I see it as a dig at Mr. Peter Obi, who by every standard, has become an iconic personality whose enormous influence goes beyond the South East geopolitical zone. Obi’s acceptance across Nigeria is beyond argument. The 2023 Presidential election result attested to that. By sidelining the Igbo in the cabinet reshuffle, Tinubu has once again, bared his fangs. He’s telling us what is on his mind, and what he intends to do, going forward. It’s not a bluster. It’s a road map to what lies ahead. Recall what happened during the presidential campaign last year, the threat to the Igbo by Sen. Oluremi Tinubu while campaigning at a popular market in Lagos.
She spoke in Yoruba, but her vernon against Ndigbo was unambiguous. In the video that went viral in social media, she said, “The Igbos”, are very ungrateful. They are betrayers. After accommodating them in Lagos, they are not cooperating with the Yoruba. We, the Yoruba, will overcome them and inherit their property in Lagos if they refuse to vote for Asiwaju”.Can you imagine that? Perhaps a bigger threat against the Igbo may be coming if they fail to pledge their support for the President’s re-election in 2027. There are reports that all streets bearing Igbo names in Ajeromi Ifelodun Local government of Lagos state, have been changed. What a country! Again, Igbo spirit lives on.
You see, nothing is normal in Nigeria any more in Nigeria. In both scale and scope, the ominous signs are everywhere for any discerning mind to see. If the President can learn to tolerate dissenting views and run an inclusive government and not marginalise any section of the country, he will be the biggest beneficiary. Imagine Ogun state having about four members in the federal cabinet. Buhari in his worst nepotistic drive, didn’t tread this divisive path. What leaders do while they are trying to get political power is not necessarily what they do after they have it. That, in itself, is lesson in power.
Whatever former President Muhammadu Buhari made worse for Nigeria , the Tinubu presidency is striving to make much worse. If care is not taken, Tinubu may be careening dangerously towards becoming, in the words of columnist, Olusegun Adeniyi, an ‘Oduduwa President’. The evidence is no longer in doubt. Didn’t we see this coming? Were we not warned? The fault lines that divide us have widened more than ever before. What is unfolding before us, using the recent cabinet reshuffle is a warning message to Ndigbo: ‘you are with me or against me. It’s your choice, but I have a horsewhip to punish whatever choice you have made’.
All of this has revealed both the president’s real character and shortcomings. It calls for all hands on deck to save the President from himself. This has become critically important now because, as historians will tell us, without a vision beyond a leader’s own selfish agenda and advancement, a leader is almost paralyzed once the goal has been achieved. This column did warn when Buhari embarked on this cynical, self-destructive ambition, but it was not heeded. And this is where he left Nigeria – in the worst rung of leadership. In the case of Tinubu, what we are witnessing is the temperament and behaviour of the most ambitious, deft political player adept at amazing power that is at odds with federal character and unity in diversity.