Southeast, the Underdog of Nigerian Politics
There have been outcries that the Southeast is the most politically marginalized geopolitical zone in Nigeria. A number of reasons are given to buttress the outcries but the most cogent one centres on the fact that the Southeast is the only Zone in the country that is yet to produce a substantive president in Nigeria. This sense of marginalization of the Southeast in the equation of Nigerian politics is one of the reasons driving the current push for a Nigerian president of Southeast extraction.
Thus, before the just concluded political primaries by the various political parties in the country, there were calls on all the political parties or at least the major political parties, to zone their presidential ticket to the Southeast. It was assumed that doing that would heal the current sense of injustice and the attendant divisiveness pervasive in the country. Unfortunately, none of the two major political parties in the country heeded the call. As speculation continues on why the plea to zone the presidential ticket to the Southeast fails, there is growing believe the reason could be because the Southeast is not of much electoral value to anyone who wants be the president in Nigeria. While this claim maybe unpalatable, especially to those coming from the Southeast but it is not far from the truth.
For instance, in the recent past; at least starting from 2015, almost every candidate supported by the Southeast to become president in Nigeria lost the election. The Zone supported and voted massively for Goodluck Jonathan in 2015; he lost against Mohammadu Buhari. Again in 2019, almost all of Southeast votes went to Alhaji Atiku Abubarka; again, he failed.
Why the Southeast Appears Irrelevant in Nigeria’s Presidential Election
In attempts to explain why the Southeast is not of much significance in deciding who becomes Nigeria’s president, a number of suggestions have been proposed. There is the claim that the Southeast doesn’t have the prerequisite population to contribute to who becomes Nigeria’s president. However, this assumption may not be exactly true. The latest research on Nigerian demography shows that apart from Lagos State, the Southeast is the most densely populated Zone in Nigeria. The real reason for Southeast’s poor performance in Nigeria’s presidential elections can be traced to two factors. The first is that many Southeasterners live outside the Southeast and are therefore added to the populations of other zones during presidential election. In 2012, a research conducted by Afribeck concluded that about 40% of Lagos population is Igbo. Thus, to exclusively judge the contribution of the Southeast to a presidential candidate by the number of voters in the zone alone will be to miscalculate.
The second factor that explains Southeast’s poor performance in presidential elections is voters’ apathy among Igbos in general and the Southeast in particular. The most recent data released by INEC showed that the Southeast is behind other zones in the registration and collection of PVC.
South East: 550,771
South-West: 1,235,610
South-South: 1,524,415
North-East: 836,204
North-West: 1,223,179
North-Central: 1,107,107
Total for North: 3,166,490
Total for South: 3,310,796
The figure here doesn’t reflect Southeast population in comparison to other zones. What it shows is the disinteret of the people of the Zone in Nigerian politics. Over the years, due to bad leadership, Southeasterners have lost hope in Nigerian politics. There is a general feeling that political leaders are wicked, greedy and only after their selfish interests. Southeasterners believe that these selfish politicians are not worth living one’s business or risking one’s life for. Hence, an average person from the Southeast would prefer to play football on an election day than waste his time or risk his life going to vote for a person he believe has nothing to contribute to his life.
A New Dawn for Voters Registration in the Southeast
An average southeasterner is a pragmatist. He wants a country that works.That is why when Obi left PDP and joined the Labour Party and presented the possibility of a new Nigeria that would work where the current Nigeria has failed, Southeasterners, always lovers of progress bought into his idea. Currently, there is massive mobilization across the Southeast calling on unregistered voters to go out and register. Churches and other institutions in the Zone are doing all they can to convince their members to go out and get their PVC.
However, with nearly less than a week to the closure of voters’ registration by INEC, it becomes pertinent to appeal to Southeast leaders, especially the governors of the five states in the zone to declare a week holidays to enable citizens in the zone to register for their PVC. This is once in a lifetime regional opportunity. If the Southeast miss it now, it may take a long while before it gets it again. Now that the people of the zone are galvanized, political leaders should show the prerequisite patriotism by granting them a week holidays to register and get their PVC. Governor Matawalle of Zamfara State did it few days ago; the governors of the Southeast can do better!
