I have been reluctant to comment on the on-going public conversation about what many critics have described as the ‘’Yorubanisation’’ of Nigeria by President Ahmed Bola Tinubu due to the seemingly disproportionate appointment of Yoruba people into top government jobs. President Tinubu, a Yoruba from Nigeria’s South West geo-political zone has come under heavy criticism for stuffing his kinsmen into powerful government positions that have seen them dominate the commanding heights of Nigeria’s pseudo ‘’command economy’’. Apart from the powerful kitchen cabinet positions of Chief of Staff and Principal Private Secretary that are currently occupied by Femi Gbajabiamila and Hakeem Muri-Okunola; both of whom are Yoruba men from Tinubu’s home state of Lagos, the Lagos/Ogun axis of the predominantly Yoruba speaking South West geo-political have between them not less than five ministerial positions. These include Wale Edun [Finance], Tunji Alausa [Education] Bosun Tijani [Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy], Jumoke Oduwole [Industry, Trade and Investment] and Iziaq Adekunle Salako [Minister of state for Health and Social Welfare] with the president himself widely believed to be the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources.
In addition to these ‘’juicy’’ cabinet positions, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Yemi Cardoso, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Oil Company Limited, Bashir Ojulari Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Managing Director Bank of Industry, Olasupo Olusi, Managing Director Bank of Agriculture, Ayo Sotinrin among tens of other appointees are of the Yoruba ethnic stock. How about national security and law enforcement? Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, the Director General of the Directorate of State Services, Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi, Inspector general of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, Chief of Army Staff, Olufemi Oluyede, Comptrollers General of Customs and Immigration Service, Bashir Adeniyi and Kemi Nandap respectively are Yoruba people.
For a country that is deeply divided along ethnic and religious fault lines and where mutual suspicion of domination is often rife, Tinubu’s ‘’Yorubanization’’ efforts have not gone unnoticed. My initial reluctance to comment on this matter was because the complaints against Tinubu’s Yoruba sectionalism were coming from his opponents in the Northern part of Nigeria who mostly opposed power shift to the South in 2023. To make their case worse, these set of northern irredentists did not only turn a blind eye and deaf ear to former president Muhammadu Buhari’s unprecedented levels of northern sectionalism but actively defended the bad example of how not to manage a country’s diversity he set; an example his successor seems to be following. As far as I was concerned, any northerner who didn’t condemn Buhari’s ‘’Arewanisation’’ of Nigeria will be standing on a moral quicksand to hold Tinubu in contempt for Yorubanising it.
Although, Tinubu may not have a longstanding reputation as a pan Nigerian nationalist and has never hidden his bonafides as a Yoruba tribal political chieftain, but my review of Tinubu’s strategic appointments since his assumption of office shows a delicate balancing act that carries along his northern allies almost in equal proportion while giving the South East a minimum sense of belonging. For example, where former President Buhari dominated the leadership of the security services with northerners including, the Army, police, DSS, NIA, ONSA, Ministers of Defence and Police affairs along with the heads of all the internal security agencies, President Tinubu appears to have done a better job of inclusion. President Tinubu’s National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Ministers of Defence and Police affairs, Abubakar Badaru and Ibrahim Geidam, DG NIA, Mohammed Mohammed among some others are from the north. Notably, despite not having support from the south east in the 2023 presidential election, President Tinubu has ended the ‘’embargo’’ imposed on the region by the former president Buhari when he appointed Admiral Ikechukwu Ogala Chief of Naval Staff. So as far as I am concerned President Tinubu has not marginalized the north and that’s why I have remained largely aloof about the entire brouhaha. But despite this commendable effort, there is no doubt that President Tinubu may have copied a line or two from former president Buhari’s playbook of sectionalism.
However, my position may have changed when the President’s own Yoruba kinsmen are beginning to express concern about what ordinarily should have been in their favour by leading the condemnation of Tinubu’s Yoruba sectionalism. And this is why President Ahmed Bola Tinubu must be worried about his Yoruba sectionalism. The Yoruba people of Nigeria are increasingly demonstrating an uncommon level of political sophistication and pan Nigerian nationalist patriotism enough to denounce one of their own for appointing a disproportionate number of their kinsmen into top government positions. Prominent Yoruba leaders and intellectuals have called on the President to ensure fairness, equity, justice and most importantly, good governance for the larger population of the Nigerian people.
This clearly shows that while the rest of Nigeria may be alienated by his Yoruba sectionalism, but unlike Buhari, Tinubu’s Yoruba people are not likely to reward him with political support as they are equally repulsed at what they consider inconsistent with their cherished character of ‘’Omoluabi’’ within the larger context of ‘’Ubuntu’’ [I am because we are]. Whereas, Buhari benefited from his sectionalism, Tinubu is unlikely to do so for many reasons. Apart from differences in value systems, Buhari’s sectional was regional [northern Nigeria] while Tinubu’s sectionalism is ethnic [Yoruba]. So while Buhari dominated Nigeria with a northern hegemony, Tinubu is seen as attempting to replace that with not southern hegemony by with a narrower Yoruba ethnic hegemony. Currently, President Tinubu has no secured base as a bloc in any part of Nigeria including his home region of the south west. And this precarious position is not helped by his failure to uplift the welfare and security of the Nigerian people almost two years into his tenure. Nigeria’s 60 million Yoruba people are not likely going to reward President Tinubu for appointing a little over a hundred of them into plum government positions that only benefits them and their families.
President Tinubu will do well to read the tea leaves accurately and change his leadership strategy from patronage to few cronies to good governance for the larger population of the Nigerian people. The president still has time and opportunity to commit the much required class suicide before the next election in 2027.