The Nation Newspaper

Category: Banji Akintoye

  • Our tragic elections

    The countries of Black Africa have one nemesis – and that nemesis springs from the fact that members of their political classes (the men and women we call our political leaders) do not understand the true purposes of modern politics, of political parties and of elections. For them all, opposing political parties are armies in perpetual combat, and elections are wars. While preparing for the Nigerian elections of 2007, President Olusegun Obasanjo did us the great favour of giving us a name for the war – he named it a “do-or-die affair”. That is it – a do-or-die affair, even if what is likely to die in the process is the country itself. Almost all the hideous crises that African countries have experienced since independence in the 1960s (the inter-ethnic conflicts and the genocidal pogroms) have sprung from the do-or-die wars of elections.

    It would be funny, if it were not so saddening, to watch African political leaders going around asking for votes at election time, speaking volubly to crowds after crowds, proclaiming their loyalty to their country and their country’s progress, and posing as actors in a “democratic” process. It is all a charade. It is almost impossible to find any sincere loyalty to any country in the innermost intentions of these “leaders”. Deep inside the objectives and plans of most groups and leaders, there always reigns a hideous urge to self-aggrandizement and self-perpetuation, and there is often no trace of love of country or people.

    Almost in every country, the intervention of the ethnic factor compounds the tragedy. It makes large populations of innocent and decent folks commit themselves to the political objectives and desires of particular politicians whom they regard as “leaders” of their ethnic nations – or their “tribes” (as the white rulers of Africa taught us to call our nations). Usually, the politician’s deception of “his people”becomes so successful that he can get them, in defence of his interests, to lash out in fury at other nationalities and thereby unleash a murderous war that can sometimes degenerate into a war of all against all.

    But when one examines the actions of those politicians who happen to make it into positions of power, almost all that one would see is self-enrichment and self-perpetuation in power – what our father, Obafemi Awolowo, called “tenacity of office”.  Of loyalty or service of the man in power to his nationality, one would find almost nothing – often totally nothing. Other than employing all the power and resources of the Nigerian presidency to subdue his independent-minded Yoruba people in 2003, what else did President Obasanjo do for his Yoruba nation? Nothing – actually worse than nothing. Our Arewa political leaders are often heard demanding power for the “North”. But after decades of their dominant control of Nigeria’s federal power, how have the masses of the Northern populace benefited? There is much more poverty in the Arewa North today than in 1960.

    Now, some in the South-south cohort around President Jonathan are threatening war, fire and brimstone if Nigerians don’t vote Jonathan back to power; but what has Jonathan done for the well-being of the masses of the people of the South-south in terms of the quality of their lives or their prospects in Nigeria? The people of the South-south have always stood in the fore-front of the fight for the restructuring of the Nigerian federation and for increased local control of resources, so that they may be able to benefit more from the resources of their homeland. In five years as president, what has President Jonathan done to promote these causes? Has he not merely reveled in federal power and wealth and control of wealth?

    In the same vein – though with differences in detail – President Jonathan is posturing today as a friend of the Yoruba people of the South-west, because the massive votes of the South-west appear to be likely to swing the balance in the coming presidential election. Some of the most revered elderly leaders of the Yoruba nation have warmed up to his embrace and are assuring him of Yoruba votes. These are men who have been in the leadership of many Yoruba struggles in Nigeria, and who therefore deserve respect from us their people. But they are our fathers and we may humbly ask them some respectful questions – in the interest of our nation.

    For over five years now, President Jonathan has seemed to be intent on marginalizing the Yoruba in the federal establishment and even in the established civil service, and these fathers of the Yoruba nation have led delegation after delegation to him in Abuja to urge him for a change of direction with respect to the Yoruba nation – to give the Yoruba nation its rightful place as a major nation in Nigeria. It would be a good thing for our fathers to report now to us what definite assurances and undertakings they have obtained from President Jonathan about this all-important matter? Also, there  are complaints galore among our people that President Jonathan seems to enjoy insulting the Yoruba nation – that, in particular, he has, gratuitously, told us again and again that part of our homeland (Lagos) does not belong to us, and that our leaders are “rascals”. Since a strong crop of Yoruba fathers are now close to President Jonathan, how much able are they to give us iron-clad assurances that they will be able to obtain the right level of respect for the Yoruba nation in a Jonathan presidency during Jonathan’s further term,  when he will no longer need any electoral votes?

    Finally, we Yoruba have always made it clear that we are not comfortable with living in a disorderly, poverty-generating and conflict-generating country, and that we would want a proper federation in which we (as well as other Nigerian peoples) could manage our own unique affairs in our own way. We are sure that that is what most Nigerian peoples would want too,  that it cannot possibly hurt the interests of any Nigerian people, and that it offers the only chance of giving the world a stable, harmonious and successful Nigeria.  In particular, we Yoruba people have shown again and again that we reject the presumption by the controllers of federal power that it is their prerogative to determine the outcome of our state and local elections and to choose our state and local rulers for us. Have our fathers who are now friends of President Jonathan obtained assurances and undertakings about these matters from him? Are they asking us to hope that, at least in our part of Nigeria, the forthcoming elections will be free, fair and peaceful?

    The bottom line of all these questions is that, no matter what Nigeria throws at us the Yoruba nation, it is impossible to rob us of our self-respect and love of freedom, or our confidence in our capabilities as a progressive, modernizing and civilizing nation.  We are ready to continue to contribute our efforts to the building of Nigeria; but we demand that Nigeria should stop trying to weaken and paralyze us, and that Nigeria should stop thinking that the Yoruba nation can be led like sheep to the slaughter by anybody – for any purpose whatsoever.

  • Let Nigeria’s nations speak up!

    Because of the troubling picture of our country at this time, I believe that the nations, or at least the largest nations, of our country, should speak up now. I hope that some will.

    Some force must rise up to try and save this country from self-destructing. Individual eminent Nigerians at home and abroad have shouted and screamed, and some of the most influential persons in the world have stood at our gate, or even come into the house, to sound desperately serious warnings and admonitions. None has made much difference.

    Since independence, we Nigerians have willfully and stubbornly built a superstructure for disaster. Now, we seem determined to reap at last the fruits of that disaster. No serious discussion is taking place concerning the disastrous superstructure. A National Conference recently made some recommendations, but those recommendations hardly feature in the on-going presidential campaigns.

    At the same time, because the superstructure built for Nigeria has raised the stakes of presidential authority irresistibly high, contestants for power and their chief backers seem resolved now to trample down all barriers and to break all legitimate bounds in order to reach the presidency. Violent clashes are being enacted on the campaign trails. Terroristic threats are sounding from many directions. And preparations for mayhem and war are being more or less openly carried out. From some actions that we have seen in the past week, it seems that, when the storm of actions finally comes, even governmental agencies (such as the Nigerian military and police) will be fully engaged in fully partisan, and unlawful, mold against some Nigerians or groups of Nigerians.

