By Tony Iwuoma
The greatest danger to next year’s presidential election is ethnicity. Already, the election is being projected as Igbo versus Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani versus Yoruba and vice versa. Considering that ethnic bias brought this current All Progressives Congress (APC) government to abysmal failure, this tendency is not only unthinkable but also most wicked and uncharitable.
This government has more than any other before it excessively divided Nigerians by the way and manner President Muhammadu Buhari has foisted his Fulani kinsmen on the people and given them dominance in key establishments of the land. Even foreign Fulani nationals and countries have received preferential treatment far and above Nigerian citizens, some of whom have lost their ancestral home to marauding Fulani herdsmen with suspicious tacit support by the government.
Other sections of the country are worried about how President Buhari has splashed lean national resources on Niger Republic and turned his government into one of the Fulani, by the Fulani and for the Fulani. So, what Nigerians cannot bear is the thought of enthroning a government based on tribal sentiments or trumpeting this festering disease that is in need of urgent healing.
To make matters worse, tribal jingoists are riled that an Igbo man is a front runner in the race to succeed Buhari. They fear that the genie may break out of the steel cage where it has been quarantined for ages.
That was what frustrated Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of his one-man squad, at best a motley crowd otherwise called the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), to unveil his underbelly as a tribal bigot. The oddity in the name of his party is exposed by his recalcitrant fixation on the old order, which has sent his assumed towering credentials crashing to the pit. Kwankwaso reportedly disparaged the Igbo, saying they are unfit to be President and that he could not contemplate stepping down for Peter Obi, an Igbo, and pair with him as running mate of the Labour Party. He exhibited his tribal pettiness and showed that people’s rating of him was misplaced.
Nevertheless, I am more concerned with the induced Yoruba-Igbo divide in this election than the traditional northern shenanigans.
Now the Yoruba are being presented as enemies of Ndigbo and vice versa simply because Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential candidate of the APC, is Yoruba while the Labour Party candidate is Igbo. However, I refuse to buy the idea that the Yoruba are at war with the Igbo.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the Tinubu-Obi, or rather the Igbo-Yoruba, faceoff is being instigated by the same people that created this superfluous divide and have sustained it because of their own selfish benefit. This must not thrive any further.
The Igbo and Yoruba are sister-southern states that must strike a chord of unity for the good of their people, who are joint victims of northern manipulations. The Yoruba and Igbo have come a long way together. There is no doubt that the Yoruba have been wonderful hosts to millions of Ndigbo. It is undeniable too that the Igbo have contributed more than any other people to the development of Yorubaland where many are domiciled. Of course, jealousy often creeps in and stifles relationships sometimes, a situation that has not been helped by the unsavoury behaviour of some Igbo residents.
However, insofar as there are bad elements among the Igbo, there are also many bad and envious Yoruba who would not hesitate to drown the Igbo in the lagoon and appropriate their huge investments.
Beyond the politics of 2023, the Igbo must overcome the transactional disposition to this game. Politics is not a motor spare parts business where you buy today, sell tomorrow and collect your gain. Politics is a huge investment that requires patience. That is why Tinubu stands out. The man has taken time to invest in both human and material resources and is today reaping his harvest. Tinubu has a very strong hold on the media, having invested heavily in the all-important sector, unlike Igbo players. He has assembled a formidable media team and even bought into media houses, which he does not own directly. That is what is working for him.
Tinubu’s greatest asset was his investment in men from all over the country, including the Igbo. These men are his foot soldiers today and are ready to go the whole mile with him. It is, therefore, preposterous for people to pit Tinubu against the Igbo with the spurious claims that he hates Ndigbo when all that is working for the man is the fruit of foresight and calculated investments.
The greatest injustice any one can do to Tinubu and Peter Obi is to knock tribal heads on their behalf. Obi is a perfect gentleman and has not made any pretences of where he wants to take Nigeria. One thing he does not want is to be cast in the mould of a tribal warlord, which he is not.
Obi has a groundswell of supporters surging across the country, as ‘Obidients’. Even the loquacious and boastful Kwankwaso has been hit by the storm. His bloated self-importance was punctured when, right in his front yard, several members of his Kwankwasiya Movement recently burnt their customary red caps and donned the Obi-Datti caps in open solidarity with Obi and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.
There was never a time the Igbo gathered and said Obi should run for President on their behalf. Definitely, Obi is being belittled if he is marketed as Igbo candidate; he is not. Even if the Igbo decide to give him an impossible bloc vote, he is still not an Igbo candidate. Just as Tinubu can never be a Yoruba President, Obi can never be an Igbo President.
Nothing could be as inane, insane as accusing Obi of driving the Biafra agenda or that he is a candidate of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). It is just like giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
While the Yoruba and Igbo engage in their war of attrition, the North is busy ‘articulating’. People are leaving their political parties in droves and jumping into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in solidarity with their Fulani brother, Atiku Abubakar, to maintain the northern hegemony.
I think Tinubu should be more careful of a supposed deputy, Kashim Shettima, who is out to de-market him than the Igbo; a deputy who wants to consign the president to the economy while he assumes the role of the commander-in-chief of armed forces and security; a deputy who had no qualms, equating Tinubu to the late General Sani Abacha’s odious ‘hospitality’. Invariably, he is telling Nigerians to think twice about Tinubu because all that Nigerians remember about Abacha’s ‘hospitality’ is brutality, and corruption.
He should also be careful of his former mockers now posturing as supporters and deploying foul language against Obi and the Igbo. Both he and Obi should be deceived by Kwankwaso’s feeble whining; it is part of the game to retain power in the North while stoking the fire of discord in the South.
It is also worth noting that the Igbo have over the years invested heavily outside Igbo land, an inclination that present realities have not only proved to be stupid but also at risk. The earlier the Igbo begin to invest in their homeland, the better for them. Nobody is really sure of where Nigeria is headed, considering the swirling insecurity and separatist activities in the country.
The bottom line is that let those who want to vote Tinubu do so but not as Yoruba; let those who want to vote Obi also do so but not as Igbo. There can never be a Yoruba president or Igbo president in Nigeria; there can only be a Nigerian president.
Therefore, let the promoters and supporters of these candidates take heed, lest they set off a volcano that would make 2023 untenable for the prostate country. They should not do incalculable harm to the relationship between the two major southern brothers and tribes through exaggerated hateful feelings.
Let the better candidate win, who will free Nigeria from the shackles of leadership limpness, tribal jingoism and undue patrimony; let not Obi or Tinubu or Atiku win this race; let Nigeria and God win. Shalom!
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