A Decision Time for the Southwest by FEMI ARIBISALA. Northern privatization We had this type of clamour under Obasanjo. “Power must return to the North!” they chanted. Well, power returned to the North. Obasanjo handed power back to Yar’Adua and what did we get? We got the same do-nothing retrogressive government that has characterised Nigerian leadership from the North-West. The Nigerian government was privatized to the North. Yar’Adua was so blatantly sectarian and Northern, it was shameful. People don’t like to hear the truth. When I pointed out the anomaly that APC national leadership was exclusively Muslim, I was not faulted on the veracity of my assertion. I was attacked on national television of being anti-Muslim. How can I be anti-Muslim when my grandmother was Muslim? Let us see now whether this fact will make me anti-Northern. Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution clearly affirmed that appointments from the same state and ethnic group in a particular federal agency are unacceptable. Nevertheless, under Yar’Adua, strategic sectors of the national economy were zoned exclusively to the North. For example, the Minister of Finance, Mansur Mukhtar, was from Kano; the Minister for National Planning, Shamsudeen Usman, was from Kano; the Governor of the Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was from Kano. The Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Taminu Yakubu, was from Katsina. Moreover, the National Security Adviser, Major General Abdullahi Sarki Mukhtar was from Kano. The Chief of Army Staff, General Abdulrahman Dambazau, was also from Kano; The power sector of the economy was also zoned to the North. The Petroleum Minister, Rilwanu Lukman, was from the North. The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Sanusi Barkindo, was from the North. The Director-General of the National Petroleum Directorate, Alhaji Bello Gusau, was from the North. The Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Mustapha Rabe Darma, was from the North. The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Abubakar Lawal Yar’Adua was from the North. The Acting Director of the Directorate of Petroleum Resources, Aliyu Sabonbiri, was from the North. The Director of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Abubakar Sambo, was from the North. The Chairman of the Transition Board of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Bello Suleiman, was from the North. Born-to-rule This is what happens when a Northerner becomes president under a “north must rule” agenda. This kind of regional nepotism does not happen under a Southern presidency. Under such circumstances, why should people in the South-West accept the presumption that the North is entitled to rule Nigeria? Why should they accept the fact that no Southerner has ever been appointed Minister of Agriculture, or Minister of Water Resources, or Minister of Federal Capital Territory, or Executive-Secretary of the PTDF? It is past time to break all these political taboos in the interest of national unity. The agenda of the Boko Haram is that Nigeria must be ruled by a Northern Muslim or there will be no peace in the country. Yorubas of the South-West, whether Muslim or Christian, must categorically reject that insistence. Under the circumstances, this is no time to succumb to the demand for a Northern presidency. This is the very time to resist it. When politicians like Ango Abdullahi and Junaid Mohammed insist the next president must be Northern, people do not conclude they are just interested in government patronage. But when I insist such Northern jingoism must be resisted, people are quick to presume I must be looking for a job from President Jonathan. But if I did not get a job when Obasanjo was president, did not even go to see him once during his eight years in office, why would I now be seeking a job from another president who is no relation of mine and does not even know I exist? South-South rule Herbert Ogunde wrote a seminal song at a critical juncture of South-West history entitled: “Yoruba Ronu.” It means there is need for deep reflection by the Yorubas. It is such a time once again. Call me names; abuse me; insult me: my position remains the same. When a certain part of the country insists on entitlement to political power, it cannot under any guise be called progressive. The progressive people of the South-West have no business forming an alliance with those Northerners whose body-language says they are “born-to-rule” Nigeria.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 16:56:17 +0000
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