    Many leading politicians obviously think that once their side wins the presidential election, all of Nigeria’s trouble will end. But from the way things look these days, such political barons may be grossly deceiving themselves.

    I repeat therefore, let some of the main nations of our country speak up now. They owe the historic debt of speaking out clearly and boldly now. They need to speak up above the cacophony of politicians’ voices.

    Of these nations, I am fairly confident of the desires of one – namely my own Yoruba nation. We Yoruba are strong believers in Nigeria – in a Nigeria that is stable, prosperous and advancing towards greatness in the world. We are united in the strong belief that the only way to achieve such a Nigeria is to abide by principles. We are sure that nothing of great or permanent value can be achieved without seeking strength through reasonable and well-considered principles. We came to these beliefs from our 1000-year history of living in orderly kingdoms and thriving cities and towns. Ends desired and sought by individuals and groups in a polity must bow to the polity’s high principles of stable order, otherwise disorder and chaos will result. Every Yoruba child grows up knowing these things.

    Looking carefully at Nigeria from that perspective, we Yoruba have always been sure about the principle to employ in organizing Nigeria. That principle goes as follows: Because Nigeria is made up of many different nationalities, Nigeria should be organized into a rational federation, according careful respect to the various nationalities. If there is to be order and prosperity, this position is not negotiable. Our most prominent fathers in Nigerian politics in the late 1940s, the group in Egbe Omo Oduduwa, stated the principle very soundly. Then one of their captains, our father Awolowo, wrote books and political statements to make it clearer and clearer throughout his life. There is hardly any prominent Yoruba alive today who has never made at least some little contribution to the statement of this principle. We Yoruba may be spread out into many political parties, yet we are all certain that, for Nigerian peoples to live harmoniously together in one country, and for Nigeria to be stable and successful, Nigeria must be ordered as a reasonable federation.

    Whenever the government of Nigeria has convened any kind of national conference, members of the Yoruba elite, though belonging to different political persuasions, have always come together to produce proposals based on the same principle for presentation at the conference. A leading Yoruba intellectual in the Diaspora once put it simply as follows: “The simple answer to the question “What do the Yoruba want?” is this: The Yoruba want a Nigerian state which respects its multinationalcharacter and gives adequate recognition to the inviolability of its federating nationalities, no matter how small or big, a Nigerian state that promotes equal justice for all its citizens and makes a sacred commitment to the secularity of its character…The Yoruba have always wanted a Nigeria that practices and is committed to the principlesof true federalism”.

    This is the only way to make the peoples of Nigeria live in reasonable harmony together, by giving each people some leeway to manage much of its unique needs and concerns in the Nigerian federation – so that each people will thus be able to make its own kind of contribution to the overall progress and prosperity of Nigeria. This principle is not directed at hurting, and it cannot possibly hurt, any of the peoples of Nigeria. On the contrary, it is a principle that can be very beneficial to every Nigerian people and to Nigeria as a whole.

    At the 2014 National Conference, some of the main details of the Yoruba Position were presented as follows:

    1.          Make Nigeria’s existing six zones into regions – with minor boundary adjustments to make sure that none of the nationalities in Nigeria shall be split up between regions.

    2.          Re-adjust the balance of powers between the federal authority and the regions – so that the regions should have more powers, more resource control and more funding than hitherto to promote and implement development. This would shift the burden of development mostly to the regions while assigning sufficient power and money to the federal government to direct the commanding heights of the Nigerian economy, regulate interstate relations, defend Nigeria, and speak for Nigeria in the world.

    3.          The regions should control the development of their resources, with the federal authority charging taxes thereon. In revenue allocation, more should go the regions than to the federal centre. Revenue generated by a region (such regional business taxes, sales taxes, etc) should belong to the region. Most of the VAT derived from a region should return to the region.

    4.          There should be a federal police, regional and local police. Police functions are, by nature, rooted in their localities.

    In summary, we Yoruba nation want a Nigeria that works – a Nigeria of harmony among peoples, of regional and local virility, of progress in development, and of constantly improving quality of life for all citizens. We Yoruba are not used to living in poverty; we are depressed to be part of a country that is wracked by instability, constant conflicts, terrorism, poverty, hopelessness, and fears. We are displeased that the central issue of a well-structured federation  is not occupying the central place it deserves in the ongoing presidential campaign.

    We hereby state our minimum demand. Let the candidates know that our assessment of their views in this matter will determine how much of our votes they will get.

  • Nigeria: Wages of sin

    The wages of sin is death”, says the Great Book. Empirically, we know that death is always preceded by some sort of weakness. Sin sets on a process of progressive weakening which ultimately ends in death.

    All of nature and all of history, as they concern us Nigerians, combined to give us a country that was meant and endowed to be prosperous and great in the world. Though the human agents, the British, who carved out that country and gave it initial structure, were manipulative, crooked and wicked in much of what they did, our country, as it sprang into tentative being at independence was nevertheless a potentially mighty entity eager and rearing to fulfill its awesome destiny among the countries of the earth. But then the power of sin set in – the power of unrestrained human will, the urge and resolve of some in the house to grab and engross what belongs to the whole household and to deprive the rest. As in all cases where sin strikes out to act, the urge to grab and engross and deprive others was needless. Sharing in order and mutual respect, our chances of prospering together were huge. But by thus setting in motion a process of orgiastic scrambling and wrangling, we have bruised every member of the household, generated a barbarous culture, and mindlessly pushed our country onto the path of sickness and death. Today, the sickness has advanced so far that the question uppermost on most of our minds is whether it is possible at all for our country to exist much longer.

    These days, we are all living in horror as we watch our country going through the dance of death – with every single index of national strength pulverized and decaying.  Greed, avarice and graft rule supreme over all institutions, all duty performances, and all inter-personal dealings. Hardly any Nigerian public official, high or low, offers any service to the public these days without first demanding bribes. Nigeria teaches and acculturates its citizens to despise truly productive enterprise, and to give their intellect and passion to hustling for shares from the bounties stolen from the national wealth.

    Security is the first benefit of citizenship of a country, but in the Nigeria of greed and graft, security has disappeared. The average Nigerian, if criminally abused or robbed, can no longer be sure whether it is safe to seek help from the police and the legal system. If the miscreant bribes the police and court officials enough (as is now the norm), the victim who seeks help from the law-enforcement agencies will only get himself into bigger trouble – and may need a lot of money to dig himself out.

