It was not by mere conjecture or political gamble that the United Progressive Party (UPP) resolved to zone the presidential ticket of the party for the 2015 presidential election to the Igbo people of the South East geo-political zone of Nigeria. The decision to hand over the presidential flag of UPP for the 2015 election to a credible and qualified Igbo person was borne out of a deep research and highly intellectual analysis of the potential but latent political movement of Nigerian masses which only the Igbo have the natural force to galvanize and lead.
1. NDIGBO: A MINORITY WITH A UNIQUE MAJORITY POLITICAL FORCE
(a) It is a fact of Nigeria’s man-made geo-political structure that the core Igbo people of Nigeria have been confined to 5 out of Nigeria’s 36 states structure. Ndigbo have for several decades lamented over this lopsided structure designed and executed by the military junta that ruled Nigeria after the Biafra – Nigeria war which ended in 1970 or 43 years ago. This has left Nigerians including some unwary Igbo people with the erroneous impression that Ndigbo are the least populated ethnic group in Nigeria and therefore least likely to ever win any presidential election in Nigeria in a democratic contest.
(b) It is also axiomatic and beyond any debate that Ndigbo constitute the second largest ethnic group in the remaining 31 states of Nigeria. Put differently, Ndigbo are the largest minority group in all of the remaining 31 states of Nigeria. Implicit in this unrivalled geographical spread in Nigeria is an intimidating political force which can surmount any political obstacle in a democratic encounter for the presidency of Nigeria if effectively mobilized, deployed and managed.
(c) It is unarguable that minority groups whether religious or ethnic share common experience and face the same kind of problems in the states of Nigeria where they are domiciled. Even where such groups are indigenous in those states, they remain victims of oppression for as long as they are in the minority.
Expectedly, these more vulnerable groups have always looked up to the larger minority group which is Igbo to lead them in a concerted effort for political protection from their majority over-lords and oppressors. It stands to reason that the Yoruba of South-West are vulnerable minority in non-Yoruba States of Nigeria. This is also applicable to all ethnic and religious groups who are majority in a few states but miserable victims of majority oppression in majority of the states of Nigeria.
This unique position of Ndigbo as the largest minority in 31 states of Nigeria poses to the people the challenge of providing the initiative and leadership necessary for a mass movement to occur, for an equitable and egalitarian society that will engender unity, development, citizenship rights, sovereignty of the Nigerian people and accountability of elected persons to the citizens who freely elected them into office, in a free and fair democratic election.
This mass mobilization of Nigerians to challenge the status quo and take their destiny in their hands cannot be achieved by socio-cultural, ethnic or religious organizations. It is only on the platform of a truly progressive political party that is insulated from the control and ownership of cabals that can be trusted to mobilize over-whelming majority of Nigerians for an enduring political revolution in Nigeria.
3. UPP Vs APC/PDP
It is by divine providence that birds of the same feather have practically coalesced on a single political platform known as All Progressives Congress (APC). Before the emergence of APC, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) used to enjoy exclusively the unenviable reputation of a political party with the largest assemblage of oppressors, and mindless treasury looters. Now, by a single stroke of divine order, APC has mopped up whatever is left of political leaders with well known criminal political credentials. APC and PDP are for every intent and purpose, two sides of the same coin. In these two political parties one will find all the cabals that have left Nigeria prostrate and almost comatose. APC and PDP are like kettle and pot. None can call the other black.
In spite of certain pretentions to progressivism by some of the leaders of APC/PDP there is no gainsaying the fact that the most visible leaders of these two political parties have held and are holding political offices in Nigeria from 1970 to present time. They cannot deny responsibility for the deplorable state of the Nation
Nigerians crave for and earnestly desire a total change of the status quo. Nigerians only need a credible, free and fair election where their votes will count, and they will not have any difficulty in retiring permanently from political office these pretenders posing as progressives. Recent publications have given the impression that Nigeria is there only for APC and PDP to plunder, balkanize and cart away.
The United Progressive Party (UPP) with the tiger head as it symbol has been unleashed and is on the prowl. UPP is a mass movement, pure, and unencumbered. There are no money bags, cabals, political god-fathers laying claim to its ownership and control. Our party’s progressive credential is unassailable. Our candidates in all forth- coming elections shall emerge democratically, without the usual imposition of candidates that characterize the PDP and the parties that constitute what is yet to be registered as APC.
UPP is the miracle of 2015. We are here to challenge the status quo and nothing shall be the same any more. The people shall from the next general election take their destiny in their hand through the instrumentality of the UNITED PROGRESSIVE PARTY (UPP). In UPP we do not need the merger of strange bed fellows, treasury looters, political god-fathers, religious bigots, ethnic irredentists and local imperialists to win political power to guarantee the welfare of the long suffering Nigerian masses. What we need and that is what we are working for is a coalition of progressive forces on the undiluted and untainted platform of the United Progressive Party to overthrow the forces of oppression and retrogression.
Nigerians must come to terms with the hard fact that the missing third leg in Nigeria’s political tripodal sub-structure is fully resurrected through the United Progressive Party (UPP).
We are fortified and geared towards an epic democratic battle with reactionary forces masquerading as progressives.
Chief Okorie (Oje Ozi Ndigbo) is the National Chairman of United Progressive Party (UPP)
