By Onyema Omenuwa
Bola Ahmed Tinubu
has been unravelled. As a bigot, that is. Eventually, and completely, it needs
to be added. And it is all due to the hypocritical kind of politics that he
plays, particularly in Lagos State where he holds sway as the alpha and omega
of politics. Significantly, his unrelenting and desperate quest to become the
President of Nigeria led to his unravelling. Though he has succeeded in that
regard, since he is today the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the success came at the great cost
of shattering the façade of progressivism that has all along defined his
politics.
Tinubu projects progressivism as his political worldview. But presently in Lagos State, the “Igbo Must Go” hashtag has become something of a mantra across social media platforms for the Yoruba residents of Lagos and their supporters. That is starkly anti-progressive by any stretch of imagination, and it is happening in Tinubu’s Lagos. “Residents” is used advisedly in this context because not every Yoruba in Lagos is an indigene of Lagos State or a “Lagosian,” as the indigenes of the state delight in describing themselves. And that is the irony.
Indigenous Lagosians and, in all fairness to them, the teeming
Yoruba of liberal disposition, have distanced themselves from and have been
speaking against this divisive campaign, which tends to position Lagos as a
xenophobic enclave for the Igbo. Such an open repudiation is quite reassuring.
Chief Bode George for instance has said that the anti-Igbo campaign “is arrant
nonsense… Those who are proposing this nonsense have no bearing and no family
connection to Lagos. I am saying it as a Lagosian.”
Yet, the campaign is real, and the bigoted campaigners are very
vociferous. They have registered a notorious presence on all social media
platforms, literally strutting and fanning the embers of hatred against the
Igbo race. In all that, silence had been the word from Tinubu; not to mention
the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led Lagos State Government, which he installed. It was
only on August 4 that President Tinubu issued a feeble condemnation of the
campaign, as part of his equally half-hearted nationwide address following the
“End Bad Governance in Nigeria” protests. Sanwo-Olu had reacted to the campaign
in the same lax manner.
And to think that Tinubu himself ignited the
“nonsense,” by the inordinate pursuit of his ambition. For the perceptive mind,
the anti-Igbo sentiment got invigorated in Lagos during the 2015
electioneering, with that infamous outburst or threat by Oba Rilwan Akiolu of
Lagos to have the Igbo population in Lagos drowned in the lagoon, if they voted
against Akinwunmi Ambode, who was Tinubu’s candidate for the governorship
election of the state. In no time, the sentiment became so widespread, and what
obtains today is sheer display of ethnophobia against the Igbo, comparable only
to the xenophobic attitude of South Africans against Nigerians in that country.
It was probably only during the civil war years that the Igbo had to put up
with the kind of animosity as is currently exhibited towards them in Lagos. On
a daily basis, social media platforms brim with very terrible ethnic slurs by
persons of Yoruba extraction, and their supporters, against the Igbo.
Such displays of ethnic prejudice can be overlooked, if it is
emanating from the ignorant or unenlightened class of people. But that is not
the case. Educated and enlightened folks also amplify the anti-Igbo rhetoric.
However, it must continuously be emphasised that Tinubu’s ambition (which he
has achieved anyway), and nothing else, is at the root of it. Events lend
credence to this assertion. It bears repeating and it is unarguable that Tinubu
is the ultimate power in Lagos politics. For starters, he was two-term governor
for eight years and thereafter has maintained a vice-like grip on the state’s
affairs. Without absolute loyalty to him, no one can attain any political
height in Lagos State. To become governors, Babatunde Fashola, Ambode and the
incumbent, Sanwo-Olu danced to no other tune than Tinubu’s. Ambode who dared to
assert himself after assuming office ultimately lost out bigly and is today
something of a pariah in Lagos politics.
Because of Tinubu’s staying power, some have credited him with a
mastery of political strategies. Yet for him, the fear of losing control over
Lagos is real. And the Igbo population in Lagos has the potential to make it
happen. The possibility of the clichéd parlance, politics is a game of numbers
can be taken advantage of by a Tinubu rival or an opposition party in Lagos
State using the Igbo population. The consciousness of this possibility makes
Tinubu and his cohorts who aspire to elective office very uncomfortable. But
the fear need not be, for an acclaimed strategist. All that the man who bears
the vanity appellation, “Jagaban.” needs do to sway the Igbo votes to his
advantage is woo the Igbo voters. But no, threat seems to be the very strategy
he has mastered, and he deploys it maximally. Which progressive does that?
When the Oba of Lagos threatened the Igbo, Tinubu was not credited
with any statement of disapproval of that reckless utterance. His silence was
very readily interpreted as an approval and that enabled the activation of
latent bigotry that a motely of Yoruba characters now profess and propagate.