    We are constantly hearing stories of military officers stealing weapons from the nation’s armouries for sale to criminals and terrorists, of funds meant for running military operations being criminally shared by military commanders, and of high military officers building or buying multi-billion naira estates. In the circumstance, the Nigerian military has lost all professionalism and all efficiency, with the result that we Nigerians feel helpless before the rampages of a rag-tag hoodlum gang like Boko Haram. From reports and experience, most Nigerians know that Nigeria’s secret service is a beehive of corruption within which even the most junior officers can quickly amass fortunes – from their contacts with public resources and with members of the public. This past week, each of these agencies of public safety (the police, the military and the secret service) scored a first in degradation and corruption in the history of human governance. Each of them, operating as if they are private entities by themselves and for themselves, and not publicly owned agencies, wrote letters to the nation’s electoral servants to say that they will not be available to give Nigerians security in the nationally scheduled, and all-important, act of voting to elect a new government – letters that, in a proper country, should qualify for charges of treason.

    The electoral commission, ludicrously called “Independent National Electoral Commission”, is well known and deeply despised by all Nigerians for what it is – a stink-pot of corruption and betrayal, an ever ready tool of bandits in power for distorting and stultifying the will of Nigerians at elections. This past week, some eminent Nigerians led by a former Vice-President of Nigeria (Alex Ekweme) hauled staggering accusations against INEC, to the effect that INEC has been engaged in a huge plot to rig the forth-coming presidential election. And, as of the time that these allegations were being aired, certain incredible materials were also circulating in Nigeria and abroad alleging a plot by some highly placed public officials and law-enforcement commanders to rig a recent election in one Nigerian state. Of course, given the sordid history of the electoral commission since independence, no Nigerian is seriously surprised or bothered by these allegations. These are the sorts of things that INEC has always done. Of course too, no authority in Nigeria (presidency, or Attorney General, or police) is expected to step forward to investigate these horrendously criminal allegations. For Nigeria, governance belongs in the mud pond of corruption and crimes.

    Finally, over this massive mud pond of corruption and crimes reigns the official whom we “elect” as president of our country. He is commander-in-chief, patron and rewarder of all processes of the corruption. That is the way the mess was designed and nurtured – constitutionally, politically and morally. In all essence, it is not fair to blame any particular president for these ills. I once said in this column that I agree with President Jonathan’s statement that he is not the source or cause of Nigeria’s mess. But it is fair to say that he came, he saw the mess, and he revelled in it – revelled in it more than any president before him. Of course, I would agree with the overwhelming majority of Nigerians at home and abroad that President Jonathan does not deserve to have one more term as our president, but I would not saddle him with the historic responsibility of plunging our country into the mud in which it is now gasping for breath.

    This sad story of Nigeria has a powerful lesson: If you belong to a household, don’t proceed to break down the moral fence protecting it – no matter your incentives and possible gains for feeling like doing so. The people who started at independence to disrupt and distort the fragile balance of Nigeria’s politics could never have imagined that the consequences of what they were starting then would ever be as bad as today. Today, nobody, no group, is benefiting from the horrors that have been concocted. All of us Nigerians, as individuals and nationalities, are losers –losers in prospect, losers in hope, and losers in image among the peoples of the earth. If Nigeria does finally drown in the mess which we have created, we Nigerians of the generations since 1960 to now will go down in the annals of human history as the incompetents and moral dwarfs who were handed a country with all the possibilities of greatness and who made only a mess of it. It is not a good load to bear in history.

     

  • One more letter to candidate Buhari

    Dear, Gen. Buhari, I feel duty-bound to write this one more letter to you before the presidential election which is due in only two weeks. My hopes and fears for Nigeria compel me.

    You and I can remember that our Nigeria at independence was taking strong steps towards success, prosperity and greatness in the world. Since then, it has slumped and relentlessly declined. And now that we are senior citizens, our country has reached an absolute bottom – with fears that it can implode and disappear. Because I see that your chances of winning this election are good, I believe I have a duty to speak to you.

    Honestly, I must say that, ordinarily, I should not be speaking like this to a Nigerian leader from the North. By the time I came into Nigeria’s politics in the 1970s, I had studied and taught African and Nigerian history in universities for years, I had travelled extensively in Africa, and I was well informed about the reasons why Nigeria was declining. Of the man-made factors in those reasons, the most potent was the deliberate design of our northern controllers of federal power at independence to use all and every means to make their own nationality dominant over Nigeria so as to rule Nigeria forever. By the mid-1970s, that design had produced an agenda for using federal public money to corrupt, emasculate and subdue the elites from all parts of Nigeria. I served in the leadership group of the UPN and in the Senate during the Shagari presidency, and I watched this agenda as it virulently weakened other political parties in the National Assembly, fomented division and discord in many state governments, and ultimately destabilized many state governments. I watched it as it inculcated unbridled greed and corruption into our country’s politics and public service – and as it gradually destroyed the moral foundations of our country.

    But, in spite of all this, I must, in duty, talk to you. All things about you considered, I believe that you are different in a way that is good for our country; I believe that, in spite of your origin, ethnicity and religion, you are very able to envision, independently, a clear picture of what you believe to be right for our country, and you are exceptionally able to follow what you believe to be right. Very few human beings, coming from your background in 1983, would have dared to take the steps which you took on December 31 of that year – namely, to shut down the Shagari presidency, and to tell the world that you had done it in order to save the ordinary citizens of Nigeria from a boundless corruption that was bringing poverty, suffering and sadness into their lives. Of course, when you hounded into prison folks like me, Chief Ajasin, Chief Fasoranti, Alhaji Jakande, Chief Bola Ige and others who had been fighting the corruption in our own ways before you came, I thought you were confused and I despised you.  But even in prison, I could not help wondering that a leading Fulani person had dared to pull down the system of government by corruption which his own people had very adroitly choreographed.  I could not help admiring your guts.

    Out of prison some months later, and back to my task of studying the affairs of my country, I was not surprised that many among the northern elite (your own people) regarded you as a traitor and an enemy. Many of such persons still regard you as a traitor, rebel, and enemy today – and Nigeria has been hearing trenchantly from some of them in recent weeks. But, happily, in the same vein, the masses of the common people of the North see you as a friend who can revamp their country, and who can give them a chance to share in the prosperity that you can usher in for Nigeria. The pauperized masses of the South share the same enthusiasm for you, and the same hope in you. It is therefore on behalf of these poor masses of Nigerians in all regions of Nigeria that I hereby offer you the following thoughts.

    First, I know you will fight corruption. Be assured that you will enjoy very strong support as you do it. But, please be aware that subduing corruption per se would be no more than only a Pyrrhic victory. After you leave the presidency, if the presidency still controls all the limitless powers it controls today, with the limitless financial resources, and the limitless freedom to access the finances, your successor can simply revive the corruption. Remember that after Babangida replaced you in 1985, he simply revived and enhanced corruption – and even constructed corruption into an avowed system of governance.

