When John heard in prison of the works of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to him with this question, “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?”
Mathew, 11: 2 – 3
Nigeria needs less axe-grinding and more dead wood-chopping.
Going by their voting pattern in the last National elections, the Igbos of Nigeria left no one in doubt that they have a heavy axe to grind with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Symbolically going by the executive appointments he has made so far in his capacity as the President and Commander- in – Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has scarcely left anyone with any doubt that he equally has a heavy axe to grind especially with the Igbos and to a much lesser extent with the Yorubas and to a still lesser extent with South-Southerners.
And that is a disappointment to Nigerian pan-nationalists, because President Muhammadu Buhari was not elected to grind axes with any component part of Nigeria but to chop down the dead wood of corruption, tribalism, ethnicism, religious bigotry and backwardness which have occupied the Nigerian space since independence and replace them with sounder tree stock of integrity, pan Nigerian nationalism, religious tolerance and progressiveness.
Now I have a few confessions to make right away. The first is that I am a proud Igbo and I have no apologies for the ancestry and heritage God in his infinite wisdom bestowed upon me. That does not stop me and indeed quite on the contrary, I confess that I am equally a proud Nigerian who loves all the component parts of Nigeria just as much as I love my own ethnicity again without any apologies.
In the ‘A Nation in Heat’ series of essays leading up to the 2015 Nigerian Presidential elections, this writer argued passionately given the presidential candidates presented by the two leading contending parties that Nigeria was placed between a rock and a hard place. Indeed we were located between Pharaoh and Egypt on the one hand (represented by President Jonathan and his party the PDP) and the Red Sea on the other hand (represented by General Muhammadu Buhari and his party the APC).
It was this writer’s general counsel that Nigerians should place their faith in God, close their eyes, shut their ears, wade into the Red Sea and cross over to a brighter future without fear of drowning. I still stand by that counsel.
The North Western region of Nigeria (7,115,199 votes for President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 Presidential elections) were the first to wade in followed by the North Eastern region (2,587,352 votes). Next to wade in was the Middle Belt region (2,525,940 votes), followed by the South Western region (2,433,193 votes) and the South Southern region (418,590 votes). Last to wade in was the South-Eastern region with a miserly 198,248 votes (See the attached table).
Now it would seem that the Red Sea that parted voluntarily to let the North Eastern, North Western and Middle Belt regions pass through safely (although they are yet to reach the promised land) is threatening to drown the Southern regions with the South Eastern region especially threatened if the cries for help and marginalization from that region is anything to go by.
This writer had seen this scenario coming and that is why in the euphoric aftermath of President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the Presidential elections, this writer had strongly called for inclusive democracy admonishing in the last essay of the ‘A Nation in Heat’ series, subtitled “Fait Accompli” published sometime in April 2015 that ‘while the minority may have their say and the majority may have their way, the entire nation must carry the day.” President Muhammadu Buhari and his coterie of advisers may do well to go and read or re-read this particular essay if they have not done so already.
They would equally do well to read or re-read as the case might be another of this writer’s subsequent essays titled “Inoculate the President” published in May 2015 where this writer had observed that “crap leaders look out for themselves, minor leaders look out for their sect or section, great leaders look out for their country, exceptional leaders look out for humanity,” capping the observation with the rhetorical rider, “Dear Leader, which (of these) are you?”
Either by commission or by omission, whether propelled by self-inclination or misadvised by anachronistic and narrow-minded persons, President Buhari today runs the risk of self-identifying himself as a minor leader when he has the potential and indeed has been placed by the turbulent vortex of capricious fortune and historical circumstances at the vantage point of emerging as a great leader of modern Nigeria. The mere thought that Nigeria now runs the risk of another squandered opportunity of genuine nation-building makes one shudder at its implications for the well-being of the nation when the next cycle of Presidential elections comes up in 2019.
If my memory serves me aright, shortly after the aforementioned essay titled “A Nation in Heat – Fait Accompli” which identified tribalism, ethnicism, and corruption among others as existential threats to Nigerian pan-nationalism was published, then President – Elect Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as saying that corruption and not tribalism or ethnicism is the problem of Nigeria.
