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”.
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| *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.
