By Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji
“Like the anthills of the Savanah, we
stand to tell the green grasses of today about the brush fires of yesterday.”
- Chinua Achebe
Chief Chekwas Okorie has conceded the 2015 Presidential election
in Nigeria and congratulated the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari of
the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this piece I offer my last statement as
the Director General of Okorie’s COPCO.
I join Nigerians all over the world and our friends in the
international community in congratulating the President-elect. The Igbo
consider the number “4” to be sacred and it is noteworthy that in his fourth
try at being elected the democratic president of Nigeria, success has come the
way of President-elect Buhari who Rochas Okorocha has named Okechukwu.
The
president-elect would probably argue that he was “successful” in past attempts
too but that he was “robbed” in those instances. Nigerians have rewarded his
persistence and perseverance.
I also congratulate Nigerians for the courage and commitment they
showed in exercising one of the most important rights and responsibilities of
their citizenship. Professor Attahiru Jega, the Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) and his team, also deserve our
congratulations and gratitude.
In my message to our compatriots the night before the elections, I
asked, on behalf of COPCO and the UPP, that folks should go out and vote their
hopes, not their fears. Given the fact that General Buhari won in spite of an
unprecedented avalanche of negative narratives against him, it appears
Nigerians did, in fact, vote their hopes.
What are those hopes? The people hope that General Buhari will be
a uniting historic figure as only the second Nigerian to become head of state
twice (first as a Military officer, and now as a civilian). The people hope
that the Nigerian economy will work for most of the people instead of some of
the people. Nigerians hope that corruption will be relegated to a shameful,
unacceptable conduct, instead of a celebrated state religion.
The people hope
that never again will religion be used to divide them and to mask elite food
fight. We hope that security and safety of life and property will return to our
cities and villages. Nigerians hope that competence and merit will return as
hallmarks of the public sector. Our people hope that hope itself returns as a
legitimate and reasonable exercise in moments of despair.
During the course of the just concluded presidential campaign, I
had the liberty to write several articles that were published in several media
outlets in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. Three of those articles were “Let’s get
beyond Buhari’s WAEC certificate,” “Call for Jega’s resignation Ill-advised,”
and the one that got the most attention, “Buhari is no boogeyman,” which was
published under several different headlines chosen by the editors and
publishers who used the piece. None of those articles or statements would have
been published if Chief Chekwas Okorie had not agreed with and approved my
thoughts. Perhaps it will be helpful now to explain why those pieces were
written.
First, the sentiments expressed in those articles were sincere and
genuine, and were generally based on our experiences in the encounters we have
had with General Buhari and Professor Attahiru Jega. Therefore, it was easy to
express sentiments, even as opponents (in the case of Buhari) that were
congruent with our personal convictions.
Second, we became concerned about the national danger in the
vigorous opposition to and criticism of the two very prominent Northerners,
coming from our part of the South. We felt that sentiments such as were
expressed in my articles, coming from an operative of an independent
Southern-based party, would help in establishing some needed homeostasis in the
ongoing campaign, particularly in the interest of national unity. “Love and
Unity,” after all, is the motto of the UPP.
Third, what we called our revolutionary agenda in COPCO, was much
closer in ideology to the APC manifesto than to the PDP’s. It was therefore
important to us that the progressive ideology in the country’s political space
not be discredited and the progressive momentum not impeded.
Fourth, the fact was that if we did not believe that change was
absolutely needed at the center, the UPP would not have fielded a candidate for
president against the incumbent. While we campaigned to be that replacement for
Jonathan and the PDP, we were not oblivious of the fact that the best chance of
that change in 2015 was in the APC and that the man with the greatest
opportunity was General Buhari. This was why Chief Chekwas Okorie rejected
entreaties to step down or to join those parties that called for postponement
of the elections and for Jega’s resignation.
The taste of the progressive pudding, however, is going to be in
the implementation of a people-oriented set of programs and policies.
President-elect Buhari now has a rare opportunity among the 170 million
Nigerians to write his name, with a different narrative, in the hearts of his
compatriots.
After perhaps the most contentious election in the country’s
history, his first major gesture towards healing and towards a rapid response
to the high hopes of our compatriots that are now invested in his historic
mandate, should be a broad-based, unifying, unblemished and above all,
competent government team. Let’s not sweat the small stuff! Let a new
Earth rise in deed!
Finally, I am grateful to Chief Chekwas Okorie for the opportunity
to participate in this national service at the prestigious level of the
Director General of his presidential campaign organization. May his credible
and principled type become abundant in the new Nigeria!
God bless Nigeria and Nigerians!
Dr.
Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji is the Executive Director of the African Writers
Endowment, Inc. and Publisher of the Sungai Books imprint. He served as
the Director General of COPCO during the just concluded 2015 presidential
campaign and election in Nigeria.
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