The 2023 electioneering for which Tinubu was the APC presidential candidate fed
the anti-Igbo sentiment got more fillip. With the “master strategist” fighting
the political battle of his life, the likes of Bayo Onanuga ran amok. Using
majorly his X handle @aonanuga1956, as Tinubu’s spokesperson, Onanuga regularly
churned out a no-holds-barred hate-laden comments against the Igbo, bragging
that “I don’t owe anyone any apology.” Not a few commentators had to remind of the
genesis of the Rwanda genocide whose imagery still scares humanity. It happened
largely because of reckless utterances against an ethnic group such as being
spewed by him. Then, on assuming office as President, Tinubu appointed Onanuga
as spokesperson of his Government. That can only be a reward for a job well
done.
The anti-Igbo expressions tend to convey the
impression that the Lagos Igbo residents characteristically interfere in Lagos
politics beyond the limits allowed by and in a democracy. But that is not true.
What is true is that the Igbo numerical strength in Lagos is second only to the
Yoruba indigenous population. That number can naturally determine the outcome
of any election. For context, Tinubu’s fear is reasonably informed by previous
voting patterns, especially beginning 2015, that his party is not the choice of
the Igbo in Lagos. He was trounced in the presidential election in Lagos State,
and till date the debate hasn’t abated that his party was heading for a greater
trouncing in the governorship election but for some unspeakable manipulations
and intrusions perpetrated on his behalf, including the deployment of the Oro traditional
cult to prevent the Igbo from voting.
So, the resort to savage force by his supporters to suppress the
Igbo votes was borne out of his own desperation. And in the bid to stop the
Igbo, all actions were considered fair: Street urchins and thugs, a cult group,
as already alluded, were unleashed on the Igbo, with even some educated elite
offering themselves to propagate the anti-Igbo rhetoric. In all this frenzy,
they cared less about what would become of the Lagos image. What mattered was
Tinubu’s was for interest to be served. Lagos is unarguably the most
cosmopolitan Nigerian city, featuring considerable attributes of civilisation,
if not modernity. That is the city where one man’s desperation to hold
steadfastly on to power is threatening to destroy its potential for exponential
growth.
One otherwise insignificant
social media account, @Lagospedia, on X took Onanuga’s hate propaganda some
notches higher by its enthusiastic but ferocious propagation of Igbophobia. In its efforts, it spawned other
similar accounts like @Lagospidia, @Lagos_IBILE and @YorubaGuard. Though all
the accounts have been reportedly deactivated on X, a sole agenda united them:
A crusade against the Igbo population/interest in Lagos. On July 27, 2024,
@Lagospedia posts assumed a dangerous dimension with its call for a xenophobic
protest against the Igbo from August 20 to 30. The handler specifically
promoted hashtag IgboMustGo, demanding the Igbo’s ejection from the southwest.
As alluded, Lagos State Governor, Jide Sanwo-Olu only feebly condemned the
crusade via a statement on August 1 where he urged Lagosians “to ignore the
post and any post of that nature”. Sanwo-Olu surely does not need any reminder
that it is in his Lagos that the Igbo population and their businesses have been
attacked over and over, without any consequence.
The agenda to set the Yoruba population against the Igbo in Lagos
and by extension the entire southwest is being pursued with palpable vigour,
and it bears repeating that it is done with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tacit
encouragement. Concerned authorities may turn a blind eye and deaf ear to what
is happening in Lagos, but it is worth mentioning that such expressions of
anti-ethnic sentiments threaten the constitutional right of Nigerians to live
anywhere in the country. Today, it is the Igbo. Tomorrow, for as long as Tinubu
continues to hold sway, it will surely be any other ethnic group in Lagos,
unless they don’t insist on exercising their franchise without let or
hinderance.
But overall, events have exposed the Tinubu brand of politics for
what it is and cast him properly. Neither he nor any of his protégés can in all
honesty lay claim to progressivism. Interestingly, the deception about Tinubu’s
worldview of progressive politics had stuck in public consciousness for far too
long that indeed no doubt existed about his commitment to the principle. But
deception, like all pseudofacts, has an expiry time. Bob Marley’s immortal
words ring true here: “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool
all the people all the time.” The unravelling of Tinubu though long in coming
because of his adept at masterfully projecting a façade eventually did come.
Unless the meaning of progressive as used in democratic politics has been so
elastically adjusted as to accommodate bigotry as a connotation, Bola Ahmed
Tinubu, the politician who is today the President of Nigeria, should not have
his name and his politics associated with that word or concept. At least, not
anymore.
He has unravelled and should stop laying claim to progressive
credentials. The unfortunate drift occasioned by his political predilection
deserves nothing but blanket condemnation, otherwise it would be
institutionalised. It is a bad advertisement for the “unity in diversity”
mantra that the country’s political leaders proclaim.
* Omenuwa, a lawyer, is a commentator
on national issues
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