Hypocrisy is highly adored in Nigeria. It thrives more among the leaders. Look at the speed at which the National Assembly passed the National Anthem Bill 2024. See how President Bola Tinubu promptly signed the bill into law on May 29, 2024. The law replaced the anthem, ‘Arise O Compatriots’ with the old one, ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’, adopted on October 1, 1960. The military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo dropped the old anthem in 1978. Many Nigerians have wondered if reverting to the old national anthem is our major problem today.
Our lawmakers felt the old anthem represented our values and aspirations better. “Though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand,” is part of the lyrics of the old anthem, written in 1959 by a British woman, Lillian Williams. Proud of this ‘uncommon achievement’, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, enthused, “Henceforth, we will not refer to ourselves as dear compatriots, we will refer to ourselves as brothers and as we go forward in battle, whether in the field of sports, in the field of politics, we must hail Nigeria and so we are all saying today that Nigeria, we hail thee.” This is grand delusion!
In Nigeria today, tribalism is a major hindrance to brotherhood and development. I felt sad reading about what reportedly happened recently in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the name of reorganization. According to an online newspaper, TheNiche, authorities of the CBN, led by the Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, have systematically embarked on ethnic cleansing at the CBN. TheNiche reported that “with the whimsical sack of Dr. Ozoemena S. Nnaji, Director, Statistics; Chibuike D. Nwaegerue, Director, other Financial Institutions Supervision; Chibuzo A. Efobi, Director, Payments System Management; Paulinus Eze, Director, Security Services and Nkiru Asiegbu, Director, Special Duties, there is no director of Igbo extraction left at the CBN contrary to the dictates of the Federal Character Principle of fairness and equity in the distribution of public posts and socio-economic infrastructures among the various federating units of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” The fear in some quarters now is that the alleged purge of the Igbo people in CBN may be replicated in some other federal establishments.
Regrettably, there appears to be an unwritten plan to deal with Igbo people in some parts of Nigeria for their perceived vote against Tinubu as President of Nigeria in the 2023 general election. The defeat of Tinubu in his stronghold, Lagos, by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, particularly infuriated the powers that be in Abuja and Lagos. They never envisaged such defeat and they blamed it all on the Igbo, even though a good number of Yoruba and some other tribes also voted against Tinubu in that election.
It was the then Director, Media and Communications of the Bola Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga, who exposed the Igbo-phobic mindset of the current rulers. Onanuga, who has been rewarded with the position of Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, deployed hate speech against the Igbo before and after the elections. Some other chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) also made incendiary comments against the Igbo, threatening them not to come out and vote during the election. Even Tinubu’s wife, Oluremi, had made some uncomplimentary remarks against the Igbo ahead of the general election in 2019. She was heard saying in a viral video that “we will entreat all the deities of Lagos to chase Igbo people out.” These are the people on the corridors of power today who want us to sing, “In brotherhood we stand.”
How can we stand in brotherhood when a section of the country is treated like slaves? They are not fit to be in power at the centre. They are haunted and their properties demolished at the slightest excuse in some parts of the country, especially in Lagos. Each time there is riot in any part of the country, they are the greatest victims as their shops are usually torched and looted.
The worst now is that some politicians have poisoned the minds of their people to believe that the Igbo are their greatest problem. Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour is by all accounts a bona fide Lagosian, though his mother and wife are Igbo. But because he contested the 2023 governorship election in Lagos State on the platform of the Labour Party, he was branded an Igbo and that Igbo wanted to take over Lagos, a Yoruba land. In 2015, the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, had threatened to throw the Igbo into the lagoon if they failed to vote for the APC governorship candidate then, Akinwumi Ambode.
The major plank upon which some APC politicians tried to undermine the governorship aspiration of Olusola Oke in the recently-held primary election in Ondo State was that he is married to an Igbo. At some point, Oke told his opponents that his wife being Igbo would not deter him from seeking to be governor of Ondo.
Among some Igbo property owners in Lagos and elsewhere, there is apprehension that the government may move against them soon for not supporting the APC in the last election. Some of them have vowed never to build anything again outside the South-East.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has not helped matters. On May 30, 2024, IPOB gave a sit-at-home directive to the people of the South-East. That day was a day of remembrance for the fallen heroes of Biafra who died during the 30-month Nigeria/Biafra Civil War that claimed about three million lives. The proclamation of the Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967 by the then Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was occasioned by the pogrom against the Igbo in the North. The killings were engendered by the 1966 coup, which was tagged an Igbo coup. Some northern officers had staged a counter-coup that led to the killing of the then military Head of State, Aguiyi Ironsi.
