Nigeria’s first civilian President, late Chief Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe had said, in the wake of independence struggles when our new country – Nigeria found herself in deep-rooted ethnic and religious divide, “Let’s forget our differences and move on.” But the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, in his opinion, put it differently, to which the undersigned wholly agrees to, “No, let us understand our differences. I am a Muslim and a Northerner. You are a Christian and an Easterner. By understanding our differences, we can build unity in our country. Let us understand our differences to be able to move on”.....CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE
Truth from today’s reality, we must, as a people, recognise and mummify the equilibrium between cohesion and ontogeny – all types of our known differences, imbalances, and equity. Nigeria is drifting as it stands. The triumvirate of Azikiwe, Bello and Awolowo knew what we were into when they asserted their individual positions. And truthfully, in the country today, an introspection into the founding fathers’ values and views is key to making communities work in the diverse, multi-cultural country that is 21st century Nigeria. There’s no point pretending we’re all the same. Because we ain’t in actual fact. And true to this assertion, of verity, our leaders – whether through military interregnum or democratic governance have not lived to expectations. But then, whether as a polarised country or as a truly one-people bond by one destiny, God did not make a mistake of bringing us all together.
Now, more than e’er, it appears the positions of our forebears, the duo of the Sardauna of Sokoto and South West sage are glaringly manifest. These ubiquitous protests have shown Nigeria is populated of people with ‘forced’ alliance. Our thinking, our credos, our values, our beings are totally different.
Evidently, it is crystal clear the country is truly fragile, and is seated on a keg of gunpowder if care is not taken. The indices are have now been laid bare for all to see. These protests have clearly shown the South West and the entire North were carefully plotted to go into explosion. Even as we pass through this excruciating pain, while struggling to wriggle out of it, our South Westerners feel they are urbane and debonair. They fail to recognise the obvious that what we see now is nothing but a carefully orchestrated plot against their own.
President Tinubu is under a combined machination from several sources, not necessarily because of the much taunted hunger or poverty. The war against him is multifarious and multidimensional. He obviously had been marked down to do just a single term, and so, the ‘war’ towards that may have started in ernest with these protests. And the reason is not farfetched. Mr. President’s decision to build trust among all ethnic groups, give every ethnic nationality, especially those who felt marginalised for years a sense of belonging may have earned him their wrath.
Those who have hitherto profited from the haphazard arrangement and systemic rot will definitely not let go just like that. And as it is, they appear to be winning the war except we all rally round Mr. President to fight this together with our patience, perseverance and equanimity even in the face of the exacerbating experiences.
The plot is thick. The game is bigger than anyone can imagine. The desperados do not look like they want to back down anytime soon. They are very desperate to seize power through the back door. It is why they recruited the Gen Zs with no knowledge of history. What does a 25 or 30-year old know about military junta? Nothing! Many of them, sadly, do not want to learn history too. Latching on hunger to commit treason. We saw how minors were calling for military takeover in Gombe State days ago. We saw the happenstance in the 3 K-States of Kano, Kaduna, and Katsina, and lately Jigawa, where young, mostly illiterate, teens were handed over Russian flags to fly on another sovereign soil – Nigeria. Who then says Nigeria is not a contraption?
Only few days ago, a former vice president and serial presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was seen on his social media handle, X (formerly twitter) dishing out instruction to the Service Chiefs over those he called ‘civilian peaceful protesters’. How a former #2 man could describe paid youths and arsonists who went on rampage to loot and commit wanton destruction ‘peaceful’ beats the imagination. It further confirms the fears of some of us who had earlier warned of a possible hijack of the whole thing for political statement.
As the country goes through this momentous period, the undernamed can only pray that the President come out of it, triumphantly, against all odds. And when he does eventually, he should do the needful. This ‘format’ clearly has become their idiosyncrasy. They did during Obasanjo regime before the old soldier took charge of his government. They did during Goodluck Jonathan regime. And here they are again with President Bola Tinubu. Why always them?
