Minister of State for Defence, Bello Mohammed Matawalle, is at war with the Northern Elders Forum, a group he last week dismissed as “people seeking political relevance to overburden the system and create political disunity among Nigerians.”
The cause of Matawalle’s righteous indignation was Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, the forum’s spokesman, who had in an interview said “the North regretted voting President Bola Tinubu.” That, to him amounts to the forum dressing itself in borrowed robes as Tinubu was never the forum’s candidate.
Atiku Abubakar who had appealed to the North to vote for one of their own was. Matawalle was therefore miffed because Northern Elders Forum “is seeking to erode other people’s rights to be recognised or made relevant in the scheme of things despite the failure of their sponsored candidates in the 2023 general elections.”
Playing on the ethnic and religion fears of the masses of northern poor was a weapon the northern ruling hegemonic class used very effectively in the run up to independence.
Labelling a political opponent as a threat to the culture and religion of the masses of the North as was done when Akintola’s attempt to mobilise support of Kano voters for his AG party in 1953 which led to the massacre of about 43 southerners was enough to create social dislocation.
However, exploiting innermost fears of voters to win election has become less potent because of 25 percent of two-third of all the states constitutional requirement for a candidate to emerge president.
This was what aided the emergence of Buhari in 2015 after three heroic failures despite scoring over 12 million votes in the North, and Tinubu in 2023 despite securing a little over 8m votes as against about 14m of his three opponents – none of who met the twelve two-third threshold.
But it must be admitted that besides the Northern Elders Forum, other ethnic nationality groups including Afenifere, Ohaneze, Middle Belt Forum and the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) have lost their iron cast control over the masses on whose back they once rode to power.
Leadership in Yoruba is often earned. Until desecration of Yoruba tradition by misguided governors, Obas were never imposed. They often emerged as the choice of the people through Ifa. Obas in Yoruba land were therefore answerable to their subjects. And Yoruba never had leaders they could not handle, not even the fearful tyrannical Sango, Samuel Akintola, alias “Akintola Taku” (Akintola refuses to step down) or Bola Ige, the well-beloved Yoruba leader who in a moment of anger joined Obasanjo to spite his fellow Afenifere members. All the above powerful leaders literarily committed suicide.
Afenifere foisted Obasanjo on Yoruba in 2003. Obasanjo went on to rig out all Afenifere’s six AD progressive governors except Lagos State’s Ahmed Tinubu who abandoned Pa Ayo Adebanjo to form Afenifere Renewal Group with the likes of Wale Oshun and Pa Akande. If Ayo Adebanjo did not realise that he was dancing alone when his ‘vote Jonathan’ order was rejected in 2015 just as it was in 2019 when he tried to impose Atiku Abubakr on Yoruba, he must have realised he was dancing alone and naked in 2023 when his attempt to impose Peter Obi on Yoruba was roundly rejected.
One of the major objectives of Ohanaeze, which claims to speak for Ibo in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi. Enugu, Imo Rivers and Delta, “is to foster unity among its members in order to more effectively represent the political interest of the Igbo in Nigeria.” Unfortunately, IPOB that has held the East hostage since the loss of President Jonathan in 2015 seems to be more influential among the people of the East. Perhaps for fear of IPOB, Ohanaeze seems to share the former’s anti-Nigerian sentiments, according to Lauretta Onochie who has also dismissed “the current Ohanaeze as a trading organisation that sells hatred, religious bigotry and ethnic bias…”
The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) coordinated by Chief Edwin Clark was formed to enable various Niger Delta groups negotiate with one voice with the Federal Government. PANDEF unfortunately has not behaved differently from other splinter groups. Edwin Clark as President Jonathan’s godfather, instead of delivering prosperity to the people of the Niger Delta, cornered it for himself. As Chief Osita
Okechukwu, the Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, put it, “Chief Clark started building a university, married a new wife and was enjoying himself without showing seriousness in matters affecting the region (Niger Delta) and its people.”
The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) is a regional socio-political group in Nigeria that promotes the interests of the people of the Middle Belt region. The forum, a successor to the United Middle Belt Congress led by Joseph Tarka, serves as a voice for minority groups of the Middle Belt.
But after Tarka, prominent leaders of the area from Generals Gowon to Danjuma, Abdullahi Shelleng and David Mark, blinded by their personal ambition, allowed themselves to be humored by their enslavers as “patriotic, supportive and selfless Nigerians who have sacrificed much more than the people of other regions in holding this country together.”
Now back to Matawalle’s war. While it may be convenient to accuse him of fighting his principal’s war like a slave, I think there is merit in interrogating some of his sweeping claims such as “The NEF is more of a political burden to Northerners” and that “in spite of their overbearing attitude on issues that affect political unity and cohesion, they cannot offer any positive idea or thought about the future of Northern Nigeria or, indeed, of Nigeria and its unity and togetherness.”
If indeed NEF cares about the North and Nigeria, the body would have “deemed it fit to seek an audience with Mr. President to discuss issues affecting the Northern region despite the numerous challenges facing the North as rightly highlighted by the President and being addressed by him” or “visit any of the ministers dealing with issues of security, agriculture, water resources, police affairs, education, health, budget, foreign affairs, or any head of security agencies in the country for first-hand knowledge of government programs and actions.”
For him, NEF’s failure to do any of the above is but a confirmation that “the North, until now has been teleguided by Northern Elders Forum who had fed fat in the past on the North’s resources and opportunities which had retarded development in the region and nation due to their selfishness.”
Why for instance did the same northern elite that ignored Awolowo’s warning of consequences of not sending children of the poor to school send their own children to the best schools in the world?
Was it not apparent that Boko Haram terrorists’ 2013 declaration of Islamic caliphate and opposition to western-style modern education in Borno State where less than 33 percent of youths go to school was taken out of the play book of northern elders that have always opposed the education of children of the poor?
Was it not mum from northern elders when on the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 female Chibok students which according to Amnesty International 2015 estimate, “are only a small percentage of the total number at least 2,000 women and girls that had been abducted by the group” were kidnapped?
Except Lamido Sanusi who appealed to northern privileged individuals to build schools, especially for girls instead of mosques, which member of NEF criticised the obnoxious ‘quota system’ that killed meritocracy and frustrated youths outside the North?
While desperate efforts were made by Buhari’s loyal gate keepers to export terrorist to reserved forests in the south in the guise of open grazing, why did NEF members feign ignorance about ungoverned Konduga area of the Sambisa Forest, a former nature reserve covering 60,000 km?
Now that the battle line is drawn, I think the only thing that will satisfy Matawalle will be NEF’s answers to the above questions
