Author: The Nation

By Abdulrahman Usman Leme

President Muhammadu Buhari made two pivotal policy declarations to assuage the nation’s concerns regarding the education and welfare of at-risk and vulnerable children. He pledged to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within a decade, while also ensuring the rigorous enforcement of laws mandating free and compulsory primary education for all children. This vision is in line with the goals of the At-Risk Children Programme (ARC-P).

 ARC-P is structured as an initiative with the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Plans (NPRGS). The programme reports directly to the NPRGS Technical Working Group and the Steering Committee, both governance platforms being national in outlook, inclusive of states in terms of implementation. ARC-P contributes to Pillar C (Redistributive Programme) and D (Structural and Institutional Reforms) of the NPRGS.

 Ever since its inception in 2021, ARC-P has emerged as a beacon of hope for vulnerable groups across Nigeria. The programme was devised to establish a community of support for the country’s out-of-school and vulnerable children, equipping them with the skills needed to thrive in the social milieu of the 21st century. Created as an initiative of the Buhari administration and directly supervised and coordinated by the Office of the Vice President, ARC-P aims to reform the Almajiri system, educate and train at-risk children, and provide them with opportunities to compete on a level playing field with their more privileged peers across the country.

 ARC-P’s pilot projects were launched in Gombe State on June 21, 2021, marking the programme’s inaugural implementation nationwide, also serving as a model for other states to learn from and emulate. Spearheaded by Maryam Uwais, the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, ARC-P has striven to provide a comprehensive solution to the protracted and multi-dimensional deprivations challenging the lives of marginalised youth and children, whilst also extensively documenting the vulnerabilities of children who have been denied social protection and the fundamental privilege of a formal education.

 Following its landmark inauguration in Gombe, ARC-P has been established in Kaduna, Sokoto, Borno, Ekiti, Niger, Nasarawa, and Ondo states. The expansion of the programme from the North, where the largest population of out-of-school children is concentrated, to the South, is driven by the need to identify at-risk children in both regions and the government’s unwavering pledge to fulfil its commitment to the nation, amidst global apprehension about the growing number of vulnerable children requiring support.

 ARC-P places a premium on enhancing the capacity of stakeholders in the various states by deploying trained and commissioned facilitators to interim community hubs, where they offer supervisory, mentorship, and tutorial services. The programme is committed to engaging with community, religious and traditional leaders, who play a crucial role as partners in the implementation and monitoring of the adopted initiatives, particularly in faith-based societies that respect the practices of the Almajiri system. By working closely with these stakeholders, ARC-P not only assures legitimacy for the programme (particularly in distrustful communities), it also inspires the confidence at grassroots level.

 As part of the strategy, the programme recruits young, unemployed, but educated youths that are resident in the Local Government Areas of these states. Almost 7,000 youth facilitators, aged between 22 – 40 years, have been trained on the 7 pillars of ARC-P and on other soft skills required for child management and support, such as paralegal services, psychosocial support, child pedagogy, child protection, monitoring and evaluation, safeguarding, mental health, vision screening, security awareness, life skills through sports and curbing substance abuse. After the training, the youth facilitators are expected to go back to their communities to seek parental consent for a minimum of 50 vulnerable children assigned to each of them within that community, and thereafter continuously engage and mentor them in interim community hubs for transfer of the knowledge and skills acquired.

 ARC-P has set a goal to benefit thousands of street children and at-risk youth in the first phase of the programme. This initiative is aimed at addressing the dire situation of children who are forced to live and work on the streets, lacking access to education and basic social amenities. The programme’s focus at the federal level is to coordinate and ensure the sharing of standard learning opportunities in terms of basic education and vocational training to these vulnerable children, thereby empowering them with the wherewithal to pursue a productive and constructive future. Furthermore, the federal team hosts the data and is able to assure of monitoring, as well as analysis of the trends and research of the causative factors of the out-of-school phenomenon, with a view to curbing the incidence in a more strategic and targeted manner. Practical implementation is left to the states, where the constitutional mandate for children and young people lies.

