The recent political events in Nigeria have further widened the debate on the inevitability of the sovereign nation’s breakup amongst its ...
The recent political events in Nigeria have further widened
the debate on the inevitability of the sovereign nation’s breakup amongst its
major ethnic groups. And until drastic steps are taken to curtail the
situation, Nigeria may be looking the way of Sudan.
While the country is enjoying unprecedented silence from the
notorious separatist groups, the Independent People of Biafra, as well as the
Yoruba Nation agitators, the political actors’ unwitting actions and inactions
are subtly awakening the electorate’s mindsets toward making electoral choices
based on primitive sentiments of religious and tribal affiliation, rather than
on basic criteria for good governance. The situation holds the potency for the
disintegration of the country.
In each major political camp are pointers to possible
irreconcilable differences, with their key players riding on religious and
tribal sentiments to infiltrate the minds of many for electoral gains.
The precarious situation now leaves behind a strong fear of
full-blown separationist terror activities should the electoral victory swing
in favour of the opponent’s camp.
The South-East part of the country, which is the nest of
Biafra emancipation advocates, has in recent times been a flashing point of
secession-related terror activities. The flagrant negligence and
marginalisation of the region in aspects of civil dividends by the central
government is part of the underlying causes of the unrest.
The unwholesome encroachment by nomadic Hausa-Fulani cattle
rearers in the Yoruba predominant parts of the South has also pushed the
natives of the region to take up arms in defence of their farmlands.
Why Yoruba Nation’s agitation technically hinges on a
similar root cause of IPOB’s, the two situations have, however, only further
increased the call from the regions for a referendum on possible secession.
However, the forthcoming elections in the country have
brought a delicate poser to the situation.
Early March this year, the hegemonic northern coalition of
the ruling party unanimously agreed to the secession of power to the South.
This is considered a fair bargain considering the fact that, by all indices,
the religious conservative region has held on to power many years more than the
South. The permutation that has never favoured the South-East.
But while this northern ‘gesture’ is expected to assuage the
flaming lips of the separatists, the eventual candidatures of the one-time
governors of Lagos State and his Anambra counterpart, Bola Tinubu and Peter Obi
respectively, and the emergency of a former vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has
however further inflamed the belligerence hitherto existed amongst the regions.
The choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket — a situation where, if
materialised, the President and Vice President will be of the same faith —by
the ruling party (the All Progressives Congress) has not only put the Christian
community in the defence, it’s also lending plausible credence to the milling
conspiracy to Islamise the country. This is considered a seeming effrontery
capable of further pitching the predominant Christian South against the
predominantly Muslim north.
Tinubu is a secular Muslim from the South; Obi, a Catholic
adherent also from the South, and Atiku, a serial presidential hopeful of
Muslim Northern extract. While many consider the choice for their Vice
Presidential candidates as exigencies of mere political calculations—a
political strategy to entice more voters—those in other camps believe it is a
pointer to a clandestine motif. The latter position is often to spite the
antics of the ruling party for floating a mono-religion ticket.
Inter alia, ethnicity and religious bias will not just be
factors shaping electoral outcomes now, the country’s electoral processes have
always had the history of ethnoreligious colouration on any regime composition,
a situation the country’s current federal administration has worsened through a
series of allegations of nepotism and religious bigotry.
Combating this issue, many think tanks, both locally and
internationally, have on many occasions called on the electoral stakeholders,
particularly the country’s electoral umpire to re-strategise the mode of
engagement in order to safeguard the nation’s unity and foster tolerance and
peaceful coexistence amongst the citizenry during and after the electioneering
processes.
The process should be devoid of any divisive tendency.
Candidates should strongly be encouraged to emulate the best democratic
practices from the global best democracies and run issue-based campaigns while
shunning divisive remarks that can trigger reprisal from the opposing camps.
And in ensuring adherence to this spirit of sportsmanship,
the Independent National Electoral Commission can further weigh in with
prescribed sanctions on culpable political parties found pitching one section
of the country against the other through its activities, either by the party,
or its standard-bearer.
In addition to the aforesaid, an enactment of strong
legislation that will see to the promotion of a balanced, all-inclusive and
fair representation of all ethnoreligious sections in political parties; and
ensuring the ethos are reflective in the composites of party standard-bearers.
The condiment for national cohesion is multi-layered,
however, the real solution might also be a simple answer to a simple question
of good governance. Promoting and delivery of good governance will put minds of
people away from primitive and divisive sentiments.
Adetutu, a writing Fellow at African Liberty, writes from
Katsina
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