Follow Us on Google
I am at a loss why people, especially those from the South, want to use the head of Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s powerful nephew, to break coconut because he said Nigeria’s presidency should not be rotational but based on merit. The fact remains that nowhere in the world is the president of a country given to incompetent people based on charitable rotation. So, Daura is very correct and I salute him him for stating the bitter truth.
Nevertheless, what immediately came to my mind was a story in 2 Samuel 12, where Prophet Nathan narrated a parable to King David about a rich man, who, despite all he had, snatched the only Lamb of a poor man and used it to entertain his guest.
Naturally, David was so incensed by such injustice he put his kingly powers to full use, decreeing death upon the unjust rich man. The king was, however, shocked when Nathan pointedly told him, ‘ thou art the man.’
Before now, David had entertained his guest, lust, with Uriah’s wife. As if committing adultery and impregnating the woman was not enough, he had her husband killed to cover his crime. Believing that he had succeeded in deceiving the entire Israel, he officially married Uriah’s widow and sired a child through her. Then after one year, like a bolt from nowhere, his sin reared its ugly head to haunt him. Oblivious of Judgment Day, David pontificated before Prophet Nathan that the man in the parable must die. What an irony!
We are all like David, committing sundry evils in the name of politics and thinking we can hide it from prying eyes; but we cannot hide it from God. There is always a payday for evils done, no matter how long it takes.
Now, how does this concern Daura, a Muslim? This has nothing to do with religion because Daura surely knows about the story or has heard it before. So, whether he was speaking the mind of his presidential uncle or for himself or the North, Prophet Nathan has come to pronounce judgement: ‘Thou art the man’.
Methinks those attacking Daura do so out of ignorance or mischief or both. Because considering that the North has ruled this country for about two thirds of its years of independence, and considering too how deplorable the rule, it is obvious that Daura has disqualified the North from the 2023 race. Such disqualification, coming from President Buhari’s bloodline is weighty and must be applauded, not castigated.
There is no evidence to justify keeping power in the North anymore if competence is properly situated. Whether by election or force of the gun, the North has exhibited the most incompetence in governance and should humbly allow other sections to try in the hope that, perhaps, we can find competent people there.
Daura is simply saying those that have monopolised power incompetently whether at the centre or states, should let go. Yes, in some states, some sections take undue advantage of lopsidedness to intimidate others without any semblance of good governance.
Nothing has changed in this conundrum since independence, as Nigeria has remained refused to evolve into a nation and never will with the present crop of leaders and leadership style.
The North has taken what belongs to others to entertain their guest, power-lust. They have pillaged resources of the South, especially Niger Delta, to entertain their greed, running pipes all the way to the desert while leaving the grieving, disenchanted cash cows malnourished and in ruins. Strangely, the more the North take, the more their trouble.
It seems ‘Nathan’s curse’ has blossomed. Read verses 9-11 and you can see why despite all these years of strangulating hold on power, the North have made no real progress. Their children are wayward and renegade. They are either bandits or Boko Haram or, at best, state-sanctioned street urchins, called almajiri. Sadly, this is being gradually exported to other parts of the country. As I wish the North could forget cheap politics by toeing the same path of repentance as David for the sake of posterity.
Frankly, this is not about the North alone but about equity, fairness and justice in the entire Nigeria. Those who read this column know that I am not particularly thrilled about president of Nigeria of Igbo extraction. However, if that is what will bring healing to Nigeria, why not.
Unarguably, no other part of Nigeria can claim to be more Nigerian that the Igbo. While others remain clannish, refusing to venture outside their tribes, the Igbo go everywhere and make homes wherever their feet touch. So, who would be more competent to prosper Nigeria than the Igbo that have stakes and investments, running into trillions of naira everywhere and even much more than they have in their homeland?
Unfortunately, Ndigbo are the most deprived by official and quasi-official policies. Of course, nothing can stifle the Igbo and, mysteriously, like the eagle, they keep flourishing in the midst of adversity.
Again, the North boasts of being having the largest population, the trick used to abuse democracy. People familiar with the North can seriously dispute this claim. Large landscape, yes, but population? That’s yet to be proved through credible census unless the trees and cows count.
Nonetheless, the North should simply not use its assumed population to intimidate others. We all know it was not so from the beginning, right from the time of the colonial masters and the First Republic. Until the evil bug bit the people and the manipulations started. Ironically, like the rich man under reference, this ‘richness’ has not availed them much.
Actually, the North has not fared better than other scorched areas in any way. Poverty and even yet to be named diseases stalk the land on two feet. We blame Boko Haram, bandits and all those criminal elements up North but we know these fiendish characters are victims of incompetence and misrule. So, who has actually benefited from the North’s hold on power? It is wrong to equate the North with the greedy few or their army of misguided footmen? Nigerians should know competence when they see it; it’s like a luscious naked woman, sashaying the public sphere that even monks stop to ogle.
Truth be told, the North are only trying to survive, just as the South would if they were in the same vantage position. So, besides trumpeting ‘it is our turn’, the South should convince the North why it should give up the sugar in their mouth and assure them of protection.
Nevertheless, as 2023 beckons, the North should prepare to give way from power. Nigeria has had enough of its ‘competence,’ unless there is a variant definition of the word, otherwise, I endorse the view that we mortgage Nigeria’s sovereignty to China, even Ghana.
Attention! ‘Don’t dare it: Yoruba leaders warned against boycott of 2023 polls’
I read the above newspaper report with great interest. Its content or message sent me down memory lane, especially the pre-Nigeria history of the war between the great Oyo Empire and the invading Fulani Islamic jihadist army of Othman Dan Fodio. History tells us how and why one Afonja caused the Yoruba to lose that war by his betrayal of his people to the Fulani. The consequences of that betrayal and loss is still fresh in the memory of the Yoruba till today!
It appears to me that the Yoruba nation or, better, the Yoruba, are gradually inching their way to an eventual crossroads, come 2023.
The question one would ask is this: Is it possible there exist TODAY some AFONJAS among the Yoruba? And if they do, who and where are they? Could they, please, stand up to be counted? Perhaps this (their identity) is what is easily discernible from the above newspaper report.
And so, come 2023, the Yoruba have a choice to make: Either to allow history – the AFONJA betrayal – to repeat itself OR to take their destiny in their own hand to determine their relationship with the entity called Nigeria – the entity the great sage and their all-time political Idol, Pa Obafemi Awolowo, described as “a mere geographical expression.” The Yoruba leaders, warned or unwarned, cannot shy away from making this choice, come 2023!
•Fada Iheanyi Enwerem, Catholic priest, Enugu