 In Borno State for example, where the impact of insurgency has left a devastating effect on the formal education system, ARC-P has taken up the challenge to educate over 41,000 street children and at-risk youth in the first phase of the programme. In addition to this, the programme has engaged youth facilitators to drive the smooth implementation of the initiative. The goal is to provide an enabling environment for these vulnerable children to acquire foundational literacy, numeracy, as well as vocational and life skills that would facilitate their ability to compete favourably with their more advantaged counterparts. The programme also aims to promote peace and social cohesion in the region by addressing the root causes of conflict and promoting social inclusivity. 

 Last December, at the closing ceremony of a week-3-week capacity-building workshop for the youth facilitators engaged by ARC-P in Maiduguri, Mrs Maryam Uwais stated that ARC-P, “was conceived to support children who are out-of-school and in need of support structures.” She added that “there is nobody here that can claim to love these vulnerable children as much as their parents, but these kids have not been exposed to the kind of skills that will enable them to take ownership of their lives and become assets to their families and communities, in today’s world.” ARC-P is set to transform the narrative, positively.

 The rapid expansion of ARC-P across the country is a source of enduring inspiration towards addressing the reality of having such huge statistics in terms of out-of-school children in Nigeria. A significant number of these children are left to the mercy of unregulated and poorly structured Almajiri schools. The system has slowly become overburdened due to the widespread poverty that has plagued the country for decades. Unfortunately, these children never got the opportunity to attend conventional schools and, as a result, have suffered from a lack of employable skills and education. However, with the ongoing expansion of ARC-P, there is renewed hope that these vulnerable children will receive the education and training they need to build a brighter future for themselves and their communities.

 In addition to partnering with state governments, ARC-P has benefited from collaborating with various development and non-profit organisations, the private sector as well as government parastatals. These partnerships have facilitated massive social engineering across the states where ARC-P is being implemented, facilitating avenues for the delivery of child protection and empowerment programmes that encompass a range of areas, including foundational literacy and numeracy, entrepreneurship, digital skills, and sports.

 Having established a strong presence in the North-West, North-East, North-Central and South-West geopolitical zones, ARC-P is finally venturing into the South-East and South-South regions towards creating a conducive environment for youth and children at-risk to thrive. For a country that has long been haunted by the statistical and documented realities of educationally and socially disadvantaged children and young people, ARC-P provides a glimmer of hope as a solution that can only be provided if all hands are on deck.

