Ade Olabode
In a typical human family of a father, mother and children, harmony is vital to everyones happiness. It is germane to mutual wellbeing and growth. A family that lives in one accord would be strong to weather the storms of life together. Naturally, a lot depends on the father in the family to foster the condition of harmony by treating all members with fairness, love and a sense of belonging. Although members of the family may have different personalities and needs, a discerning father is able to manage them all.
But if a father jettisons equal love and fairness, and treats some of his children as favourites, harmony would cease in the family. Acrimony would become the wedge that tears the family apart, as bad blood replaces happy bond. And when unloved, alienated and disgruntled members react by being rebellious, they are tagged as black sheep of the family. Unfortunately, there is a widely perceived resemblance of such a disunited family system in the Nigeria of today under the current administration.
It all comes down to the lingering ethnic question that has continued to be the bane of this potentially great country. This is a nation whose multi-ethnic diversity is supposed to be its strength. However, the promise of strength and unity in our diversity has failed to materialize till date. In every area of our national life, the ethnic label continues to define us, segregate us, privilege some, empower some, oppress some, suppress others and marginalize many. While ethnic diversity itself is not bad as a universal phenomenon that enriches humanity, its expression, utilization and management are what make it either a destroyer or a unifier of any multicultural society.
In the case of Nigeria, the unfortunate manipulation of ethnicity as a destroyer rather than a unifying force comes down to the issue of leadership. Nigerian rulers and politicians over time are typically selfish and have no qualms using ethnic identity politics to their advantage. It is ethnic identity manipulation that triggered the Nigerian civil war of 1966-1970. It is the same ethnic identity power play by the Babangida military junta that cut short the third republic with the annulment of MKO Abiolas election as president. And today, sadly, the ethnic card is still being played to unprecedented prejudicial proportions under President Buharis controversial leadership. This development is not good for forging a united nation where peace and justice can reign.
Without doubt, the most contemporary ethnic-tinted evidence inciting discordant notes in the polity is the lopsided appointments made into key federal positions and offices. For a president who won an unprecedented election in 2015 because he joined forces with Southern politicians, one would have expected President Buhari to be magnanimous and accommodating of all. Indeed, the president initially fascinated Nigerians with the popular statement he made in his inauguration speech that he was for everybody and was for nobody. But that statement has since turned out to be an opposite of the reality in the country today, as the president has been consistently appointing mostly his Northern kinsmen into important and strategic federal positions since 2015.
From federal security establishments to federal agencies, departments and other institutions, the Buhari government has always preferred to appoint Northerners into crucial leadership positions. In cases where Southerners are retired or sacked, Northerners are still appointed to replace them. In other instances, Northerners who are due for retirement are often left to continue in office contrary to constitutional provisions. Merit is routinely sacrificed in federal appointments. Less qualified people from a part of the country get jobs ahead of more qualified ones from other regions. Sometimes, junior staffs from a favoured region even get unfairly promoted to become bosses of their superiors from the less favoured region.
All these unfair developments tend to create a sense of injustice and disunity, which have amplified the loud cries of marginalization by some Nigerians.
Yet another obvious instance in which the ethnic identity card is being dangerously, officially played up to brazen nepotism is the preferential treatment accorded the Fulani tribe from which President Buhari comes. Before the coming of President Buhari to power, we only knew of a monolithic, one, united Northern region. Today, the unbecoming activities of Fulani herdsmen and their tolerance by the federal government have polarized the North and pronounced our national fault lines like never before. As the Fulani herders go grazing their cattle on farmlands across Nigeria, they end up destroying crops, attacking farmers, raping women and even killing some if they resist. Yet nothing is done to caution or deter them.
By and large, as they are emboldened by the federal government treating them with kids gloves, some of the Fulani herders have graduated to kidnapping and full-fledged banditry across the country. Under the guise of cattle rearing and grazing, they now kidnap people on highways and herd them into forests to hold them and demand ransoms in millions. They have turned the entire Northern region into killing and abduction fields, and the South is not spared either. But while all their criminal activities are going on, the government is never seen deploying security agencies to arrest and prosecute them. We are told that the Fulanis have a right to graze their cattle anywhere they like in the country. Victims are only advised to live in peace’ together with the encroaching Fulani herdsmen. Can people live together in an atmosphere of injustice and selective treatment of parties in a conflict?
Obviously, we cannot continue like this if we desire to rescue Nigeria from implosion being triggered by ethnic conflict. We need an all-embracing government and inclusive, sensitive leadership that carry everyone along, no matter where they come from. President Buhari can do better by following the good example of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, whose greatest legacy was the modernization and unification of Northern Nigeria as its Premier. Even beyond the Northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello was widely reputed to believe and practice the ideal that all Nigerians, all human beings, are created equal and are endowed by God with rights to life, liberty, equal opportunity, benefits and the legitimate pursuit of happiness.
At the end of the day, one thinks that Nigeria is still better off staying as one strong nation than being dismembered into smaller disparate entities. As the separatist calls for secession grow, there is a compelling urgency to address the causative factors of injustice, inequality and marginalization. The government should use the same zeal deployed in hunting and arresting Southern agitators to deal with criminal Fulani herdsmen, bandits, kidnappers and Boko Haram terrorists. The federal government as the father of the Nigerian family should treat all members with fairness, equity and a sense of belonging. Our children want to see President Buhari leave behind a legacy of a united, better, prosperous Nigeria and not the horrors of another ethnic-triggered civil war.
Ade Olabode, Chairman of the Media Specialties Group, wrote in from Lagos.
ade@adeolabode.com
