For the record, I am a northerner, a progressive, and a patriotic citizen of Nigeria. What some of us have been speaking to in the last 25 years since the beginning of the 4th Republic in Nigeria is that if we are to remain as one Nation, then the unity of Nigeria should be paramount.
The pressure groups that are currently coming together in northern Nigeria ahead in anticipation of the 2027 elections refer. From all indications, some northern political leaders are posturing for the return of the Presidency to the north in 2027, which in my opinion is the type of divisive and self-serving politics that will further deepen disunity in Nigeria.
Some of the justifications given by some of some of these northern political leaders build-up to the 2023 elections were to justify why power should shift to the southern part of Nigeria since the northern part of Nigeria had enjoyed 8 years of presidency under President Buhari, where some of them were Governors, legislators, political party leaders, etc. The question is, what did they do during their tenure? And how come some of them were at the forefront of the campaign for President Tinubu and ensured his success only of them to start working against his administration after less than 1 year in office simply because they were not getting what they expected? I would have taken them more seriously if their intentions were genuine, which obviously is not so.
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At this crucial moment in the history of Nigeria when the country is highly polarized along ethnic, tribal, and religious sentiments, I was taken aback to see the sublime positions of those political leaders, especially regionalizing the conversation. I don’t have qualms with making it a national discourse with the elites coming together to see how we can pressure any government in power, not just an APC Government. Because, as far as I am concerned, the political parties in Nigeria are the same wine in different bottles. Therefore, the cyclical and abysmal failure of the political class of this country is not about a political party. So, I am only keen to see political leaders coming together to speak with a view to ensuring that we put governments on their toes whether it is the APC at national or other parties at the subnational levels. I do not subscribe to regionalizing the political conversations at this point in time simply because some politicians have not gotten what they wanted or expected in the current administration of President Tinubu.
After all, they are the same people that went as far as insulting our elders (which include my parents) in their efforts to convince Nigerians that President Tinubu is the right person to lead Nigeria; only for them to do an about-face with tongue-in-cheek to shamelessly start going around to greet the same elders they were insulting and to indicate that the government they vehemently supported to power is not a good government. The gaslighting attitude by politicians should no longer be supported by citizens, especially northerners. I guarantee that the same politicians will have no qualms doing another about-face again to tell us that we should endure the Tinubu administration even though they were condemning the government a day before, so long as they get what they want! And this is what happens even at the state level.
This type of self-serving politicking that is promoted by most of our northern political leaders should be discounted by northerners. Indeed, I rather take seriously and respectfully the contributions of political leaders who have been consistent in their positions. Because those politicians can be considered more focused and genuine than these “latter-day prophets”. Therefore, we should stop being gullible and start looking through politicians whose only interests are not for the people, but only for themselves, their families, and their friends. The longer we continue remaining gullible and playing into the hands of ethnic and tribal jingoism, the longer it will take us to get out of the current debilitating socio-economic malaise in Nigeria.
We should be able to see through them and going forward decide for ourselves who we should elect at national and subnational levels because the bottom line is that these politicians don’t care about us. We should no longer put our destiny in the hands of these selfish politicians.
After all, it is worthy of note that out of the over 160 million multidimensionally poor Nigerians, 70% are from core northern Nigeria. This horrible poverty index was achieved in the eight years of President Buhari’s tenure. It is worthy of note that President Buhari was supported by a lot of northern political leaders who he gave leadership positions and the governors who mostly failed woefully to deliver their mandates, but rather left their states in worse than they met them in abject poverty, heightened insecurity and perpetual indebtedness. What a shame! I dare say that we should no longer listen to such leaders, as our guides and guardians. They have betrayed our trust and confidence, not once but many times over. If we continue to follow such leaders gullibly, then we have ourselves to blame for continuous suffering.
Accordingly, I am yet to see anything grand about the ongoing political grandstanding by some northern political leaders under the guise of “moves to save the north” or moves to “save Nigeria”, whence/ whereas they have been part of the political process and structure and establishment of Nigeria for over 50 years.
By the way, the northern politicians don’t have the monopoly of the aforementioned distasteful political credentials! Politicians from other geopolitical regions in Nigeria also hold the same awful credentials, albeit as a northerner, my focus of discussion today is on the politicians from the northern given that since after the glorious time of late Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, etc.; most of the current political leaders have woefully failed to deliver their mandates. Having enjoyed the privileges or good governance and leadership at that time devoid of parochial sentiments, they have betrayed all the values that trained them. Most of them came from humble backgrounds and yet they were given equal opportunities and level playing fields which they have shamelessly now cornered for themselves and their cohorts while their people die in abject poverty and strife as they sheepishly go about with the wicked and narcissistic people aloofness and sense of entitlement. – except for a few of them.
The bottom line is that there is an increasing number of citizens who are now seeing through these politicians and their allies – that for them it is all about leveraging the levers of politics and power; i.e. the divisiveness, ethnicities, tribal and religious sentiments to achieve their parochial interests. The hypocrisy and total lack of strategy or empathy for the people is sickening. It is time to call out these northern leaders for what they are – selfish and pathological – period! With no intelligent and coherent plan for the people – they go about with an empty sense of entitlement, with no honor or self-respect as they go about planning for their usual selfish political interests for only themselves and their children!
Northern politicians have successfully ensured that they have killed what remained of the education structure and system built by the vanguards of our liberation from colonialism. Knowing that education is the bedrock of any sustainable society, it is a shame that they have destroyed what they benefited from!! With an appalling level of illiteracy with no clear plan to help us exit this situation apart from photoshoots and mantras. I wonder how the North will make any significant progress without education. The state of insecurity in Nigeria is worsening, increasing infant maternal mortality, and increasing multidimensional poverty indices, I can go on and on. Things are so bad that, currently in northern Nigeria human beings have begun to eat grass and compete with animals for the food that hitherto was solely for animals!!
Where are the visions? What are the priorities? What are the values?
The citizens have not helped themselves either with wanton laziness and a sense of entitlement!! Therefore, 2027 should be about values, antecedents, strategy, clear vision, demonstrable capacity, and integrity.
What is even more worrisome is how most of the “new breed” northern politicians are already inflicted and sucked in by the horrible hydra-headed monsters of the corrupt and self-serving style of political leadership.
Going forward, it is no longer enough to convince people to elect or even rig people into office only for them to run into the crowd of the masses and start pointing accusing fingers at their hitherto co-travelers. In my opinion, those kinds of political leaders should not be considered leaders again but hypocrites and enemies of their people
As the Nigerian street parlance goes “Our mumu suppose don do”.