    Secondly, therefore, you must lead our country towards appropriately restructuring our federation. I am aware that some of your most eminent Arewa kinsmen want the federation to remain in its present form, with the federal government controlling all powers and resources, with states too impotent to achieve meaningful development, with the federal government able to barge disruptively  and obstructively  into any state, with the states operating as clients of the federal overlord, and with controllers of federal power presuming that it is their right to decide election results all over Nigeria and to enthrone persons of their choice in all states. Essentially, what we now have is not federalism at all. Restructuring it should have three objectives – to affirm respect for, and promote harmony among, our indigenous nationalities; to establish strong and development-capable states; and to ensure a federal government competently managing the commanding heights of our country’s economy, defending our country, and managing our country’s relations in the world. I believe that even against your own kinsmen’s objection, you have the strength of character to do this. That strength of character, I repeat, is what is now endearing you to very many Nigerians.

    Thirdly, you must lead us to redirect and enrich our economy – by developing dependable infrastructures; and by investing in our common people to build a strong modern economy (through expansion and improvement of education, modern job-related skills, entrepreneurial, small-business, and modern farming development progammes, and promotion of export orientation). As I have written before in this column, we can learn a lot from a small country like Singapore. This expanding economy will nurture a strong modern labour force, create businesses, expand employment, de-emphasize our people’s dependence on politics as a means of livelihood, rapidly increase efficiency, decrease poverty, and systematically help to banish public corruption.

    Fourthly, you must lead us to review our governmental system. Our present presidential system, with presidents and governors seeing themselves as dictators, has been a disaster. It is one of the reasons why impunity and corruption have grown so strong in our country. We need to return to the parliamentary system with its principle of shared responsibilities at the top of government. We need to infuse discipline and respect for laws into our politics and governance. And we need to infuse integrity into every department and position in our governments.

    In summary, the masses of our people are saying that they hope you can recreate Nigeria for them (and downsize the political barons and kleptocrats). Will you fulfil their hopes?

  • Let’s stop talking and planning violence

    Many Nigerian politicians these days are talking and planning, not elections, but violence. Some are threatening war by their own particular nationalities against all other nationalities of Nigeria. Some are issuing threats of religious wars, though in veiled phrases. Altogether, it seems as if, come mid-February, the real event in Nigeria is not going to be elections but horrific conflicts and pogroms.

    As the rest of the world absorbs these fearsome vibrations from Nigeria, worldwide apprehension about Nigeria has risen to fever pitch. What one would describe as the peak came early this week when the American  Secretary of State, John Kerry, hurried to Nigeria to appeal to Nigerian rulers and leaders to stop planning for violence and start planning for free, fair and peaceful elections. If the government of America feels compelled to take that kind of action, then the situation must be a lot worse than most of us, ordinary Nigerians, know.

    It is therefore critically important for us all to warn our politicians. Tempers are such in Nigeria these days that if violence starts as is being threatened and planned, it is very likely to develop to extents beyond the wildest imaginations of any Nigerian and any Nigerian political leader. In country after country in Black Africa, political violence usually starts small, but by igniting pent-up angers, fears and hostilities, it then sets up horrendous conflagrations that seem to go on forever – often consuming and destroying lives and properties indiscriminately. Nigeria is more combustible today than most Nigerian politicians seem to know or care to know. They are wrong in thinking that another Nigerian civil war will proceed and end neatly, or be spatially limited, like our first civil war.

    It will help if our politicians watch videos on the civil wars that have wracked the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) off and on since 1960. The political storm started as a small incident a few days after the celebration of independence. Then it rolled forward and ballooned out until it engulfed most of the country, led to the assassination of its first Prime Minister, generated a viciously corrupt military dictatorship, and then concatenated in an even larger second civil war. This second war became so massive that it involved all the countries of Central Africa and became known as “Africa’s World War”. An estimated 5.4 million people have died in this war – the largest human casualties of any one war since the Second World War of 1939-45. Today, in spite of United Nations and African Union peace-keeping efforts, rebel forces are still alive in parts of this country.

    I have academic colleagues who saw some parts of the Rwanda genocide of 1994. As they tell it, there was not much of a sign of impending trouble in the days before. But once the mass killings started, it was as if everybody had long been preparing to kill their neighbours. Within days, virtually everybody in sight was a machete-wielding desperado and killer. A journalist on the spot reported, “There are no devils left in hell; all of them are on duty in Rwanda”. Within 90 days, over 750,000 people had been killed, and over two million had been forced to flee from their homes.

    Virtually every country of Black Africa is prone to these political wild fires. Last week, I told the story of the mass killings now in progress among the 40 different nationalities of South Sudan where, in only two years of independence, between 50,000 and 100,000 people have been slaughtered. Somalia slowly slid into confusion in 1991, and it continues to live in that disorder till today. A few days ago, the United Nations and the African Union agreed to increase the number of international peace-keeping forces in Somalia. The political hurricane goes on and on all over Black Africa, generating horrific destruction, loss of lives, and blood-curdling human deprivation and suffering.

    The truth behind these patterns of madness is that our Black African countries are very fragile. The disorientation started when our various peoples were forced into countries that were not their own choosing; and it has become very profound in our time. Our peoples feel trapped and deprived, and are therefore often on edge. Little conflicts have a tendency to blow up into mammoth disasters. Therefore, it is a serious crime to start violence in any of our countries – because it is impossible to tell how far and wide it will go.

    As I have said in various ways in this column, the disorientation of our many peoples in Nigeria has been compounded by the folly of concentrating power and resource-control in the so-called “federal government”. We have called into being a demon that we can never, on our own, peacefully send away. No Nigerian who enters into the limitless powers of the presidency and the limitless ocean of money under the president’s control can ever choose to do the right thing and return Nigeria to a sane federation. The disorientation, sense of loss, anger, bitterness and mutual animosity among our various peoples have risen very high and are escalating fearfully at this point. It is therefore a very wrong time for our politicians to play with any idea of conflict.

    Whatever else they may choose to do with our country, our political leaders must seriously commit themselves to the avoidance of violent conflicts. The candidates in the coming presidential election have agreed to conduct their election campaigns, and run the election itself, in peace, and to prevail on their supporters and activists to do the same. We do not see the effects of that agreement in the conduct of the campaigns yet. Threats of violence are still being hurled from virtually all sides, and politically motivated conflicts are still being reported in various places. The informed world still continues to worry. Governments and international agencies are considering how to help Nigeria to prevent violent conflicts generated by election.

    But whatever help the international community may offer, it is we Nigerians that must bear the ultimate responsibility for the destiny of Nigeria. In the context of our senseless accumulation of power and resource-control into the federal centre, we have evolved a political culture that conceives of elections as do-or-die wars. If we really intend to sort out the future of this country in a peaceful manner, we must get rid of this essentially criminal approach to elections.

