AN OWNER "ROBBER"?

Source: Dr Tosin Akindele.

I was privy to a Tuesday edition of Kubanji Direct, a talk show on Radio Continental in Lagos Nigeria in which a certain Agba Jalingo and one other guest made an otherwise accurate observation.

They both stated that while people in other geopolitical zones in Nigeria do not queue behind their tribesmen accused of stealing public funds, people from the South east and South south tend to be galvanized behind their tribesmen accused of stealing public funds.

While a rather shallow appraisal may side with this point of view, a deeper appreciation of the state of affairs in Nigeria will show that these people may not really be as despicable as being portrayed.

As it may be rather exhausting to again reel out all I have said about Muhammadu Buhari as he fills practically all appointive positions with his kinsmen, the latest admissions into the Directorate of State Security, DSS...is yet another pointer to the mindlessness of this rabidly tribalistic man!

Buhari had prior to this moment appointed a kitchen cabinet and security chiefs almost absolutely devoid of persons from other regions of the nation!

While I reserve my comments for persons who may posit that I use one wrong to justify another, may I state clearly that only severe myopia would lead anyone to paint Muhammadu Buhari as a saint or Messiah.

There is absolutely nothing wrong in stealing back your property from a mindless robber who just dispossessed you of such property!

This may be yet another appropriate occasion to call on all Igbos so disposed to imposing themselves on the persons and possessions of communities hospitable enough to harbour them to desist from such mindsets.

Their loud declaration that Lagos is a No Man's Land...still fresh in our minds, for instance....is just one example of reasons why they may not find ready supporters for their otherwise legitimate causes!

Their current sit-at-home strategy is brilliant!
Now, all hitherto said by me here may not have dwelt on causes but effects. I was just reminded by Chris Nwaokobia thus:

Perhaps if the January 1966 coup by mostly Igbo army officers was not slanted by sparing Igbo leaders... Perhaps the pogrom in the north against Igbos would have been avoided. Perhaps the revenge coup of July 1966 wouldn't have occurred. Perhaps all this distrust for the Igbo man wouldn't be there. Because prior to the first coup, the President was Igbo. The vice chancellor of the universities of Lagos and Ibadan were both Igbos. Most commissioned officers of the Nigerian armed forces were Igbos. Perhaps if young Igbos were less given to blurring their vision to inalienable facts of history... Perhaps if this crop of Igbo men were less given to emotions...

But why wouldn't they be so disposed as Yakubu Gowon failed in his pledge of the three Rs. Of Reconstruction. Reconciliation. Rehabilitation.

All promises unkept....
As Buhari and previous rulers of northern extraction would rather embrace vendetta than the pledged Rs!

The game plan of these northerners is clear. Remain mentally lazy. Hold down the development of the south as you grapple with crawling while the south is set to sprint! You call it Quota System. Resist all moves at restructuring of the economy and the polity. Hold on to the reins of governance at all cost. Allocate, approbate, appropriate and arrogate about all national resources to yourselves... As you fill about all positions of headship of security forces with your kinsmen...so to hold down the south to this retrogressive, strange and coerced alliance. And live up to the injunctions of Ahmadu Bello!

I have never seen a worse case of forced partnership.

Dr Tosin Akindele is currently writing his biography.... The Tragedy of Truth. He is a medical practitioner and public affairs analyst.