Reuben Abati
Former presidential aide and columnist, Reuben Abati has written on the
alleged lopsidedness of President Buhari's political which has recently
become an issue in public debates.
Perhaps the biggest news this week so far, has been the attempt by the Presidency to debunk the allegation that President Muhammadu Buhari has been kinder to Northerners and Muslims in the recruitment of persons into his administration.
Perhaps the biggest news this week so far, has been the attempt by the Presidency to debunk the allegation that President Muhammadu Buhari has been kinder to Northerners and Muslims in the recruitment of persons into his administration.
The published list, itself a response to an earlier indictment by
the BusinessDay newspaper, has been dismissed as incomplete, selective
and misleading but all of that draws attention to a crisis at the heart
of Nigerian politics, nay African politics. Matthew Hassan Kukah once
described this in our context as “the-myonisation-of-power”.
That is when a Nigerian from a particular part of the country
becomes President, his people including his kinsmen and his friends and
associates from his community and other parts of Nigeria see his
ascendance as their own opportunity to have a taste of the national
cake. They fight over the proverbial cake. Invariably, they benefit from
what is called the politics of proximity. They get appointed to the
best positions. They gain better access to the seat and the man of power
than everyone else. Nigeria is not alone in this regard.
The same politics plays out in other African countries. In Kenya,
John Githongo, their once-upon-a-time anti-corruption czar, in a book on
him, the author, Michela Wrong complains that what prevails in Kenyan
politics is the syndrome of “it-is-our-turn-to-eat.” In that country,
the emergent politics is not even just about what to eat, it is about
ego, elite contestation, dynastic rivalry and power. Wrong is right in
many ways. That drama has been played out in the recent elections in
Kenya but here in Nigeria, we have also been dealing with the same
crisis since independence. The question has been and remains: who gets
the better share of the Nigerian national cake? Nigerian political
actors do not see their country as a country that is structured for
progress, sustainable development and unity.
They see it as a cake to be shared. In their imagination and
consideration, the cake is so big, it is more than enough for everybody,
but they have seen that since independence, some people get a bigger
share of it, and the more access a particular group gets to power, the
more advantage it procures for its people. Thus, any person who occupies
a position – be it in the public or private sector space is subjected
to instant, accustomed suspicion and harassment. No matter how
well-meaning the person may be, the person is monitored closely to see
if his appointees or associates would be persons from his church,
mosque, community, ethnic group, or old school network. Ethnicity,
religion and other social indicators are often the alarm signals. This
is the background to the allegation and accusation that President
Muhammadu Buhari is systematically re-Northernizing Nigeria.
The prefix re- is instructive because one of the biggest fears in
Nigeria is that the political North, for there is no such thing as a
monolithic Northern Nigeria, or a strictly binary Nigeria, as the
Western press assumes, is determined to dominate the South, the entire
South according to a script written and acted out by the British
colonialists and sustained by their local successors. Indeed, the
Nigerian military did not help matters by practically Northernizing
Nigeria with the politics of vendetta and imperialism that propelled the
Nigerian military establishment in power.
The myth and reality of Northern domination has nonetheless also
done much damage to the idea of national unity in Nigeria, even if there
is enough evidence to establish the sad fact that, every ethnic group
in the country is involved in a struggle for dominance. The dominant
truth is that Nigerians do not trust one another. It does not matter
where they are, or whatever the level of their education or exposure, or
the opportunities they have, they are all ethnic gladiators at heart
and should they struggle to be nationalistic, their kith and kin will
continually remind them of the need to obey and serve the tribe. I use
the word tribe here, deliberately against current convention. It is for
the foregoing reason that I consider the attempt by the Presidency to
write off the allegation of Northern domination under President
Muhammadu Buhari as futile.
Ethnic politics in Nigeria is both a matter of fact and perception.
I offer four seemingly simple explanations of the phenomenon. It is the
fact first, that whenever a President from a particular ethnic
extraction arrives in Abuja, the fashion mode of the city changes
overnight. Under President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007), the various
watering holes of Abuja adjusted their fashion codes. Even to the
night-clubs, people wore the Yoruba attires and caps. The people of the
South West including the Yoruba taxi drivers of Abuja became very
voluble. It was their time. It was their turn. The moment President
Obasanjo left, the Mallams returned, that is the power-brokers of the
North, with the emergence of President Umaru Yar’Adua. Hausa language
became the language of Abuja. President Yar’Adua died in office and his
deputy succeeded him. President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s first Ijaw
President also changed the face of fashion in Abuja. His kinsmen and
their colourful robes and walking sticks became the new face of Abuja. I
recall in those days, the security people insisting that walking sticks
would not be allowed inside the Villa because according to them, a
walking stick is a weapon! I doubt if anybody these days is still
swinging any such weapons around Abuja.