•Leme writes from Abuja

By Elvis Eromosele

Recently, I had the task of sending prescription glasses in a case to Benin City. After considering all the available options, it became clear that taking it to a park and paying N1,000 was the best way to get it delivered on the same day. It was cost-effective and timely, and ensured that I met my goal. 
 I spoke to a driver, he very reluctantly revealed that he made, on average, N12,000 daily, from, ”help me deliver this.” Imagine this: one driver in one park makes an average of N12, 000 daily. Multiply this by the number of drivers in that one park, over 50 times the number of interstate transport parks across Lagos, and then across the country. We’ll be talking billions of naira monthly boosting the informal sector.  
Now imagine the various types of commodities that are packaged and transported through this process. The potential is immense. The opportunity is boundless. 
 I suspect that the park drivers may have effectively taken the market from formal courier service providers. So, while courier firms are battling with the federal government (through the regulator, NIPOST), the market is whittling away. This is the definition of disruption. 
 At the core of distribution is transportation. As more and more people, especially young people, take their businesses online, the need for an effective distribution system grows. Horses for courses. This is essential if goods must get to the hands of the final consumer. This is where the money will be made. 
 The government talks about growing the digital economy, creating jobs and improving the ease of doing business. It must now back up the talk with real-life and real-time support for the distribution and logistics sector. It is a sector that holds tremendous opportunities for socioeconomic transformation. 
 It’s not only individuals that need functional distribution systems. Multinationals, public corporations and, in fact, everyone needs to deliver something somewhere at some time. 
 The system that makes this work effectively cannot remain haphazard and disjointed. It cannot depend exclusively on ”help me deliver this.” It needs the power of synergy and coordination. It requires structure and organisation. It must be nourished and harnessed. 
 In today’s digital economy, distribution and logistics are crucial to ensuring that goods and services are delivered to customers quickly and efficiently. You will agree with me that the rise of e-commerce has fundamentally changed the way we buy and sell products, and this has led to a greater need for effective distribution and logistics systems.
 At its core, the digital economy is all about speed and convenience. Consumers expect to be able to order products online and have them delivered to their doorstep within a matter of days, or even hours in some cases. This means that businesses must be able to move goods quickly and efficiently through the supply chain, from the point of manufacture to the end customer.
 Distribution and logistics play a key role in making this happen. These systems are responsible for coordinating the movement of goods and ensuring that they arrive at their intended destination on time and in good condition. They are also responsible for managing inventory levels, tracking shipments, and handling returns and exchanges.
 One example of the importance of distribution and logistics in the digital economy can be seen in the rise of same-day delivery services. With companies like Amazon and Walmart in America offering same-day delivery in many major cities, there is a growing need for distribution and logistics systems that can deliver products quickly and efficiently. Jiji, Jumia and Konga are pioneering similar initiatives across the African continent. This requires a combination of advanced tracking and routing technology, as well as a network of distribution centres strategically located throughout the country.
 Nigeria is a country with a large population and a growing economy. With a diverse range of industries, from agriculture to manufacturing to technology, there is a need for a robust and efficient distribution network to ensure that goods and services are delivered to customers in a timely and cost-effective manner. Nigeria can strengthen its distribution network through these simple steps:
 Improve Infrastructure: Nigeria’s road, rail, and port infrastructure are in dire need of improvement. Poor roads and largely outdated rail networks make it difficult for goods to be transported quickly and efficiently across the country. The government needs to invest in upgrading and modernising its infrastructure to improve the movement of goods.
 Encourage Private Investment: The government should encourage private sector investment in logistics and distribution. This can be done through tax incentives, grants, and other forms of financial support to help businesses expand their distribution networks.
Embrace Technology: Nigeria can also strengthen its distribution network by embracing technology. This includes the use of digital platforms to streamline operations and improve supply chain visibility. By using technology, businesses can track shipments, manage inventory, and optimise delivery routes, leading to the faster and more efficient delivery of goods.
 Develop Regional Distribution Centres: Nigeria has a large landmass, and it can be difficult to transport goods from one part of the country to another. Developing regional distribution centres can help to solve this problem. These centres can serve as hubs for goods coming in and out of different regions, making it easier to transport them across the country.
 Improve Customs Processes: Nigeria’s customs processes can be lengthy and bureaucratic, leading to delays in the movement of goods. Simplifying and streamlining these processes can help to speed up the delivery of goods and reduce the cost of doing business.
 Efforts must also be intensified to improve the nation’s security architecture. Security is important to ensure the safety of individuals involved in this process. 
 Nigeria’s distribution network needs to be strengthened to support the country’s growing economy. Improving infrastructure, encouraging private investment, embracing technology, developing regional distribution centres, and improving customs processes are important elements to help kick-start this.
By taking these steps, Nigeria can build a more efficient and effective distribution network that supports economic growth and development. We can then begin to reap the benefits of the digital economy in tangible ways. 
•Eromosele lives in Lagos

By Tunde Adeniran

The world over, security of lives and property remains a top priority of every government. A known fact is that no meaningful development or progress can be achieved in any environment devoid of peace. This explains why governments the world over place a premium on security, as development can only occur in an atmosphere devoid of strife.

As a country, Nigeria has had its share of conflicts. Indeed, a senior United Nations official once described Nigeria as a pressure cooker of internal conflict, warning that continued internal strife in the country could have a negative impact on other African countries. The Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, banditry in the northwest, clashes between herders and farmers in north central, and the state of kidnapping in the south have kept security operatives extremely busy in the last 10 years or more.

The outgoing President Mohammadu Buhari, no doubt, has invested heavily on security personnel and equipment to contain this growing threat; however, a lot still has to be done in order to meet the expectation of Nigerians.

Thus, the incoming administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a huge burden and needs to lay the right foundation to ensure that the gains of the past few years are sustained and built upon. No doubt, there have been gains. The Nigerian military has taken the battle to the insurgents. It was in this country that the insurgents took over a large swathe of area and planted their flag to claim territory; it was also in the country that we had suicide bombers, detonating in market places and killing scores of people. Churches and communities have been attacked. One of the most devastating attacks, which put the insurgency on the international stage, was the bombing of the UN building in August 2011, followed by the kidnap of over 200 Chibok girls in 2014. However, there has been a major curtailment of such devastating attacks.

