UNDERSTANDING THE GRIEVANCE OF THE PEOPLE AGAINST
GENERAL BUHARI AND HIS PARTY
By Emeka Ugwuonye
It might have taken me quite a while to put these thoughts and
argument together. But it is important to understand why people felt
so strongly against Buhari and why I encountered the greatest
resistance ever each time I took a position favourable to Buhari.
Whenever I see a trend that is persistent and seems to go against
simple logic, I don't just dismiss it or ignore it. Instead, I pull back
and reexamine my position and that of my opponent to try to
discover new elements or merit that I might have ignored. So, I have
been asking myself: why is it that many people I really consider wise
and intelligent have been quite defiant and adamant in their
opposition to any attempt to accept Buhari? Why are they so
adamant in their rejection of Buhari and why do they attack me with
so much ferocity each time I criticise President Jonathan?
By series of coincidences, these questions were fully and finally
addressed this evening at a private dinner with a very close and dear
friend. She is a member of Due Process Attorneys (DPA). She is a
quiet person. She is so well educated that she has been the editor of
a major magazine in Nigeria. She used to follow my writings on DPA
and Facebook generally and once in a while, she would oblige a
comment, usually supportive and complementary. I would say that
this friend has a lot of respect for me and for my viewpoints. She
also tends to know how passionate and relentless I could be when I
take a position.
Over the time since I began to comment on Jonathan toward the
elections, I noticed that my friend stopped commenting on my posts.
She never said a word. At some point, I wondered if she was still on
DPA. Yes, she is on DPA. I wondered if she was too busy to follow
my posts and comments. After church today, I called her and asked
why she has been so silent on my posts lately. She told me that she
disagreed with me totally on my positions either critical of Jonathan
or supportive of Buhari. She sounded unusually serious and pointed
in her remarks. And she managed to let me know she really had
more to say on the matter. I immediately fixed a dinner and invited
her. I chose a place where we could have a private corner to discuss
at length.
Dinner was smooth and we talked about her work and my work and
our travels and other things. After dinner, I settled for Martini while
she asked for Cognac, old school style. I put it to her: "What is
wrong? Why do you think I have been wrong in my views on Nigerian
politics?" She lifted her glass, but didn't quite get it to her lips, and
she started: "Emeka, I am actually shocked that you don't seem to
understand Nigeria and its history well. Was it because you spent so
many years in America?" She then took a sip, very slowly. She
continued: "Emeka, have you heard about the quoter system in this
country? Do you know that kids from certain states would get
admitted into the Unity schools with 10 points, while your child from
your state will not get admitted to the same school even with 100
points?" She continued, "Do you know that things were so bad that,
you would not be able to get a contract from Government of Nigeria if
you did not speak Hausa. If you liked, you could have all the
education in this world, but unless you could speak Hausa and you
were Hausa, you would not get anything, however good your
proposal may be?" I didn't interrupt her. "Emeka, do you know that
you would write a great proposal for contract and come into the
ministry, but because you are not Hausan, you would never get a
contact. Instead, they would cross out your name on your proposal
and use it to award a contract to an Hausan man, who would turn
around and sell it to you?" Not done, she went on: "So, when I read
you encouraging that Buhari should be President or lampooning
Jonathan, I wonder what is wrong with you".
To drive her point home, she went on to say: "Emeka, do you know
that if you were from the North and you went to Harvard, you would
not need to work half as hard as you work and you would be awash
with cash just because you are Hausan? Look at what is going in in
the Customs, NNPC, Police, Armed Forces. Look at how they stuffed
those places with people who are not as educated or even as
competent or hardworking as people from the South. And Igbos and
other minorities are unemployed" I came in this point: "How does
Jonathan remaining the President change all that?" She cut in: "It
will not happen overnight, but it is happening. Yes, Jonathan has
made blunders. But having a Southerner as a President would
prevent the Northerners from continuing to marginalize the
Southerners at the same rate. And by the way", she was leaning
forward with all the emphasis, "the years that Obasanjo and
Jonathan have been in office have begun to roll back that system of
injustice. Now, the Northerners are learning that they have to work
hard too. They are learning they have work like others. For the first
time, free money is no longer flowing as it used to and they are
getting restless. All this Boko Haram is happening because they are
no longer having it easy with free money at the expense of others".
She stopped. Then she continued: "Emeka, as long as a Southerner
is President, the North will continue to sabotage him because they
are not having it easy anymore. They must render the country
ungovernable". I came in again at this point: "But you can't really
keep the North away from power indefinitely. There is no mechanism
for that. Besides, that shouldn't to be desirable. You can't active that
militarily and you cannot achieve that through the democratic
process, given the official demographics". "I know that", she cut in.
"I know that, but the goal is to suspend that evil practice for as long
as possible so that they would not be able to reconstitute it by the
time power returns to them" Then I asked her: "Why do so many
people insist that Buhari did not have a high school certificate?".
"Because they know that if you are from the North, all corners would
be cut for you. If Buhari was an Igbo or Yoruba or of any of the
minority tribes, he would never have been a General or a former Head
of State. Indeed, you see Directors in Government parastatals from
the North who do not know how to write their names or speak
English. Yet they are Directors, while Southerners are unemployed.
So, it is perfectly possible that Buhari did not have school certificate.
They didn't need that to get to any position they desired. And that is
what having a Southern President is changing"
Then I asked her: "What has Jonathan done to change the
situation?". She replied: "It is going to be a slow process. But
Jonathan is doing something. Can you see how the pension scandal
is coming to light because a Southern President is busting that
system. Also, the fertilizer scam, the ghost workers scam. All that
are reducing now that you have a Southern President. It is too soon
to return power to them. Buhari will immediately return to their old
ways if he becomes President". Our conversation continued deep
into the night, until about 40 minutes ago when I began to write this
piece.
Basically, I found her observations to be real. It is a concern deep
enough in the minds of many, and it is sufficient to justify the way
they feel about this election and the deep fears they have about
power returning to a Northerner so soon. Indeed, this conversation
was deep. I could relate it to so many other observations and bits of
information out there in general. Honestly, if you share these
observations or hold them to be true, it is difficult not to support
Jonathan if you are a Southerner. It explains many things. It
explains the attitude of Southern people toward Boko Haram. It
explains how the people understood the phrase "making the country
ungovernable".
Indeed, it explains the anger and bitterness on the part of people who
believe that they have been victims of an unjust system. I am glad I
had this conversation. While it did not address all the issues and
nuances to this sort of complex social and political system, it raised
enough substantive consideration to justify my slowing down my
criticisms of Jonathan. I ought to be more sensitive to the feelings of
the people of the South. My main regret now is that the people of the
South are not speaking up openly and directly about these injustices.
They tend to address them by proxy and by body language. I believe
that these issues deserve an open treatment. Nigerian people who
have been marginalised should have recourse and ability to resists
such injustices. We need to have a solution that will stand
regardless of who is President. In any event, I promised my friend,
and rightly so, that I would relent on my attacks on Jonathan. I will
basically watch the situation as it unfolds. I wish I knew this earlier.
I might have been able to help in a more effective way. I hope
Nigerians will find lasting justice.
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