Nigeria’s population is projected to rank world’s third largest by 2050, this is so important considering the fate of Africa’s acclaimed most populous nation in this against the requirement of hiring an above average, trustworthy era to guarantee a strong leadership that will inspire and prepare ahead to put the nation on comfortable stead ahead of that time.
To guarantee therefore a future where Nigerians’ potentials can find expression in the very competitive state, and a more demanding future, Nigerians themselves must be saddled with the task to recruit men and women of precise capacity to respond to immediate the nation’s challenges and plan for that future.
The recruitment benchmarks are often set to exclude the most important essentials like loyalty to the Nation and its people, competence, flawless character, value attraction and delivery on mandate. While one cannot altogether blame these deficiencies absolutely on political players, it serves to postulate that aloofness of the people themselves have created loopholes where persons of questionable pedigrees deny Nigerians the benefit of having functional and accountable leadership for long.
The practice where citizens only stare from a distance without offering alternative ideas and where the old but powerful tribesmen reign unchecked cannot, in all fairness promise the expected impact from a government – hence, the old tribe can give way but feed the nation from their wisdom without leading the way as its most active participants.
And this definitely is not a limiter on the basis of age, religion or even tribe. This old tribe basically touch on clear identification of an exclusive set of retrogressively conservative ‘tribe,’ whose selfish addiction to power without proportional delivery or whose political demography remain self-serving. They are the old tribe.
When on Saturday, January 15, 2022, a coalition of over 23 groups in the city of Kano, converged with an appeal that Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo should throw in the hat to seek the presidency of the country in 2023, it became clearer that the nation was heading towards provoking a fresh political culture and broader thinking.
The New Tribe positions the Vice President as a leader whose capacity, integrity and loyalty have become Nigeria’s huge capital to build broader national appeal in restoring Nigerian to its original tribe of patriots with whom divisive factors of ethnic, religious or other separatist elements have no space.
The movement, gathered at popular Meena Event Centre, in the heart of Kano, fiercely pointed Nigerians at the direction of a Senior Advocate who has through the instrument of the law and his office as President Buhari’s deputy, demonstrated that the entity called Nigeria remains his only constituency; that he’s gifted with a heart to accommodate and galvanize all Nigerians towards heralding a post-Buhari era that will ensure genuine identity and further rejuvenate the Nigerian economy by using the foremost available resources in Nigerians themselves.
The New Tribesmen also identified in Prof Osinbajo, a leader without any air of division, but one sold out to the country through his principal, and whose commitment to the nation he has institutionalized as a template for succeeding generations for leadership and political mentoring.
Sola Adeyeye, a Professor of Biological Sciences and Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, while delivering his keynote address at the historic event asserted, “History has brought our country to a defining moment. To be deaf to the moment is to miss the significance of it. To be blind to the signs of the times is to lose track, lose momentum, and lose the essence of the moment. It is always about the moment.
“It is about this moment. It is about today and what it portends for tomorrow. We gather here today because of what this moment is saying to us as Nigerians. He, who has ears, let him hear what this moment is saying. She, who is wise, let her pay attention to this moment. Let him or her, who is diligent, rise to the occasion as Nigeria gives birth to a new tribe.”
Continuing, Adeyeye said: “Nigeria has been calling for a new tribe for over six decades. Nigeria summons us to rise over and above our differences to embrace the things that we have in common.
“Nigeria enjoins us to rise beyond localised tongues and tribes to become a new Tribe- THE NIGERIAN. Because I am a biological scientist, please permit me to clarify that I am liberally using the word “tribe” in a colloquial sense to refer to a subspecies, Homo sapiens Nigerianus.
“A new tribe where no one is pulled down on account of differences in ethnicity or religion. The new tribe that cares for the man at the top, just as it cares for the Talakawa. This new tribe that embraces each and every one, irrespective of tongue, because we are all one tribe, a people bound by one destiny under God.”
The New Tribe’s birth spotlights a people of common destiny with a commitment to the peace, prosperity and harmony of all the people and citizens of this great country regardless of their ethnic, tribal, religious or even partisan background.
There is no disputing that as the nation grows, so are its proportional successes and equally its challenges. In the last seven years that Nigeria has been managed by President Buhari in collaboration with his deputy, one thing their critics cannot dispute in the best conscience, is this commitment to reverse infrastructural decay, expand the economy through diversifying and humongous investment in Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and stimulating the grassroots businesses using the template of the National Social Investment Programmes and COVID-19 Stimulus packages for homes, businesses and agriculture to reverse the nation’s misfortune at the time other A-class nations still had theirs to contend with.
This is all the Kano tribesmen reechoed, that Osinbajo will not only continue to reinforce the diversity of our people, but also become its pillar as he will continue to water the seed as already planted by the laudable programmes of President Buhari in the hope to sustain their joint legacies and improve on many more.
In doing this, gladly the Kano coalition appeared careful to assemble only men and women, not the regular ‘old tribe,’ of political investors, but a gathering of truly progressive-thinking players, energetic and results-driven younger but patriotic Nigerians whose only expectations are captured in a tribe that will forgo our identified divisions to embrace the best among the rest for the purpose to spearheading a fresh future in the interest of all of us and generations coming after our children.
Truly, they say no one is indispensable, yes, this is true. But woe betides a generation that fails to identify its God-sent gift at the exact time such individual appears on the scene. I dare say, that should this generation make the mistake of allowing this precious gift as exemplified in Prof Osinbajo slide from its grips, the much anticipated population escalation of 2050 and expected infrastructures may not only elude us, but Nigeria may never recover decades after, should the years of locust and cankerworms be excused in whatever guise.
We are talking of a tribe of Nigerians that can demystify the monetary inducement and shun the lure to sell out their conscience; a new set of tribe whose consideration for their offspring and their future can strike a deeper value than the enticement that fade with time. Of course, no one eats his cake and have it. So, in Osinbajo, a new consensus for Nigeria’s renaissance is being delivered and the question is who won’t subscribe?
VANGUARD