It is thus important that for any sustainable development, or any achievement that the incoming administration would desire, tackling insecurity should be atop the pecking order. Apart from the traditional heads of the armed forces, the question that readily comes to mind is: who coordinates the entire security architecture as National Security Adviser (NSA)? It is by getting this right that the success or otherwise of the incoming administration in the continued fight against insecurity would be judged.

The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) is important. The right choice of the occupant of that office would determine the trajectory of success or otherwise that the fight against insurgency would take. It is not an office that one should experiment with. It is important that the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency gets it right in order to sustain and build on the gains of the outgoing administration. A military background is important. Not a middle level officer, but someone who would immediately earn the respect of all the security heads. Such an appointee must also command international respect on the basis of personal and professional achievements.

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Nigeria has produced a lot of military generals; however, none of them except few have continued to remain relevant, maintaining national and international relevance.

Among the army generals whose names readily come to mind is former Chief of Army Staff (CAS) and Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Republic of Benin, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai. However, apart from his present assignment, his appointment to such a sensitive position would lead to more controversies. His tenure as CAS was trailed by controversy, especially due to heightened insecurity in the country. This controversy continued with his appointment as ambassador, with many Nigerians querying that appointment due to his lacklustre performance in the fight against insurgency. The question would then be: what has changed, why bring him back?

Another name worthy of consideration is former Chief of Defence Staff and the Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon, Lt. Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin. Unfortunately, Olonisakin, like Buratai, by virtue of his present assignment would be inappropriate for several reasons, one of which is also ethnic consideration.

Retired Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, former Chief of Army Staff between 2008 and 2010, and former Minister of Interior, is also a name that comes up for consideration. For me, he stands above the others. Apart from his intellectual and practical bent, he commands both local and international relevance.

Highly cerebral, he is the author of five widely read books as well as several academic articles in notable journals. Gen. Dambazau was the Chairman, Board of University Advancement Centre, University of Ibadan, as well as Board of Trustees Chairman and founder, Foundation for Victims of Child Abuse (VCAF), which is dedicated to the victims of child abuse in Nigeria.

It was during his tenure as Chief of Army staff that peace was achieved in the Niger Delta through the Amnesty initiative, thus showing that the kinetic approach is not always the only solution to ensuring peace and curbing insecurity.

As a former army chief, he would surely earn the respect of the heads of the various armed forces formations.

Others have touted the name of former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) boss, Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu. His selfless service in the fight against corruption has earned him deep respect among many Nigerians.  Unfortunately, the controversies attached to his name would not earn him the respect that would enable him function effectively. In no way would he be able to command respect in the police, where he retired, much less the military, with its rigid structure of command. In any case, national security goes beyond the anti-corruption fight.

From the above, one thing is clear:  the country cannot afford to take a step backward in the fight against insecurity. The new administration must ensure it puts a round peg in a round hole to sustain the insecurity battle. The new administration should look for an individual with intellectual and practical exposure. And the choice is limited.

•Adeniran writes from Ibadan

Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the suspended Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who attempted to wreck the April 15 supplementary governorship election in the state, is now in police net after giving himself up on Tuesday. Yunusa-Ari will be better off in arid land, but he is in the cool comfort of custody after his botched attempt to steal an election.

When people are talking about a planned electoral heist, that was a clear example of one. What happened in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, on April 16 cannot and should never be equated with the unfounded claims being mouthed by the losers of the February 25 presidential poll. They are poles apart. Some people may be dreaming of recovering what they call ’a stolen mandate’, which they never got in the first place, their eyes will become clear when they wake up

Yunusa-Ari’s road to detention did not start on Tuesday when he turned himself in to the police. It all started a few days before Tuesday when he issued a statement from hiding, absolving himself from the drama which happened at the collation centre where he usurped the collation officer’s job to declare Hajia Aishat Dahiru aka Binani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election midway into the game. As at the time he did that, Governor Umaru Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was leading with a fairly wide margin.

There is no doubt that it was a set-up. But who is behind the plot and why? These are some of the questions begging for answers. The police should by now have asked Yunusa-Ari these questions and more in order to get to the root of the case. Yunusa-Ari could not just have woken up that fateful day and marched down to the fortified collation centre to do what he did, then walk out of the place and disappear into thin air for 14 days or so, only to return, with a statement justifying his action.

