It was Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Nigeria’s elder statesman, that posited thus:
Politics is a business of interest. It starts from group interest, then to class interest, then, if you like, it gets to personal interest.
President Muhammadu Buhari has failed, refused or neglected to accommodate the varied interests that lubricate the peaceful co-existence of this country. Nigeria’s national mantra is ‘Unity in Diversity.
Nigeria as a country has never been so divided since the Nigerian Civil War ended in 1970. The tribal, religious and sectarian crisis in Nigeria is being fueled by the actions and inactions of President Muhammadu Buhari.
As a Southerner, I did not only vote for Buhari against ex-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan – a fellow Southerner, during the 2015 presidential elections, I campaigned vigorously for him. I contributed my modest quota to his Victory. I felt good when President Buhari won, and I looked forward to a Nigeria of my dreams.
I felted elated when President Muhammadu Buhari stated in his speech at his inauguration on the 29th of May, 2015, that: I belong to everybody, and I belong to nobody
To my chagrin, this statement has come to become the biggest lie in Nigeria’s Political History. President Muhammadu Buhari cares more about his Fulani People, whether Nigerians or not, than he cares about the rest of Nigeria. President Buhari will go into history as the most tribal President in Nigeria’s Political History. He is building a rail station to Niger Republic because his cousins are there, he should make a rail station to the Benin Republic because our cousins are also there. Are National Projects now used to settle family issues? What a dumb reason for building a Rail Project to Niger Republic, when there is none to Benin City or Owerri, where my cousins are!
The whole of Nigeria’s Security Architecture all being manned by Persons from the North, even to that of the Nigerian Fire Service for the very first time in Nigeria’s history. Northerners are manning the Major agencies of Government. The three Organs of Government- the executive, the legislature and the Judiciary are being manned by Northerners, also for the first time in Nigeria’s history.
President Buhari is not the first Northerner to rule Nigeria, but he is the first Nigerian President to run a tribal agenda mixed with deep nepotism or “inlawism”.
If this were just the only concern, we would be good. However, marauding Fulani herders descend on Communities all across Nigeria with AK 47 riffles and the Federal controlled Security Forces most times turn a blind eye. This accounts for the setting up of Local Security Architecture that has made policing local. The issue was not helped by the Minister of Defence saying we should defend ourselves when we have a Government we voted for to protect us. Ineptitude can not be worse than this.
The President of Nigeria talks more like the President of the Fulani Nation. In a genocidal statement reminiscent of the carnage of the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1960), President Muhammadu Buhari categorised all Igbos as Members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and threatened them with a pogrom like incendiary statement thus:
Those of us who were in the trenches during the Nigerian Civil war, when the time comes, we will treat them in a language they understand.
The IPOB replied to this Statement thus: We will surprise Buhari, 1967 is not 2021
Instead of toning down the bellicose and belligerent narrative, President Buhari pushed Nigeria further into the precipes when he said: The Igbos are like a dot in a circle in Nigeria…
These Statements are not presidential, just as they are uncouth. They are statements unbecoming of a President of a Country. Whether Nigeria stays or breaks is in the hands of President Buhari. We do not want war but peace.
Peace is not the absence of war; it is the presence of justice -Martin Luther King.
President Buhari must tone down the narrative, stop building unnecessary tension with his speeches, make appointments into Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs) and Security Agencies equitably. He should stop the worthless rail project to the Niger Republic when we do not have any in most other places in Nigeria and deplore the resources to build rail projects in other areas in Nigeria; get the immigration service to stop the influx of foreigners into Nigeria, which is a significant threat to our security as a country; face real governmental issues and remove Garba Shehu as his presidential spokesman as he (Garba Shehu) is fueling tribal and religious tension in Nigeria.
Nigeria, as a Country, though tenuous and volatile, has been managed by our former leaders with a lot of understanding and consensus. The rest of Nigeria, aside from President Buhari’s people under this Administration, is being ruled like a conquered territory. President Buhari must retrace his steps before it is too late.
Half a word is enough!
Douglas Ogbankwa Esq., @ douglasogbankwa@gmail.com, is a Benin Based Lawyer, Writer and Analyst.