    For our 2007 elections, many countries and international agencies sent pre-election observers, and then sent countless observer teams at election time. Yet, we made that election one of the most criminally rigged elections in our history. I fear that we are going to do exactly like that with our February election – and that if we do, we will almost certainly have the violent conflicts that the world fears. And judging from the moods of these times, I fear that the violence of 2015 may be our final folly together. Those thinking of rigging elections, and those thinking of responding with violence – both are, in the atmosphere of today, planning to ride on a tiger’s back, and they are taking the risk of ending up in the tiger’s belly.

  • How to preserve Nigeria

    Imperceptibly, slowly, but surely, Nigeria’s real need in the weeks ahead is emerging in the Nigerian political debate. Most Nigerians may tend to focus on elections, but, really, the greater concern of Nigerians is the peaceful survival of Nigeria – while the greatest fear is that this coming election may generate the occasion for bringing Nigeria’s ills to a cataclysmic outcome. We Nigerians have a central duty to ourselves, to the Black race, to Africa, and to the world – and that duty is to make some meaning out of Nigeria.

    That duty is very huge, though many of us do not quite understand or appreciate it. I was already a fairly well-informed youth in the 1950s, when Africa and the wider world first began to recognize the importance of Nigeria to Africa and the world. My experiences in those magical times remain deeply planted in my consciousness. We Nigerians are not merely one-fourth of the Black people of Africa, the largest country in population in Africa, and the fourth largest country in population in the world. We are also one the most educated populations in Africa. And we are unusually blessed with natural resources – including some of the richest crude oil and gas deposits on earth. Africa and the world see us a potential world power – the Blackman’s only world power since ancient Egypt.

    At near 80, I still get tears welling up in my eyes when I remember some of my experiences concerning Africa’s expectations about Nigeria.  In January 1960, I was leading a Nigerian students’ delegation to a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The noise of Nigeria’s coming independence was everywhere. After a dinner one evening, the Ethiopian Minister of Education (Mr. Endalkachiu Makonnen) placed his hand on my shoulder, looked seriously into my eyes, and said, “My young Nigerian brother, congratulations for your country’s coming independence. I hope that as you Nigerians prepare for your independence, you are also thinking seriously about your country’s duty to our continent. A lot in our Africa is going to depend on your Nigeria soon”. I shed tears in bed that night – tears of joy for my country, tears of pride in my country.

    Sadly, as soon as we achieved independence, we began to mess up our country. Even so, Africa continued to expect much from us. In early 1980, a group of us Nigerian Senators paid an official visit to Sierra Leone. While bidding us goodbye in his office, the Prime Minister, Mr. Siaka Stevens, went into  touching reminiscences, at the end of which he said,” I hope that you Nigerian leaders will always remember that you are not building Nigeria for Nigerians alone but for the whole of Africa”.

    Such memories will stay with me till my last breath. It has been my destiny to see my country glowing in the horizon, and then declining relentlessly in a self-made darkness – until she is now about to plunge into an abyss. In fact, as I listen in horror to prominent Nigerians exchanging threats of violence, mass murders and mindless destruction, all I can do is to pray two prayers – one, that if it is Nigeria’s destiny to break up, she should break up in peace; and second that the leaders of its successor countries would learn from the sad story of Nigeria and lead their new countries to prosperity.

    For these reasons, I cannot visualize the coming presidential election in simplistic terms or merely ad-personem. I am daily bombarded by excitable folks who proclaim Buhari as the promised saviour of Nigeria, the hero who will restore a true federation, kill corruption and revive Nigeria’s chance to survive and prosper. On the other hand, I receive mails from other patriots who write sentences like this: “Let‘s get the Caliphate and its candidate Buhari defeated and we gain a breather to pursue the campaign for a True Federalism Constitution that will liberate all our peoples”.

    These expressions touch my heart, but I know that they make matters look too simple. On the face of it, Jonathan’s credentials are very persuasive. He comes from among minority South-south nationalities who, since independence, have led the fight against the growing excesses of federal power and the aggressive claims and insensitivities of federal rulers. Bright and brave youths who were Jonathan’s kinsmen have sacrificed their lives in the fight. Therefore, when Jonathan rose to the presidency, most Nigerians who desired a true federation and a stable political life for Nigeria rejoiced – and many brought pressure on him to do what his background so abundantly promised.

    But Jonathan didn’t respond. Sadly, it became gradually apparent that he was very much in love with the excesses of federal power and money. And all that time, he was hoping to seek re-election. Even when he was finally prevailed upon to summon a National Conference, he chose not to give it any clear direction. So, if Jonathan would not do the great service that he could have done for Nigeria while he was aspiring for re-election, is he likely to do it during a second term when he would no longer need any votes? I know that some highly respected citizens from the Southern states belong to a Southern Solidarity Movement – and that, in fact, the group held a meeting this past Tuesday. But, southern solidarity for what? Just to get Jonathan re-elected? On a blank cheque? Is that how leading citizens should build their country? Nigeria deserves that these eminent citizens should get Jonathan to commit clearly to an agenda which spells out a True Federation and a stable country – as the main pillar of his campaign.

    Yes, Buhari will fight corruption. There is no doubt about that. Hatred of corruption is apparently his God-given gift. How much he will succeed in suppressing corruption, and for how long in our country’s future, are things we cannot tell. The bigger and more beneficial duty would be to lead our country into a true federation. A true federation will certainly diminish public corruption – apart from giving us a stable country.

    In terms of restructuring the Nigerian federation, however, Buhari needs to be told that a lot of Nigerians have doubts and fears about him. After independence, it was his kinsmen that wanted an all-controlling federal government. And it is they who, from their position of controllers of federal power, have strategized doggedly for it – in the belief that it would perpetuate their control over Nigeria. Even now, they are still mostly bent on it– as was recently evidenced in the National Conference.

    But – but, there may be a plus for Buhari even in this. He is an intrepid and stubborn fighter for causes that he believes in. He can, as his fight against corruption shows, rebel against the mainstream of his people’s leadership. If he does become convinced about the value of a rational federation, he will fight for it. It is the duty of his eminent supporters, therefore, to persuade him and to get him to make it the central piece of his election campaign from now on. I wish them success – and I wish Nigeria luck.

    In short, while struggling to get our candidate elected, let’s struggle to save our country. We can do it.

  • Nigeria: True independence approaching

    Every country has its inner, intrinsic, structure. A country that is made up of one nationality (a people with their own homeland, culture, language, etc) is different from another country in which many different nationalities are combined. To exist in reasonable harmony, a country’s man-made structure (that is, its constitutional structure) must harmonize as much as possible with its intrinsic structure. When the leaders and rulers of a country organize their country in ways that are manifestly and defiantly disharmonious with their country’s intrinsic structure, they condemn their country to instability, discord, conflicts, and probably disintegration.

