Kaduna Gov. Nasir El-Rufai
An email was posted to me last week by someone who wanted to know my honest thoughts on Gov. Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna State, Mr. Nnamdi Kalu of Radio Biafra and PMB’s promise of ‘Change’. El Rufai, in my personal view is a sane radical and statesman, he isn’t perfect and no one is perfect especially in politics.
I have had cause to disagree with his politics and some of his anti- Semitic rhetoric, and I believe it’s within my right to do so but I concede at any given time that he is clever, cerebral, forthright, sincere and generally a good man. He is one of the few politicians that I believe understand purposeful leadership and is prepared to take the risk of leadership.
As Governor, I believe he is a blessing to Kaduna State. The state is lucky to have him replace Yero as Governor because Ramalan Yero was simply clueless. I will be disappointed and shocked if Kaduna did not reclaim her lost glory as the epicenter of Northern civilization under his guide and watch. I honestly think he has a future in politics and will be one of the biggest revelations of this era.
On Nnamdi Kalu of Radio Biafra: Several people before now had called my attention to the Radio, requesting that I listen to the station. I regret that I never had the opportunity to be a fan of the station before the Federal Government jammed its signals, an action I believe is an inflammatory and provocative assault on free speech, an assault on the right of the people to petition there government for a redress of grievances and more about the hypocrisy of the state as jamming the signals of the radio did not address the root of the people’s grievances.
The email I received last week prompted me to download and listen to some of Kalu’s interviews and radio talks. I find Nnamdi as a young man that is amiable but fiery who does not pretend to come with peace. He has credible facts and figures and tells the truth that the State will want to suppress. I support his protest against a system that targets a section of the country, now characterized as the 5 per cent who must live with the political reality of not being fairly accommodated in the Nigerian project.
The current government despite the promise of Change has carried on as if the lives, interests and future of the people of South- South and South East do not matter.
So far the President has observed the principle of Federal Character in breach. He has continued to appoint mostly people of his ethnic region or religion into positions of trust on the pretext that he has the executive leeway to choose only people from his village to move Nigeria forward as if the constitution he swore to uphold does not matter.
To be born a Southerner in Nigeria means you must live and suffer injustice and it doesn’t matter your age. How will a deprived teenager refused admission into Federal Colleges because of the accident of his birth grow to love, fight and die for Nigeria.
For many years, the Federal Government has promulgated and implemented cut off marks for all candidates seeking admission into Federal Government colleges – a policy that tends to promote mediocrity at the expense of merit. Under the cut-off mark policy Igbo students from Anambra and Imo are deliberately targeted and have continued to suffer the negative impacts of the sponsored cut off marks and quota system. They were discriminated against without reservations by assigning to them high cut off marks when compared to others.
For instance to be admitted into Federal Colleges Igbo students from Anambra and Imo were assigned as high as 139 and 138 cut off points respectively for both male and female whereas Zamfara and Taraba are assigned as low as 4 and 3 points respectively. It is this type of inequality and injustice that is breeding thousands of Nnamdi Kalu who sees Nigeria as a zoo.
The Federal Government has no business suppressing voices in Biafra whereas it is ready to negotiate with Boko Haram and give them anything they ask for.
Nnamdi Kalu like every average Southerner that has suffered genocide, pogrom and marginalization demands for nothing but, freedom, justice , fairness and equality as enshrined and guaranteed by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which has continued to elude them.
Should I meet this proud owner of Radio Biafra today, I will decorate him with roses for his courage to speak the truth to power on behalf of the oppressed people even though I disagree with his rhetoric on violence which I consider counterproductive and not a way to solve any problem.
I don’t accept his assertion that there is no alternative to Biafra or that if we don’t get Biafra, no human being will remain alive in Nigeria ; I don’t agree that we shall turn everybody into corpses; or that we shall go and buy our coffins or that everything shall die because of Biafra. Biafra is not a grave yard and we cannot forge a nation with skulls and bones; I don’t accept that everything will die if there is no Biafra; I don’t also accept that there is no compromise to Biafra; the alternative to Biafra is peace, love, justice, fairness and equity. Kalu’s violent rhetoric distracts from the real issue.
We have wasted enough human blood for the sake of Nigeria and we cannot allow violence and violent behaviors to silence the voices of peace, justice and equity which is the main purpose of our struggle for freedom. I don’t accept that either the blood of the Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba should be wasted for the pretentious unity of Nigeria or for its dismemberment.
Anytime the different components of the country are tired of living together and can no longer co-exist in peace, one option I will readily support is peaceful dissolution of the inconvenient marriage. On the wing of Buhari’s promise of ‘Change’; I am sorry to say that this ‘Change’ is fast becoming a problem.
Written by Clem Aguiyi
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