Sadly, this Biafra day event led to unnecessary loss of lives and property. On that day, some unknown gunmen killed five soldiers and burnt their operational vehicle at Obikabia Junction in Obingwa Local Government Council of Abia State. Incidentally, three of the soldiers, including a Captain, Lucky Ikpeama, reportedly hailed from Abia State. Even students taking their West African School Certificate Examination were apprehensive of IPOB warning that there should be no movement that day. Some managed to disguise themselves and still went to write the mathematics exam. Some may have missed writing the exam.
No doubt, Nigeria is bedevilled by variegated problems. There is high insecurity in every part of the country. The economy is in a shambles as some multinational companies continue to exit from our shores. Unemployment, poverty, hunger and disillusionment have wrapped the citizens in a cobweb of fear and hopelessness.
This time calls for pragmatic and sincere leadership. But the country appears cursed with bad and selfish leaders. The immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari thrived on nepotism, favouritism, and ethnic bigotry.
His successor appears to be walking the same path. Take a cursory look at the major appointments in this administration and you will see that there is no conscious effort to unite the country. All the talk about one Nigeria is a ruse. Ordinary Nigerians relate well with one another. The problem has been the so-called leaders who manipulate things to achieve their selfish ambition.
I had expected Tinubu to initiate measures to engender the restructuring of this country soon after he got into power. Maybe he will still do that, as he still has three years to go in his four-year tenure. In case he has forgotten, may we remind him that Nigeria needs a complete overhaul. There are many issues that need to be discussed and agreed upon. For instance, do we still need a bicameral, full-time legislature considering that the current lawmakers appear idle and bereft of ideas? Do we still need to run an all-powerful central government that lords it over everybody, or do we devolve more powers to the regions in the spirit of true federalism as was done in the First Republic?
The report of the 2014 national conference contains answers to some of these posers. We can dust up that report and adopt the recommendations or constitute another body to look into how to co-exist as one indivisible nation. Until we do that, reverting to the old national anthem is cosmetic. It makes no meaning and it depicts this administration as lacking in ideas on how to move the country forward.
Re: One year of Tinubu’s ‘renewed hope’
The notion that one year is not enough to assess the performance of an administration of a four-year tenure is escapist and lame. In Igbo we have a proverb: “a na ahu ukwu ehi zoro n’ala welu choba ya n’elu” (you have to see the footmarks of the cow in the sands before looking up for it). Or like you wrote, “From the sweetness of the fart, you can tell the smell of the excreta”. Better still, the English have it that by their fruits we shall know them. The outputs of the present government herald more gloom than bloom, worse still the body language and tendencies of those at the helm of affairs in the country offer more despair than hope for tomorrow. I continue to tell those around me that we are just at the Preamble page of the book, “The Vanquished People Of Naija”, as the suffering and (or) anguish awaiting Nigerians is still doing press-ups, rehearsing on the scorching systems/tactics to use on us. By the time it opens its door and comes out, we all will take refuge in the Atlantic. The irony of the Nigerian situation is that while we are all docile and helpless, yet come 2027, everybody will be bought over again; each according to his level. Some with ten thousand naira, others by ten million and yet others by billions or choice contracts (oil wells) and everyone will look away while another heist takes place and the sufferings increase with more wailings thereafter.
A lost people.
-Aloy Uzoekwe, Anambra, 08038503174
Nigeria’s highest ranked ‘boxing’ currency (N1,000), can no longer provide a decent meal at any of our ‘mama put’! As our leaders hail Nigeria, citizens wonder what ails Nigeria. Instead of meditating on how to take the country out of the doldrums, they are excited over nothing! Rescuing students who were under their watch is not an achievement; they were not supposed to be kidnapped if govt were alive to her responsibilities. Students obtaining loans would not have been necessary if our leaders didn’t destroy our economy via corruption that pauperized parents! Bursary awards would have been better.
-Mike, Mushin, 0816 111 4572