    The refusal of most Black African countries to follow this wisdom is the reason why almost all Black African countries have experienced instability, conflicts and violence since independence. European empire builders came in about 1900, each grabbed some expanses of African territory, ignored the African nationalities that inhabited each such territory, and called it a new country – with one name and one government. For the next 40 years or so, the colonial rulers were so busy trying to make profit from their venture, and they were so distracted by big troubles (two World Wars and a Great Depression) in their own continent, that they could not pay serious attention to issues such as appropriate constitutional structure for their African territories. In the course of the 1960s, under pressure from Africans who wanted colonialism to end, and from a world that was becoming hostile to imperialism, the European colonialists hurriedly cooked up some sort of leadership for their African possessions and left. That is the basic story of every Black African country until independence.

    At that point of independence, a great task fell on the shoulders of the new African leaders of each of these countries – the task to organize their country properly and give it a chance to be stable and peaceful, and to develop. The core of this task was that the new rulers should ensure that each nationality in their new country (no matter how small) would be respected in the country. In every country made up of many different nationalities and given only one central government by the colonialists, it was necessary to restructure by creating constitutions allowing the various nationalities to have some freedom to manage some important parts of their own affairs. That means we Black Africans should have chosen some sort of federal structures for most of our countries.

    Unfortunately, in not a single one of our Black African countries did the leaders even ask what needed to be done in this all-important matter of living together as one country. Just a few examples will do. In Black Africa’s first independent country, Ghana, the various nationalities asked at independence to be allowed to manage some of their own affairs locally; but their first ruler and great African hero, Dr. Nkrumah, thought that their requests were dangerous to the unity of Ghana, and he launched a political fight aimed at stamping them down. That led to crises and big trouble – all of which could have been avoided. The troubles destabilized Ghana and ultimately destroyed the great hero.  In nearly every one of our other countries, the leaders simply assumed too that their countries were already finished products, and that all they needed to do was to make their governments strong and capable of stamping down any show of freedom by any of the component nationalities. And the results since then in country after country have been conflicts, military coups and barbaric military dictatorships, mind-boggling corruption, pogroms, efforts at ethnic cleansing, or even genocide.

    South Sudan is our youngest country in Black Africa. After decades of brutal sacrifices in bush wars, South Sudan, comprising about 40 different nationalities, wrenched itself free from Arab-controlled Sudan and became an independent country in July 2011. Even before the day of independence, many leaders of the different nationalities had started to ask that the nationalities should be given some freedom to manage much of their affairs locally.  We were all very happy when the leader of the independence war, our brother Salva Kiir, as president of the new country, said during the independence celebrations that South Sudan would be a country “where cultural and ethnic diversity will be a source of pride”. Very many Black Africans (including this writer) rushed letters to the leaders of South Sudan congratulating them and begging them to be mindful of the fact that their country was a county of many different nationalities – and to avoid the mistake that other Black African countries had been making. Sadly, it has not worked. President Kiir soon rejected all advice about a federal structure of decentralization. His Vice-President and many others (belonging to nationalities different from his) accused him of aspiring to a dictatorship. The nationalities plunged into conflicts – and have been engrossed in mutual killings since then. International observers on the spot are now reporting that more than 50,000 (some say close to 100,000) have been killed – and the killings are still continuing.

    It is the same pattern as this in all our countries – with all sorts of variations of detail. The Nigerian story is easily the most bizarre and most painful of all. Nigeria is the Black African country with the greatest promise of prosperity and greatness – the home of one-fourth of all Black Africans, the most literate population at independence, and the land of enormous natural resources (including some of the richest crude oil and gas deposits on earth). To protect their economic interests in this naturally rich country after it would have become independent, the British colonialists sought to hand Nigeria, at independence, to “a friendly people”. Fearing the highly educated Yoruba and Igbo of the South, they manoeuvred the constitution, the population census, the politics and the elections, placed Nigeria’s federal power in the hands of the much weaker Hausa-Fulani Muslim elite of the North, and established the direction by which they would be able to use their control of federal power to keep controlling the country indefinitely.

    But all of those were the acts of British foreigners fending for their Britain’s interests. The duty of Nigerians was obvious and different – it was to make Nigeria successful. Unhappily, the enthroned group chose not to work for the success and greatness of Nigeria. They chose to use their federal power to entrench their sectional control eternally – in the Nigerian military, in the Nigerian federal civil service, over the states of the federation, to convert federal agencies (courts, electoral commission, police, etc) into their tools, to use federal money to corrupt, emasculate, and enslave prominent citizens, and to resist any attempt at evolving a true federal system. Even when some southerners (Obasanjo and Jonathan) have been allowed to sit on top of the system, they have been too enticed by it to make any decisive change.

    However, judging from the way Nigeria is now tottering fearfully, the rejection of the system has now gathered irresistible power. This could turn the coming election into a chaotic brawl. And, if any candidate does manage to win, he must tackle this overriding problem convincingly immediately or find most of Nigeria unwilling to accept him. The time for true independence has come – one way or other.

  • Nigeria at the crossroads

    The traditional “wise-men” of Yoruba civilization (respectfully known as Babalawo, ‘Father of the Secrets’) used to say, “Koro-koro la nrofa aditi” –that is, when consulting the oracles for someone who cannot hear well, the message needs to be clear and said loudly and repeatedly. It is difficult – extremely difficult – for Nigeria to hear well or to hear the truth. And that is because Nigeria’s multiplicity of nationalities and cultures intervene between Nigeria and any important message; they   make it impossible for Nigeria to hear important messages clearly and to benefit from them. If Nigeria is dying today (as it is), that is the most fundamental reason.

    The basic FACT of Nigeria’s existence is that Nigeria is not a nation – a nation being a people group with their own homeland, their own culture and language, and their own self-image, and therefore their own unique expectations, ways of doing things, of enforcing their own national moral laws, of rewarding or penalizing their members, etc. If an event in history creates one sovereign country that combines many of such nations, then that country, to survive for any length of time, must be very thoughtful and careful in managing the inter-relationships among its component nations. If the country’s management of those inter-relationships is poor, unduly demanding and aggressive, and generates stress for some of the component nations, then the country cannot possibly be stable – and it runs the risk of quickly breaking up.

    That is the basic summary of the history of independent Nigeria since 1960. By aggressively pooling all powers and resources together in the hands of the federal government, we have created a powerful demon that will destroy Nigeria. In this column and in other writings, I have said these things repeatedly, and as clearly and loudly as I possibly can – in accordance with the wisdom of the fathers of my Yoruba people. In this beginning of another year, I say them now again. Without restructuring Nigeria, without basing our states on the realities of our nationalities, and without taking away many of the powers and resource-control now held by the federal government and vesting them in the state governments, Nigeria will break up – probably violently, and probably very soon. In fact, as I watch the situation develop these days, I am already expecting my own separate Yoruba country to materialize soon; and I am already thinking of how I and others like me will contribute to making our Yoruba country orderly, progressive, prosperous and powerful in the world. I am also full of prayers for other probable new countries (especially an Igbo country, a Hausa-Fulani country, and others that seem to me increasingly inevitable in the circumstances that have been evolved in Nigeria).

