By Magnus Onyibe
The Federal Republic
of Nigeria, FGN is the country we all call our own. Our country comprises of
about 250 tribes or ethnic nationalities with the main ones being
Hausa/Fulani,Yoruba, lgbo, Kanuri, ljaw, Nupe, Calabari, Tiv, Ijebu, lgara, Urhobo,
Jukun, ldoma, fufulde, Ika Ibibio, Edo etc. In the inaugural speech of
President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2015, he was famously quoted as
saying ”l belong to everyone , l
belong to no one”.
*Buhari with former Vice President Ekwueme |
That very welcoming
and reassuring remark, which resonated very well with most Nigerians, became a
quotable quote that featured in myriads of comments in the mainstream and
online media, just as it also became a talking head in torrents of radio and
television shows. The reason the quote was significant is quite simple. In the
run up to the 2015 general elections, campaign rhetorics vaunting ethnic and
regional sentiments were so rife that Nigeria became too polarised in such
manner that the Hausa/Fulani in the northern parts of Nigeria were stacked
behind, ex-military head of state, Muhammadu Buhari, who is from the
Hausa/Fulani stock, while the lgbos, ljaws and other minority tribes in
the South east and South south part of Nigeria, queued up behind the then
incumbent president, GoodLuck Jonathan, who is ljaw, and one of their own.
The Yorubas in the
South west, who having had a shot at the presidency from 1999 to 2007,when
ex-army General, Olusegun Obasanjo transited from prison to presidency, became
the bride to be wooed by both the political forces from the north and south
south parts of Nigeria. In the end, the Yorubas aligned with the north through
acceptance of the Vice President slot which the acclaimed leader of the
Yorubas, Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos state, conceded to a man of
impeccable character, an evangelical pastor,his long time ally and former
attorney general of Lagos state, Yemi Osinbajo.
Prior to his success
at the 2015 polls, President Buhari had tried and failed to successfully clinch
the presidency in 2003, 2007 and 2011 but on each of those occasions that he
lost, Buhari swept the votes in the core northern states like, Katsina, Kebbi,
Zamfara , Sokoto, etc, sometimes garnering about 12 million votes. Even with
Yoruba’s vote in the kitty, Buhari still needed the votes from the South east
and South south to fulfill the constitutional requirements that votes must be
garnered from all parts of Nigeria
for a candidate to be deemed to have won. This is to ensure that a situation
whereby a particular candidate from an ethnic group with superior numerical
strength, does not ride into the presidency relying only on votes from his Kith
and kin.
That’s how Rotimi
Amaechi, former governor of Rivers state, the heart of South south, now
minister of transport and Rochas Okorocha, incumbent governor of Imo state, the
ground zero of lgbo land, became the game changers. With their support,
substantial votes in Rivers and lmo states were brought into Buhari’s
kitty that already had the Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba votes and the rest, as they
say is history. Politics is a game of strategy and democracy is also about
numbers of people that politicians are able to swing to their side, which
justifies the political dictum,majority carries the vote.
In 2015, Buhari
reached out and built bridges across many deserts and rainforests into Yoruba
land as well as crossed many bridges and rivers into lgbo and lkwere/Calabari
mangroves and creeks and he reaped the reward of the hard work by
becoming Nigeria ’s
number one citizen. Now, it’s pay back time. In politics, as in business,
settling lOUs is usually a very testy experience. In what many thought was a
Freudian slip like the one famously made by British prime minister, David
Cameroon about Nigeria being a fantastical corrupt country, in the wake of the
anti corruption summit in London recently, president Buhari during an
interactive session with some Nigerians and Americans, on the sideline of his
visit to the USA, stated that he cannot be expected to treat the 95% who voted
for him in the north equally with the less than 5% who voted in the south.
As expected in a
multicultural multiethnic and multi-religious society, the comment got twisted
and dissected with all manners of bias on online media platforms. Unsurprisingly,
many members of the elite commentariat also took Mr. President up on the remark
from the optics of the numerous ethnic and other primordial sentiments, and l
thought the high level of condemnation would challenge Mr. president to offer
some clarifications but that was not the case. With the public hue and cry
about appointments so far made into executive positions, it would appear
that Mr. President is sticking to his guns-literarily-to reward mainly voters
from his home base by skewing appointments in their favour.
Check out the list
of appointments into sensitive and critical security, safety, intelligence and
elections sector under the current regime making the rounds in the social
media: (1)Inspector General of Police- North (2)Director General of Directorate
of State Security Service, DSS- North (3)Chief of Army Staff- North (4)Chief of
Naval staff – North (5)National Security Adviser, NSA- North (6) Chairman of
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission , EFCC – North (7) Head of Immigration
Service- North (8)Head of Customs Service-North (9) Head of Civil Defense
Corps- North (10) Defense Minister- North (11)Controller of Prisons -North (12)
Chairman of INEC – North Hitherto, even under military rule, the positions
listed above were spread amongst people from the 250 ethnic nationalities
earlier listed particularly amongst the three major groups, Hausa
/Fulani,Yoruba and lgbo.