The statement was to pave the way for Tuesday’s well-planned reappearance of the fugitive, albeit with the help of his backers, who are not known for now. Yunusa-Ari did not act alone. That is for sure and he stated that much in his statement. Who are those he is working with? Are they politicians or public officers? Let us look beyond the superficial level in this matter. There is more to the Yunusa-Ari escapade than meets the eye. There is no way a REC, who is worth his salt,  will go out of his way, just the way Yunusa-Ari did, without being propelled by someone or some factors or forces.

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He may lie as much as he likes on what informed the madness that gripped him that day, but the truth, as it always does, will eventually reveal itself. Yunusa-Ari weighed the options before coming out of hiding. He would also have been counselled on the foolhardiness of his action and advised to turn himself in, in his own interest. Nobody in his right senses would do what he did, at least, not after seeing the outcry which greeted the outcome of the February 25 poll in some quarters. Was his April 16 show a ploy to reinforce those claims that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not fair and impartial in its conduct?

Yunusa-Ari would not have acted the way he did, if he  was not up to something or was not working for a particular interest. The statement he issued days before before he left his hiding place is, therefore, an afterthought. It was released to smoothen his return to public life and hang the blame of his transgression on others. As REC, he should have known better because the task of conducting a free, fair, credible and transparent election in Adamawa rested squarely on him. There is nothing he says now that can exonerate him because to whom much is given, much is expected.

His job was to conduct a rancour-free election and he failed in that duty woefully. To now turn back and say, as he did in his statement, that he announced the results of 69 polling units in the April 15 supplementary poll due to “security pressure” is hogwash. He added that he acted within the ambit of the law to avert delaying announcing the winner because the results brought by the presiding officers from the 69 units differed from those uploaded on INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal. Story! Was the hasty declaration of Binani as the winner then the solution?

Those results should have been verified to ascertain their authenticity before taking any action, instead of declaring one party the winner of an, as at then, inconclusive exercise. Yunusa-Ari overreached himself and he and his cohorts must pay for their action. He deserves no pity at all. Why should he, a lawyer and former permanent secretary for that matter, act like that? He continued his tomfoolery on air when he spoke on Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) hours before turning himself in on Tuesday, when he repudiated claims that he received N2 billion to call the election for Binani.

He ran from the law, but seeing that he could not hide forever, he has resurfaced. The arm of the  law is ever so long and will catch up with an offender sooner than later. Yunusa-Ari should get his just deserts. The world is watching to see how the case pans out.

Nigeria’s structural imbalance in the First Republic, which found expression in the north being twice bigger than the south in terms of geographical area and population, was one of the reasons our military adventurers dismembered the nation.

But nothing has changed with the foisting of an unwieldy 36 states and 774 LGAs structure on the country. Today, as it was in the First Republic, the north could rule in perpetuity if democracy is a game of numbers. In fact, today, no constitutional amendment can be effected without the consent of the north. And those behind this conspiracy against Nigeria are mostly military adventurers, including Obasanjo, Buhari, Babangida, Abacha and Abdulsalami Abubakar.

For their civilian counterparts, structural imbalance was seen from the prism of ethnic representation through a spoils system. Thus, even when MKO Abiola was asked while cruising to victory during the 1993 annulled election about the fate of the struggle for restructuring championed by his Yoruba people, his unrestrained answer was that with my election as president, there would be no need for restructuring. President Jonathan’s 2014 attempt was all about capturing Yoruba votes to remain in power. He never implemented the modest gains made by the CONFAB. At different times in 2016 and 2017, Ekweremadu, then deputy senate president, and Chukwuemeka Ezeife, spoke of structural imbalance in terms of Igbo’s under-representation in Buhari’s administration.

Yoruba’s 2015 support for Buhari, who won the presidential election after three earlier heroic failures, was however anchored on an understanding that he would remain faithful to his party manifesto’s expressed commitment to the restructuring of Nigeria. After his victory, Professor Akinyemi reminded him of an historic opportunity to restructure the country without digging his political grave because of his widespread support among northerners who saw him as a messiah. Unfortunately, Buhari, for eight years, chose to build roads, rail lines and bridges.

But let us remind ourselves how we got to this sorry path. The 1957 constitution was a compromise midwifed by the departing British imperialists. Its collapse barely five years into independence as a result of rivalry between the Igbo ‘unitarist’ and the Fulani ‘confederalist,’ who from 1950 accepted to be part of Nigeria they would control, led to the 1967- 1970 civil war. The vision of a better society sold to the nation by successive military adventurers turned out to be a blurred vision of the victorious northern confederalists.

