By Onyema Omenuwa
Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been unravelled. As a bigot, that is. Eventually, and completely, it needs to be added. And it is all due to the hypocritical kind of politics that he plays, particularly in Lagos State where he holds sway as the alpha and omega of politics. Significantly, his unrelenting and desperate quest to become the President of Nigeria led to his unravelling. Though he has succeeded in that regard, since he is today the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the success came at the great cost of shattering the façade of progressivism that has all along defined his politics.
Tinubu projects progressivism as his political worldview. But presently in Lagos State, the “Igbo Must Go” hashtag has become something of a mantra across social media platforms for the Yoruba residents of Lagos and their supporters. That is starkly anti-progressive by any stretch of imagination, and it is happening in Tinubu’s Lagos. “Residents” is used advisedly in this context because not every Yoruba in Lagos is an indigene of Lagos State or a “Lagosian,” as the indigenes of the state delight in describing themselves. And that is the irony. Indigenous Lagosians and, in all fairness to them, the teeming Yoruba of liberal disposition, have distanced themselves from and have been speaking against this divisive campaign, which tends to position Lagos as a xenophobic enclave for the Igbo. Such an open repudiation is quite reassuring. Chief Bode George for instance has said that the anti-Igbo campaign “is arrant nonsense… Those who are proposing this nonsense have no bearing and no family connection to Lagos. I am saying it as a Lagosian.”
Yet, the campaign is real, and the bigoted campaigners are very vociferous. They have registered a notorious presence on all social media platforms, literally strutting and fanning the embers of hatred against the Igbo race. In all that, silence had been the word from Tinubu; not to mention the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led Lagos State Government, which he installed. It was only on August 4 that President Tinubu issued a feeble condemnation of the campaign, as part of his equally half-hearted nationwide address following the “End Bad Governance in Nigeria” protests. Sanwo-Olu had reacted to the campaign in the same lax manner.
And to think that Tinubu himself ignited the “nonsense,” by the inordinate pursuit of his ambition. For the perceptive mind, the anti-Igbo sentiment got invigorated in Lagos during the 2015 electioneering, with that infamous outburst or threat by Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos to have the Igbo population in Lagos drowned in the lagoon, if they voted against Akinwunmi Ambode, who was Tinubu’s candidate for the governorship election of the state. In no time, the sentiment became so widespread, and what obtains today is sheer display of ethnophobia against the Igbo, comparable only to the xenophobic attitude of South Africans against Nigerians in that country. It was probably only during the civil war years that the Igbo had to put up with the kind of animosity as is currently exhibited towards them in Lagos. On a daily basis, social media platforms brim with very terrible ethnic slurs by persons of Yoruba extraction, and their supporters, against the Igbo.
Such displays of ethnic prejudice can be overlooked, if it is emanating from the ignorant or unenlightened class of people. But that is not the case. Educated and enlightened folks also amplify the anti-Igbo rhetoric. However, it must continuously be emphasised that Tinubu’s ambition (which he has achieved anyway), and nothing else, is at the root of it. Events lend credence to this assertion. It bears repeating and it is unarguable that Tinubu is the ultimate power in Lagos politics. For starters, he was two-term governor for eight years and thereafter has maintained a vice-like grip on the state’s affairs. Without absolute loyalty to him, no one can attain any political height in Lagos State. To become governors, Babatunde Fashola, Ambode and the incumbent, Sanwo-Olu danced to no other tune than Tinubu’s. Ambode who dared to assert himself after assuming office ultimately lost out bigly and is today something of a pariah in Lagos politics.
Because of Tinubu’s staying power, some have credited him with a mastery of political strategies. Yet for him, the fear of losing control over Lagos is real. And the Igbo population in Lagos has the potential to make it happen. The possibility of the clichéd parlance, politics is a game of numbers can be taken advantage of by a Tinubu rival or an opposition party in Lagos State using the Igbo population. The consciousness of this possibility makes Tinubu and his cohorts who aspire to elective office very uncomfortable. But the fear need not be, for an acclaimed strategist. All that the man who bears the vanity appellation, “Jagaban.” needs do to sway the Igbo votes to his advantage is woo the Igbo voters. But no, threat seems to be the very strategy he has mastered, and he deploys it maximally. Which progressive does that?
