28022021

Looking forward to
governors rescuing Nigeria
Palpable tension caused
by Nigeria’s
increasingly unsafe
environment moved to near
boiling point last week when
two of our state governors,
Samuel Ortom and Bala
Mohammed of Benue and
Bauchi states respectively
employed intemperate
language to controvert one
another. While some people
were able to understand
Ortom’s hurt from the
number of persons of Benue
origin killed and/or
displaced by herders from
their homes and farmlands,
others were prepared to
tolerate the anger of Bala
Mohammed who has
become the leading voice
against the tendency to
criminally profile the Fulani.
When it is realized that the
posture of both governors
can hardly provide any
solution to the intractable
problem on ground, it makes
sense to appeal to both
leaders and all their
counterparts nationwide to
ignore justifications and
embrace their primary
constitutional mandate
which is to ensure the welfare
and security of those they
lead.
Luckily, Bala Mohammed
has taken steps to restore
some level of normalcy by
apologizing to all Nigerians
PhD,Department of
Philosophy,
University of Lagos
08116759758
opuruiche2000@gmail.com
The Nigerian situation
has degenerated so
badly since 2015, specifically
after retired Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari came
to power, that an increasing
number of the citizens are
now nostalgic about the
much-inveighed or vilified
administration of former
President Goodluck
Jonathan, although die-hard
buharimaniacs still believe
the fairy tale that things are
better now than they were in
2014. On the other hand, it is
clear that Prof.Wole Soyinka,
Bola Tinubu, Rotimi
Amaechi, Atiku Abubakar
and the so-called intellectuals,
political juggernauts and
leaders of opinion across the
country who packaged
Buhari as the messiah that
would undo the mess by the
Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) after sixteen years in
office were tragically
mistaken. Without any
scintilla of doubt the main
failures of Buhari’s
administration are not new:
they have been the leitmotiv
of various governments
especially since the Biafran
war ended in 1970, namely,
mindless corruption
especially amongst the ruling
military-civilian elite,
insecurity and shambolic
management of the economy.
Although these three
fundamental pillars of
misgovernance have
worsened under the All
Progressives Congress (APC)
who may have been
disgusted by the diction he
used while defending his
people. Bala no doubt
appreciates the need to be
sensitive to the sensibilities
of other Nigerians. We thank
the governor for his decision
to reduce tension in the polity
especially his call on all
herders to drop their AK 47
weapons. The earlier
explanation by the governor
that he only used AK 47
figuratively would mean
that his appeal should apply
to all those who possess
whatever weapons or
implements of coercion to
desist from hurting fellow
citizens. It is our hope that
all other governors will
adopt a similar position in
the days ahead. Indeed, it is
not just governors; all
leaders must depart from the
part of parochialism which
has of recent pushed them
into defending the
indefensible. To this end, no
one should be engaged in the
type of truth told the other
day by governor Simon
Lalong of Plateau state that
farmers also carry AK 47.
The appropriate message is
that no Nigerian should
carry unauthorized arms, let
alone using such
implements to commit
extra-judicial killings.
The path to unity which
The possible impossibility of
Nigeria (1)
notwithstanding the
exculpatory shibboleths from
APC apologists and
sycophants, the worst
abomination under the
current government is
President Buhari’s ringing
nepotism in appointing those
that occupy the most
consequential positions in the
armed forces, the Police,
Customs and Immigration,
NNPC, NPA, DSS, NIA and
so on. Intellectually dishonest
and morally crippled
commentators shamelessly
deny what no one in his right
senses would dare to question.
In that regard, not only are
the three arms of government
at the centre headed by
northern muslims, Buhari has
consistently manifested and
gotten away with
unprecedented pro-north
disposition to governance
which actually contravenes
the federal character
provisions in the gravely
flawed1999 constitution. If
Nigeria is practising a
functional democracy where
the relevant institutions are
controlled by individuals of
integrity and courage to stand
for truth, the president should
have been impeached by the
National Assembly. Why?
Because he has breached
severally stipulations of the
constitution he swore to
protect, foremost among
which is his failure to secure
the citizens and lead in a
manner that gives Nigerians
from every part of the country
many of our governors seem
to have followed in the last
few weeks makes it
mandatory for the same
governors to be the first to
condemn any divisive
statements irrespective of
their authors. Sadly, such
talks which our governors
should ignore while working
to rescue Nigeria have
become quite many. They
include the statement by
former governor Isa Yuguda
that the federal government
should subsidize herders’
businesses because it also
supports agriculture. That
statement would have had
only one meaning under
normal times but to
reiterateit at a time of
tension is ill-advisable as
some people might
understand it to mean a tacit
support for herder invasions
here and there. In any case,
which of the three herders
identified by governor
Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano
is Yuguda speaking for?
