A prof’s strange indignation

Adeze Ojukwu

The 2023 general election in Nigeria, will be a watershed, in the country’s chequered history.
It is expected to be a defining moment that could make or mar the country.

Expectedly, the political sphere, across the nation, is steaming profusely, with a flurry of activities to capture the electorate.
Sadly, the nation is tottering, precipitously, at a crossroad, while most political parties and their followers, are consumed by their desperate quest for power.

The public and media space is inundated, daily, with monetary inducements, strategies and campaign messages, including sheer lies and propaganda, by elements, whose sole agenda is to selfishly dislodge perceived enemies and political opponents.

This is quite evident in the spate of fiery exchanges on various social media, which is the major battle ground, given its spread and speed, as a prime vehicle in reaching targets and engaging with audiences.

For instance, the agitation for restructuring and self-determination, among the various ethnic nationalities in the country, has continued to generate widespread interest and debates, on Facebook and Twitter.

Many Nigerians, have consistently and aggressively, expressed their views, over a virile post, chronicling several factors, that ignited the agitation for self -determination in the South-West and other regions.

The memoir was, reportedly, written by an eminent elder of Yoruba extraction, Prof Olufemi Olufumilade.

Incidentally, the angry and aggrieved author, who was a former associate of President Muhammadu Buhari, mounted a vitriolic campaign against Buhari, describing him as “a bigot.”

Find below excerpts of his discourse.
“President Buhari is an ethnic bigot of the worst kind but he went about it deceptively while seeking power.

“I make no apologies for President Buhari, who, I can say authoritatively and in retrospect with the benefit of what I now know of him, is unfit to lead a multiethnic, multinational, and multi-religious country like Nigeria.

“A bigoted Buhari with a pernicious agenda of Fulani irredentism refused us gun license for Amotekun till date. Meanwhile, (members of) the so-called Civilian JTF (Joint Task Force) in Borno state carry sophisticated weapons! Every step of the way, he opposed Amotekun with his Attorney General telling us it was illegal.

“After the election, nothing changed. Then the Fulani herdsmen killings began to spread southward on a spiral!

“People were being slaughtered like animals. They were being gunned down in their farms as though we were in a state of war. Most alarming was the fact that even when the Fulani killers got apprehended they were released in no time with their guns!

“I lost a colleague, Kelvin Izevbekhai, to their bullets on the Benin-Ore highway. 'Another colleague, Solola, was abducted and released only after ransom had been paid. There were other cases.

“It was this background that created the Igboho of this world entering into the fray when his uncle was murdered in cold blood in Igangan by Fulani after paying ransom.

After thorough debates and reviews of submissions, we formed the Yoruba World Congress. I was made Adviser on Strategy, Kila became Secretary General, broadcasting mogul, Otunba Deji Osibogun, was appointed Organising Secretary and so on. Our goal: Yoruba Nation.”

But, former Managing Director/Editor-in-chief of Champion Newspapers, Lagos and a quintessential public analyst, Mr. Ugo Onuoha, has blasted the erudite professor for being “economical with the truth” in his robust riposte.
Mr. Onuoha said in his response that “Prof Olufemi Olufumilade was one of the problems of Nigeria.”

He continued his expose.
“And I say this with enormous respect for his person and accomplishments.

“I know him by his reputation. But I am disappointed by this outburst.

He was compelling in aspects of his responses to some emergent issues in Buhari’s Nigeria.
But I feel ashamed that a man of his stature failed, refused or neglected to see through Buhari’s bigotry and nepotism and extremely narrow and parochial worldview in 2015.

“My expectation is that he should have read Buhari and classified him for what he represented, and still represents, even before 2015 given that he claimed to be Buhari’s associate over the years.

“However, I understand why.
He, like others, was blinded by the orchestrated and choreographed hatred for the President from the minority of minorities Otueke village, in Bayelsa State of the Delta Niger region?

'And to think that he continued with his misguided support for Buhari in 2019 and now wants to rationalise it.

“I am not sold to his crocodile tears. This Prof, I dare say, is insincere and takes the Yoruba nation and the rest of the nations in the south and the middle belt of Nigeria for fools. But we are not.

“Buhari’s agenda, long before he acceded to the Presidency in 2015, was hiding in plain sight. It was so glaring that those of us who were supposedly less educated and probably less sophisticated could read the hand writing on the wall.

A section of the Yoruba elite and intelligentsia was driven by self interest in backing Buhari, believing that after him they will inherit power and then proceed to rotate the presidency between the core north and the core south west (you may ask me what I mean by core SW) to the exclusion of the rest of the country.
The explanation will be simple- the principle of rotation is between the North and the South, and that politics is a game of numbers.

“Prof. Olufumilade was not alone. Refresh your memory with the activities of that season of madness when it was fashionable for us to lose our heads.

If you didn't lose your head then something was wrong with you. But as we say in my neck of the woods 'Osita dinma, anyi ekele Chineke.’
“Roughly translated from Igbo language to English- we thank God for course correct and for a hoped for opportunity for a new beginning.

“My anxiety is that the horse has bolted from the stable. Evil has already been unleashed on Nigeria.

“Only three groups of Nigerians do not have a Plan B right now. Beneficiaries of the extant decadent order, the overly, I don't want to say hopeless, optimists, who still believe that Nigeria will turn the corner for good and those who are completely helpless.”

.Ojukwu is a Fellow of Hubert H Humphrey Fellowship and publisher. She is a campaigner and advocate for improved socio-economic and health services for all citizens, as well as the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGS). Please kindly send feedback to adeze.ojukwu@gmail.com