By Ikechukwu Amaechi
As indicated here last week, the book, Peace Culture: A Monumental Evidence for Global Co-existence, written by Prof Ola Makinwa et al, will be used to shine a light on our offering in this column today. Many have badgered me on why I “ignored” the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protest rocking the country.
The protest, now in its eighth day, has become violent and bloody and the security chiefs are still talking tough meaning that it may even get bloodier in the coming days. On Wednesday night, armed security operatives raided the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja, popularly called Labour House looking for only God knows what. Such raids will intensify as the government tries to overwhelm Nigerians and stifle dissenting voices.
But it was a crisis foretold. Any discerning observer who witnessed the desperate manoeuvres of the government aimed at pulling the rug from under the feet of the protesters and the billions of Naira sunk into the campaign to stymie the project will know that in the event the protesters went ahead with their plan, a mortified, albeit vindictive Tinubu-led government will infiltrate their ranks and ensure that it became violent in order to justify a bloody crackdown. That is exactly what has happened. The government knows that it has been scammed by individuals and groups who cashed out on the gullibility of the Nigerian state.
For a security architecture that clearly prioritises regime protection over and above the lives and properties of citizens, the brutalisation of people peacefully protesting over excruciatingly biting hunger didn’t come as a surprise. It was more an act of vengeance. Having assured their Commander-in-Chief that they were on top of the situation, it was also a huge embarrassment that Nigerians trooped out in their numbers to vent their grievances against a bumbling, incompetent and clueless government.
Sadly, the security forces have not exhibited the same deadly dexterity with which they dealt with the protesters in dealing with the real enemies of Nigeria – non-state actors who have ensured that bona fide citizens are sacked from their ancestral homes and subjected to unimaginable indignity as refugees in their own country.
Prof Kingsley Moghalu, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and one-time presidential candidate, on Monday, lamented that the police and other security agencies in Nigeria have an unfortunate mindset. “The Nigerian state has little regard for its citizens, political rhetoric aside,” he wrote on X.
Prof Wole Soyinka, Tinubu’s bosom friend and biggest cheerleader, could not agree more when he, in reaction to President Bola Tinubu’s broadcast on Sunday, pointedly warned that, “The serving of bullets where bread is pleaded is ominous retrogression, and we know what that eventually proves – a prelude to far more desperate upheavals, not excluding revolutions.”
But what is going on is a true reflection of who Tinubu is: a pseudo-democrat with an overdose of dictatorial reflexes antithetical to democratic norms. Tinubu in his illiberal democracy cocoon takes no prisoners. He brooks no opposition and has zero tolerance for criticism no matter how constructive. For him, governance is about state capture. So, Nigerians must brace up for the creeping fascism.
So, those who are calling for the arrest of people behind the impudent #IgboMustGo campaign, which demands the forced relocation of Ndigbo from Lagos and other Southwest states, may well save themselves the agony of disappointment.
Why? Because the Tinubu government is behind the virulent campaign of calumny against Nidgbo. It started long before he became president and has nothing to do with the aspirations of Peter Obi because in the 2015 and 2019 elections when Ndigbo were not on the presidential ballot, his enforcers stopped them from voting in Lagos. Bayo Onanuga’s singular brief as the Special Adviser on information and strategy is the unremitting demonisation of the Igbo race. So, asking the same government to investigate and bring to book those behind the genocidal crusade is tantamount to asking the government to probe itself.
The insidious campaign is only but a sequel to Onanuga’s ethnic baiting gambit when he maliciously accused Obi and by extension Ndigbo, his bête noire, of promoting the #EndBadGovernance protest. Not that there is anything wrong if Peter Obi champions protest against bad governance. But Onanuga lied knowing full well that the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election knew nothing about it. The security chiefs also knew that for a fact. Yet, without any shred of evidence, he went on the shameless voyage of incitement, knowing that he has got the back of the Nigerian state.
