Being the home state of the touted
“National Leader” of the APC, I had expected the President to hop over there
soon after his election and show his gratitude to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Buhari was scheduled to pay that visit in May 2017. At the last moment, it was
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that was sent. Since no official reason was
adduced for the sudden change of mind, we had to make do with the rumour mill,
which indicated that Buhari’s Arewa cabal advised him against the trip to
prevent a repeat of the “Yar’ Adua experience”! President Buhari Whatever made
Buhari to fight shy of visiting part of his “97%” (Lagos State) did not stand
in his way when he recently went to the South East, the heartland of the “5%”.
Remember that Buhari had divided Nigeria according to his queer formula of
“97%/5%”. He promised to reward the “97%” abundantly for voting for him while
the rest “5%” could go and shift for themselves. The “5%” represents the South
East and South-South where he failed to get electoral support, and Buhari had
vowed (and followed up with concrete action) that he would marginalise those
who did not vote for him. In response, the South East has been the main hotbed
of anti-Buhari opposition fronted mainly by Biafra separatist activists. The
President counter-responded to that by mobilising the Army to invade the South
East which drove the separatists underground. The summary of it is that
President Buhari and the Igbo people have been fighting since he assumed power
in May 2015. Apart from a few cosmetic post-Python Dance II “peace offerings”
such as the payment of pardoned Biafran police officers and the Federal
Government’s agreement to pay N88 Billion to “victims of the civil war” in
response to an ECOWAS Court verdict, Buhari has not really shown a concrete
shift in his hostile disposition to the “5%” of the South East. In spite of the
genuflecting antics of his party men from the zone, such as Osita Okechukwu,
Chris Ngige, Ogbonnaya Onu, Orji Uzor Kalu, Jim Nwobodo, Ken Nnamani, Rochas
Okorocha, Osita Izunaso and the rest of that horde, Buhari still ignominiously
snubbed them and appointed another Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, Boss Mustapha from among his favoured “97%” (in fact, he made sure
the post remained within disgraced David Babachir Lawal’s roost). Suddenly a
new front of political sycophancy opened up from the Ebonyi section of the “5%”
when Governor Dave Umahi paid a recent visit to the President at Aso Villa. He
came out of that and started singing like an excited canary: Buhari should run
for second term. Umahi is a PDP governor. He is also the Chairman of the South
East Governors Forum; a prize “5 per cent-er”. Umahi had long been speculated
to join the APC because he has never hidden his love for the party and its
leadership. Only he knows what he is still doing in the PDP. Obviously, he
cannot be trusted to support a candidate of his party for president in 2019,
with this unabashed anti-party disposition. But that is a problem between him
and his party. The issue here, for me, is that Umahi organised some rag-tag and
overdressed traditional rulers to give Buhari chieftaincy titles that fly in
the face of his relationship with the Igbo people and the South East Zone. For
instance, one of the titles he got was Enyi Oma 1 (the good friend) of Ebonyi
State. He was given a gift of 2,000 tubers of yams, 2,000 bags of rice and a
white horse. Good friends are known by their words and deeds. What good had
Buhari done to Ebonyi to deserve being entitled as a “good friend”? One would
have expected Umahi and his overdressed cockerels to name Buhari’s deeds to
justify their action. The second title was Ochi Oha (Leader of all) of
Igboland, and it was bestowed, also at the behest of the Ebonyi governor by a
group referred to in the media as South East Traditional Rulers, though I could
not spot any notable traditional ruler among them. A group of traditional of
South East that does not include the most nationally-recognised royal father,
Igwe of Onitsha, Nnaemeka Achebe, tells you the credibility of such a group. It
is obvious that these chieftaincy titles on Buhari are mere borrowed robes.
They do not fit. Buhari has never done anything in his life as leader of this
country to deserve any honour from Igbo people. He knows it. I am sure he would
have rejected the titles if not for political expedience and the fact that 2019
is around the corner. Of course, we know he will NEVER wear any of those traditional
paraphernalia again after that fake conferment. It was Igwe Achebe who tried to
mitigate the shame of the Ebonyi circus when he insisted that Buhari must visit
him and his colleagues in his palace if he wanted to meet them. That demand was
justifiable. Achebe ranks among the foremost traditional rulers in the country,
such as the Sultan of Sokoto, the Ooni of Ife, the Oba of Benin and others.
These rulers would not leave their palaces to go and gratify politicians. They
sit in their palaces to receive visitors, including presidents. I have come to
learn not to put much value to traditional titles. Any riff-raff who manages to
manipulate the electoral process to become governor automatically becomes the
overlord of traditional rulers in his state. He can make them dance to his tune
or they will risk being dethroned. In any case, most traditional rulers are
eager to meet the president just for personal aggrandisement. People should not
be over-surprised by the show of shame in Ebonyi. Something worse happened
during the Second Republic in old Rivers when Chief Melford Okilo was the
governor. President Shehu Shagari paid a campaign visit to Rivers State. In
appreciation, Okilo, on behalf of the people of Rivers State, donated two
under-aged virgins to Shagari! Umahi only gave Buhari a white horse and food
items he obviously did not need. Since the civil war ended, the Igbo people
have never had it so rough as they are having it under Buhari’s presidency. The
only other time a similar situation was noticed was when Buhari was a military
head of state in 1983-1985. Buhari is still nursing the grudges of the first
coup of 1966, the civil war and his serial rejections at the polls by the Igbo
people. A year ago, Amnesty International, AI, published a report that the Army
killed 1967 Biafra activists under this regime, a charge the Army vigorously
denied. After putting down the Biafra agitations two months ago, Nnamdi Kanu
disappeared into thin air. The South East remains outsiders in this government;
the zone is excluded from major projects of the government, and almost every
community in the zone has been victimised by armed herdsmen without anyone
being brought to justice. What a “friend”! What a “leader”! Politicians and
traditional rulers can be an infuriating lot!
Welcome back, Mr President, from the
land of “5%”.
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