Nigeria’s Future and the Challenges of Mammam Daura’s Apostasy

By ORI MARTINS

Exactly 16 years ago, the late literally icon, Professor Chinua Achebe,  in a very profound legendary move  rejecting the 2004 Nation Honour, scribbled an open letter to President Olusegun Obasanjo, thus: “I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the presidency”. Achebe is late and the immortal words he penned down depicting  social politico -economic  disorder in his Anambra enclave are today, still threatening and ravaging the already shallow foundation of Nigeria.

Most discerning Nigerians were rudely embarrassed and shocked to their marrows  when Mamman Daura, a nephew to President Buhari and an influential member of the  destructive cabal which has been holding Nigeria captive, unapologetically, hollered that the 2023 presidential election would be based on a zoning arrangement. Daura  was said to have made this ill tailored statement on a BBC Radio during an interview  on the station’s Hausa programme. As a matter of fact,  Daura’s missiles are not a needle in a haystack but they are hellish. Indeed, what Daura emitted could not be  described as merely testing the waters. It is certainly a Freudian slip. He has has  jovially but frankly let the cat out of the bag. Daura did not speak for himself. He represented and presented the mind and intentions of the oligarchs. And this is his apostasy. Why should Daura’s pyrotechnics be aimed at  shattering the much talked about and well embraced rotational presidency which him and his group laboured assiduously even profusely to entrench in 2015?

According to the translated version of Daura’s interview with the  BBC Radio, he quoted as saying that, henceforth, Nigeria’s presidency will no longer be based on zoning, but on competence and merit. He argued that Nigeria had experimented with zoning thrice since 1999, and so, it was no longer reasonable to continue with it. To be sure, Daura’s hypothesis is nothing but a self serving agendum. It is not borne by act of patriotism, nationalism or statesmanship. His 2023 presidency grandstanding clearly and absolutely stands him out as a regional irredentist. As a signpost pointing to a destination, let this serve as a warning to all well meaning Nigerians, particularly, the Southerners. Daura, no matter his pathetic assertion,  is neither garrulous nor indolent.

He is rather a clever, chauvinistic political choreographer. Therefore, he has pointed   the way his clique have arranged the political chase board of 2023 presidency. He is only being used, or he is acting as, a pawn. For the South to sit in the comfort of their rooms and be shouting “it cannot work” without following up with sincere and contagious counter poise, is nothing but chasing a lion with a stick. It is counter productive and politically dangerous. Probably, this idea of allowing the North to always have her way, not on merit, fairness or superior argument, is at the root of Nigeria’s perennial problem and it is a huge challenge.

The North, as a region, delayed Nigeria’s independence. A Northerner,  against every permutation, emerged the prime minister. The North led the country into a civil war. The North has ruled about 75 per cent out of the the country’s 60 years as an independent nation. Since 1999, there has been a South – North rotation on presidency, and now, the North is hell  bent on truncating this noble arrangement.

Dramatically, Daura and Buhari share a striking balance in relating to Nigerians. Ever since he emerged as the civilian president five years ago, Buhari has hauled the Olympic gold medal of addressing his fellow compatriots on any import issue via the foreign media. Take a cursory look at this: Buhari’s pledge of rewarding 95 per cent to the regions that voted for him and 15 per cent to those who never voted for him was made in USA. His pronouncement of being 73 years old and so couldn’t carry out or do certain things/functions, was declared in South Africa. His words that his wife belonged to the kitchen and other room was recorded in Germany. Not surprisingly, Daura’s 2023   inciting declaration was made known by a foreign medium. The interpretation is that Daura’s tentacles vis a vis where the pendulum will swing in 2023 is may not too far from what Buhari has in stock.

• Ori, a journalist, writes from Owerri, Imo State.