It is also tragic that during every emergency, these elders intervene only to introduce ethnic, and religious dimensions to already very complicated situations.
John Nnia Nwodo (Chief), urbane, brilliant even seminal, lawyer, economist and now, President-General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, was a student, later Student Union President, at the University of Ibadan in the early 70’s when I was an Assistant Registrar at the same university. A former minister of the Federal Republic, John is in his mid sixties. This, nonetheless, is the gentleman our highly regarded elders in Afenifere who, by the grace of God are mostly in their 80’s and 90’s, happily have for company as they shuttle between Aba, Enugu, and Markudi, hardly ever Ibadan, spewing oppositional politics suffused with incomparable ethnic baiting.
I never thought a day would come when I would have to write on what Gboyega Adepitan, my friend, and President of my Christ’s- School, Ado – Ekiti set of ’63, recently described as the “distasteful aspect of these associates of Awo aligning with the very forces that heartily worked against the Avatar’s political ambition”.
Or how exactly was Obasanjo or Ndigbo helpful to Awo?
Not too long ago, at his prompting, via a phone call in response to one of my articles, I got engaged in a discussion on this issue with Dr Amos Akingba, a highly regarded Afenifere chieftain. Rather than write on the subject, even now, I am this Sunday, out of respect, yielding the column to Dr Sikiru Eniola, an Associate Professor at the Ekiti State University, Ado – Ekiti, whose article will, however, treat Afenifere only as a subtext of the totally unhelpful politicking of some Nigerian elders who call themselves Southern Leaders.
Happy reading.
Our ‘elder statesmen’ and the state of the nation
In the history of nations, elders are known to be the last line of moral, ethical, social, even political thought, during both good and bad times. In Africa, especially, the place of elders is highly regarded. It is, therefore, no surprise they are generically called elder statesmen.
In Nigeria for instance, we have a long list of elders who have distinguished themselves in the successive scenarios of our national history. Among them are, in no particular order, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief S.L Akintola, Mallam Aninu Kano, Madam Funmilayo Kuti, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, to mention but a few. Our minds naturally go to these greats when we sing of “the labour of our heroes past” in our National Anthem. Others have risen stoutly to stabilise the country in times of great anxiety, a recent example being the General Abdulsalami Abubakar National Peace Committee which did a yeoman’s job to calm nerves during the 2015 Presidential election when just about anything could have happened .
Unfortunately, events since then have revealed the ugliest aspect of our national history. All of a sudden, ethnocentrism and religious bigotry have taken over all the values of nationalism and patriotism which had hitherto guided the country with a particular group of elders spewing these inanities the most, without sparring a thought for the survival of the country. They assume extremist, and incendiary positions far in excess of even the restive youths whose future they claim they are fighting to protect. They take extreme positions on practically all matters without offering a single solution out of the impasse except parroting restructuring, important as it is, as if it is a silver bullet for all of Nigeria’s problems .
Nigerians are, however, not unaware of the fact that these are mostly losers in the 2015 election who still find it extremely difficult to concede defeat. Their actions and utterances, are inimical to the country as they undermine national security.
Only last week, President Muhammadu Buhari was at the UN where he addressed the General Assembly like other heads of member states. In his speech he, among other things, alluded to the fact that incursions by armed militias into Nigeria have been worsened by wars in our neighbouring countries, a fact which has, in turn, further complicated the war against the Boko Haram insurgency. He said that what this situation calls for is greater joint efforts with these neighbours as well as increased foreign support to defeat the terrorist group. While the world understood him, not so the aggressive naysayers who, back home, had regressed to their now traditional opposition mode.
In their reaction, these unelected elders, all of them 2015 campaigners for President Jonathan, and under the perpetual leadership of Chief Edwin Clark, viciously condemned the speech, branding it an affirmation of the president’s failure on national security. Yet, you will search in vain for their advice to the president on this crucial matter.
This is a government which, at inception, descended heavily on Boko Haram, heavily degrading it, and freeing several Borno State Local Government Areas from its strangle hold whereas their 2015 candidate, Jonathan, had instructed the filtering away of 2.1 billion dollars meant for equipping the Nigerian military against the vermins. Boko Haram was greatly decimated, rooted out of its Sambisa forest base and had to resort to attacks on soft targets. But how would these elders see anything good Buhari did since that will make a mess of their efforts to de – market him ahead the 2019 elections?
Even while both the US and the UK already alerted the World to the fact that Boko Haram is now an affiliate of such deadly groups as ISIS, these elders still continue to deride the president’s efforts.
The action of this amorphous group attracted my attention because at the onset of the Buhari administration, it became known that huge sums of money budgeted for the purchase of military ware, meant to enhance the combat readiness of the Nigerian Armed Forces, had all been diverted and stolen with impunity thus enhancing Boko Haram’s ability to inflict maximum damage on our fighting forces, leading to several casualties among our fighting forces. How fair is it then that supporters of the man who instructed the diversion of the funds are the very ones now calling Buhari names? It is instructive that during that period of national mourning, when our patriotic fighting men and women were falling in their numbers, Nigerians did not hear a word of condemnation of the thieves from these elders. Indeed, some of them openly solidarised with those who were exposed, or arrested, for illegally benefiting from the blood money claiming that Buhari’s anti corruption war was targeted only at the opposition.
I condemn, in strong terms, the growing tendency of this group to continue to create international embarrassment for the country out of their hatred for President Buhari. Their actions would have been considered treasonable had the President not viewed them with his usual philosophical calmness.
It is also tragic that during every emergency, these elders intervene only to introduce ethnic, and religious dimensions to already very complicated situations.
It is time we let them know that they represent only themselves and not the people of Southern Nigeria, or those of the Middle Belt whose mandate they neither sought nor were ever given.