By Dan Onwukwe
Political power is like a bikini. It reveals. It exposes a leader’s real character, no matter how he tries to hide it. That’s why what some politicians do when they are trying to get your vote is not necessarily what they do after they have it. This is what happens: when a President feels he has got enough power, when he thinks he can do without you anymore, that’s when you begin to see how he always wanted to treat people.
Moreover, you can begin to see by watching what he does with the power he has desperately acquired and what he wanted to accomplish all along. That’s also why history sometimes provides a striking opportunity for understanding the interplay between leaders, circumstances, and the behaviour of some leaders who society once accorded recognition and respect.
Without stretching matters too far, what Bola Tinubu presidency has done to the South East is a story filled with remorseless, unrepentant and unapologetic heartbreak never experienced by Ndigbo since after the civil war. And you begin to ask the following questions: Does President Tinubu have scores to settle with the Igbo?
That’s the question many fair-minded people have been asking in the past two years and counting. What, indeed informs his decision to almost always fill critical political appointments with men and women of Yoruba extraction? Why has the President become more of a divider than a unifier? Is there a hidden agenda that Nigerians do not know yet?
Truth is, appointments of key political positions sends a strong and clear message that a country is ready to move forward. It’s one duty any president who wants to succeed owes his country. This is because he has become the President for all, regardless of who didn’t for him. His appointment of people in various positions must reflect equity, fairness and the diversity of all the geopolitical zones of the country. This is even more important now that the tempers of the time require that a democratically elected President should not short-change some geopolitical zones to achieve cheap political gains.
From that very moment Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election trounced Tinubu in Lagos state, it seems like a veiled declaration of marginalisation of Ndigbo has begun. Almost every passing day, that maltreatment has increased in intensity. Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe was strikingly accurate when he described the president’s high-handedness against Ndigbo as “renewed shege.
Loosely translated, shege in Hausa means to deal harshly with someone, or unleash humiliation as form of revenge. And you ask again, revenge for what? Is this the same man who promised he would run an inclusive government if he becomes president? Why this level of nepotism in political appointments and a vexed hand against the South East? Is this the same man as governor of Lagos state(1999-2007) who embraced a number of Igbos in his cabinet? What went wrong between then and now, that his alienation of Ndigbo in key positions has reached alarming level to the extent that the Igbo living Lagos have become a prime target by the government in power?
Let’s briefly talk about political marginalisation of the South East. Forget about the claim by Minister of Works, Dave Umahi that the “South East is now connected to the centre”. Umahi is talking about his personal gains, and nothing more, and he knows it. As of last week, statistics show that no fewer than 140 men and women of Yoruba extraction hold political appointments in Tinubu’s government, and about 88 of this number in the commanding heights of his administration, including in Ministries, Departments and Agencies. Out of the new 16 Directors appointed in the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), 10 are Yoruba, 3 Igbo and 3 Hausa/Fulani.
Recall that in a minor cabinet reshuffle last year, Mrs Uju-Kennedy Ohanenye from Anambra state, then Minister of Women Affairs was sacked. Doris Uzoka-Anite (from Imo state), a medical doctor and an accomplished financial analyst, was demoted from her portfolio as Minister of Industry Trade and Investment to a junior Minister of Finance.
Just last week, Dr Nkiruka Chidia Maduekwe, Director General of the Nigeria Climate Change Council(NCCC) was sacked after one year in that position. She has been replaced by Mrs Omotenioye Majekodunmi. A lawyer, and environmental policy expert, Maduekwe is from Abia state. Her removal by the President will preclude her from leading Nigeria’s delegation at the upcoming United Nations 30th Conference of the Parties(COP30) later this year in Belem, Brazil.
There’s still confusion over the fate of Mrs B.U Nwafor, a Deputy Comptroller General at the Nigeria Customs Service. She is regarded as one of the most brilliant and hard working in the Customs hierarchy to become the next Customs boss. The furore was sequel to the extension by year, of the tenure of the Customs boss, Adewale Adeniyi who would have retired from service this month’s. Which South East Governor can speak up against South East marginalisation? None!
Whatever the high-handedness, the Igbo spirit lives on. As former American President Gerald R. Ford once said, “you don’t suspect ill motives of anyone until you are kicked in the balls three times”. Tinubu has kicked Ndigbo several times in the balls just because they preferred one of their own, Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential poll. Whatever pain the South East suffered during the Buhari presidency, it is now worse. This is not how power can be used to achieve great purposes in a multi- ethnic society like Nigeria.
In almost 28 months of his presidency, it’s not unkind to say that President Tinubu has exhibited enormous skill in amassing power. As American presidential historian and Pulitzer recipient, Robert A. Caro noted in one of his books, The Path to Power, for some politicians, power means being able to bend people to their own will. President Tinubu fits into that description. He has made many people become somebody in politics, but he has equally ruined many politicians’ career. I am inclined to believe that having moved from ‘emilokan’(it’s my turn) to now President, there’s nothing more than the insatiable desire for more power to dominate other people.
That’s why some people have used superlative words to describe Tinubu’s deft political style, a politician whose ingenuity is inscrutable. His drive for power is inseparable from what he wants power for. He’s not a servant leader. I don’t think he sought power to accomplish real goals for Nigeria and Nigerians.
He is more of a fox. He can see the jugular in any man and go for it to achieve a particular political gain. Immediate National Chairman of his party, the APC, Abdullahi Ganduje can tell better. Tinubu is the smartest politician of this era. But while having a larger end is considered important for political leaders, the people of the South East have faced more daunting challenges in the past than whatever the president has unleashed on Ndigbo.
As Prof Femi Olufunmilade, political scientist at the Igbinedion University, Okada in Edo state said recently, whatever achievement Tinubu made in Lagos state as governor, he couldn’t have done much without the taxes collected from thousands of businesses owned by the Igbo in Lagos. The same in every part of the country. One is saying that the Igbo are indispensable, but they are a key component of the federation, and have made remarkable imprints in every facet of the economy. No one can wish that away.
This column did warn when Buhari embarked on his cynical, self-destructive ambition, and the marginalisation of the South East, but it was not heeded. And this is where he left Nigeria – perhaps in the worst rung of leadership. In the case of Tinubu, what we are witnessing now is the temperament and behaviour of the most ambitious, deft political player adept at amazing power that is at odds with federal character and unity in diversity.
*Onwukwe is a commentator on public issues
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