize one political party to the detriment of others. Today, it is Labour Party in Abia State; tomorrow it may be another party. Political parties are mere vehicles. Castigating and abusing people because of their party affiliation is simply unacceptable and politically immature. We must learn to respect divergent political choices.
The same principle applies, even more forcefully, at the national level.
Our people, particularly we Ndigbo, often play a politics of self-isolation and moral grandstanding. We play selfish politics, and that is precisely why other ethnic nationalities find it difficult to trust us with power.
Let us call a spade a spade. In the present Nigerian political equation, you cannot disparage, denigrate, or look down on the North and the West and still hope to achieve anything substantial at the centre. The numbers do not lie. The history does not lie. Furthermore, not aligning with the party at the centre is suicidal and counter-productive. While we play opposition politics in the South-East, the centre controls the resources, the appointments, and the national direction. Wisdom demands strategic positioning, not perpetual antagonism.
The North has political numbers. The West has political sophistication and economic leverage. The East has entrepreneurial spirit and intellectual capital. No one tripod can stand alone. You must recognize the others to be recognized.
If you do not accord respect to the North and the West, if you do not acknowledge their relevance and build strategic partnerships with them, you cannot and will not achieve anything meaningful in the Nigeria of today.
The era of regional self-righteousness is over.
The time has come for a paradigm shift. Let us discard this politics of self-pity and isolation. Let us grow beyond tribal politics and embrace a more cosmopolitan, more inclusive, and more strategic political culture. Let us strategically position ourselves for national politics.
Let us think beyond Ohafia. Let us think Abia. Let us think Igbo unity. Let us think Nigeria.
Only then can we grow. Only then can we win. Only then will history vindicate us.
Chief Dr. Mbah Imoh Uduma
State Vice Chairman North, Abia APC
Chairman – Ohafia Socio-Political Movement
