By Engr Odo Ijere
The Monday 24th meeting of the governor’s of the Southeast, Southwest, and Southsouth was expected by its conveners to start a new agenda setting for the southern part of Nigeria as it struggles to free its neck from the heavy jackboot of the political North.
The meeting was well attended by almost all the governors except one or two that sent their deputies. The good attendance aptly captured the importance of calling the roundtable to enact a proactive scriptural response to desperate moments in the life of the government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
But why did we have to wait till desperate moments like this before the South will rally its political fortunes together? Why is the South politically lazy, retroactive, retrospective, lethargic, politically backward, not futuristic, political non convergence, and above all, why is the South afflicted with crab mentality and political self immolation.
Most patriotic observers of this desperate get-together are quick to write it off as building on quicksand, a Yoruba subterfuge with a hidden agenda, and describing the so-called southern agenda as a renewed Yoruba agenda.
This shoddy position is fueled by what is seen today as the unquenchable greed of Asiwaju and his closet tribe of the ruling class to have their hand on every pie. They want to lead and drive everything under the Tinubulation political dispensation.
Their singular agenda is to drive the Tinubu political mystique of grabbing everything from everybody and leaving nothing for others. This is the main theme of the emilokon philosophy that grabs it and runs with it and leaving others as mere onlookers of the common patrimony.
But Tinubu and his greedy acolytes are in trouble today just because they threw equity, federalism, coexistence and constitutionality overboard without any remorse of how other components of the Nigeria project feels.
Tinubu’s appointments are dominated by 80 percent for his tribe and 20 percent for the rest of Nigerians. He became a worst copycat of Buhari’s narrow Nigeria dream much to everyone’s consternation and shock. But it is okay and normal for him and his Emilokon tribe. It is obvious that Asiwaju and his narrow tribe of Emilokon disciples wants Nigeria to only work for him and his Yoruba tribe which informs his egregious and unapologetic tribalism-driven policies.
But the present reality of political regrouping by Northern elites is a pointer that Nigeria is again proving to be bigger than him and his Emilokon warriors. He’s now looking for help from southern brothers but without first curtailing his unbridled greed and excesses that is causing all the problems.
If Asiwaju and his emilokon enforcers are serious about southern unity of purpose, they should have first ensured that a Chairman of Southern Governor’s forum emerge from non-Yoruba state preferably allowing an Igbo governor to drive it and give it more teeth to bite.
Dapo Abiodun being elected as its chairman while Soludo comes as Deputy is unacceptable for crying out loud. The handlers of this power cabal should have advised them of the need to carry Igbos along at this critical juncture of political uncertainty occasioned by the power-hungry northern agendists.
Asiwaju and his Yoruba cabal are expected as a matter of urgency to rejig his cabinet and other appointments to include more Igbos and other southerners with a view to balancing his overtly insensitive appointments that are inequitably skewed to his Yoruba tribe. This will offer some reasonable cohesion he needs from the south to confront the monster building up in the political North today working to resist his regime.
Asiwaju and his Emilokon agendists should have it in their minds that his vision of restructuring of the nation’s geopolitical economy as he’s proposing can only fly if Igbos and other southerners put their strong foot on it. There must be a strong southern agenda for the restructuring project as we had it during the 2014 confab organized by erstwhile President Jonathan’s government.
Asiwaju must imbibe the spirit of reconciling the entire south as was also done by Jonathan during his presidency. This will help the Southern Nigeria build necessary bridges and cohesion to assuage the mindless marginalization of the South by the Northern political bloc.
The South expects Tinubu and his handlers to consider relaxing such anti South policies like militarization of the southern region with northern dominated army, police, customs, navy, Airforce, and other civil security apparatuses, closing of southern borders while opening Northern borders and so on and so forth.
Asiwaju must see the wisdom in immediately granting pardon and unconditionally releasing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Buhari’s detention to foster mending fences with the Igbo nation and earn her trust. Nnamdi Kanu being tried in our courts is an aberration and mockery of the Judicial process and should be put to a stop. The political solution to that crisis must be invoked by relying on relevant sections of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
Asiwaju must declare total freedom for Igbos and stop the state inspired policies of stigmatization and stereotyping of the generation of Igbos that knew nothing about the Biafra war of 1967 to 1970. Asiwaju and his fellow emilokon agendists must take the bold steps to free all the forests across the country of Fulani-sponsored bandits and terrorists that have chased Indigenous and itinerant farmers away from their farms and resulting in acute food scarcity.
We would not support a southern Governor’s forum that is only interested in protecting the Yoruba and telling other southern tribes ‘to thy tent’ as late Akeredolu of Ondo state did with Amotekun Yoruba regional security.
It should be made abundantly clear to Asiwaju that Nigerians voted for change in 2023 elections and not for renewed Hope or a continuation of Buhari’s government. He must therefore change his governing philosophy as he did with the old and new national anthem to reflect the progressive politics associated with egalitarian ideas and pursuit of decent humanity.
The new southern agenda must be positioned to counterpoise the northern agenda that hitherto constituted a menace to the southern part of this country. The new southern agenda must not be used to cloth the Yoruba agenda of domination and greed under a new alias of Southern Governor’s Forum.
- Engr Odo Ijere.
