In Nigeria, we don’t mind our business; it has always been undermining our fellow Nigerians either on ethnic/religious basis.
Our 1st Republic leaders directly/indirectly laid the basis for the ethnic bias and greed.
Unfortunately, contemporary leaders have continued the undesirable trend that threatens our co-existence.
There is no section of Nigeria that has no ethnic tendency more pronounced after the 15th January 1966 coup.
Th e Northern Region which from time immemorial before the 1st coup accommodates all ethnic groups in Nigeria has been constantly bashed by some ethnic loyalist of the South, especially on political appointments, especially in education and justice.
The manner some analysts criticize the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, is unfair.
I don’t know the yardstick with which they measure his performance.
When northern are appointed ministers of education/justice, those disgruntled who selfishly believe northerners are not academically sound enough to hold either of these portfolios begin to find faults, however good their performances.
It is time we turned a new leaf and appreciate our fellow Nigerians than always castigating them.
Much has been said about hate speech and nobody bothers about what has always been hatefully written about some northern political appointees.
It is time to leave AGF Malami to perform his duties devoid of distractions.
Th ere is no doubt that as human beings we all have our weaknesses but such weaknesses should not overshadow the good side of some of our political appointees.
In the Trust of 28th September, 2017 Ismaila Lere accused Malami of overzealousness.
Malami could not have claimed that he has all the powers under the law to defi ne the law.
So far, he has tried his best but for the flawed judicial processes he inherited from his predecessors.
Lere, are you saying he has not worked hard enough to be a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)? Are you equally saying President Muhammadu Buhari did not go through Malami’s CV before appointing him AGF? In another ignorant criticism of Malami in the Nation of October 1, 2017 a columnist, Biodun Jeyifo, out rightly queried Malami’s appointment by President Buhari.
Unless querying the legal body that awarded SAN to Malami, to the best of my knowledge only those who have excelled are awarded SAN.
Sometime when you criticize you should interpret the three fingers that point back to you, we should learn to appreciate ourselves because behind an able man are more able men.
It is not all academics but the natural native intelligence God gives various ethnic groups universally.
Perfection is God’s; nobody is perfect.
Th e present circumstances where we tend to repeat some greedy ethnic loyalty of some 1st Republic leaders compels that I make references to some portions of the incident of the past – the first Nigerian coup: British intelligence reports on how Ironsi took over.
The abstracts from the record are thus: In Nigeria, one of the criteria of eligibility for being considered a national hero was to be a bona fi de crook.
When Ikejiani was forced to finally resign, being a medical doctor, Azikiwe made him whole like Orizu by appointing him to the State House as one of his personal physicians.
He was not done: Azikiwe then reappointed him to his former unfi lled post less than two years later.
He still was not done: in 1964, Azikiwe decorated him with the national honour – Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) – pun unintended – ‘for his service to the nation’.
If anyone is interested in why Nigeria ended up being a pit latrine of implacable corruption where intelligence cannot assert itself in the conduct of public affairs, the Orizu and Ikejiani Aff air is where to begin.
Azikiwe put into disorder all consideration based on value.
And the absence of the objective perception of value produced the will to tribalism which eliminated the prospect of any meaningful progress for the nation.
Why was the fi rst coup necessary in the fi rst place? A false analysis of the Nigerian condition grounded in weak data and rapid decadence of the love of truth resulted in a widely believed myth of Northern domination.
Whereas the truth was more salient: One, for 50 years since 1912, the North was the richest region in the country with even the highest employment opportunities for anyone willing to work.
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Emeka Ojukwu, Bola Ige, Sonny Odogwu and Maryam Babangida were born by parents who like millions of Southerners went to seek economic fortunes in the prosperous North.
On 26th January, 1953, Awolowo’s Western Regional Government published the list of 200 successful candidates for the highly coveted scholarship scheme for teacher training courses and university studies.
Western scholarships were also given to Eastern students resident in the West but no Northerner was on the list.
On 22nd February 1953, the Eastern Regional government published the list of its own 121 scholarships awarded.
There was no Western or Northern student on the list.
On 6th April 1953, Northern Regional Government published the list of 60 successful candidates.
There were Easterners and Westerners on the list.
1st October 1960 only marked the final process of independence from Britain, but the fi rst stage started in January 1952 with the inauguration of indigenous regional governments.
Sardauna was the fi rst to appoint nonNortherners to the Northern Regional Assembly.
He appointed Felix Okonkwo an Igbo Easterner, as special interests’ representative of Kano and Solomon Oke James a Yoruba Westerner resident in Kaduna.
Awolowo reciprocated by appointing Alhaji Mukthar, Seriki of Sabo in Ibadan.
There were already Easterners in the Western House.
The Eastern Region Assembly never reciprocated the gesture by appointing any Northerner or Westerner.
Other regions opened up to embrace non-natives in their governments.
Except the East. It was true then; it is true today.
The myth of Northern domination then was an organized distraction from something else.
The above references are made to acquaint those ignorant of the past happenings by our past leaders that have now resulted into our present unmindful ethnic loyal criticism of most political appointees from the Northern Region now split into many states.
Adoke writes from Km 8, Okene Lokoja Road, Nagazi-Uvete, Adavi L..A., Kogi state