If the President is in denial about tribalism or ethnicism how can he be expected to provide a solution to what in his own mind and in his own conception does not exist? In case he has forgotten, let us remind President Buhari that in the last Presidential Elections his background as a Fulani cost him votes among many Igbos and South-Southerners in a clear demonstration of tribalism and ethnicism while the same background earned him many votes across the northern part of Nigeria in another clear demonstration of tribalism and ethnicism.
It is possible that the shadowy coterie of presidential advisers has once again misadvised a sitting Nigerian President that he and his successors can comfortably and perpetually do away with the votes of component part(s) of Nigeria, this time the Igbos and the South-South. If that is the prevailing mind-set in the presidential kitchen cabinet, I want to again caution the advisers of the President that they are making a grave political and security mistake of unfathomable consequences to imagine that they can get away with such marginalization of component part(s) of Nigeria without severe repercussions.
Just recently Dr Junaid Mohammed a Fulani like the President was widely quoted as saying that certain posts in Nigeria are too sensitive to be occupied by people from certain parts of the country. One wonders if that statement by its very self is not a clear proof of tribalism and ethnicism, subversively active in Nigeria? By that very unfortunate, most anachronistic and most unhelpful statement, Dr Junaid Mohammed self-identified himself both as a very bad Nigerian and perhaps as a very good Fulani or a very good Northerner as the case might be.
Indeed no Nigerian who truly loves his own country, warts and all can say such a hideous thing about his fellow country-men. Where such an ignorant sentiment expressed by an illiterate peasant one may perhaps understand the depth of his intellectual limitations. But what a pity it is indeed that this sentiment was publicly expressed by a Western trained medical doctor who has held public positions paid for from the coffers of the Nigerian State at one time or the other in the past.
Let the truth be told, truly this writer is indifferent as to what part of Nigeria public officials come from or whatever religion they might profess provided they are Nigerians, are competent and hold their positions on merit and provided all their actions are governed by ‘pan-Nigerianism’ as against private, or sectional or sectarian interests. As was argued in the essay “A Nation in Heat – Fait Accompli” ‘discriminating against a Nigerian on the basis of ethnic origin, or religious affiliation, or gender or age should be criminalized in both the public and private sectors. If anti-discriminatory laws already exist, then they should be more energetically enforced.’
From that point of view and on the surface of things, President Muhammadu Buhari has not transgressed in the appointments he has made in his executive capacity as President of Nigeria and Commander –in – Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. After all the people he has appointed into positions of authority are all Nigerians like you and I and presumably they are all capable individuals.
However where I particularly fault President Buhari is that his appointments are absolutely unhelpful in reversing the reputation he has judiciously earned in the past (with some evidence I daresay) of being insular and narrow-minded. In other words the appointments he has made while being expedient to him are definitely unwise.
By his own actions he has sabotaged his own change agenda and sown the seeds of doubt in the minds of many people who are now rightfully suspicious that we may have merely exchanged a so-called Ijaw-Igbo hegemony for a Hausa-Fulani cum Kanuri hegemony. In order words people are rightfully indignant that we are watching the same old play containing the same old characters performing on the same old stage with merely different actors and actresses.
Given his own peculiar background, President Muhammadu Buhari owed it both to himself, his supporters and to the entire nation to show both substantively and symbolically that change has indeed come about and that it is now business unusual.
His actions so far no matter how well meaning, have energized his critics, emboldened his opponents, embarrassed his well-wishers, tongue-tied his supporters, undermined the credibility of his change agenda and diverted the nation’s attention from the arduous task ahead.
It has left his nominee for the post of the Secretary to the Federal Government with the unenviable task of explaining that he and other appointees were chosen on merit and not on the grounds of parochial regional solidarity – a clarification which was not his prerogative but that of the President to make.
It is a personal failure of judgement for President Buhari not to have realized that he is not starting from ground zero with a clean slate, as would a virgin President unencumbered by the hangovers of the past, but in his own case that he is starting from ground sub-zero with a checkered slate given his own peculiar antecedents.
