The Mai Tangale’s Selection Has Been Suspended; The Throne Is Empty & Now What? -By Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh

Since the ascent to power of General Muhammadu Buhari (rtrd), many things have fallen apart for the Nigerian federation. In fact, by the divisive attitude which he showed through his nepotistic antics and which Nigerians now believed are his leadership style, GMB has put Nigeria on an irretrievable path to destruction. Almost every day since 2016, myriads of issues are thrown up as evidence that indeed; leadership was in the hands of an incorrigible jingoist.

Nigerians cried afoul at first but would later come to terms with the reality of the fact that the occupant of the country’s presidential villa is in no way interested in letting his desire to protect the country against harm reflect in the manner in which he conducted self as president. To pretend to not realize that solution to the worsening insecurity, skewed appointments, disdain for the constitution and worse of all corruption; lay in leading by example showed how less he thought of the citizens!

From north to south, east to west; there is hardly a town or village within Nigeria that is not feeling the heat of the hot furnace which GMB ignited upon assuming office in 2015. Eternally engaged with the already faded drive to decimate the Boko Haram terrorist in the northeast; he soon had to face another nightmare which himself created to rubbish an innocent and far-better gentleman president. Christened as Bandits, GMB’s body language has all but shown that he lacked the moral platform upon which to stand and challenge the guts of the bandits.

And the entire northwest and north-central, south-south, southeast and southwest are stewed in a turmoil that were it not for the disjointed nature of the country – in the sense that there’s no common ideological grounds holding the several geopolitical zones – Nigeria would’ve been in a war mode since 2 years ago. It grieves my heart each time I reflected on how easy it was to swing Nigerians around from lawlessness to deep lawlessness and, from misbehavior to indiscipline.

I would’ve been offended back in 2014, if I was told that the coming of GMB would so affect this country to the point that the psyche of many would cast off the rational perspective of thinking for the bias, sentimental, and greatly misguided perspective of consideration; as in that the north would see the south as an enemy and, that even within the north, the Muslims would see their Christian brethren as enemies.

I always knew that GMB had nothing but pain and division to give to Nigerians but to think that his gift would so affect our psyche to the point that even the selection process for the revered throne of Mai Tangale could come to chaos just because a Christian (and not a Muslim) would emerge as Mai Tangale was unthinkable. What happened in Biliri on Friday 19th February, 2021 was indeed a sign that Nigerians have been very badly influenced.

You probably are asking why I chose to analyze the subject by placing blame for the miscarriage of this selection on GMB. For the records, Mai Tangale is the traditional ruler of the Tangale tribe that occupied the Biliri-Kaltungo local government areas of Gombe state, Nigeria. Since the demise of the former Mai Tangale – Abdu Buba Maisheru II – the process of selecting another Mai had commenced. Interested contenders who are full-blooded Tangale indigenes came forward and, after a round of voting, the number was trimmed down to 3 and forwarded to Governor Inuwa Yahaya.

These 3 candidates consisted of 2 Muslims and 1 Christian. Now, given the fact that the Tangale tribe is heterogeneous – in the sense that there were adherents of the Christian faith as well as adherents of the Muslim faith and even Animists; it meant that a needless campaign on the basis of religion followed. Meanwhile, there has been a history of an alternation between the Christian, Animist and the Muslim without quarrel.

Therefore, it was expected that the norms of a peaceful selection would be maintained. The fact of having two Muslims and one Christian; meant for some that the Muslims stood a better chance to emerge or so it was imagined. But when the votes were cast by the kingmakers and Dr. Musa Idris Maiyamba – a Christian – got the highest vote; it became clear from then on that the journey to the throne would be rough.

Then came Friday the 19th day of February of 2021; the appointed day for the announcing and issuance of staff of office to the selected Mai Tangale. From the outset, palpable signs were obvious as to the government’s reluctance to pronounce the candidate. So it was not rocket science to not have known that the people’s response would be violent given the religious undertone.

And that they did; disrupting the peace that was built and sustained by former Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo. But for the government to claim that they had not announced a successor sounded like they forgot that the day in question was not for a voting to take place but for a successor to be shown to the people of Tangale. Sometimes, people tend to make utterances that not only belittled their offices as political leaders but portray them as naïve to the working of a system.

My point is, that the increased sensitivity to the Christian-Muslim divide couldn’t have been possible were it not for the fact of the non-statesmanly conduct of the president. Chiefdoms that are exclusively Christian or Muslim or otherwise now preferred to protect self against any form of dilution in much the same way in which GMB protected his administration as if by dividing his appointments evenly between the Christian and the Muslims would dilute his administration.

Despite repeatedly denying the fact of haven selected a successor already, Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s threat that he had the discretionary powers of selecting whoever he deemed fit; draws the attention of careful observers and gave vent to the claims that indeed a successor had been selected already. So what’s keeping him from being announced to the Tangale people? Why would the throne be empty? And what is to be expected in the weeks ahead?

Comrade Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh; curator for DiscourseNigeria.com writes from Abuja. 08062577718