The deep injury inflicted on the Nigerian polity by corruption is a barrier to our political advancement. Similarly, the incessant hardship caused by bad governance is a hindrance to our economic growth. Hopefully, in our yearning for a better Nigeria, our expectation to have the likes of the Pope or any of the saints to occupy Aso Rock in the next dispensation is spontaneously high.
For now, that desire is unattainable, because right now, Nigeria is blessed with neither Pope nor saints. But since it is a task for Nigerians to elect a new president in a couple of months, certainly, the prospective president must be a Nigerian politician. And judging from our political culture and orientation, it is also almost impossible to have a choice of president that meets 100% of our expectations come 2023.
The records are there; we celebrate and encourage decadence a lot in this country. It is only in Nigeria that traditional dancers wait at prison gates, in the name of ethnicity, to welcome back home discharged prisoners who were jailed for stealing public funds. It is also only in Nigeria that looters of public funds take shelter under plea bargain. Bad enough, many members of the ruling elite have made Nigerians believe that corruption is not stealing. Consequently, and shamefully, corruption has become a nationally accepted way of life.
Viewed from these established facts, and judging from the antecedents of all the presidential aspirants so far, and since we can’t pick our president from across the Nigerian border, then, searching for a pope or saint in this political generation as the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)’s successor will be an exercise in futility .
The bitter truth is that, all the aspirants are Nigerian-bred politicians; they also play political rugby together. They all belong to the political environment that does not see corruption as iniquity! Notwithstanding this, and based on their antecedents, one of them must have more leadership values than the others.
So, it is a political judgment and personal opinion anchored on hypocrisy and partisanship to discriminately single out an aspirant as not fit due to old age, bad health or for whatever personal reasons aimed at vilifying such an aspirant. Our constitution is there to take care of aspirants’ eligibility. And the Independent National Electoral Commission will do that better for us.
Cautiously, and for our own good, we must be able to create for ourselves, a healthy environment conducive to free and fair politicking. Furthermore, in a peculiar situation such as ours where virtually all hands are soiled in corruption, when there is no other option but to choose from among the same soiled hands, good and peace-loving political marketers should showcase the intrinsic values of their candidates particularly in the areas of international relations, information, finesse, crisis management, leadership qualities and the account of their stewardship. This should replace the usual campaign of calumny, vituperation and disparagement that will take us nowhere.
So, Nigerians who do not see anything wrong in their own candidates and go on to cast aspersions on the integrity of other aspirants are like the pot calling the kettle black. In this tilted and odorous political environment that we found ourselves in, certainly, no anus can claim to be free of the smell of human-waste. Let us call a spade a spade. Corruption has no other name; Nigeria will need to be salvaged by Nigerians. Unfortunately, we are not ready.
In our bid to desperately sell our candidates, not minding the consequences, many of us freely embark on a campaign of calumny, forgetting that others also have the dossier of all the aspirants. If eventually we allow politics of bitterness to excel, it may result in cases of an eye for an eye, or “If you Tarka me, I Dabor you”, that usually end up in, “If I don’t have It, you won’t either”.
In the forthcoming presidential race, we have no alternative to Nigerian politicians; therefore, we shall need to cautiously make do with what we have because no aspirant is above board.
The fact is that our founding fathers bequeathed us ethnic politics. We also know that ethnic ties are stronger than sibling consanguinity. Certainly, it is a political norm for each of the ethnic groups to protect its common interests.
It is also common practice for each of the ethnic groups to maintain and field its first eleven for elections and appointments. The clever ethnic groups always get the lion’s share and the groups that get less cry foul and marginalisation. Even with the federal character arrangement, monopoly and ethnic chauvinism persist with the dog-eat-dog philosophy.
Ethnic rivalry is as old as Nigeria. Before the civil war, either by opportunity or whatever means, the southern ethnic groups dominated the civil service and the North was not comfortable with that irregularity.
So to balance the lopsidedness became a great challenge to the “Lagos Team”, a formidable Northern political leadership team based in Lagos to protect the interests of the North.
The Lagos Team members were selected Northern first eleven politicians. They comprised two age groups: 1) those born between 1910 and 1919, including Muhammadu Ribadu (1910); Abubakar Tafawa (1912), Nuhu Bamalli (1917); and 2) those born between 1920 and 1929, including Shehu Shagari. Waziri Ibrahim, Maitama Sule and Usman Sarki.
From inception, Nigerian politics has been ethnic-based. In March 1961, Abdulkadir Koguna, (Parliamentary Secretary, Federal Ministry of Establishments and Service Matters) urged students at Zaria Government College Barewa, and the Institute of Administration to join the Federal Public Service, reminding them that of the 41,000 employees in the Federal Public Service, only 400 were northerners (about one per cent), and of these, fewer than 30 were occupying senior posts.
Also, the Department of Customs and Excise, which accounted for 75 per cent of the revenue of the Federation at the time. had only two senior northerners in service. Although there were a number of northerners in the lower ranks in the army, only about 10 were commissioned officers.
It became so glaring to the southern first eleven politicians that one of the objectives of the Lagos Team was to facilitate a national balance within the federal ministries. The appointment of Sule Katagun as chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission also was to aid the process.
Consequently, as of that time, life was not too easy for the northerners in Lagos. To further facilitate the objectives of the Lagos Team, and make life safe for the northerners in Lagos, Musa ‘Yar Adua was made the Minister of Lagos Affairs, and he handled the situation with diplomacy and political maturity. The main issue in Lagos then was who would control the central government. Northerners felt they had no adequate representation in the civil service and, therefore, needed power in government. Southerners wanted both.
The intimidating waves of (the then captain of the Yoruba-first-eleven), Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s political sophistication and intellect were giving both the southern and the northern political first elevens sleepless nights.
So, tactically, in order to pin down Chief Awolowo, the Lagos Team penetrated the Action Group and the party split into factions, meaning that both the Western (Yoruba) first and second elevens were punctured. And that was the beginning of Awo’s total deprivation from the presidency.
Awo was deprived of the presidency because he was too clever for many Nigerian politicians of his time. He was a team player, brilliant, disciplined and informed. So other politicians saw him as intractable and therefore not the correct material for them.
The political tacticians are at it again. Some of us are not too young to remember that some members of the late MKO Abiola’s ethnic group aided and abeted the derailment of his political train to presidency, and later led to his death. Is history not repeating itself?
Today, the major antagonists against the current brilliant and sophisticated Yoruba political first eleven captain, Bola Tinubu, are sponsored members from his very ethnic group. Are these political tacticians in search of an astute and informed president, or a gullible and politically hoodwinked president? This time, Nigeria will need an informed citizen of the world, one who has global exposure and vision.
Temionu, a public affairs analyst, wrote via tundetemionu @gmail.com
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