Would it for example include
the foreign Fulani herders
that Ganduje categorized as
criminals?
Our governors must also
ignore much of what Sheik
Gumi has said so far as well
as those of people opposed
to the cleric because the pro
and anti Gumi narratives
are distractions. In specific
terms, we need to encourage
people to quickly forget
statements such as Gumi’s
argument that killings by
bandits are mostly
accidental. It would also be
detrimental to our fragile
peace process to embrace
the call by different groups
for government to
investigate Gumi for
allegedly behaving like the
spiritual leader of bandits.
Another negative
Trump’s emergence as
president has proved
once again that
democracy does not
necessarily guarantee
that the most qualified
candidate would be
elected
a sense of belonging. That
President Buhari ought to
have been removed from
office particularly now that
his hardened pro-north
outlook has accentuated the
simmering ethno-religious
tensions which have
bedevilled the country since
independence cannot be
disputed by anyone with a
modicum of objectivity and
regard for accountability by
public
officials.
Unfortunately, the National
Assembly dominated by
northerners and agbataekee
politicians from the south, led
by Ahmed Lawan, lacks the
courage to do the right thing
at the right time. Indeed, the
current federal legislature is
the most subservient to the
executive branch and the
most shamelessly spineless
since the purported return to
civilian rule (not necessarily
to efficient democracy)in
1999. When the definitive
history of Nigeria’s
experiment with democratic
governance is finally written,
names of the current federal
legislators will be listed in the
Hall of Shame as mere rubber
stamps for failing to rise up to
the occasion because of greed
and “anything goes” attitude
to the Buhari-led government.
That Nigeria is a
contraption put together by
British imperialists
principally for British
information that our
governors must
discountenance is last
week’s statement credited to
my friend, our Information
Minister who revealed that
A unity of direction
which our governors
are able to achieve
through a collective
resolve must be
immediately
followed by a design
on uniformity in
operating
procedures
in many countries of the
developed world, school
children are also subjected to
kidnapping. The statement
which uses one wrong to justify
another is unacceptable,
instead we would like to hear
about arrangements by our
government to do some great
things such as exploits to the
moon because other nations
have also been showing off
their prowess in this era of
advanced technology
The venues of criminality in
Nigeria today are the states
making the leader at that
level- the governor the most
affected by every criminal act.
The resort to the President for
help makes huge sense but the
pace at which help comes or
does not even come, places the
governor in jeopardy. A
Nigerian governor can
therefore not afford to toy
with the issue of criminality
economic interests is beyond
dispute. Less universally
accepted but certainly true is
the claim that since
independence Nigerians have
not been able to create a
genuine nation out of the
colonial amalgam or
contraption left behind for
them by the colonialists. Even
some of the most respected
politicians who worked
directly with British colonial
officials were sceptical about
the workability or viability of
Nigeria as a modern
geopolitical entity. For
example, according to the
Sardauna of Sokoto and
powerful premier of the
northern region, Sir Ahmadu
Bello, the Lugardian
amalgamation of the
northern and southern
protectorates to form Nigeria
should not have happened. In
1953 at a session of the federal
parliament, he claimed that
“The mistake of 1914 has
come to light, and I should like
it to go no further.” During one
of the earlier constitutional
conferences held before
independence, his protégé
who later became the first
and only prime minister to
date, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa, affirmed that
Nigeria “existed as one
country only on paper. It is still
far from being united.
Nigerian unity is only a British
intention for the country.”
Chief Obafemi Awolowo who,
despite his tribalistic
inclinations ranks as one of
the most capable politicians
to have emerged from
Nigeria, concluded that
“Nigeria is not a nation; it is a
mere geographic expression.
There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the
same sense as there are
English or Welsh or French.
The word ‘Nigeria’ is merely
a distinctive appellation to
distinguish those who live
within the boundaries of
Nigeria and those who do
SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 28, 2021, PAGE 17
more so as it has become a
notorious fact that each
governor picks a huge
monthly security vote to
counter crimes and
criminality in each state.
There is hardly any Nigerian
today who disbelieves the
argument that security vote is
a certified source of
corruption. Under the
circumstance, our governors
must quickly come together
and evolve a unity of direction
in combating the current
common challenge. First,
what is the nature of the
challenge? Events have shown
that it is not about religion or
ethnicity. As Kayode Fayemi,
Ekiti state governor and
chairman of the Nigerian
Governors’ Forum explained
a few days back, the issue at
stake is terrorism. If there is
any governor thinking
differently at this point, the rest
have to plead with him to
come on board.
