TUE, SEPT 25 2018-theG&BJournal-The race to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari from his throne of power and privilege is on and about. The Peoples Democratic Party is the major player and rallying point. This is for practical reasons. Only such a behemoth party has the robust chance of sacking the ruling APC, a party that is stewed in its greed for power. For all practical purposes APC and Buhari have concentrated power like no other rulers in the world’s democratic history. And this concentration of power is grossly nepotistic everybody agrees.
However, there is a point many miss in this style despotic nepotism. It is that this Buhari/APC model of power concentration is largely Arabist derived. Essentially, Arabic nations currently, and their earlier empires, including the Ottoman, are or were run on such lines. For instance modern Saudi Arabia is strictly policed and garrisoned not by professional cops and soldiers. Modern Saudi Arabia’s entire security arms and architectures are headed and manned by nepotistic princes to the last branch. And a key part of the consequence of a nepotistic security order is that no Arab nation is worth its weight in gold. Deeds have consequences dudes.
Now, the nepotism of the Buhari administration is writ large and is self evident. To give a hint of this let us make reference to the words of a Buhari supporter turned worrier: ”Now add Bichi as the DG of DSS to the list and it would be stupid for anyone to argue that the leadership of Nigeria’s security agencies is not overwhelmingly and embarrassingly northern. https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/09/16/solving-the-buhari-puzzle/
But that is not exactly the point. The greater point is that of all the presidential contenders not one, till now, has taken up frontally the issue of Buhari’s nepotisms as governance policies. One is clearly at a loss as to why the reticence. The big name presidential contenders have mainly spoken of Buhari’s alleged infrastructural and other governance failures. Or they go ahead to promise a more inclusive government. But all that seem to be changing. In a report, a presidential hopeful, Aminu Tambuwal, is reported as follows:
‘’We need a leader that will put aside primordial sentiments, when it comes to getting the best brains to work for the best interest of our country, and when assigning national assignments…’’
He said the unity of Nigeria was seriously being threatened, saying, ‘’It has never be this bad in the history of this country; we need a leader that has the capacity to bring everybody together and hold it together.’’ https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/09/15/tambuwal-kicks-off-presidential-campaign-in-abakaliki/
For the avoidance of doubt we repeat; nepotism is a threat to unity. In fact nepotism is a form of civil war by other means, by policy choices. Civil wars are bids to separate a composite peoples by bloodshed and mayhem. Nepotisms also are attempts to separate a composite peoples, but here by government policies and apartheid. In other words it can be said that the current administration has studiedly plunged Nigeria into a civil war, an undeclared civil war. To put things in perspective, the sacking of the Southerner/Christian/Bayelsan man and the preferment of a Northerner/Kano/Moslem dude to complete the Arabist-Northernization security blanket, is just a case of a civil war gone thermonuclear. Thus it is safe to say as follows. The APC is telling Nigerians, to your tents o Israel. So far it is only Tambuwal who is opening up to this.
Now, whether APC intends this or not is irrelevant. What matters in politics is not good intentions. What matters in politics is deeds and predictable outcomes. And the predictable outcome of the APC led administration is that this country is better off disintegrated. The matter is clear. If the APC wants Nigeria together they would have taken everybody along in security as in economics etc., as democracies do. But their preference is to run Nigeria like it is an Arab fiefdom, full of bloodletting feuds and sectarianisms. That is APC is for a Nigeria in a ceaseless state of civil wars and thus hanged in a never developing limbo.
In summary the battle charge of the opposition should concentrate on dislodging APC along the flank of its greatest threat to our common existence as a nation. All oppositional hands must be on deck to bring to an end the undeclared civil war going on in Nigeria, before it goes entirely nuclear on both sides.
In other words, there is no more urgent national task than that of reconciling our nations, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani, etc. and the various religions with one another. For the opposition to be about any other thing is to be like the householder whose roofs are on fire and he is running after the rodents fleeing the inferno.
Again it must be made plain that the country cannot, and perhaps should not hang together on the nepotism of those in power. We are better separated than having nepotistic rulers. In all, getting the focus right is more important than getting the speed wrong. Outside the right focus, all speeds are in error, all speeds are misbegotten. Ahiazuwa.
