Umahi’s Senate Presidency: Healing a bruised nation, energizing a wounded faith, By Kelechi C. Ogbamgba
Now that the dust of the presidential election seems to be settling, it is only auspicious that the issue of governance should take the front burner of public discourse. This, no doubt, will engender a departure from the fractious politicking that is understandably divisive partisanship that characterized the presidential election.
Besides, it is the issue of proper unifying governance that will propel to the core a propitious national rebirth and genuine healing process and ensure that the long drawn sword of electioneering is indeed sheathed.
In no better way can this be done other than engineering the process of appeasing the core nationalities and sections of the the country that may have been, perhaps inadvertently, shortchanged in electing a new president.
With the obvious misgivings expressed by major sections of the country over the Muslim-Muslim candidature and now presidency of the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Bola Tinubu and his deputy, Kashim Shettima, the only reasonable option that will kick start the expected national rebirth is for the President-elect to engineer a unifying national government that will reach out to, particularly, the South-East. This is obvious, because for a long time, they have agitated for the plum job of Nigeria’s presidency. Just when they felt it was theirs for grabs, it ebbed out like a smoke. Naturally, the South-Easterners may feel that they no longer have a stake in a country where they are equal partners and major stakeholders.
What is the way forward? What policy direction will make the people of the South-East, particularly of the Igbo stock, to identify with national cause and have a sense of belonging as equal owners of the commonwealth? What will likely douse the pervading disillusionment amongst the Igbo nationality?
The answers to the above questions are what the President-elect should address fast. But interestingly, the solutions aren’t difficult. Since the West and North have taken the slot for President and Vice President respectively, it is only logical that the South-East should be alloted the next federal superstructure, which is the headship of the National Assembly, the second tier of government.
The Senate President and Head of the 10th National Assembly should, without much ado, be zoned to the South-East and, specifically, to an Igbo of impeccable pedigree, sound intellect and a politician without a moral and ethical challenge.
Out of all the Senators-elect from the South-East who could easily fill the bill for the leadership of the National Assembly is Governor David Umahi who is currently the Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum. Aside from leaving a legacy in governance and infrastructural development that has lifted Ebonyi State from a baggage of an unenviable rusticity to a cosmopolitan and tourists attraction, Umahi has shown the stuff that a great leader is made of.
In a press statement, Sunday, Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide requested for support for the emergence of Governor Umahi as Senate President and Chairman of the next National Assembly.
The group said that “Umahi has demonstrated democratic tolerance without penchant for sectional politics.” This will no doubt provide the South-East the necessary pedestal to launch out again, sure-footedly, into national consciousness without the needless baggage of weeping under-players.
A press statement issued by Secretary General Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, Mazi Okechuwu Isiguzoro, further explained that it is obviously fair that the Senate President should, in this dispensation, emerge from the South-East geo-political zone.
Beyond the consideration of the South-East for the position, the document stated that more important is the choice of the occupant of the office, posited that Nigeria currently need politicians with spread of acceptance and without bias of religion and ethnicity.
Umahi’s qualification is further buttressed by the agitation of different socio-cultural and political groups in South-East who have indicated support for the the advocacy for a tested and trusted hand from South-East to clinch the Senate Presidency. The groups including South-East Traditional Rulers, Elders Council, Political Organisations in South East expressed interest in championing the course for the emergence of Umahi as Senate President and Chairman of the next National Assembly, saying that time has come in Nigeria when people of proven trackrecords should be called to higher service.
Being a professed strong Christian, Umahi’s prominent position in the incoming administration Muslim-Muslim presidency will place him on pivotal pedestal to provide the needed cover for believers in the Christian faith. It will give them the hope that one of their own is also part of the government and that they have nothing to be afraid of.
Instructively therefore, Umahi’s headship of the next National Assembly will have a multiplier effect: reassurance to the distraught South-East, and hope to the beleaguered Christian faithful. Indeed Umahi is the healing the nation is yearning for at this time.
*Tanko is a political commentator and public analyst