Two, when a Christian President is in power in Nigeria, the most
active part of the Villa would be the Chapel. By the same token, if it
is a Muslim President, the mosque in the Villa gains special focus.
There is never any doubt about the locus of affinity in Nigerian
politics. In an extremely superstitious society such as we have, our
leaders don’t joke with their spiritual well-being. Every big man’s wife
is a prayer warrior. “My wife is a prayer warrior”, is a common refrain
in the corridors of power. The people that pray for the big man, from
his wife to her relatives and the spiritual consultants eventually
become so influential they could in fact influence appointments and
state policy. African leaders are so insecure, we must someday attempt
an intellectual assessment of the damage they have done to the
governance process in Africa, with their insecurity and fears. Three,
cronyism is a strong factor in African politics.
Our leaders are only comfortable with the people that they know.
Whoever is not known personally must have a Godfather or a minder that
can be consulted. When people win power in Nigeria, they don’t hand it
over to other people that easily. Everything is transactional. There are
no big or average men – they are all looking for what is in it for
them. And this is what has held Nigerian down. If anyone investigates
the real underbelly of Nigeria, there will be no country anymore because
it is Nigeria that feeds all the big men. It is in reality an
unproductive country with the rich depending on oil revenue and
deceiving the poor and the underprivileged. Our big men appoint cronies.
They are afraid of tomorrow. Four, democracy was meant to help and
advance our society. But we do not have properly organized political
parties.
We also do not have politicians in the sense of having people
who are committed to the common good. Nigerian politicians don’t owe
allegiance to any body of ideas. They are here today. They are there
tomorrow. I recently accosted a Nigerian politician who was quite
prominent in the PDP-Jonathan administration. He has since realigned and
he is speaking up, loudly and boldly for the APC-Buhari administration.
I asked him how it is so easy for him to change camp so smoothly. His
answer is that when you move from Manchester United to Chelsea, your job
is to score against Man-U. This is the most apt description of Nigerian
politics that I have ever heard. Politics, like governance in Nigeria,
is a game, a play, a profitable illusion. We, the ordinary people are
the ones who put so much weight on it. So when anyone accuses President
Buhari of favouring his own people, such a person misses the point about
the way Nigeria is. Let me just drop this one here: in the
First Republic under Aguiyi-Ironsi, as short as that period was,
Igbos, with their man in power, dominated the Federal Civil Service. The
Hausa-Fulani, whenever it was their turn in power, lowered the
standards and the admission scores and positioned themselves. There is
now a Federal Character clause in the Nigerian Constitution, but
Nigerians know that they stand a chance to benefit more only when their
kinsman is in charge at the centre. It is Buhari’s turn today. It is the
Hausa-Fulani’s time.
The Presidency has offered a so-called list of appointees, but the
forensic analysis of that list that has been attempted has shown that
the best positions in the most strategic sectors are in the hands of the
core Hausa-Fulani. That is how the game is played, sadly. And let me
add this: it is a pity the list did not disclose the identity of the
cooks and closest aides in the Presidential Villa. These are very
strategic positions too, but which Nigerian President would allow a man
who does not speak his language to cook for him or enter his bedroom?
Nigeria is a country that is ruled and driven by fear and insecurity
even at the highest levels. Nigerian leaders are as scared and as
insecure as the people they lead.
While struggling to be Nigerian, and nationalistic, they don’t ever
forget their ethnic roots and the burden of Nigerian history. We have a
list which says President Buhari has appointed persons from across
Nigeria but how inclusive is that list? We need, therefore to deal with
the big issues, not givens. We must insist that Nigeria needs such a
leader who can break the ceilings. For us that will be the true
definition of change, and the extension of transformation; in the
process, imagined and extant givens will fail and the country can be
transformed.
What Nigerians want when they complain about marginalization and
the absence of federalism is that they want a country that is based on a
foundation of merit, justice and equity. They want a meritocratic
society where the best and the brightest can aspire to the highest
levels in society regardless of their ethnic, religious or geographical
extraction. It is possible to interpret change otherwise as
infrastructure, but a developing country will always need
infrastructure, depending on the commitment and discipline of succeeding
administrations. We need now and later, a value-driven leadership,
which also adds value in space and time.
To be sure that we are on the same page, our obsession with
ethnicity and nepotism is a poor reminder of how poorly our country
continues to turn out. The day a Nigerian can serve his or her local
government, state, Senatorial district, state and the Federal Government
without anyone asking where he or she comes from, but strictly on the
basis of merit and accomplishments, then may be, indeed may be, then we
would have a country again. For now, we are at best, a possible country
in search of a nation.
Source: Vanguard
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