What is Ifeanyi Ubah’s interest in rallying the South East caucus of 10th Assembly

Since the demand by the Senators-elect from the South East became a subject of national discourse a few days ago, divergent views have emerged as to the real intentions behind the call for equity and inclusiveness for the South East zone by the group.

While one group went to town with the story that this move is about the ambition of the Chief Whip of the 9th Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, to become the Senate President in the 10th Senate.

This is notwithstanding the fact that another aspirant for the same Senate presidency seat, Senator Osita Izunaso, was also an active participant in all the meetings held by the group.

Another group resorted to spreading the ridiculous rumour that the South East Caucus were trying to exchange the presidency of the Federal Republic for the Senate Presidency.

To the latter group, all they need is the presidency through Mr Peter Obi’s tribunal case or nothing.

Before President Jonathan’s ascent to Aso Rock, the country used to stand on the tripod of Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba while the over 100 other ethnic nationalities we have in the country were subsumed under the three major ethnic groups.

Fast forward to the present day, Nigeria where the South South region has since not only emerged as a distinct power bloc that is no longer under the old Eastern region but also seems to have taken over the space of the Igbos in the National tripod through deft political manoeuvres.

Today, when it comes to power-sharing, the three major tribes now seem more like the Hausa, Yoruba, and the South-South.

When the news floated in that the President-elect has endorsed a South Southerner in the person of Akpabio for the position of Senate President, many Igbos had the forlorn feeling of continued isolation from the affairs of the country in the next democratic dispensation under the Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency.

With the announcement of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the preferred choice of the President-elect for the seat of the senate president, the major stakeholders and Senators-elect from the South East (especially those in the APC) must have felt thoroughly humiliated because there were zero attempts to even pretend to hold consultations with them before the announcement.

The leadership vacuum currently existing in the South East region became even more glaring.

They consulted only the former Governor of Ebonyi state, His Excellency Dave Umahi, who unfortunately neither wields the influence to rally the other Senators-elect and stakeholders nor bothered to insist that they be consulted as a bloc.

But Senator Dr Ifeanyi Ubah

(despite being elected on the minority YPP) will have none of that. He immediately rose to the occasion and became a rallying point for the Senators-elect from the South East region.

While Senator Ubah has maintained in his interview outings on various fora that he is neither interested in vying for the seat of the Senate President nor interested in backing any particular Senator from the South East for the seat, he rather insists that the seat should come to the South East on basis of equity and inclusiveness.

The Senator is also of the belief that where there is a contrary opinion, it should be discussed, and the South East Caucus properly consulted rather than the idea of merely announcing the disenfranchisement of the entire region in a manner akin to saying that Ndi Igbo do not matter in the scheme of things.

It, therefore, smacks of absolute naivety and what the then Governor of Imo state, Senator Rochas Okorocha, will term “iberiberism” for an Igbo man to come out on social media and question why the south-east Caucus should demand for what should rightfully come to them.

Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah’s action by rallying his colleagues to demand respect for the Igbo nation is akin to what the late Igbo warlord, Dim Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, will also do during his own time.

Let the consultations towards not just the 10th assembly but the fate of ndi igbo in the next Democratic Dispensation continue.

Kamen Chuks Ogbonna
Ibadan, Nigeria