If the recent
interview, claimed to have been granted Hausa service of the BBC is
to be believed, Mr. President is making a case that appointment of mostly close
associates from his ethnic nationality into public offices in disregard of the
provision by the Federal Character Commission, FCC is justified by the
constitution, but is it? In response to the allegation, below is a transcription
of what Mr. President is believed to have said on the radio programme: “If they will do justice to me, as an
elected Nigerian president, let them look at the constitution (that) a Nigerian
president works with; there are people who will closely work with me that don’t
need to be taken to the senate. Mr. president is very correct on that count.”
“lf l select people
whom l know quite well in my political party ( with) whom we came all the way
right from APP,CPC and APC, and have remained together in good or bad
situations; the people l have confidence in and l can trust them with any post,
will that amount to any thing wrong?”.
The snag here is
that the men heading the security and strategic arms of government listed
earlier are supposed to be professionals, not card carrying members of any
political parties hence the last part of Mr. president’s justification does not
gel with the provision in 1999 Nigerian constitution. In any case, I suspect
that the statement was made when he appointed Babachar David Lawal as secretary
to the Federal government, even though it is now being presented as if it is in
response to the recent appointments. However, since Mr. president did not
specifically mention the section of Nigerian constitution that empowers him to
be tribalistic in appointments, he must have obviously been misquoted by
mischief makers, nevertheless, lets take a cursory look at the act establishing
the FCC, which is an entity constitutionally vested with the authority to
ensure that a balance is maintained in appointments into federal government
public and civil services amongst other functions. Information on the website
of the Federal Executive Body indicate that the Federal Character Commission,
FCC was established by Act No 34 of 1996 to implement and enforce the Federal
Character Principle of fairness and equity in distribution of public posts and
socioeconomic infrastructure among the various federating units of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.
According to the
provisions of 1999 Constitution in Sections 14 and 153 “The composition of Government of the Federation or any of its agencies
and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner as to
reflect the Federal Character of Nigeria and the need to promote National unity
and also command national loyalty , thereby ensuring that there shall be no
predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or sectional
groups in that government or in any agencies” From the law cited above, the grand norm
guiding the principle of federal character is clear. With the tension between
the executive and the legislative arms of govt, rearing its urging head again, one
can never tell what could become the ‘banana peel’ or Achilles’s heels of Mr.
president. I personally do not believe that there is a compliance desk
presently in Aso Rock Villa, otherwise these political ‘blind spots’
could have been spotted from afar and avoided by Mr. president whom l believe
listens. Here is my evidence that president Buhari listens: During the campaign
for the presidency, opponents dug up then presidential candidate, Buhari’s not
too palatable record as a military dictator who convicted journalists like
Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson retrospectively and authorized the execution of
drug offenders with similarly back dated laws when he was head of state.
In an article titled:
“When
A Public Mistake Requires An Old Fashioned Apology” published on the
back page of Thisday newspaper and other mainstream and online media
platforms, I suggested that as a leader, Buhari and his opponent, GoodLuck
Jonathan should apologize to Nigerians for their past mistakes . None of the candidates heeded the advise that
time, but when Buhari later met Tunde Thompson, he reportedly personally
expressed his regret even though he defended his actions that time as being an
inevitable decision that had to be made and did not admit guilt, which was fair
enough. Amongst other demonstrations of ability to be a listening leader,
president Buhari who initially resisted the removal of fuel subsidy, later acquiesced
with it; he was also against devaluing the naira but our currency is now
floating and he threatened to apply deadly force in dealing with Niger delta
militants, but he has similarly backed down, allowing the application of
dialogue for peace to prevail.
To me, these are
some of the critical milestones that signify accommodation of other views, so l
won’t join the list of critics classifying president Buhari as an autocratic
leader. Although the good gestures listed above do not quite net off the fact that
pro Biafra agitator Nnamdi Kanu;, alleged defense funds abuser, Sambo Dasuki
and fiery Shiite preacher, El Zazarkky, as well as Femi Fani-Kayode, another
accused defense funds co-conspirator, are still incarcerated after being
granted bail by law courts, it is hoped that very shortly, president Buhari’s
humane spirit would be stoked for him to authorize the release of these men
even on compassionate grounds. According to recent reports in the media, Mr. President,
reportedly complained that Nigeria
is proving to be difficult to govern.
Having admitted that
there is too much stress involved in leading Nigeria , not adhering to the rules
of fairness and equity ingrained in FCC law in the
appointment of Nigerians into public offices to balance the ethnic and
religious realities in the country , can only create more tension and
subsequently more stress for him. So why cant mr president do the most
equitable thing already stipulated in the 1999 constitution by spreading the
appointments nationally and avoid more stress?
*Magnus Onyibe, a development strategist,
Futurologist and former commissioner in Delta State govt is an alumnus of
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts
University , Massachusetts , USA .
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