That is not his first time of embarking on the devious journey. On March 21, 2023, Onanuga, as spokesperson for the then President-elect, Tinubu, warned Ndigbo in Lagos against “interfering” in politics in the state. “Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics. Let there be no repeat in 2027. Lagos is like Anambra, Imo, or any Nigerian state. It is not No Man’s Land, not Federal Capital Territory. It is Yoruba land. Mind your business,” he tweeted.
While well-meaning Nigerians, including some of his colleagues in the Tinubu campaign team, were horrified over the unprovoked outburst, Tinubu, his puppeteer, remained silent. How Onanuga decided to become a consummate dog whistler at the age of 67 beggars belief. But history is never kind to his likes. Never!
The bigger tragedy is that it took the umbrage of Waziri Atiku Abubakar who called on the Federal Government to prosecute the promoters of the anti-Igbo genocidal campaign for both Lagos State and Abuja to react to the incendiary charge that Ndigbo living and doing business in Lagos and other southwest states should leave the region within 30 days.
Atiku, who was unsettled by the demand on the X account @Lagospedia, noted thus: “It is alarming that five days after this threat emerged, there has been a troubling silence. Immediate action to arrest, investigate, and prosecute those behind this heinous agenda is crucial. This will serve as a deterrent to others who might consider pursuing similar paths that threaten our national security.”
Since then, the hashtag ‘Igbo must go’ has continued to fester on social media. A recent X Spaces conversation tagged, Yoruba Ronu Space, led by self-acclaimed Yoruba influencers, called for an Igbo must go protest. One of the contributors alleged that Ndigbo are disrespecting their traditional rulers and leaders and have no right to own land in Lagos.
Tinubu in his nationwide broadcast on Sunday pretended to be offended by the campaign, when he, tongue in cheek, condemned those he alleged to have taken undue advantage of the #EndBadGovernance protest to threaten some sections of the country, stating that there is no place for ethnic bigotry in Nigeria.
That was sheer sophistry. It is also worthy of note that the security chiefs who threatened fire and brimstone on Tuesday in Abuja did not deem it necessary to include the genocidal threats against Ndigbo in their basket of deplorable developments that threaten the country’s security.
Those who claim to be investigating the devil(s) behind this anti-Igbo genocidal threat are living a lie and should not be taken serious because the truth remains that if they are, indeed, serious, they need not look beyond Bayo Onanuga. If Onanuga was an Igbo man (God forbid) making these incendiary comments against the Yoruba, he will be behind bars by now.
But it is surprising that Tinubu who knows the history of Ndigbo and their resilience in the face of intimidation thinks he can subjugate them. Those who think they can succeed even where the British colonial masters failed woefully, are entitled to their foolhardiness. But they should be reminded that Buhari traversed that odious route in eight years and left Aso Rock in disgrace with Ndigbo still standing tall.
My simple advice is that rather than resorting to the hare-brained tactics of scaremongering and ethnic baiting against Ndigbo in order to deflate attention from his self-inflicted governance woes, the President should read the Peace Culture, which according to the authors “is a handbook to mediate into conflict, manage anger, negotiate, resolve conflict and build peace for prevention of conflict.”
Chapter Six of the fascinating ten-chapter book with 232 major topics and 101 sub-headings which dealt with the issue of good governance talked about political tolerance, equity and inclusiveness.
“A society’s wellbeing depends on ensuring that all its members feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of society. This requires that all groups, particularly the most vulnerable, have opportunities to improve or maintain their wellbeing,” the book said.
It further noted that “Government was created as an instrument to unite the people, develop the land, provide essential amenities and democracy that will make life comfortable, meaningful and bearable for the existence of man and where these things are lacking, agitations, expectations and ambitions set in from the people and where the government lacks good advice or arrogant or becomes autocratic, conflict sets in. This is always the result of bad governance. Bad governance fails to see to the plight of the people and shuts its eyes against unity.”
Rather than allowing Bayo Onanuga and his gang to scapegoat and gaslight Ndigbo and set the country ablaze, Tinubu may well heed the advice of Prof Ola Makinwa and his colleagues as expressed in the book – Peace Culture.
