Political Issues
Ali Ndume’s Lagos Boys -By Kene Obiezu
The fat of the country has long been the portion of the North. Other parts of the country have been left with crumbs.
Mohammed Ali Ndume is an angry man. He is almost on the verge of hyperventilation.
The senator who represents Borno South Senatorial District is angry with President Tinubu. He is irked by the decision to relocate some key government offices under the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria to Lagos.
Lashing out on Channels television, he accused’ Lagos boys’ of misleading the president. He warned of political consequences.
Ndume presumably spoke for the North. But it is not like the North is without a voice. Vice President KashimShettima is from the the North. He is Ali Ndume’s kinsman.
His government succeeded that of another of Ali Ndume’s kinsman, MuhammaduBuhari
In closing his eyes to these, and chiding ‘Lagos boys’, Ndume rattled a cage of angry birds.
DoyinOkupe has rebuked him publicly. There will be many private rebukes.
There will also be praise for a man who has suddenly found his voice as the defender of the North.
The Arewa Consultative Forum agrees with him.
Maiduguri, Ndume’s home territory, was once the playground of Boko Haram. Then, he could not do much because he was linked with the terrorists.
Ndume bristles, but only when it is convenient. He has previously railed against Nigerians for faulting the size of pay packs available to legislators.
Tinubu is a Lagos boy. Ndume can properly be called a Northern boy. The rivalry between Abuja and Lagos is not just about a current and former capital.
It is also not a clash of urban areas. It is an ethnic clash, a heated affair between Nigeria’s North and South.
Lagos, Nigeria’s microcosm, is the heart of the Southwest. Abuja is in the center of the North. Each represents a partner in the marriage of inconvenience that has ruled Nigeria since 1999.
Abuja has most of Nigeria’s public buildings. Kaduna, still in the North, has most of its military buildings.
It is as if other states are inferior. Unequal partners in Nigeria.
Ndume is a seasoned legislator. He has been around for a while. He should know that Nigeria is unequally structured.
The fat of the country has long been the portion of the North. Other parts of the country have been left with crumbs.
The high-rise buildings in Lagos and thriving commerce in Onitsha and Aba were not built with Nigeria’s money.
They came from the sweat and sacrifices of people. The same cannot be said of the FAAN headquarters, Ndume is dragging.
There is nothing wrong if Lagos gets a slice of public buildings. As a matter of justice, Onitsha should get some. As should Aba.
Ndume thinks that the offices being relocated from Abuja should remain states like Kogi, Nasarawa.
He warns of consequences.
If Ndume thinks the North is superior to other parts of Nigeria, the other parts of Nigeria do not accept any inferiority.
He heads the Senate Committee on the Army. He knows that Abuja and most of the North are not safe.
If he is being honest, he should recommend that government offices be moved to other parts of the country from the North.
He has made it look like the Nigeria belongs to the North. He indirectly insists that everything must be concentrated in the North.
By his words he evokes memories; of Nigeria’s struggles as a country; of its sharp divisions along ethnic lines.
Ndume hints of a fissure in the fabric of the Nigerian government. All may not be well in Nigeria’s marriage of convenience all along.
To threaten political consequences in political marriages is to hint at divorce.
Ndume must exercise restraint. Nigeria’s corpses are easily exhumed. Her ghosts are not easily exorcised. Ndume should know that.
The North’s lion share of Nigeria’s resources are indubitable. It is only restraint that is saving the country.
If everyone who feels shortchanged in Nigeria begins to freely issue threats, the country may just implode
Nigeria neither belongs to the North or to the South. Neither to Abuja or Lagos. It belongs to every Nigerian. Equality is non-negotiable.
Ndume should know that. As should the President and the ‘Lagos boys’.
It is worth remembering that it takes only a spark to start a fire that jars of water cannot quench.
It should never become demonstrable that Nigeria is being divvied along regional lines.
If that mistake is made, the deluge of demands will bury Nigeria.
Ndume of all people should know that hyperventilating over every perceived regional slight is not the way to go.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
