The Imhotepians
Abuja Secretariat
Sat. 27-04-2024
All the flurry of ethnic separatist demands flying around in the country in the last few weeks originate from the same source: The dirty tricks unit of Tinubu's presidency.
The goal is to kick-start a national conference, another diversion, waste of resources, and NADECO like agenda about restructuring....
It is the same old Tinubu skulduggery at work. . . , never coming out plain to do the dirty job, always using his disposable sub-humans for the act.
The Yoruba separatist hoax at Ibadan; the pseudo Hausa 24 attack on Prof. Ango Abdullahi; the return of the Ijaw Nation's demands for a separate country; and the issuing of deadlines to the federal government by all these carefully crafted fronts, reflect one thing: President Tinubu is trying to impose a NADECO restructuring agenda on the country.
This diversionary program will keep citizens bickering over parliamentary versus presidential system; North versus South; Fulani versus the rest- his favourite baloney; Middle Belt autonomy; and Biafra recreation; added to which a banditry, kidnappings, and urban crimes.
The regime, going by grand deception schemes such as these, is the real criminal. It remanufactured viral ethnic grievances, twicks them as convenient, and presents itself as the only viable option to resolve them at the moment.
Just consider this ridiculous the carefully choreographed treatment of the so-called Yoruba Nation agitators in Ibadan last week. These pretentious separatists were swiftly condemned by the notorious pay-for-play Yoruba chauvinist during the dying days of the Bihari regime. Sunday Igboho was swift to announce that, 'I am not involved; I am not part of them; I condemn them'.
Other self promoted prominent Yoruba supremacists joined the denunciation caravan. "To understand why the Yoruba are the most influential and the wealthiest people in Nigeria [and not Hausa-Fulani]", they proclaimed, "study how they (not the Federal Government) dealt with the so-called Yoruba Nation agitators who tried to cause havoc and chaos in Ibadan last week".
The message here is clear: The Yoruba are superior, their separatists are under family, community, and elite control. And they demonstrate an abundance of "social responsibility", "social cohesion", with "a secure moral fabric".
One wonders where all these values were when Sunday Igboho and his gang raised the separatist flag during the Buhari administration?
Tinubu sure needed a Yoruba Nation scoundrel then, but now that he is in the saddle, his network is trying to send another message to similar agitators across other geopolitical zones: Rein in on your ethnic militants; follow the Ibadan template used to fake-tame the Yoruba Nation.
All this elaborate scheme of self-deception is unnecessary. Nigerians are tired of leaders who throw money at such wasteful diversions for personal gain.
President Tinubu must stop these shenanigans, or they will consume him. As president, he took an oath: To serve the nation with all his heart, without bias, fear or favour.
To continue to stoop at the ethnic stable is to reduce the presidency in stature, value, and outlook. There is no excuse in the argument that others did the same. We are supposed to be making progress, not reversing.
It is time for president Tinubu to come clean, and rein in on the targeted attacks against the Fulani, Hausa, and Hausa-Fulani by his Yoruba Nation networks.
The same is true for a firm federal and state government action against separatist groups resorting to dangerous hate speech against misperceived others.
Governments across the nation must distance themselves from toxic ethnic profiling; so must political parties.
Yet, we maintain that president Tinubu, as an opposition leader in the past, and now as the president, has a special responsibility to decisively act against and distance himself from nefarious ethnic chauvinists he once hobnobbed with, sponsored, and profited from.
The most concrete problem facing the nation is the economic crisis. To play ethnic merry-go-round, thinking that it will take citizens attention away from the bread and butter challenge, is foolhardy.
Some of us are convinced that no amount of political restructuring under the Tinubu regime will improve or radically transform the economy and society.
The economic model to which president Tinubu has committed himself has not produced a single success story in Africa despite over four decades of active experimentation with neoliberal capitalist policies.
The consistent result we have seen from North to Africa South of the Sahara is a steep decline in standards of living for majority of the citizens, high levels of inequality in income and wealth, and state capture by corporate, political and bureaucratic elite profiteers from the system.
Therefore, the economic road that Tinubu has committed himself to is one that cannot promote social cohesion, material security, and national progress. On the contrary, the billionaire class will play political and economic football with the fortunes of the people and the nation to maximize their benefits. The president himself is part of this class and cannot commit suicide by acting against its fundamental interests.
Thus, president Tinubu is only concerned about three things: Staying in power by all means; raising funds and spending it to do so for eight years; and remaining a king maker after his second term.
The rest of the president's agenda is balderdash. . . .
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