    Everything of significance emphasizes the truth that Nigeria has been destroyed by us Nigerians. As an important example, look at what is happening to our economy. The sharp falls in crude oil prices of these days are having a devastating effect on Nigeria because, according to the moulding of our economy by the federal government, the income from crude oil is the alpha-and-omega of our economy. Before crude oil started to become important to our country in about 1970, our country was doing quite well on some cash crops (cocoa from the South-west, palm produce from the South-east, and groundnuts from the North). We were also, on the whole, fairly productive peoples in food-crop farming, livestock farming, fishing, etc. From the 1950s, we were also beginning to develop as an entrepreneurial and gradually industrializing country.  But just as crude oil was beginning to emerge as a main contributor to our economy, our cash crops were transferred to federal control. The federal government, hugely overwhelmed by the growing oil bonanza, focused its attention on the oil alone and, through inattention, allowed the cash crops to perish. Discouraged and lacking governmental support, our farmers turned away from producing the cash crops. Nobody noticed this disaster as it developed – but it was a process of submitting the lives of our people to poverty. By the 1960s we were the largest exporter of groundnuts in the world; but by the 1980s, we had disappeared as a serious exporter of groundnuts. The same disasters befell our cocoa and palm produce exports.

    We became the poor country that we are now – the country in which 70% of us live in “absolute poverty”, where true enterprise has become unpopular, where all state governments and local governments subsist only on monthly federal dolls from the oil revenues, and where most prominent citizens live on hand-outs or outright robberies from the oil revenues. It is a country also in which the federal government has seized control and destroyed education at all levels, and wrecked the universities that we proudly owned at independence. Worldwide, we became notorious as a viciously corrupt country – a country to be avoided.

    In the process, we have destroyed all love among our various nationalities. Read the letters posted by Nigerians on the world-wide-web daily, and you will be horrified at the perpetual drivel of hate and venom that Nigerians spit against one another’s nationalities. In the past few years, some leading Nigerians have been importing and storing weapons – so as to be prepared to arm their own particular nationals to kill masses of other nationals when the time comes. We are ready for the Rwandan kind of genocidal insanity – only, when it comes, it will be thousands of times larger and more horrific than in Rwanda.  What respectable reason do we still have left for regarding ourselves as countrymen? We have destroyed this country. All that needs to happen is its actual dissolution. And that now appears to be near at hand.

    In all essence, Nigeria’s problems have risen to heights at which they cannot possibly be solved by any election. Some days ago, the respected academic and statesman, Bolaji Akinyemi, came forth with the suggestion that the two candidates in the presidential election should meet and sign an agreement to prevent their supporters from unleashing violence on society before, during and after the election. Although such an agreement would be a good gesture, there is serious doubt that it can prevent the trouble that Nigeria has already prepared for itself.

    During the past week, another highly respected leader, Pastor Tunde Bakare, stood up in the shrine of his faith and made much more far-reaching proposals towards solution and change. He urges that the presidential election scheduled for February 15 should be postponed for six months – so as to allow us to sort out our country’s tangled problems (especially the restructuring of our federation). We would therefore be able to hold the election under the new constitutional structure. Again, this is a wonderful suggestion. The existing constitution allows such a postponement, since, in fact, a substantial part of our country is under invasion by hostile forces. Moreover, we do have the report of a National Conference with some valuable proposals to which we all will be able to add some more.  But there is no likelihood that this proposal too will be adopted. We have sown the wind; we are only motivated to reap the whirlwind.

  • Issues in Nigeria’s 2015 presidential election: Peace and security

    As the February presidential and other elections approach, the most important considerations with most Nigerians, and with most observers of Nigeria in the wide world, are peace and security. It is true that Nigeria is, endemically, an incoherent, chaotic, and unstable country, but hardly has it ever come under such a dark and heavy cloud of insecurity and violent turmoil as it does today. It is also true that our elections are perpetually managed with very truculent crookedness, resulting usually in countless violent deaths and massive destruction. Still, though I have witnessed Nigerian elections since 1952, I cannot remember one other election whose approach is so fearsomely loaded with so much certainty of death and doom. A few weeks ago, one of our leading national newspapers asked: Are our politicians preparing for elections or for war? We see and hear motions and echoes of electioneering campaign no doubt, but, in the balance, we hear and see more of threats and preparations of war. More and more, as 2015 dawns, it seems as if some apocalyptic force is dragging us towards violence, war and national collapse – without our being able to resist in the least.

    From most regions of Nigeria, leading citizens are spitting fire and venom and threats of war. From the South-south, the small region which produces most of Nigeria’s oil wealth, which nevertheless suffers horrendous neglect and underdevelopment, and where an insurgency against Nigeria’s Federal Government has existed since independence, prominent leaders of the insurgency have become very massively empowered in the course of the past five years under the presidency of their native son,  Goodluck Jonathan. Now, they are saying that if President Jonathan does not win election for another four-year term in 2015, they would shred Nigeria. A statement credited to one of their main leaders on the internet threatens to destroy Yorubaland in the South-west first and then proceed to go and do the same to Northern Nigeria.

    Similar threats have been frequently emanating from the Muslim North (or Arewa North) for years. On this column about one year ago, I had occasion to rebuke one of the most prominent intellectuals of the North for endlessly threatening that the North would go to war if the political process fails to return presidential power to the North, that the North would make Nigeria ungovernable, and that the North was prepared for war. But the persons who have been issuing these threats are so bent on what they are saying that nothing can make them stop – which means that we should absolutely expect some violent action from them. In fact, recently, another prominent northerner raised the rhetoric of war and death to new heights. If anybody tried to withhold presidential power from his people in 2015, he wrote, “We will kill, maim, destroy and turn this country into Africa’s biggest war zone and refugee camp”.

    Proofs that these threats are no empty words are plenty. For years now, the world has been aware of secret and illegal weapons purchases by prominent Nigerians all over the world. In recent months, such illegal arms purchases by Nigerians have reached an absolutely frenetic pace. That is, below the surface of Nigeria’s politics, a massive and dangerous arms race is in progress. It is not limited to small arms (like sophisticated rifles, grenades and such); it includes grenade-propelling rockets, gun boats (which most Nigerians call war ships)and perhaps even helicopter gunships. At home in Nigeria, especially since 2013, Nigeria’s law enforcement authorities have been extremely busy over tracing, finding and confiscating illegal caches of arms. Given the universal corruption characteristic of Nigeria’s governance and public agencies, it is not difficult to imagine how much of the illegal arms must remain in the hands of their importers. In short, many segments of the Nigerian political elite are ready to settle the issues of Nigeria with a military showdown. As is well known from history, arms races hardly ever end peacefully; they usually end in the actual use of the arms – that is, in war.

