If tomorrow I have the opportunity of meeting President Muhammadu Buhari, I will ask him just two questions: One, as somebody who fought in the Nigerian civil war, how do you feel now when you meet heads of the Nigerian Customs, Immigration, Prisons, Civil Defence, Police, Army, Air Force, the State Security Service (SSS) and the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), and you look round them and discover they are all from the North where you also come from? Two, if you were from the South, and you fought in that war to keep Nigeria one, and you look at this list, what would be your feeling now on your role in that war?
I know that the Buharists’ refrain is that a leader chooses and works with those he trusts. But what kind of communal leader trusts only his family members? Has he ever heard that he who does not trust will never be trusted enough?
The North’s Buhari has another term, and he just got sworn in for that term; but beyond the euphoria of May 29 and June 12 blues, how does he want to be remembered after his Aso Rock years? His choice of security chiefs and key cabinet members and his activities from this moment on will speak to his past to answer that question.
Did the president read what the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, wrote last Friday? That group warned that there would be no future for Nigeria with the current structural imbalance. The president-general of Ohanaeze, Chief Nnia Nwodo, was quoted as saying in a statement that, “there is no future for Nigeria. As long as the North decides to be unreasonable and unrealistic, this country can never get better.” As far as the group was concerned, “the country is only heading for implosion as long as equity and fairness is denied some sections of the country.”
The president will be asked to ignore that group because it is Igbo and because the North is the lion of the Nigerian ‘contraption’ and would always wonder why all other parts feel pains when they are hurt. The mindset appears to be that the lion does not turn around when a dog barks. It acts in its own interest and does not care what the South says or how it feels. It does not need the others to hold the rein – exactly because the tracks of a leopard are never made by dogs. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Goodluck Jonathan treated the Yoruba of the South-West exactly the way Buhari is treating the East and the South-South. Some people pushed him to do it. He is still regretting it.
Buhari should take the Ohanaeze’s complaint as representative of the feelings of over 90 per cent of ethnic groups in Nigeria outside the core North. Southern Nigeria truly has alignment problems, and the shock absorbers are very strong. However, every thick rope has a breaking point; Nigeria once reached it and it bled for 30 months. The sole fear down South now is that the northern ruling elite may have decided to go for the broke again; that the Nigerian cord may have decided to go on another snapping journey. Sadly, if it would be so, it should not be under the leadership of someone who swore to fight and die on land, on the sea and in the air defending the country and all its people.
The South is presently suffocating under the yoke of atrocities from a strange strain of the Fulani – not the same Fulani we knew and lived with all our lives. These new ones kill and kidnap and drain ransoms from rich and poor folks with the government asking us to play dumb. We must not speak about their identity. We must close our eyes to whatever is happening in Mali, in Burkina Faso – even in our own Zamfara and the crimson effects down the coast. The president’s ethnicity is the wind vane that now dictates the direction of security inquiries. We must not talk. Rolling with insecurity is the poverty flood washing all households into despondent valleys. But the president tells us every minute that he has done well with the economy. And you ask: What is he saying? Globally respected magazine, Forbes, joined the Nigerian wailers two weeks ago and announced Nigeria as “Africa’s money-losing machine.” Investors who want to lose their money, Forbes said, should “go put it to work in Nigeria.” That is the country over which victorious Buhari is president and he is gloating over.
I know that Buhari, just like any other leader anywhere, listens to strange whispers. Those whispering spirits, when the chips are down, will fly away to emerging trees of better prospects. They are birds of power, very restless; they do not stay long on any branch. There will be defiant urges to ignore the marginalization grumblings from the East and the loud cries of insecurity from the West. The president will be asked to clamp down on dissenters as we see in Sudan and Benin Republic. We’ve been warned already to mind what we say or write or post on the social media. But those pushing the president to fight his country won’t tell him that a lion that bites indiscriminately will soon eat its own tail. They won’t tell him that it will pay him to listen more to his ‘enemies’ –the only ones with the truth. Elders who close their minds to facts always learn through accidents and failures.
Buhari must use what he has now to make restitutions for his utter disdain, disgust and disrespect for the feelings of Nigerians outside his core North. If he did well in his first term, would his reelection have been that awfully difficult and flawed? Did he not notice that his electoral failure across the South was comprehensive? Was it like that in 2015? He now has this heavy burden of ruling with an election lacking in integrity. The European Union Observer Mission released its final report on the election on Saturday –the same week Buhari was celebrating the anniversary of a flawless June 12 election organised by his arch-enemy, Ibrahim Babangida. The EU report was damning and unsparing. The election failed integrity test, the EU said, but the Buhari presidency said the EU did not attack the integrity of the presidential election. So, what about this excerpt from the report: “The national collation centre for the presidential election was open to party agents and observers, and was continuously televised. However inconsistent numbers, lack of clear checks and explanations, and insufficient public information undermined confidence in the integrity of the election.
“There was a large discrepancy of 1.66 million fewer registered voters recorded than was previously announced by INEC in January. Polling was cancelled without sufficient accountability. The main reasons given were incidents of violence, over-voting and non-use of smart card readers, resulting in the annulment of voting for nearly 2.8 million registered voters. Lack of transparency in the use of smart card readers meant that it was not clear if all polling units with problems were cancelled as was required in INEC guidelines.”
This is a direct query on the whereabouts of 4.46 million voters in an election won with 3.9 million votes. So, let our president read the report himself and ask his spin doctors: What else is the meaning of integrity?
As our victorious president focuses on the snakes and missing the scorpions, we need to tell him that he won’t ever be short of fawning drummers and groveling worshipers. And I pity him. Has he heard it said before that to have a good enemy, choose a friend – as he alone knows where to strike? I recommend to Buhari two proverbs from two persons from two different worlds. I do not think he will love to hear their names; they are not from his village. One is a politician, the other a clergyman. They spoke during a solidarity visit by Anglican Bishops of the Province of the Niger Delta to the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike.
The governor opened the wisdom verve by saying he is “not carried away by all the congratulatory and goodwill messages because he knew that “when you are moving and you hear footsteps, watch whether the footsteps are with you or they are stepping back.” Then the Archbishop of the Anglican Province of the Niger Delta, Most Rev Tunde Adeleye, took that proverbial perspective to the next level. He said: “When you are winning a battle and the people are drumming and you are dancing, my people say look back from time to time to be sure that the drummers are following you or you are just hearing the sound of the drum. The battle is not complete until it has been completed.”
But then, what battle is Buhari fighting and getting applauded for? He needs to ask himself this repeatedly and get satisfied that he has not missed his way. Nigerians too won’t stop scrutinizing every move of this president from the North who is not bothered that his government, branch to branch, is headed by northerners.