And so what a virgin President could get away with in the all-embracing name of change, may not be easily tolerated from him whatever the explanations might be. In effect the President already in denial about the extent of the problem of tribalism and ethnicism in Nigeria may have over-estimated his goodwill among Nigerians, misread it as a carte blanche to ride roughshod over their parochial instincts by stoking the embers of prejudice and primordialism.
Genuine nation-building demands that all parts of the nation be treated equally without preference or prejudice like a wise person would treat his own body.
Talking of bodies it is apropos for us at this point to take a pause and to reflect at how not to treat the various parts of the body. (Readers’ discretion is advised at this stage as certain portions of what follows may affront certain readers’ sensibilities and offend their general countenance. Puritanical readers are well advised to skip the next section altogether and proceed to the concluding part of this essay).
<< Jack the playboy loved his body or more precisely he loved certain parts of his body immensely and he detested other parts vehemently. The most beloved part of his anatomy was his ‘front-private’, the next most beloved part was his face. Then followed his hands and next his legs and next his chest and then his abdomen. The most detested part of Jack’s body was his ‘back-private’. The reason Jack gave to his friends and drinking buddies for loving his ‘front-private’ was that apart from its utilitarian value of passing fluid, it brought great orgasmic joy to him while equally winning him many repeat customers among the opposite gender. As Jack put it to his buddies, his front-private was very customer-friendly and was his chief gender-relations tool. >>
<< While taking his daily bath, Jack would spend many minutes indulging his front-private with tender loving care. Jack also loved his face. According to him, first impressions matter with the opposite gender and his face contained his main tools for making a positive first impression with them. Whether it was for the initial eye-contact or for mouthing sweet nothings, Jack’s face was well equipped. And so he would spend a long time trimming his beard and moustache and rubbing assorted lotions and colognes on his face. Jack also loved his hands because according to him they were his chief tools for fondling his paramours, and invaluable for giving and receiving joy. >>
<< Now Jack hated his back-private with a vengeance. According to him this part of his body was useless and added no value to him apart from its utilitarian function of passing solid, liquid, and gaseous waste, often noisily. Jack wasted precious little time with this part of his anatomy either in the rest-room or in the bathroom. >>
Now Jack’s back-private was fond of complaining loudly to other members of Jack’s body that it was being marginalized but Jack did not give the proverbial damn about it. After a while, Jack’s back-private decided it had had enough and embarked upon a not so subtle rebellion.
One day while Jack was chatting up a new target of the opposite gender, he felt a stirring in his abdomen as gas built up within it. As the Commander –in –Chief of his body he issued a nervous command to his disaffected back-private to close the border under its control and not to afford any exit to any departures or potential escapees. It was a command issued in vain as his uncooperative back-private decided to open its border gates with a loud bang thereby letting all the pent-up gases escape at once. Needless to say, Jack lost the target of his attentions as she ducked for cover in the midst of the most polluted environment one could ever imagine. That was the first warning to Jack but he refused to relent in his marginalization of his back-private. Instead he neglected it all the more. >>
What ensued was a ding-dong affair between Jack the Commander-in Chief of his body and his back-private a component part of the same body. Whenever Jack was alone and expected his back-private to release all noxious gaseous, liquid and solid waste contents in privacy, his back-private would unilaterally shut its border gates and allow no exit. When Jack was with esteemed guests and friends, his back-private would unilaterally open its border gates against Jack’s wish and command and allow all prisoners to exit uncontrollably in a public display of effluent defiance to his utter embarrassment as Commander-in -Chief.
It was against this rebellious background that Jack in a fit of anger decided to teach his errant back-private a lasting lesson once and for all times. One day while in the rest room and in the face of the non-cooperative attitude of his back-private which had again unilaterally shut the border, Jack decided to muster all the Federal forces at his command and force the border open in order to set the captives free with some privacy. Summoning all the energy he could muster Jack assaulted the border gates of his back-private with Federal might, and with such force that the gates were violently flung open. At once all the captives rushed out and Jack smiled to himself while still seated in the rest room, ‘I have shown my back-private who is boss. As a territory conquered by Federal might it will never again dare to mount a resistance to my commands whatever they may be and whenever or wherever they may be issued in future.’
