The president of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio in the last week subtly gave a hint to Ndigbo on how they can ease the yoke of political marginalization that has been the lot of their people since the 1966 crisis.

The new trail for Igbo emancipation surfaced at the night of tributes for the late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah on Monday. Senator Rochas Okorocha had in the course of the tributes urged Akpabio to plead with President Bola Tinubu to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention, warning that should he fail, Southeast leaders will take back his Igbo-born wife.

“So, I want to plead with you, Rochas, that I will come to your house, personally, to inform you after I have delivered the message to the federal government,” Akpabio said.

That an Igbo lady easily controls Nigeria’s number one lawmaker is one that may surprise some. It is no secret that as governor of Akwa Ibom and now as President of the Senate that Mrs Akpabio has been a major influencer behind the scenes of the actions and inactions of her husband. The manipulation of the head of Nigeria’s legislature Godswill Akpabio by his wife, Unoma is one that preceded his emergence as Senate President, going back to the time he was in Akwa Ibom State.

But many also are also deciphering that another Igbo lady is also primely positioned in the executive branch of the Federal Government.

Few dispute the fact that Nigeria’s First Son and potential Lagos State governor, Seyi Tinubu is about one of the major influencers of the present administration. Many notable appointments have been credited to him. It is also beginning to dawn on many that Layal Holms, the beautiful wife of Seyi Tinubu has maternal roots to Anambra State and paternal roots in Lebanon.

In effect, two of the three branches of the Federal Government have men controlled by Igbo women controlling them from home.

These two women are among Igbo women who have done themselves well by freeing themselves from the collective yoke of marginalisation through their nuptial engagements.

 Many examples of Igbo women exploring the marriage pathway outside Igboland to positions of political prominence abound.

Among the most notable Nigerian men of power from outside the Southeast that have found connubial leanings to Igbo are Liyel Imoke, Ibrahim Babangida, Atiku Abubakar, the Adeleke family, the late Rotimi Akeredolu, Buba Marwa among many others.

In almost and certainly all the cases above, their wives just like Mrs Nneoma Akpabio played and continue to play considerable roles in their political evolutions.

In one case when a top actor was about to get a prominent political position he was compelled by the authorities to marry a second wife from his region to mask the fact that his original wife was Igbo.

Indeed, among Nigerian women, there is no doubt that Igbo women are among the most adventurous willing to embrace men from other tribes in marriage.

But despite the love for Igbo women why do many Nigerian men from outside the Southeast still play politics of marginalisation against their Igbo in-laws? Why would a scion of the Nasir El-Rufai family sleep with a partly Igbo woman on his marital bed in the night and in the daytime espouse politics of exclusion in the daytime?

We remember that just over a year ago Bayo Onanuga issued a stern warning to Ndigbo to steer clear from the politics of Lagos State ahead of 2027.

With Seyi Tinubu beginning to be reckoned with in the Lagos governorship race it is now being claimed that the warning from Bayo Onanuga and some other Yoruba zealots was merely a chant for political rediscovery. After being browbeaten by the Obidient movement, the resort to ethnic jingoism became an easy route to political renaissance.

While it is true that Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party 2023 governorship candidate has maternal roots in Igbo land, he nevertheless shares the same marital identity with Seyi Tinubu in having an Igbo lady as a wife.

It is thus no shock that some are now already labelling Seyi a Chinedu ahead of a probable 2027 political outing.

It is as such refreshing that the politics of warmongering and ethnicity played by many political actors in Lagos was just for self survival. As Senator Akpabio loudly proclaimed when it comes to preserving his family as a reason to forge national unity, many political actors are willing to pay the price. We now enjoin other many Igbo wives from Mrs Tinubu Junior to others in lesser positions to exert their influence to push through the unity and national identity that Nigeria desperately desires.