Ikechukwu Obi
“It is simply abhorrent that the Group Managing Director, the chief finance officer, finance and account, the corporate secretary/legal adviser to the corporation, and chief executives of virtually all strategic divisions and subsidiaries of the NNPC are persons from the northern zones of the country.”
- Pan Niger Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF)
Here’s the broad view of Buhari’s administration – the heads of Nigeria’s three key revenue generation agencies NNPC, Customs and FIRS are Northern Muslims; the heads of the major security agencies are Northern Muslims; the head of the National Assembly is a Northern Muslim; the head of the Judiciary is a Northern Muslim. And Nigeria is (or is supposed to be) a diverse heterogeneous country! See the picture now?
In his first term, Buhari’s South West defenders arrogantly went around social media claiming that the ‘division of labour’ in the administration was such that the North had defence and the South had charge of the economy. Some idiots even said Northerners were better at defence, remember that nonsense? That structure changed even before the end of the first term and the defenders of perfidy fell silent.
Look at this – how can it be normal that all security agencies constitutionally empowered to bear arms in Nigeria (except the Navy whose role is limited) Army, Airforce, Police, DSS, NSA, EFCC, Immigration, Prisons, NSCDC, NIA are headed by Northern Muslims? And Nigeria is a diverse country?
The major agencies in Federal Ministries of Education, Health, Finance and Agriculture are overwhelmingly headed by Northern Muslims. Just check and see. Open Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development website and see that the Minister, Minister of State and Perm Sec are Northern Muslims, much less heads of agencies. And Nigeria is a diverse country?
You see this Buhari regime? Only Northerners who have their wits about them (like the radical non-conformist Col. Dangiwa Umar) and their conscience intact will feel a sharp and increasing unease at the bare-faced and utterly shameless sectionalism with which this administration has clothed itself. There is something called enlightened self-interest where you empower others in your own interest. This is totally lost on today’s Northern hegemonists but trust me, they will regret this tomorrow. Trust me.
But of all these, those whom I have no kind words for are those Southerners who still support and prop up this stinking aberration of governance in the hope that they will take over tomorrow. For the first time ever, I am going to use this term, ‘Useful Idiots’. They’re worse than useful idiots, they’re the enablers of their own destruction, the promoters of their own aspirational asphyxiation, a very disgusting lot. They have no idea of how a sense of entitlement will go beyond this administration to become norm when they come to power, if ever. They do not see beyond their noses, the myopic leeches.
Since Buhari has decided to deepen and entrench the patronage-driven system which has proven the single reason why Nigeria still crawls in spite of huge resources, if he had any idea what enlightened self-interest means, he would share the positions very fairly among his Northern Muslim constituency and his Southern collaborers.
The precedent he is setting in this shameless sectionalism is VERY DANGEROUS. If we know how our country works in a precedent-on-bad-precedent system, anyone with even half a vision can see clearly see that those who are being planted strategically today will prove the albatross of those who are enabling them.
I am aware that there’s a blackmailing shade of opinion that accuses those who point out this damning sectionalism as being the ‘tribalists’ instead of those who do the tribalism itself but such a blackmail is way too stupid to deter anyone whose brain is in his skull and not elsewhere. It is designed to shut you up while they feast on your resources in their noxious sectional orgy.
I have been saying and will not tire to say that Buhari ran on a Northern mandate and has wholly delivered the country to his Northern Muslim constituency…may God keep us alive to see what a post-2023 Nigeria will look like after this brazen one-sided feeding orgy.
May God deliver those Nigerians who wish to be delivered, amen.
