IGBOZURUOKE MEDIA

While a number of leading politicians in the Southeast and a huge percentage of party supporters in the same region have remained fixated on old political orthodoxy, a few governors are gently but firmly breaking out of the cocoon to carve a national niche and circle of influence for themselves. These few governors and a minister – Peter Mbah of Enugu State, Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, and David Umahi of Ebonyi State – have realised that they must calibrate their regional appeal vis-à-vis their national influence to stand any chance of making a mark at the national level in the years ahead. They have seemed to realise how counterproductive the regional appeal subscribed to by Peter Obi, a former Anambra governor and Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, could be.

Leadership paradigm is shifting in the Southeast. A new generation of leaders is emerging in the region, and it eschews the needless antagonisms and opportunisms of the past. It recognises that despite being somewhat viewed with suspicion, that new paradigm involves an uncanny appreciation of how the power pendulum is swinging at the national level and which alliances they must associate with in order to stand any chance of future political successes. In their private musings and public discussions and debates the three governors and a minister have understudied the Southwest and discovered that excessive regional appeal could countermand, if not entirely undermine, a significant national appeal. They appreciate the qualities displayed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, but noted how dismally he performed when he sought higher national office. And they saw how MKO Abiola created a groundswell of national following that galvanised his politics and gave him the 1993 presidential election.

More crucially, the emerging national leaders from the Southeast also saw how President Bola Tinubu carved a national following and, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles erected by powerful interests and top political leaders around the country, won the 2023 poll. They have learnt to ignore every other thing controversial about him, and have chosen to focus on his methods. They have seen that to make a mark, a Southeast politician must have the broadened view of a national player, unencumbered by ethnicity and religion, and the self-immolating parochialism of irredentists and religious fanatics. Equally important, they have seized the small opportunity of leadership positions at all levels to leave an indelible developmental mark on their states and ministry. While the Southwest is immersed in complacency and has not produced a stand-out leader in the states in recent years, the emerging Southeast leaders have imbued their efforts with a sense of urgency never seen before in their region.

While Mr Uzodinma’s first electoral victory as governor in 2019 was controversial and the second in 2024 spectacular and well-deserved, he has proved a great asset to the state, and has offered remarkable and liberal leadership to his state and the region instead of the stifling insularism hitherto popular among Southeast politicians. Educated at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and Federal University of Technology, Owerri, the two-term senator (2011-2019) counsels the Southeast to change their political paradigm from the narrow-minded provincialism they have long embraced to the open and tolerant politics that will help them break free of the chokehold that has kept them marginalised and grumbling. He probably stumbled into the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a result of the discrimination he suffered in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on which platform he was a senator, but since his arrival in the APC he has deprecated the ethnic card and has played expansive and broad-minded politics, seeking new friends and networking with a deliberateness that indicates foresight.

Mr Uzodinma is 66. While he will continue to be relevant after his second term as governor, it is unlikely he still harbours any presidential ambition. He may have laid a solid political foundation for himself, but neither time nor geopolitics is on his side. On the other hand, Mr Umahi, an engineer and current Works minister harboured presidential dreams, and indeed showed interest in the 2022 APC presidential primary; but at 62, it is not clear whether time and geopolitics will be kind to him. Far in excess of what he had achieved as a governor, he has displayed brilliance and energy in his current assignment as a minister. Migrating to the APC in 2018 as a second term governor, he finished well and strong, installing a successor and leaving indelible developmental marks on Ebonyi State. Polemical and outspoken, he has also joined other emerging regional political leaders to warn about the countervailing factor of regional provincialism in presidential politics. He scorned Mr Obi’s efforts, describing the optimistic and naïve LP candidate’s presidential campaign in 2022 and 2023 as deeply flawed and doomed from the beginning.

Another emerging leader is the redoubtable Prof. Soludo, a first-class economist and academician who is unafraid of controversy or debate. He is up for reelection early next month; he is projected to win by a healthy margin. He showed interest early enough in politics, particularly in the governorship of his state. Had he won early, he would have stamped himself in the consciousness of Nigerians far earlier than he has done and much more effectively than during his governorship of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) between 2004 and 2009. A visiting scholar at some of the world’s most prestigious universities in the US and UK, the 65-year-old governor may have flowered politically a little too late despite his glittering resume. He has chalked up outstanding records as governor, and has wondered at the naivety of many south-easterners in the game of national politics. Like Messrs Uzodinma and Umahi, the eminent economist and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) chieftain, has already taken his place in the Southeast pantheon. He will continue to be relevant locally and nationally.

At just 53, Enugu’s Mr Mbah has demonstrated he is not afraid to take risks. Critics in the Southeast may not understand why the lawyer and businessman took the fateful step of defecting to the APC, but he is showing the region his capability for perspective reasoning by foreswearing parochial politics in favour of national and liberal politics with a crossover appeal. He will still be within the presidential age range when power rotates to the South in 2039 when it would be much harder to deny the Southeast finally. At that time, aspirants will not only need a great and powerful party platform, he must also show his connections, have a record of supporting others to get to the top or win national elections, and must possess the ideological rampart to back his ambition. Mr Mbah is both an achiever and an intuitive politician who has his heart in the right place. Though he only managed to win the Enugu governorship poll controversially, should elections be held today, he will win by a landslide. Such is the force of his vision and developmental strides that only few governors can match.

For the first time in generations, the Southeast is producing leaders who can fight for their place nationally, pound-for-pound. They are showing courage in disavowing the sterile and crippling political orthodoxies of the past, and are projecting strength and intellectual depth far beyond their region, and breaking glass ceilings of all kind. They seem to be confirming what many political analysts have always concluded: that there is no inherent distrust or hatred for the Southeast; that what the region needs are cosmopolitan politicians who have paid their dues by associating with and supporting other national politicians in order to merit other people’s support. Messrs Soludo, Umahi, Uzodinma, and Mbah will go far, very far. They are the powerful and reassuring face of the new Southeast politics, and will help shape the elections of 2027, 2031, and beyond.

(The Nation)