As Premier of Northern Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari would possibly have the legendary status of North-revered Sir Ahmadu Bello. But Bello seemed to be of stellar integrity. The Northern deity knew and reconciled himself to the fact he had no heart to accommodate others outside his North. He made no pretension to the opposite. When opportunity came for Bello to govern Nigeria as the Prime Minister, he had no trouble giving it a pass, for his protege, Tafawa Balewa. He was honourable enough.
Absence of accommodating heart in a man isn’t a sacrilege. There are countless souls, who aren’t welcoming, even if they want to be. In fact, it requires God’s grace, for an average mortal, whose heart the Word of God, describes as deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, to be selfless, or love others. If a man is in perennial contest with you for what you desire to own exclusively, you won’t be friends. From amalgamation, North and South have always been in competition. Regardless of the PDA (Public Display of Affection), North has always had the domineering mentality. When not too suffocating, South, rides it out. When asphyxiating, South reacts. In the quest for ascendancy, South has always played catch-up. Whenever it has a semblance of leverage, North roars and the equity-conscious South, swiftly recoils in self-examination and on occasions, hanging the guilty verdict.
When South complains of North’s imperiousness, North usually shrugs.
When the din overwhelms North’s comfort snore, it grudgingly concedes space, then helps South fill it, especially when it is the presidency. When North isn’t yielding, it goes into war mood. South embraces pacifism and North wins again.
History teaches that such arrangement survives nowhere. It is abusive. Conjugally, those so yoked, are finding escape routes and even Biblically, there are Godly way of ending marriages, that offend what is divine, moral, just, equitable and mutually-rewarding. The Nigeria union is looking in that direction.
And President Buhari is quickening the destructive motion with his locked mindset on recovering grazing routes for herders, both foreign and indigenous. Did Bauchi governor who says he is seeking God’s face to run for president in 2023, not say that Fulani is Fulani, whether foreigner or Nigerian. Imagine a national census in his state and how his publicly-betrayed mindset, would impact the exercise. Officials, who are likely to share his sentiment, may adopt the unfortunate statement as the creed for the national assignment.
Buhari has no business, handling a national assignment like the presidency. Well, it could be argued fate brought one upon his slender shoulder. Maybe if he had not been in the military, in an era coup was fashionable. He didn’t seem ambitious as Head of State, though lying tongues don’t come in special colours. But once he tasted the national honey, the desire to return, became inordinate. Let no one ask about Olusegun Obasanjo. He was clearly coerced in 1999, fresh from prison. South West out-wailed others and North listened, but not until it gave the favoured zone, a president it didn’t want. Since half bread is always better than none, South West accepted Olusegun Obasanjo from North and Oluyemisi Falae, became the opportunity cost.
Of the four presidents since 1999, Obasanjo, without doubt, is most detribalized. He feels comfortable practically anywhere, including doing a skit with Spiff, the farceur of The Johnson’s fame, Maybe because his own skin is thick and his tongue razor-thin. If he needs to curse you in a gathering of world leaders, Aremu would do it without blinking. He would have been a perfect match for Trump, both as presidents. Obasanjo is the kind Yoruba will call abuni bi eni layin (free-styling tongue for abuses).
Jonathan is a closet ethnic champion, but an over-sensitive open nationalist. He came too early for the presidency. Yes, men and women of his age while occupying Aso Rock also ruled well elsewhere. But he allowed North to live rent-free in his head. Now, he speaks with confidence, maybe, just maybe.
Late Yar’Adua too, didn’t have too many friends outside his circle, but he was forward-looking and sensitive. He appeared conscious of legacies.
The legacy ambition is also possibly driving the incumbent’s bullish search for grazing routes, already littered with thousands of graves, of Nigerians cut down in their prime by the same herders, for whom he seeks the routes.
Mr. Buhari, should think hard and be clear-headed about the deathly resolve of an average Southerner and Middle-Belter, against his search. He should remember there was a time cattle lazily fed at our backyards and stick-carrying herders would comfortably hang around their hosts, who would even offer water to quench their pastoralism thirst.
If same welcoming people are now fiercely opposed to an inch of their land, going to herders who now display AK-47 in broad-daylight, the president should pause, before demanding ‘your land or your life’. His spokesperson once tried that reversed psychology for fear, to let go of ancestral land. But people are too resolute now. They want to pay with their lives or take the lives of the invaders. I’m certain, Baba doesn’t want genocide on his name.
Yet, he doesn’t want to leave office a failure and those routes are likely one of the target legacies. Well, maybe those routes would have been easily recoverable if lined inside APC’s national secretariat, where the president holds a franchise for power monopoly. Before requesting, Buni would have made them available and even spread his babaringa on the routes for the presidential herders and cattle to walk majestically. His loyalty to Villa is extreme. Woe betides ambitions without Villa’s imprimatur, going forward. With those managing the ruling party now, it is either you are a Villa boy, or you receive Buni’s sledge-hammer. In doubt, ask Sulaiman Adamu, APC chair in Yola South. Adamu was wrong to wish the president dead, but can his heart be darker than the dogs and baboons allegory?
If the president must know, the prevailing mood in the South against his search is raw. And like the Biblical Queen Esther, people are saying, if we perish, we perish softly, softly dear president.
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