The Igbo attempt to foist a unitary system on the country after the January 1966 coup failed. Their northern rival’s response is the current 36 and 774 LGAs constitutional structures, which with a northern majority, has made any form of constitutional amendment near impossible. The current constitution with a heavily loaded exclusive list and without a residual list was in line with the outcome of the 1950 Ibadan constitutional conference.

But the current alliance between the southwest and the northwest, that have always been at war, seems to hold some promises. This is because previous alliances were approached as profitable ventures, driven in the main by commercial interest.

The price for the 1959 alliance was NCNC’s control of almost 70% of appointive positions in Balewa’s government. The reward for NPP, a reincarnation of NCNC, was no less rewarding during the 1979/83 NPN/NPP alliance.

First, Tinubu has spent the last thirty years trying to understand the nature of the schism between the Yoruba and Fulani, and their divergent views on everything from education, religion, egalitarianism and even the vision of how Nigeria should be governed. He has tried to win the confidence of the descendants of Ahmadu Bello, who said while he was not opposed to Dr Azikiwe becoming ceremonial President of Nigeria, would oppose a southerner wielding executive power. Tinubu owes his recent victory to these descendants of Ahmadu Bello.

It was obvious from the intrigues that preceded his emergence as APC candidate, and his final victory, that his ardent northern governors’ supporters broke ranks with those hiding in Buhari’s government to continue the old war. Even at the risk of committing political suicide, they resolved that old prejudices must give way to a new hope where justice, fairness and equity will form the basis of our coming together as a people of different cultures and beliefs.

They were determined to change the narrative in spite of the antics of some of our Christians without the spirit of Christ, Tinubu’s errant Yoruba political fathers, the misguided “obidients’ who take delight in slander and character assassination of opponents of their chosen ‘god,’ and, of course, the opposition media that behave like Trump’s media where reality is the picture in their heads.

There was also the president’s ‘loyal gate keepers,’ who after a failed coup to foist a consensus candidate in his name, masterminded on the eve of an election, artificial fuel scarcity and dearth of naira leading to a groundswell of anger against APC and its candidate.

But the northern governors remained steadfast. They took the president to court over Godwin Emefiele’s political naira swap and his disobedience of Supreme Court order. They then mobilised their people to ensure that Tinubu, who secured just about 56% of the Yoruba votes and about 2% of Igbo votes, cruised to victory by winning 12 states and securing 25% of the votes cast in 29 out of the nation’s 36 states.

I think the commitment to power shift through the Tinubu’s project by those whose fathers not too long ago toyed with the idea of constructing a water channel from River Congo to the north in readiness for total severance of ties with Nigeria is a demonstration of their renewed hope for a better Nigeria.

Tinubu has demonstrated he understands elite consensus, without which a nation decays, goes beyond sharing of spoils of office after elections as NPC/NCNC, NPN/NPP and PDP have done at different periods of our nation’s history with disastrous consequences.

I am sure that after decades of trying to understand the nature of our crisis of nation-building, he now understands that “Nigeria is not a nation as there is no Nigerian in the same sense as English, Welsh, or French” (Awo 1947); that “Nigeria’s unity is only a British intention for the country” (Balewa, 1949); and that, as Hugh Clifford reminded our hypocritical political elite in Dec. 1920, “the Hausa of Zaria are different from the Bantus tribe men of Benue valley.”

The bitterness and acrimony that accompanied his 2023 victory from a section of the country has shown that the British policy of a “national self-government that secures to each separate people the right to maintain its identity, its individuality and its nationality, its own chosen form of government, which had been evolved for it by the wisdom and accumulated experiences of generation of its forbearers,” remains unassailable.

It is all about clash of cultures. Using either honour or achievement as index of measurement, it is not likely an average Yoruba will ever consider Peter Obi, currently worshipped as a god by Igbo, a hero. But federalism, which ‘formally recognises groups’ identities as legitimate and autonomous participants in the political process,’ will however guarantee a policy of ‘live and let live,’ which is capable of allowing Nigerians. in spite of their differences. to see each other with the lens of love, kindness and empathy.

This was exactly what our founding fathers bequeathed to us. A crusade for a return to our path to freedom is what I think Tinubu should pursue with his new-found elite consensus.