I cannot find a better way to start this than this witty saying that ‘you can take the monkey out of the bush, but you cannot take the bush out of the monkey’. We may not be honest enough to admit the fact that Nigerians are incurably tribal men. Not even education and exposure can take away our subconscious attachment to our ethnic nationalities which is legendary. Within the demographic space, there is toxic stereotype of different ethnic nationalities with negative branding and resentment. Ethnicity and religion have become the elites’ pawn on the political chessboard which may never go away.
We are still struggling and bickering over the religion and ethnicity of would-be president come 2023, not on the basis of programme, performance or competence. The practitioners of the received religions are mostly deceptive pretenders without piety putting their followers under spiritual threat of eternal damnation for exercise of agency of freewill of choice. Religion and tribalism is not about to bring us together as one people with common destiny instead, we are erecting an iron curtain of separation. Our highest credentials are our ethnicity and religion. Religion has now become currency for political negotiation and patronage.
Ordinarily, every other Nigerian is out there doing his/her business daily with other citizens irrespective of tribe and religion. The identity of a Nigerian is not complete until he or she tells you that he is Yoruba, Igbo, or Hausa etc. A few exceptional Nigerians may however be leading the charge to strip us of the ethno-religious garb to purge ourselves of unnecessary hatred and steer our ship of state to calm waters of harmony and friendship but whether they are succeeding is left for your better judgment. We have a rapacious political class who aspire to public office only to satisfy their appetite for primitive acquisition of wealth and greed.
It took only the patriotism and discipline of a Lee Kuan Yew to transform Singapore; not with brawl and vice grip of a macho man. The person you are is not determined by the religion you profess or ethnic identity but the content of your character. The greatest humanists and inventors are either agnostics or atheists who profess no religion at all. I am not in any way removing the place of spirituality in human essence. Rishi Sunak of Indian origin just became the new prime minister of the United Kingdom not with the votes of Indian population of Hindus.
With us, politics has become a tribal war by other means where we employ weapons of ethnicity and religion to intimidate and possibly kill for political views and differences. We have not yet paid the price for insecurity which is self-inflicted by religion and political manipulations. Above all, we are applying the same measure of religion and politics for pacification in solving the problem which is why we are where we are.
The 2023 general elections has been calibrated to full tide like a carnival in a moving theatre. The politicians are up in their colourful regalia with caravans of promises that are never kept. For the unemployed youths and street urchins, it is fun all-the-way as they become hired crowd for the candidates and their parties. Some of these youths have also been reduced to hooligans and political thugs fighting the battles for politicians who sit in the comfort of their homes with their children taking exotic food and wines. The ruling elite do not have their children in the country to fight on the streets as political thugs. They are in safe haven in Europe and America attending the best schools. Whenever they return to Nigeria, they have jobs reserved for them in choice blue-chip companies including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
Now the campaigns are in high gear and the gladiators are wooing regional interest groups and individuals for support. Already, the wheat is being separated from the shaft. Even though there are up to 16 political parties, only three of those parties are in contention. Again, as it is customary with us, it is only the two traditional parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the major opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that look good to go are parties to beat. However, these two leading parties, APC and PDP are burdened with self-inflicted problems that have become huge distraction and cancerous. This has thrown up the Labour Party (LP) driving by zest of angry youths hungry for revolution and making huge inroad which bookmakers cannot take any bet. Nobody can afford to ignore the Labour Party and its campaign strategy that has taken the form of a protest movement; protest against the status quo and orthodoxy. It is left whether it is going to end up only as a road show and social media tiger but no doubt it has become a force to reckon with.
At seminar recently held in Arewa House in Kaduna by the Arewa Consultative Forum, the PDP flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar was quoted as telling his audience that they should not vote for a Yoruba candidate and Igbo candidate; telling them to vote for him as a northerner with pan Nigeria identity. This was after his analysis that what an average northerner needs is someone from the north and therefore, they should vote for him as a northerner. Some people have taken him up and the storm in the tea cup has since simmered down and we have settled down to business as usual.
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However, that unguarded statement has left a foul smell which may not go away quickly no matter the deodorant you may use to clean the air. The PDP presidential candidate may have been tactless, desperate or both. His minders and fans may prefer to see him as a unifier and bridge builder but the reality of his political behaviour betrays a closet ethnicist hungry for power using religion and ethnic veils. Atiku is not a race horse no matter how much any person tries to market him even if he goes ahead to win the election by default, assuming that he is not already consumed by the internal contradictions in his party. In civilized climes, such divisive comment was enough for people to call for the PDP presidential flag bearer to call it a quit and go and purge himself of anti-democratic credential of rabid tribalism. Nasir El Rufai’s comment was not any different in its ethnic supremacist posturing and arrogance.
What is going to be true of the forthcoming election is that no one ethnic group or religious affiliation alone can give anyone victory without poaching votes from other regions and among other groups. Methinks we all need each other if you ask me. General Muhammadu Buhari tried about four times believing that his attachment to his ethnic nationality and religion could give him victory but it never did until the strategic alliance with other people from other geopolitical zones and ethnic nationalities. Atiku Abubakar is an archetypal Nigerian politician representing the elites, the same fluid of tribalism run in their DNA; they are ultimate schemer without a soul. Their tool of trade is prevarication and mendacity. Campaigns and appeals are usually not issue based, never! It is already on individual’s private life. It is about primordial attack on tribes and religion. We are ignoring the fact that Nigeria is sliding into economic depression due to bad management. We are ignoring the heightened state of insecurity even though the government prefers to tell us the opposite contrary to the stark reality on ground. Something tells one that Nigeria may well be a waiting disaster from all obvious indices of socio-political economy, and security and we need honest men not tribalists and bigots to direct our affairs.
This is the time that Nigeria cannot afford to make the same mistake again; we should therefore borrow sense. We do not need a good Christian or Muslim, Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba, but a competent Nigerian driven by patriotic anger and hungry to make Nigeria work. We should be driven by the desire for genuine change for the future of our children that have been mortgaged by incompetent leadership.
•Kebonkwu Esq is an Abuja-based attorney.