A unity of direction which
our governors are able to
achieve through a collective
resolve must be immediately
followed by a design on
uniformity in operating
procedures. Today, there is
hardly any rationality in the
subsisting template which
counsels our leaders to
dialogue with bandits. Before
now, Nigerians who believed
that dialogue in every conflict
can be a win-win strategy
have waned. Perhaps this
explains why Bello Masari,
Katsina state governor has
been more silent these days
than Muhammad
Matawelle, governor of
Zamfara state who had
argued strongly that
negotiating with bandits was
no sign of failure! Of course
the report of a fresh abduction
of over 300 students from the
not.” Dr.Nnamdi Azikiwe,
unarguably one of the greatest
African politicians and
champion of One Nigeria,
stated in a 1964 lecture at the
University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, that in the country
“Tribalism is a reality.
National unity can be a
reality; but at present it is not
quite a reality.” That is not all.
While Azikiwe and his
followers obsessed with
forging a united Nigerian
nation worked tirelessly to
actualise it key prominent
northern politicians had
another idea, which was to
continue the conquest began
in the early decades of the 19 th
century by the arch-jihadist,
Usman Dan Fodio. For
instance, in 1947, Balewa told
the British colonial governor
that “We do not want, Sir, our
southern neighbours to
interfere in our
development…I should like
to make it clear to you that if
the British quitted Nigeria
now at this stage the northern
people will continue their
uninterrupted conquest to the
sea.”
The opposition of
prominent northern political
leaders and emirs to the
unification of Nigeria was
very strong in the last two
decades before independence
and few years afterwards.
Several of them considered
the option of secession which,
in the words of Ahmadu Bello,
“was very tempting.” The
British journalist and writer,
Frederick Forsyth, explains
that the northern premier
jettisoned the idea of session
for two major reasons: the
difficulty of collecting customs
duties along a land border
and the unreliability of access
to the sea through a
neighbouring independent
country. Therefore, it is clear
that the dominant faction of
the northern ruling elite
intended to conquer their
Government Girls Secondary
School Jangebe, in Zamfara
state must have at this point
placed Mattawele himself in
despair concerningthe
efficacy of his preferred
approach. The frustration of
Sani Bello, Niger state
governor about no help from
the federal level challenges
the bond of unity among
governors. What we have seen
so far is much of condolence
visits by governors to affected
states, but do the visits
translate to real support to a
colleague under severe stress?
It is probably time for our
governors to listen to
Akinwunmi Adesina,
President of the African
Development Bank who has
asked Nigeria to leave
‘Federal Fatherism To A
CommonWealth.”
Nigerian governors need to
learn a few lessons from what
they have been occasionally
subjected to in the recent past.
An analyst would not be said
to be harsh if he concludes that
our governors are yet to
appreciate the real
consequences of a failure to
squarely face good
governance. Too many of
them are too distracted by
what is now commonly
called the politics of 2023;
yet the approved period for
electioneering is still quite
far. In earnest, a huge
portion of the time for
governance that is choked
by electioneering has easily
exposed Nigeria’s poor
governance to the global
media. The dilapidated
structure of the Kagara
“government” school from
where some students and
teachers as well as some of
their family members were
abducted almost two weeks
ago is instructive.
southern neighbours had the
British not intervened, and
opted not to pursue secession
for mainly economic reasons
beneficial to their region, not
to the whole of Nigeria.
Inherent in any multiply
plural country like Nigeria
are centrifugal forces tending
to tear it apart thereby
constituting a constant source
of vulnerability. Aside from
authoritarian nations such as
China, Russia and North
Korea which still are under the
iron grip of one party or one
family dictatorship, advanced
democracies like the United
States, United Kingdom and
India have succeeded to some
extent in creating traditions
and institutions which ensure
that the centripetal
gravitational pull of
commonalities amongst the
diverse ethnic nationalities is
greater than the centrifugal
forces pulling in the opposite
direction. In this process the
quality of leadership, and by
implication the followership
as well, is of fundamental
importance. That is why even
in the United States which has
been under democratic rule
for over two hundred years
and where muted calls for
secession by disgruntled
Americans can be heard from
time to time, institutions that
unite the country have been
successfully mobilised by
patriotic leaders to neutralise
such demands at least for the
time being.
It is easy to point out the
example of countries like
America and India that are
more populous and culturally
diverse than Nigeria and use
it to question the rationale
behind recurrent agitations
for secession by certain
sections of the country or at
least for renegotiating the
foundation on which its
geopolitical architecture was
built. To be continued.