It was only when Jack tried to get up that he realized that something had gone terribly wrong. He felt a warm slimy fluid running down his legs. Blood was splattered everywhere. As he tried to clean himself up he felt a sharp pain as his hands entangled with a protrusion. In panic he padded his back private with a thick wad of paper towel. But the flow was unceasing and the pain was hardly subsiding. If anything it was increasing in intensity. It was a throbbing violent pain accompanied by a putrid smell.
<< Jack locked himself indoors away from his many friends of the opposite gender ashamed at his noxious condition. With each passing day, his pains grew worse, Jack who once walked briskly now walked about in his apartment in a stooping manner like a shriveled old man. Since the border gates were so badly damaged and contorted that nothing could dare venture to pass through it, Jack ate sparingly in order to reduce the contents in his stomach and pressure on his system.
<< With the passing of time, his condition became so bad that he could barely seat on a chair. His once attractive face was now contorted and emaciated in painful misery. His once most beloved front-private which was always strongly reactive and cocked at the slightest provocation like a watchful sentry on guard duty cocking his gun was now shriveled like an old rag. In a word Jack’s condition was utterly pitiful. >>
<< This was the setting until Jack swallowed his pride one day and begged his drinking buddies to rush him to a hospital. This they did pitifully, even though they could scarcely breathe-in the noxious odor emanating from the once elegant Jack the Playboy. >>
<< Once at the hospital, the doctor took one look at Jack and shook his head. ‘I am afraid Jack you have to undergo immediate hemorrhoidectomy’ he said. ‘You have an acute inflammation in your back-private. You neglected the warning signs from your back private for too long and now your entire health is at risk. Apart from your infected hemorrhoids, you have lost a lot of blood, you have not eaten properly these last few days and you are now very anemic with very low resistance to boot. You have jeopardized your body’s equilibrium. You are lucky you sought for help at this point. A further delay could have proven fatal to you given the acute nature of your infection.’ >>
<< With this admonition, Jack was rushed into surgery and thankfully made it alive after surgery. While recuperating afterwards and still contemplating how he would pay-off the substantial hospital bills he would have definitely incurred, the Surgeon gave him one last piece of advice. ‘Look here Jack, in future do not marginalize any part of your own body. You have to realize that marginalization leads to corruption of firstly the marginalized parts and subsequently the un-marginalized parts of the body as well, as the ripple effects of marginalization begin to spread out like a tidal wave. In a nutshell Jack always remember and never forget that the marginalization of any organic part of the body leads to the corruption of the entire body. >>
The President of any nation is not elected to settle old or new scores nor to grind axes with any component part of the nation or any citizen of the country no matter the provocation. If President Muahmmadu Buhari or any other future President of Nigeria must settle old or new scores and grind his axe with any part of Nigeria or any individual citizen or citizens, he should do one of two things.
One is to step aside and grind his private axe in his personal capacity against his traducers. The alternative is to set aside his axe for four years or while he is still the President of Nigeria and to pick it up again if he so wishes when he becomes a private citizen.
To do otherwise would be a great act of corruption and a disservice to Nigeria which Mr. President swore to lead honestly. Corruption goes far beyond unjustly enriching one’s self or one’s friends and associates from the commonwealth. Corruption also extends to unjustly enriching or empowering select ethnic groups, or select geo-political regions or select religious sects at the expense of others from the resources of the commonwealth. Indeed there can be no gainsaying about it, marginalization is definitely corruption.
Having said that, in spite of all these teething hiccups, Nigerians should not impatiently cast away the baby with the bath water.
Definitely President Muhammadu Buhari like all men is not infallible. However this writer still firmly believes that overall, President Muhammadu Buhari’s positives far outweigh his negatives and more importantly I remain of the conviction that he is still the right man for this moment.
At this point in time, President Muhammadu Buhari still remains the man best suited to arrest the decadent slide of Nigeria and safeguard Nigeria’s interest.
Around him all well-meaning Nigerians should continue to rally patiently in our nation’s best interests while awaiting the dividends of change.
THE END