First of all, let me take you back to history. Ndigbo lost a bright chance of producing the president of Nigeria in 1979. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe called me in April 1978 and told me as his field man in his time to go back to Nigeria and tell them that he wanted to come back to politics.
I went to Lagos, I contacted Shehu Shagari and asked him how do we work together to get this done? Shagari summoned two other people from the North; Shetima Ali Monguno and Sunday Awoniyi from Kwara State. Then I went with Azubuike Okafor and Dennis Osadebe. We were holding meetings in Lagos at the residence of Shehu Shagari and I was reporting to Zik until we eventually agreed on a platform – National Party of Nigeria (NPN); that Zik will be the presidential candidate, while Shagari will be his running mate.
So, I came back and reported to Zik and he said ‘that’s good, you know it is the emirs in the North who determine; are you sure they will not knock it off? So, I went back to Lagos and told Shagari this is the fear of the old man. He said of course we were in consultation with the emirs. Then the following week, the Sultan of Sokoto sent the Emir of Zaria to Zik at Nsukka that the entire emirs in the North are in support of what the politicians are planning.
Again, Zik said ‘what about the soldiers? The soldiers may take up the government again if I run.’ I asked him: ‘Owelle, if they kill you now, did they kill you early?’ I went back to Lagos and told Shagari that this is what Zik is saying about the army. Shagari asked: ‘Does that man really want to be president? Okay, I will get in touch with the army, come back in the evening, we will have dinner.’ That evening, I went back to his house in Victoria Island and Theophilus Danjuma came. Danjuma was the Chief of Army Staff then.
So, the three of us had dinner and Shagari told Danjuma about the fear Zik expressed. Danjuma said ‘no, no, no, but this is the real man we want, this is the type of person that we want that will bind this country together. I can’t go to Nsukka because if I go back to Nsukka the press will catch me. Alright, go back and tell Zik that I am going to Calabar on Saturday to Army Sports and I will make a speech at the Army Sports and in this speech I will send a message to him.’
On that day, Danjuma went to Calabar and made a speech. He said: ‘I am reassuring the nation that the army is ready to hand over finally to civilian government and return to barracks but they must warn that the person they will handover to must be an elder-binding person in this country, will not be a person who will come and cause trouble again, must be a true father of the nation.’
Suddenly, Jim Nwobodo lost nomination with Onoh in the party and went back to Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) and told Zik, dump whatever 'arrangements, come to NPP, NPP is our own party, Igbo party, we will put you in government. Suddenly, Zik changed mind, he changed mind and made announcement that a plan for his birthday in November 1978 in Enugu is cancelled and it was that day he was to be presented to the nation. A motion to be moved by Maitama Sule from Kano to be seconded by Anthony Enahoro from the West, then I will speak last from the East.
I went back to him on the 17th of November and asked Zik what happened and he told me ‘Jim came to me that I should go back to my people and I don’t want to go to a party where Adisa Akinloye will be the national chairman and I don’t want to belong to the same party with K.O. Mbadiwe because of what Mbadiwe did to me.’ In my book, in which I wrote the history of Nigeria, you will see where I said ‘Zik made Jim Nwobodo governor and unmade himself president.’
So, that was what happened. In that birthday party that was aborted, Osadebe came, it was aborted and he went to Zik’s house but they did not allow him to see Zik. They told him Zik was sick. He started going back and had accident at Nine mile corner and got paralyzed till he died. Mojeed Agbaje from Ibadan, a close associate of Adegoke Adelabu came for the party at Enugu and it was aborted. He went to Nsukka to see Zik and he was told that Zik was not feeling fine and he couldn’t see anybody. On his way back he had accident and died, four of them in his car died at Ore and that was how we lost the opportunity of becoming the president and the party went and nominated Shagari.
Then on the 13th of January, 1978 at Kwara State Hotel, we were in campaign tour and Shagari was to announce his running mate, so, he called me in the hotel with Akinloye the national chairman and told me that he has selected me to be his running mate. I told him thank you very much. I said as a sincere man, I can see myself for a lower position when Zik is running against me, I can’t run against Zik, I can’t run an election to defeat Zik, Igbo people will not forgive me and my children will not be able to explain it. So, I nominated Alex Ekwueme to be the running mate. That was how we had the opportunity we had.
Again, during this Fourth Republic, Ekwueme ran and the same Jim Nwobodo ran to the North again and betrayed Ekwueme at the Jos convention when the Peoples Democratic Party PDP was selecting its presidential candidate; the same Jim Nwobodo.
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