By Ochereome Nnanna
For his own purposes, President Bola Tinubu had delayed the appointment of Bayo Onanuga as one of his spokesmen. Ajuri Ngelale, broadcast journalist and Ogoni chief, was presented to give Tinubu’s media office a handsome, though unsmiling face.
Many commentators were relieved that elements like Bayo Onanuga, Dele Alake and Festus Keyamo would not be brought to irritate the nerves of decent Nigerians with their tawdry, noisy and cheap propaganda antics which we saw during the campaigns for the 2023 general elections in Tinubu’s camp. This feeling was further reinforced when Alake was posted to the Solid Minerals Ministry and Keyamo taken to Aviation.
However, Onanuga surfaced as a spare tyre
presidential spokesman. I immediately knew his major assigned role: cheap,
swinish propaganda, especially against the ethnic group that has fiercely
resisted Tinubu’s wholesale capture of Nigeria: Ndi Igbo of the South-East. The
Igbo residents of Lagos make up, at least, 30 per cent of the population of the
city-state and have a commanding presence in its economy, especially commerce
and industry.
Tinubu considers them an
obstacle to his political aspirations. Sure, Asiwaju’s political platform in
Lagos has its fair share of Igbo adherents, as should be. That is where you see
the likes of Ben Akabueze, Joe Igbokwe and others, who have been with him
almost since 1999. But majority of Ndi Igbo have been pro-Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, both in Lagos and nationally. Their sons, such as the late Dr Alex
Ekwueme, were co-founders of the party.
Tinubu has managed to swallow
the vast majority of the Lagos Yoruba opposition elements into his political
family. He has not succeeded in the same fashion with the Igbo residents of
Lagos. Ndi Igbo are far more politically-discerning and consistent than they are
given credit for. Except for recent years when the PDP lost its appeal and Igbo
politicians started seeking refuge elsewhere, Ndi Igbo followed the PDP because
of its ideological promise of power sharing and rotation which they believed
would favour them one day. PDP is dying because they abandoned their own
cherished charter of equity when it was the turn of the South-East to benefit.
After using several failed stick
and carrot measures to bend Igbo voters to himself, Tinubu unleashed Joe
Igbokwe on his kinsfolk in Lagos. The more he attacked them the higher he grew
in the hierarchy. The Tinubu political parties started deploying hoodlums to
predominant Igbo neighbourhoods to disrupt elections and prevent his loss of
power.
On February 25, 2023, Tinubu’s worst
nightmare came true. The Labour Party, with Peter Obi as its presidential
candidate, achieved the unthinkable by defeating Tinubu in Lagos during the
presidential election! The Obidients Movement, a coalition of Nigerians from
all ethnic backgrounds mostly from the South and Middle Belt, dethroned Tinubu
in Lagos. The Yoruba elements who were tired of Tinubu’s grip on Lagos, played
the decisive roles in that Movement to produce that historic outcome.
For the Governorship election,
the Tinubu camp went into war mood. They literally entered the trenches.
Nothing was spared to make sure that Tinubu’s power over the Lagos honeypot
remained in his grasp. That was when elements like Onanuga were retained to man
Tinubu’s propaganda arsenal. Onanuga has a track record of media trench warfare
which he garnered from the military transitional political era. He had also
used this gun against Tinubu. But towards his old age, he realised he could not
beat them, so he joined them.
The main purpose of Bayo
Onanuga’s swinish anti-Igbo rhetoric is to foment crisis and violence between
the Yoruba and Igbo in and around the Lagos areas, in the evil belief that such
a bloody confrontation will devastate Igbo lives and property and end their
perceived threat against Tinubu’s political empire.
Each time Tinubu’s administration is threatened with strikes or mass actions, Dele Alake and Bayo Onanuga would invoke the name of Peter Obi and the Obidients Movement as the instigators. Sometimes they couch it in more incitingly terms by dragging in the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to make it generate more traction of hatred, especially in the Islamic North. We saw that during Organised Labour’s first move for a mass action after the “subsidy is gone” outing of Tinubu as president.
This cheap but incendiary propaganda bombast emerged after the #EndSARS violence in October, 2020 that culminated in the Lekki Toll Gate shootings. A civilised, well-organised protest by Nigerian youth from across the divides was quelled with kinetic military firepower by Muhammadu Buhari at the request of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Hoodlums quickly hijacked the action, targeting Lagos government property, APC politicians, the police and businesses for burning, looting, killing, maiming and vandalisation.
Though Sanwo-Olu’s government
was very conciliatory to bring down tensions, Tinubu’s group blamed IPOB and
Ndi Igbo. Only the timely intervention of Pa Ayo Adebanjo’s Afenifere and other
Yoruba elements of goodwill prevented armed attacks on Igbo Lagos residents and
the unforeseeable consequences that could have followed. Onanuga and his
paymasters believe the only way they can hope to continue ruling Lagos is by
targeting Ndi Igbo, knocking down their votes and threatening them with
property confiscation and genocide.
Ndi Igbo have made it abundantly
clear that they will not participate in the impending protests. Some see it as
a way of protesting the outcome of the 2023 presidential election. Others
simply want to avoid being spuriously accused and victimised by their enemies
such as Onanuga and his paymasters. But Onanuga keeps threatening them with
“treasonable felonies”. Ndi Igbo and Peter Obi are being deliberately
scapegoated for a mass action they have already chosen to boycott.
Onanuga and his paymasters
should be very careful. It is unwise to play with fire because it burns. There
can never be winners in ethnic wars; only losers.
A word is enough.
*Nnanna
is a commentator on public issues
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