By
Muhsin
Ibrahim
@muhsin234
A fact known to
some of my readers is that: praise-singing of individuals, especially
politicians of whatever party, is not what I do. Yes, it is still the same.
Today’s article is no different; for, I actually see nothing that
extraordinarily admirable with the person of Rotimi Amaechi. He’s much like,
below or a little above, his mates such as Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Malam
Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano; to PDP) Aliyu Wamako (Sokoto), Kashim Shettima (Borno; from ANPP) and
other PDP renegades. To me, and I don’t
stand to be corrected, they all deserted their former party after a meticulous
foresight that, among other things, they would not get what they wanted in the
party, and that could cost them very dearly to the extent of losing relevance
in the nation’s polity. Thus, to avoid anything of the sort, they renounced
their loyalties and found a niche in APC.
Today, many people
(supporters) think high of Amaechi as well as others. The recent debacle around
his screening/confirmation as a minister of Nigeria leaves a lot of salient
lessons but which many people have not traced. The massive, unprecedented
support he enjoys marks a milestone for a better Nigeria where differences in
religion, region and ethnicity are forgotten, or, at best, repressed. The
‘quality’ a person embodies is seen first and above everything else. This is an
evident of a moral awakening and a paradigm shift in our politics which was usually
characterized by hostility, bigotry and ethnocentrism.
I believe it
couldn’t be only me that noticed a kind of a vogue among numerous youths
interested in the country’s politics in the recent days. When the news broke out
that some so-called concerned individuals had petitioned against the National
Assembly not to screen Amaechi, many angry youths from around the country
started protesting. The protests took two shapes: physical and virtual. Those
that demonstrated in the Capital, Abuja could, as it were, be a hired
lot who might have little or nothing to do with their ‘messiah’. But those on
the social media did it with great passion and force.
It’s
particularly the northern youths that fascinated me the more, hence this
article. Many among my friends made several posts, decrying why their man, Amaechi
was not screened till the last day. They openly criticized their own, a fellow
northerner and a Muslim, the senate president, Bukola Saraki and accused him
for plotting everything. That’s interesting. Hitherto, what could have been
happening was the other way round, Amaechi’s close relationship with the
President notwithstanding. That’s why many northern youths did not see the Muslimness of almost everyone in the
former president, Goodluck Jonathan’s government, including his VP, Namadi
Sambo. They were simply all arna, infidels.
Thus, whosoever voted him had ‘blasphemed’, according to some zealots. It’s
unfortunate we were (and some still are) that extreme. No doubt Boko Haram
thrives.
I firmly believe
that many among the pro-Amaechi horde know little or nothing of his records as the
former Speaker of the Rivers state House of Assembly and a governor. He’s, to
them, a dedicated, uncorrupt Buharist who did everything possible until Buhari
was declared the winner of the 2015 presidential election. Hence, he deserves
to be rewarded. Others however believe that had the past mattered, he could not
be one of the ‘Meeks’ to form the President’s cabinet. Present and future are
all we should worry about; past is forgiven. And more theses still emerge. You
may not buy any of those suppositions, but one thing stands unique, and that’s
how a typical Hausa-Muslim youth from the North supports a typical non-Hausa
and Christian Southerner.
I hope the trend
continues. Nigeria is a pluralistic nation. The earlier we realize the beauty
and benefit of that the better. As I saw in a viral video a few days ago, some
Igbo people are calling for the recreation of Biafra. I doubt if they know how
Nigeria is. They should for once travel down North to see how their kinsmen live in
almost every dwelling of the region. Should they be granted the secessionist
state without any bloodshed, what would be the fate of those millions Igbo?
Should they take or abandon everything and migrate to Biafra, or stay and,
perhaps, be killed in the North? I recently learned that some Igbos in Kano
have vowed not to go anywhere whatsoever would happen. They have been here for
generations. A similar scenario may be obtained of the northerners living in the
south. This is it. This is our country; unity in diversity.
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