UNDERSTANDING THE GRIEVANCE OF THE PEOPLE AGAINST GENERAL BUHARI AND HIS PARTY It might have taken me quite a while to put these thoughts and argument together. But it is important to understand why people felt so strongly against Buhari and why I encountered the greatest resistance ever each time I took a position favourable to Buhari. Whenever I see a trend that is persistent and seems to go against simple logic, I dont just dismiss it or ignore it. Instead, I pull back and reexamine my position and that of my opponent to try to discover new elements or merit that I might have ignored. So, I have been asking myself: why is it that many people I really consider wise and intelligent have been quite defiant and adamant in their opposition to any attempt to accept Buhari? Why are they so adamant in their rejection of Buhari and why do they attack me with so much ferocity each time I criticise President Jonathan? By series of coincidences, these questions were fully and finally addressed this evening at a private dinner with a very close and dear friend. She is a member of DPA. She is a quiet person. She is so well educated that she has been the editor of a major magazine in Nigeria. She used to follow my writings on DPA and Facebook generally and once in a while, she would oblige a comment, usually supportive and complementary. I would say that this friend has a lot of respect for me and for my viewpoints. She also tends to know how passionate and relentless I could be when I take a position. Over the time since I began to comment on Jonathan toward the elections, I noticed that my friend stopped commenting on my posts. She never said a word. At some point, I wondered if she was still on DPA. Yes, she is on DPA. I wondered if she was too busy to follow my posts and comments. After church today, I called her and asked why she has been so silent on my posts lately. She told me that she disagreed with me totally on my positions either critical of Jonathan or supportive of Buhari. She sounded unusually serious and pointed in her remarks. And she managed to let me know she really had more to say on the matter. I immediately fixed a dinner and invited her. I chose a place where we could have a private corner to discuss at length. Dinner was smooth and we talked about her work and my work and our travels and other things. After dinner, I settled for Martini while she asked for Cognac, old school style. I put it to her: What is wrong? Why do you think I have been wrong in my views on Nigerian politics? She lifted her glass, but didnt quite get it to her lips, and she started: Emeka, I am actually shocked that you dont seem to understand Nigeria and its history well. Was it because you spent so many years in America? She then took a sip, very slowly. She continued: Emeka, have you heard about the quoter system in this country? Do you know that kids from certain states would get admitted into the Unity schools with 10 points, while your child from your state will not get admitted to the same school even with 100 points? She continued, Do you know that things were so bad that, you would not be able to get a contract from Government of Nigeria if you did not speak Hausa. If you liked, you could have all the education in this world, but unless you could speak Hausa and you were Hausa, you would not get anything, however good your proposal may be? I didnt interrupt her. Emeka, do you know that you would write a great proposal for contract and come into the ministry, but because you are not Hausan, you would never get a contact. Instead, they would cross out your name on your proposal and use it to award a contract to an Hausan man, who would turn around and sell it to you? Not done, she went on: So, when I read you encouraging that Buhari should be President or lampooning Jonathan, I wonder what is wrong with you. To drive her point home, she went on to say: Emeka, do you know that if you were from the North and you went to Harvard, you would not need to work half as hard as you work and you would be awash with cash just because you are Hausan? Look at what is going in in the Customs, NNPC, Police, Armed Forces. Look at how they stuffed those places with people who are not as educated or even as competent or hardworking as people from the South. And Igbos and other minorities are unemployed I came in this point: How does Jonathan remaining the President change all that? She cut in: It will not happen overnight, but it is happening. Yes, Jonathan has made blunders. But having a Southerner as a President would prevent the Northerners from continuing to marginalise the Southerners at the same rate. And by the way, she was leaning forward with all the emphasis, the years that Obasanjo and Jonathan have been in office have begun to roll back that system of injustice. Now, the Northerners are learning that they have to work hard too. They are learning they have work like others. For the first time, free money is no longer flowing as it used to and they are getting restless. All this Boko Haram is happening because they are no longer having it easy with free money at the expense of others. She stopped. Then she continued: Emeka, as long as a Southerner is President, the North will continue to sabotage him because they are not having it easy anymore. They must render the country ungovernable. I came in again at this point: But you cant really keep the North away from power indefinitely. There is no mechanism for that. Besides, that shouldnt to be desirable. You cant active that militarily and you cannot achieve that through the democratic process, given the official demographics. I know that, she cut in. I know that, but the goal is to suspend that evil practice for as long as possible so that they would not be able to reconstitute it by the time power returns to them Then I asked her: Why do so many people insist that Buhari did not have a high school certificate?. Because they know that if you are from the North, all corners would be cut for you. If Buhari was an Igbo or Yoruba or of any of the minority tribes, he would never have been a General or a former Head of State. Indeed, you see Directors in Government parastatals from the North who do not know how to write their names or speak English. Yet they are Directors, while Southerners are unemployed. So, it is perfectly possible that Buhari did not have school certificate. They didnt need that to get to any position they desired. And that is what having a Southern President is changing Then I asked her: What has Jonathan done to change the situation?. She replied: It is going to be a slow process. But Jonathan is doing something. Can you see how the pension scandal is coming to light because a Southern President is busting that system. Also, the fertiliser scam, the ghost workers scam. All that are reducing now that you have a Southern President. It is too soon to return power to them. Buhari will immediately return to their old ways if he becomes President. Our conversation continued deep into the night, until about 40 minutes ago when I began to write this piece. Basically, I found her observations to be real. It is a concern deep enough in the minds of many, and it is sufficient to justify the way they feel about this election and the deep fears they have about power returning to a Northerner so soon. Indeed, this conversation was deep. I could relate it to so many other observations and bits of information out there in general. Honestly, if you share these observations or hold them to be true, it is difficult not to support Jonathan if you are a Southerner. It explains many things. It explains the attitude of Southern people toward Boko Haram. It explains how the people understood the phrase making the country ungovernable. Indeed, it explains the anger and bitterness on the part of people who believe that they have been victims of an unjust system. I am glad I had this conversation. While it did not address all the issues and nuances to this sort of complex social and political system, it raised enough substantive consideration to justify my slowing down my criticisms of Jonathan. I ought to be more sensitive to the feelings of the people of the South. My main regret now is that the people of the South are not speaking up openly and directly about these injustices. They tend to address them by proxy and by body language. I believe that these issues deserve an open treatment. Nigerian people who have been marginalised should have recourse and ability to resists such injustices. We need to have a solution that will stand regardless of who is President. In any event, I promised my friend, and rightly so, that I would relent on my attacks on Jonathan. I will basically watch the situation as it unfolds. I wish I knew this earlier. I might have been able to help in a more effective way. I hope Nigerians will find lasting justice.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 22:35:50 +0000
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