Before ethnicity, religion do us in (2)

Last week on this page we dealt with poor quality leadership and the culture of negative governance but the truth is it is not that our country endowed with high quality human resources can’t find well-tutored leadership materials to take charge of affairs. What has come between the desire and realization has been the infusion of ethnicity and religion in a negative manner into the political process of the country. It began before independence, was there when we got independence and has been with us ever since.

The most unfortunate thing about the whole development is that those very well equipped to roll back the evil or even obliterate it from the confines of our space are rather the very ones that keep deploying these variables as tools in the pursuit of their narrow interest.

The founding fathers relied on those variables to pursue their positions and the consequences the didn’t come out well with the country. The military that shot their way into power didn’t help matters, they styled themselves “messiahs” but what they ended up doing was far worse than what the civilians would ever have contemplated.

They did do away with federalism which was what was agreed before independence could be granted and a system very suitable for a plural society like ours. They left us with a unitary system in practice and this was because a section of the country that dominated the military wanted to preserve undue advantages gained by pushing ethnic supremacist ideology. To gain a foothold, structures meant to foster harmony were tinkered with and bastardised. The face of Nigeria isn’t what was agreed on so independence could be achieved.

Every true citizen of goodwill knows the face of Nigeria today is ugly. When some insist on “if you want an amendment or change go through the National Assembly or nothing,” they are sure they stand on very “solid” ground. They are aware of the advantages those before got for them at the expense of a workable Nigeria. Today the bolts are pulling off and trepidation has engulfed the entire land. Who will bell the cat? We have become a society in search of the messiah.

It is good that some of those who lifted the flag of subversion, injustice and inequity are alive and seeing the outcome of their “good works.” Only them can tell if what they see of their efforts is beautiful and pleasing or otherwise. It is not a task some other person can undertake on their behalf. Journalists have the added responsibility to ask them very critical questions on what they did and professionally get them to make disclosures and explanations in a very detailed format. The soul of the country is crying for a rebirth.

What is most troubling is that the agents of national stagnation and retrogression seem to have dug in, in their old trenches. They are not harassed or tormented by the negative outcomes of what they have willingly sown into the society since independence. Rather than take cover and watch, they are firing from all cylinders. Their nefarious acts compound an already terrible situation.

The alliance that toppled the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan, the first South South minority to become president was a national coalition. It was personal, masked around ethnicity and religion.

If doubts surrounded this, Mr Buba Galadima a prominent politician from the North cleared all of it. He told us a few days ago via AriseTV while former President Muhammadu Buhari was being buried that himself and a few others brought back Buhari from political retirement to square against the Yoruba who were working to reverse the supremacist gains made by the Hausa/Fulani with regard to the Ilorin take over.

We know how the Buhari years, eight full years turned out to be in our development quest. The incumbent federal government says the country was run down, news from the same paddies, running on the same political party. The question would be if the government you had in place ruined the country to the point of bringing it down to its knees, then how come the same citizens voted the same people and same party into power again. This is the wonder.

We would think as suggested earlier the scale of failure would engineer a rethink but that isn’t happening one bit. Rather very bizarre developments happen daily in the political arena. Oligarchs encourage political players, especially officer to defect from their parties to the ruling one. Many do with offices won on another platform. Instead new ideas and national anger against a system of backward integration, few old time political players are taking advantage of national hunger for meaningful rebirth to spring up using old discredited methods.

For instance former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, are busy rubbing it into the ears and eyes of the other sections of Nigeria of their powerlessness and bottom line position in the Nigerian polity, insisting the North has both population and everything it would take to remove President Bola Tinubu and to install a northern President in 2027.

The rest are left in bewilderment. They have been in the state when former governor of Kano State, Mr Kwakwanso, went to town with the outburst that the Tinubu administration was sectional. He said they were depriving the North and developing the South. He said this was unacceptable to him. He spoke from Kano in a state function.

Could anyone imagine if the postures of Galadima, El-Rufai and Babachir came from any political player from the South or better still the South East. Imagine for once and let us know what the expected reaction would be. Of course cries and shouts of tribalist would rent the atmosphere. Hypocrites and parasites would rise to call for arrest and sanctions. This is certainly not the New Nigeria many have mooted for years running.

   Someone said: “Foolishness is doing the same thing one did that brought him harm severely.” Available studies would show we have tried ethnicity and religion long enough and the consequences have been pleasant. It led us to kill ourselves and finally landed the country into what was clearly avoidable civil war in which about three million citizens were killed. It has cost us stagnation. We got oil wealth just like the Arabs but we are not anywhere near those countries. Our fellow countrymen and women run to those countries for nourishment. This development should act to make us sober and not only that keep us vigilant against agents of darkness and backwardness.

A young Nigerian, Ms Iniobong Udoh, said she may not be in a vintage position now but she has enough scholarship to understand the time and the trouble with her beloved country.

She wrote: “At the end of the day, our number one focus as Nigerians should be how to unite and take back our country from those who keep dividing us with tribalism, bigotry, and hatred, people who weaponize our suffering and poverty to keep us distracted and disunited.

“If we are not careful, we will keep fighting one another while they keep winning. So whether you’re Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Ibibio, Ijaw, Tiv, or any other group, this is the real question: when will we stop pointing fingers and start holding hands?

“Let’s be intentional about healing, about understanding one another, and about building a country where no group has to feel “less Nigerian” than the other. We either unite and rise, or stay divided and sink.”

George Washington added: “Be American, let there no sectionalism, no North, South, East or West. You are all dependent on one another and should be one with another and should be one in the union. In one word, be a nation. Be Americans, and be true to yourselves.”

•Concluded