BUHARI’S SCRIPT FOR NIGERIA IS DIVISION

Edwin Alivionote

Following the less than 100days of Buhari in power, his sectional approach in nominating National portfolios has led to the very vital question, IS BUHARI THE PRESIDENT OF NORTHERN NIGERIA?

Marveled at the list of GMB’s nominations, I wonder if the transition period after election does make Nigeria a guinea pig for testing the Northern Agenda. Before elections, there were speculations that GMB has an extreme passion for the Northern interest. The Northern cliché that ‘we are born to rule’ has been clearly and uncaringly displayed by Mr. President’s appointment of 75% Northerners in his over 30 nominations. It is obvious from GMB’s antecedents of ‘No First Lady’s Office’ that, women participation is subject to fervent prayers from all the best women advocates that Nigeria can summon. Although, the Buhari’s gender complex is what I should discuss in another paper.

I wonder why Mr. President feels he can select whoever he feels and from wherever to constitute his cabinet without recourse to how Nigerians will take his choice. The formal president Jonathan was always careful not to overheat the polity but, here we are, with a president that feels the emotions of Nigerians don’t count. If the Igbos are crying of his obvious hatred for them and he is not doing anything tangible to manage it. The south are crying over the irrelevance they have constituted in his cabinet list, while the North all shout sai baba because, to them, all is going well, we shall rule whether they like it or yes. The irony of stirring up ethnic sentiments among Nigerians is that, it forces people to think broad. When Nigerians are forced to think deep, there is a redirection of focus and energy for ill-fated agenda.

GMB’s body language can be likened to playing ‘Dan maraya jos‘ for the whole country men and women to dance to, and is expected to last for the next 4 years. If Mr. President is only interested in Music that is danceable by the North then, he should not expect the music to last. A sense of belonging is pivotal to national unity, unless Buhari is following a script of domination that has been designed for him by the agent of doom, he must quickly retrace his steps back to caution because, there lies the sanity of his government.

If democracy means anything to the North, they will follow the same Federal character they have always clamoured for during the just concluded regime. I am emphatic about the North because, there is this notional belief among them that GMB is our own and we ought to get all we have lost to Goodluck Ebele’s government. I am tempted to ask at this juncture, what have the Northerners ever lost in the history of Nigeria if not for their lust for power?

If the president has goodwill for Nigeria and he wants to spend the best part of his regime without turbulence and chaos, the best measure to attaining this is, to carry everyone along. This country is too big to be belittled. Nigeria’s history has been fairly predictable all these years. But, with the kind of sensitization that Jonathan’s era brought to fore in our polity, it leaves Nigeria with a sinusoidal graph in terms of prediction. It is only a Northerner that can stand up to say Nigeria’s oil belongs to the North. Still, it is a Northerner that will be proud to say Nigeria is an Islamic state. A Northerner had had the moral ground to say if Nigeria divides they will go to Cameroon, their original homeland. How come in a country believed to give equality to all its sections, if a Northerner embezzles it handled with levity but any stealing from the south, east or west is brought under the hammer. I can categorically ask if any Northerner has had course to be arraigned for stolen funds and subsequently prosecuted? I leave the answer to our consciences.

Have we nothing to learn of other countries of the world, that the product of persistent oppression will unveil plethora of social, political and religious unrest? Please we should learn while we can. The land mass and population of the North has been compensated for by the resource wealth and intelligence of the south, all for national balance, this is the bitter truth. Naturally, the northerners are less willing to migrate to the south because, they will constitute nuisance there as they are less gifted to earn greener pastures for even themselves not even translating to benefit to the state. The southerners on their part are too quick to migrate to the North, because they portend an asset to proffering solutions to challenges as they arise. My statement might be too blunt for you to chew but, we have lived in lies for too long that its affecting our healthiness.

Maybe, in Hausa language, Buhari should be made to understand that he is presently enjoying the patience of all Nigeria citizens. After a while, if he should allow his overwhelming love for the North to becloud his office (amounting to incompetency) the trust reposed on him by Nigerians will dwindle. The energetic pressure arising will begin to heat up the polity. The president’s office is too sensitive to be used for sectional politics and Buhari should be debriefed on the implication of losing the trust that he currently is fiddling with.

At the age of about 73, it is logical to think that one would have lost most of his close pals as well as lost the privilege too to know in worth the ones that are still alive. Some political commentators are calm about the fact that Mr. President only appoints those he knows along his age-line thus, a bunch of elders-forum shall constitute the thinking box of Nigeria. I am only thinking aloud of what we shall get out of these brains, which biologically are at their recession phase. It therefore means that, the youths will be left to generate jobs out of idleness. The government of GMB is giving the youths a light signal that, they shall be made irrelevant in his regime. This simply implies that, the youths will have to put their brains to use in frustrating the government and when necessary the nation.

It is said that when a man is filled with hate, he sows bitterness and what bitterness begets is destruction. If Buhari actions and inactions in his capacity as the president of Nigeria is not holistically coordinated, he will spill a good reason for the succession of the State because, most Nigerians have only needed a good reason to hold onto, before they demand for Nigeria’s divide.

GMB is from the North of Nigeria, making him enjoy the support of the Northerners. Now, from the south what he should strive to earn is their trust, that he is for the Nigeria nation. Any attempt or attempted attempt at making the southerners build a sense of irrelevance then, he will be reminded that he failed three times to get the seat of the president. Those three successive woes were because he had the belief that all he needed was the Northern support.

Although it appears too early to convincingly hold Buhari culpable of sectional governance, the warning is timely, to help him reconsider his intentions which am very sure he is yet to declare to Nigerians. He seems to be buying time to actualize a plan that he has scripted for Nigeria which is not written in the APC manifesto.

In conclusion, It is wise of Mr president to want to work with people he can trust, but what he should realize is that he might get the trusted hands and never fail to lose the trust of Nigerians collectively which he needs to succeed.