Malami’s miasma and our unwholesome democracy

“We do not correct the man we hang. We correct others by it.” – Michel Montaigne

For how long would we search for nationalists in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari? Looking to identify a statesman in Buhari’s government is like searching for a Christian in Mecca. All those we thought could fit into the mould of statesmen have been consumed by the intense power play and buried in a thick hail of dust therefrom. To many Nigerians who had hoped for a “government of the people, by the people and for the people”, their disappointment is palpable.

That class of people, even after the very vivid early warning signs, has now settled down sadly to the truth that the Buhari administration is illusory and a solid example of a mirage. When you think you are arriving at an oasis in your badly parched relationship with this government, you land at a bigger disappointment that renews your delusion. And this mutating bitter scenario is made even more painful when many former Buhari administration supporters remember that they were coaxed into this marriage that has so far violated everything logical.

Last week, we were treated to a piece by the Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, in the midst of a parochial outrage of the Fulani against the worldview of the people of Southern Nigeria. While the enraged Fulani fumed and puffed in anger that governors of the 17 states in southern Nigeria didn’t consult them before taking a decision against grazing of cattle in their open fields and orifices, Femi Adesina proffered an excuse for the odium. He said “Aiye” was the problem. He defined Aiye as negative centrifugal forces that stand in the way of anyone on the path of achieving success in a chosen field or career.

When one looks closely at the arguments and contentions of Mr. Femi Adesina in that article entitled “Lessons for Nigeria from EPL”, one will not have to dig too deep to unearth what may be at the root of the kind of things one hears from prominent members of the Buhari government. Or, how else could we explain with any air of cogent reason the many odoriferous gaffes that have kept stinging our ears since the advent of this regime, particularly in the last few weeks?

The “spare parts” dig at the Igbo nation by Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice is only the latest in the long series of verbal blunders by the president’s men. We may not need to recede as far as the earliest days of this regime, when we had no cabinet for six months and the president, while we waited and called, equated ministers to ‘noisemakers’; or the era of “who is the presidency?” to establish this. You surely remember and habour thoughts of some disconcerting statements from these men of power, since we contracted them in 2015. If you don’t, you may have to visit the kitchen or relax in “the living room” or go to “the other room” to refresh… your memory.

On many occasions too, we have seen that even some hegemonic components of this government, like the Nigerian Customs Service are not left out in this cyclic show of utter impertinence. The Customs has variously shown a disdain for the people who make it a factor. Before they went to the streets of Iseyin on Eid el Fitri day to kill, they had warned us through our representatives in the National Assembly, to desist from asking them why they would sneak into markets in Ibadan in the dead of the night, break shops and safes, and cart away rice and other valuables, including cash.

These are pointers to the foundation on which Abubakar Malami is building on. There is so much disrespect by our government. The cries and agonising of people outside the Fulani stock, that insularity of the Buhari administration, is killing the country gradually, have been disdainfully ignored.  It is like when a man pours the kernel of the corn on the back of a calabash. The Igbo say that the chick seized by the hawk is crying not because the predator would leave it, but it is so the world would hear him and know that his mother has one less chick.

It is now obvious to Nigerians that the ruling oligarchs have a focus. And if the Malami “spare parts” metaphor doesn’t depict the people of the South East enough, I wonder what else would. Professor Farooq Kperogi said in reaction to the statement by Malami that the nation’s Attorney General was acting only true to type, that it is typical of the Buhari administration to display its “unofficial Igbophobia”, which he said is a big part of the government. Kperogi said: “More than any other administration, since the civil war, the Buhari regime takes Igbophobia as an unofficial state policy. Watch the rhetorical manoeuvres of the regime’s aides and paid propagandists, and you’ll find that they revolve around stoking anti-Igbo frenzy.”

Malami and what he has said has added to the discomfiting state of our democracy. Nigerian democracy is a classic example of master-slave relationship. The Chinese say “before you beat a dog, know his master’s name.” Our country is designed in such a way that the masters of the South end up as slaves of the North, and their names are in the mouth of their masters always. But why must we be so tied up as to not be able to even wink our disapproval? The outspoken, aggressive activists of the South have kept mute for so long that it has now become characteristic. It might be ignorance of the miasma, but like Samuel Johnson says, “ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal.”

The avalanche of voices against the sectionalism of the Buhari administration and the debilitating nepotism of its main actors, is for the sake of the country and our democracy. Malami is getting his rewards for being unwise. But the pull of a bigot closed his eyes to the warning of the French essayist and critic, Michel Montaigne who said “we do not correct the man we hang. We correct others by it.” Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has spoken. David Umahi of Ebonyi State has also spoken. Some hold that “the best response came from the best-positioned person: Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN). They are lawyers, APC, and members of the NBA.” Would they listen?

The brand or variant of democracy in Nigeria is poison for so many. It is unwholesome, and it is not particularly the best nourishment for neither our country nor any one of us. The 1999 Constitution, President Muhammadu Buhari, Abubakar Malami (SAN), Governor Nasir El-Rufai, the Nigerian Customs Service and many other factors reinforce this opinion.

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