    But it is not being suggested here that the war is unavoidable. It is avoidable. However, for us to avoid it, we Nigerians, especially the leading ones who direct Nigeria’s affairs, will need to make very serious changes in the way they handle Nigeria’s affairs. Some changes along such lines were proposed some days ago by the former Nigerian Foreign Minister, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi. Particularly, Prof. Akinyemi proposed that the two candidates in the 2015 presidential election should meet and sign a joint undertaking to ensure that their supporters would not start violence before, during and after the election.

    Unfortunately, the willingness to make such changes does not exist among most of Nigeria’s leading politicians. Thus, while some assistants of General Buhari have said that Prof. Akinyemi’s suggestions are not unreasonable, a leading spokesperson for President Jonathan has responded that, since the president’s record of elections demonstrates his commitment to free and fair elections, there is no need for him to enter into any peace undertaking with anybody. Meanwhile, also, not a single one of those who have been making incendiary threats of mass killing and war has come forth to withdraw their threats. And much more importantly, it is indicative of the direction that some Nigerian leaders believe they must go that government has asked no question concerning the news that a citizen has bought some warships. In what other country in the world can a citizen take such a step without question?

    What all these mean is that, though war is not necessarily inevitable as a means of sorting out dissolving our country, we are, almost certainly, going to slip into war in the 2015 election – or even earlier. The fundamental essence of our interrelationships as nationalities in Nigeria seems now to have reached the point at which we must settle matters by blood and iron. From this point on, therefore, groups that have not prepared for war and that have been regarding war as unnecessary and foolish, would now, almost certainly, begin to find ways and means for defending themselves. For any group to neglect to take at least such a step would be utter folly.

    Increasingly, the masses of ordinary Nigerians in Nigeria, as well as the millions of Nigerians resident abroad, are helpless. In the wide world, informed people who are watching developments in Nigeria are doing so with increasing alarm and worry. There doesn’t seem to be much more anybody can do.

  • Letter to Gen. Buhari – 2

    I closed the first part of my letter last week with the following words: “I know you have what it takes to change and save Nigeria. I wish you luck in your election – and I wish Nigeria luck”.

    I mean those words sincerely. Your record in our country’s public service shows that you honestly hate public corruption, and that you can sincerely wage war on, and suppress, public corruption. I have also read your manifesto and, from the simplicity of its presentation, I am persuaded that you sincerely mean all you have outlined in it. Though I have ceased belonging to any political party for a long time, I believe it will be good for our brutally vandalized and tottering country if we voters choose you as president at this critical time.

    Our mutual sincerity encourages me to utter the following pleas and words of advice. Certainly you are aware that many Nigerians are concerned and even fearful about the persistent claims by some of the Hausa-Fulani political leadership that their Hausa-Fulani nation must dominate Nigeria as a sort of colonial overlord. You know as much as anybody that that thorny fact has been a very major factor in the making of our country’s disunity, conflicts, and instability. Usually, people do not accuse you personally of sharing in that mentality; but since you are Hausa-Fulani, and since some of your people perpetually noise that claim and make efforts to achieve it, it is a large though mostly unspoken factor in the coming presidential election. It would be a pity if this should cause serious problems for such a good candidate as you at this time.

    Therefore, I urge you: use your undoubted capabilities to put an end to this terrible tradition – in the interest of our country. Realistically, no single one of our nationalities can dominate all the rest of us. It is impossible. How can one nationality, even if it is larger than all the rest of us put together, dominate all the rest of us in any full or lasting sense? And we do not have any numerically dominant nation like that. Our three largest nationalities (Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo) are very close in population size, and each of them is a minority in Nigeria. How can the Hausa-Fulani succeed in subduing and dominating the large and capable Yoruba or Igbo – not to talk of all the nationalities of Nigeria?  Talking about domination and trying to achieve it has only bred hostility, crookedness, and instability in our country. It is time we remove that obstacle from the path to our country’s stability, progress and prosperity – and you can lead us to do it. Please sincerely strive to do so. Let it be one of your immortal gifts to our country. Nigeria is a country in which we all can prosper – and together build a world power.

    That leads me to another but related subject. The reason most of the Hausa-Fulani elite are forever angling for a bigger, more powerful, and more resource-controlling Federal Government, is that they believe that, by having that kind of federal government and ensuring their own control of it, they will be able to subdue and dominate all of Nigeria. But it is a nebulous and disruptive venture. Yes, they have succeeded in pulling power and resources into the hands of the federal government, but have their homeland or anybody else gained anything from that? The most important result is that the federal government has become a podgy, ponderous, incompetent and repulsively corrupt monstrosity, a constant manipulator of elections and other vital processes across our land, a destroyer of development and progress in our country, and a disgrace to our country in the wide world. You acknowledge almost as much as this in your manifesto.

    The federal government’s obstruction to development is hurting all parts of our country. For instance, our Northern Region saw a great deal of development and progress under the regional leadership of the late Sir Ahmadu Bello. Since all the power and resources for development have been gradually pulled together at the federal centre, has the North not steadily declined in economic progress? Is the same not true of the East and the West? Obviously, the answer is to take away much of the ponderous powers of the federal government, reenergize the different parts of our country, and thus bring development close to our people again. Empower the elite of our various parts to handle the development of their people, and our country will pick up again. Moreover, leave each part to elect the local men and women who will handle their affairs, and stop the destructive assumption that those who control the federal government have the prerogative to choose rulers for all parts of Nigeria. Flush corruption out of our elections. These are things you are capable of leading us to accomplish. We have high hopes in you – and we will support you.

    Then, I wish to offer some counsel concerning your fighting corruption. Our country’s experiences show that going after those who have been corrupt and punishing them is an unreliable and problematic approach, potentially capable of generating division and even conflict. This is because, in a country in which ALL public servants (politicians, civil servants, judges, and all) have descended into the culture of corruption, punishing some people tends to degenerate into a process of selective justice. Groups that feel that their own leaders are being punished selectively cannot be blamed if they feel bitter. For instance, even though I hate public corruption as a destructive evil and fought it passionately throughout my service to Nigeria, it hurts me to remember that, among the generally corrupt Nigerian leadership of today, my prominent kinsman like Bode George was sent to prison, or that the federal government started a vindictive case against Bola Tinubu some time ago. If punishment is one of the weapons you decide to employ against corruption, please make sure that the process is manifestly even-handed.