When the Oba of Lagos threatened the Igbo, Tinubu was not credited with any statement of disapproval of that reckless utterance. His silence was very readily interpreted as an approval and that enabled the activation of latent bigotry that a motely of Yoruba characters now profess and propagate. The 2023 electioneering for which Tinubu was the APC presidential candidate fed the anti-Igbo sentiment got more fillip. With the “master strategist” fighting the political battle of his life, the likes of Bayo Onanuga ran amok. Using majorly his X handle @aonanuga1956, as Tinubu’s spokesperson, Onanuga regularly churned out a no-holds-barred hate-laden comments against the Igbo, bragging that “I don’t owe anyone any apology.” Not a few commentators had to remind of the genesis of the Rwanda genocide whose imagery still scares humanity. It happened largely because of reckless utterances against an ethnic group such as being spewed by him. Then, on assuming office as President, Tinubu appointed Onanuga as spokesperson of his Government. That can only be a reward for a job well done.
The anti-Igbo expressions tend to convey the impression that the Lagos Igbo residents characteristically interfere in Lagos politics beyond the limits allowed by and in a democracy. But that is not true. What is true is that the Igbo numerical strength in Lagos is second only to the Yoruba indigenous population. That number can naturally determine the outcome of any election. For context, Tinubu’s fear is reasonably informed by previous voting patterns, especially beginning 2015, that his party is not the choice of the Igbo in Lagos. He was trounced in the presidential election in Lagos State, and till date the debate hasn’t abated that his party was heading for a greater trouncing in the governorship election but for some unspeakable manipulations and intrusions perpetrated on his behalf, including the deployment of the Oro traditional cult to prevent the Igbo from voting.
So, the resort to savage force by his supporters to suppress the Igbo votes was borne out of his own desperation. And in the bid to stop the Igbo, all actions were considered fair: Street urchins and thugs, a cult group, as already alluded, were unleashed on the Igbo, with even some educated elite offering themselves to propagate the anti-Igbo rhetoric. In all this frenzy, they cared less about what would become of the Lagos image. What mattered was Tinubu’s was for interest to be served. Lagos is unarguably the most cosmopolitan Nigerian city, featuring considerable attributes of civilisation, if not modernity. That is the city where one man’s desperation to hold steadfastly on to power is threatening to destroy its potential for exponential growth.
One otherwise insignificant social media account, @Lagospedia, on X took Onanuga’s hate propaganda some notches higher by its enthusiastic but ferocious propagation of Igbophobia. In its efforts, it spawned other similar accounts like @Lagospidia, @Lagos_IBILE and @YorubaGuard. Though all the accounts have been reportedly deactivated on X, a sole agenda united them: A crusade against the Igbo population/interest in Lagos. On July 27, 2024, @Lagospedia posts assumed a dangerous dimension with its call for a xenophobic protest against the Igbo from August 20 to 30. The handler specifically promoted hashtag IgboMustGo, demanding the Igbo’s ejection from the southwest. As alluded, Lagos State Governor, Jide Sanwo-Olu only feebly condemned the crusade via a statement on August 1 where he urged Lagosians “to ignore the post and any post of that nature”. Sanwo-Olu surely does not need any reminder that it is in his Lagos that the Igbo population and their businesses have been attacked over and over, without any consequence.
The agenda to set the Yoruba population against the Igbo in Lagos and by extension the entire southwest is being pursued with palpable vigour, and it bears repeating that it is done with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tacit encouragement. Concerned authorities may turn a blind eye and deaf ear to what is happening in Lagos, but it is worth mentioning that such expressions of anti-ethnic sentiments threaten the constitutional right of Nigerians to live anywhere in the country. Today, it is the Igbo. Tomorrow, for as long as Tinubu continues to hold sway, it will surely be any other ethnic group in Lagos, unless they don’t insist on exercising their franchise without let or hinderance.
But overall, events have exposed the Tinubu brand of politics for what it is and cast him properly. Neither he nor any of his protégés can in all honesty lay claim to progressivism. Interestingly, the deception about Tinubu’s worldview of progressive politics had stuck in public consciousness for far too long that indeed no doubt existed about his commitment to the principle. But deception, like all pseudofacts, has an expiry time. Bob Marley’s immortal words ring true here: “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” The unravelling of Tinubu though long in coming because of his adept at masterfully projecting a façade eventually did come. Unless the meaning of progressive as used in democratic politics has been so elastically adjusted as to accommodate bigotry as a connotation, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the politician who is today the President of Nigeria, should not have his name and his politics associated with that word or concept. At least, not anymore.
He has unravelled and should stop laying claim to progressive credentials. The unfortunate drift occasioned by his political predilection deserves nothing but blanket condemnation, otherwise it would be institutionalised. It is a bad advertisement for the “unity in diversity” mantra that the country’s political leaders proclaim.
Omenuwa, a lawyer, is a commentator on national issues
