In tandem with his ‘first without equal’ status in the hierarchy of Yoruba traditional rulers, the Ooni of Ife is the custodian of the spiritual and primal origins of the Yoruba. Along with the late Emir of Kano, the Ooni Okunade Sijuade, Olubushe II, was humiliated with the impoundment of his international travelling passport and confinement to Ile-Ife for six months for visiting Israel by the Buhari-led junta. Buhari held his presidential election campaign rally in Osun State about a week ago and the remarkable omission of that campaign tour was his failure to pay a customary courtesy visit to the Ooni. Even if he felt no remorse for the contemptuous treatment meted to the foremost traditional ruler under his iron fisted rule, doesn’t the symbolic embodiment of the Yoruba deserve this elementary courtesy and respect? How would it be received, if, reciprocally, an APC presidential candidate of Yoruba origin were to similarly snub the Sultan of Sokoto? Yet the blame is not totally Buhari’s, if I were in his shoes, that despite his trademark disdain and disregard for other peoples sensibilities, he could still command the hero worshipping of some political leaders of the South-west, the chances are I may not be aware I did anything wrong. As the Yoruba adage goes — If you sell your kith and kin cheaply, do not expect others to rate him highly. In this political season, I insist that the Yoruba are being sold short to the APC. Before the political party was consummated, the Yoruba were near unanimous in the desire and aspiration for the restructuring of Nigeria towards decentralisation and devolution of powers from the centre to the states, zones and regions. The opportunity to advance this cause materialised some months ago with the convocation of the National Conference by President Goodluck Jonathan. And then the South-west faction of the APC suddenly developed cold feet and aversion towards the prime time platform to frontally re-table this priority and long held objective. The embarrassing spectacle was such that while the godfathers were declaiming the Conference, the godson, Afenifere renewal group (AFR), was the most passionate canvasser of the Yoruba irreducible minimum demand of regionalism at the gathering. And to what do we attribute this awkward somersault if not the deference of Yoruba APC leaders to the contrary wishes and beckon of their new political icon. I refer readers to the response of Buhari to the issues of restructuring and resource control in interviews he recently granted. In one of them he mocked ‘what is resource control… who is to control what’? The irony here is that there is an element of truth to the below stated observation made by a columnist with the Vanguard newspaper. “With all the noise currently being made about Buhari’s candidacy, one important point is often overlooked: Buhari is not even well-liked by his own people. A lot is made of the 12 million votes he obtained from the North in 2011, conveniently forgetting that Goodluck Jonathan also obtained a sizeable eight million votes from the same North. Indeed, in 2011, Goodluck Jonathan won 428,392 votes in Buhari’s home-state of Katsina; to Buhari’s 1,163,919. That means Jonathan won 37% of the votes in Buhari’s backyard.” He canvasses further “It is also instructive that in the primary election for the APC presidential candidate, Northern delegates did not vote for Buhari. Instead, they gave their votes to Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. Delegates from Buhari’s North-west voted for Kwankwaso, while those from the North-east voted for Atiku. Buhari’s votes came primarily from the South-west, as well as from the South-east and the South-south.” Beyond the persecution complex motivated (Buhari-personified) vengefulness of his Northern underclass supporters, there is a modicum of truth to the assertion that ‘Buhari is not even well liked by his own people’. And it could not have been otherwise. They don’t come more loyalist than one of his most dedicated lieutenants who lies abandoned for years to the fate of his terminal illness. He is just one of many. Permit me to share with you the following transmission (catechism) from Mohammed Abacha: “Buhari… the Change We Don’t Need”
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 09:03:46 +0000
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