By Igbotako Nowinta
It is insulting that Mamman Daura, who is at the head of a chain of desperate Fulani hegemony, that has forced buffoons, morons, idiots and mediocres on us as managers of our affairs in every strata of governance, since 2015, is now telling us about looking for ‘competent personality’ come 2023 presidential election. This insult coming from Mamman Daura has thrown a challenge to our generation, to rededicate our will, resources and our sacred honor, to a drastic process of restructuring the political landscape of Nigeria; to disconnect ourselves from the perpetual political strangulation orchestrated by the determined enemies of our patrimony; of putting our foot on the ground that political zoning and other parochial convenient tools being used to enslave us politically must be dismantled and thrown overboard. It is vexatious to know that the hopeless political system here has sucked the people of Nigeria into the orbit of unprecedented disaster and frustration, given the extreme powerlessness of the voter in changing the course and content of Nigeria’s democratic process.
In the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where so many American patriots died during the bloody civil war of 1861-1865, Congress decided to immortalize the fallen heroes with a national monument in 1863.
But, unknown to President Abraham Lincoln, his brief remarks on November 19, 1863 at Gettysburg, was destined to immortalize him as the most extraordinary American President, when the remarks became the greatest speech of his entire life.
Here is an excerpt: “That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Abraham Lincoln had made the ‘great proclamation’ that knocked down the cruel engine of ‘slavery’ in America on January 1, 1863; a fantastic strategy that ‘freed slaves in the Confederate States who rebelled against, but lost the battle to exit the American Union.
The famous ‘thirteen amendment’ to the American Constitution in December 1865 was also the brain child of Abraham Lincoln when Congress freed ‘All slaves and indentured servants in the United States.’
The presidency of Abraham Lincoln was characterized by superb concern for the genuine inherent and heinous challenges prevailing in his days. He had described his intervention in the horror of slavery as:
“The central act of my administration, and the greatest event of the twentieth century.”
Lincoln excellently made use of political leadership; the president proactively activated power altruistically and worked himself to the tilt of fatigue, to dismantle 74 years of the most humiliating savagery, called institutional slavery in the United States.
It is imperative to note that Lincoln went through multiple efforts and years to achieve his ultimate goal and ambition because the American system allowed him.
What do we have here? What has been obtainable in Nigerian system 60 years after independence? Must we clock 74 years like United States, before we institute paradigm shift in selecting the best guy for the highest job in the land?
It is excruciating to lament here that Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one of the best then was manipulated out of attaining the supreme job in our country in 1979, during the Second Republic.
That one opportunistic and clannish character called Mamman Daura in his recent Interview granted British Broadcasting Service (BBC) Hausa Service, declared that the current political masters should forget about zoning presidency (to the West) and go for competence, is an insult to our sensitivity and intelligence.
Who is Mamman Daura to be lecturing us about rotational presidency and selection of competent president come 2023?
What is his pedigree; a close relative of President Muhammadu Buhari; a former editor and managing director of New Nigerian Newspapers; a marvelous benefactor of the Buhari presidency, a great comprador, who belong to a cabal of aristocrats with visible distaste for democracy?
For those who do not know, Mamman Daura’s recent view was done to seek a subtle elongation of the rule of the Fulanis. Is Nigeria’s presidency instituted for only the Yorubas and the Hausas/Fulanis?
In spite of what the Easterners, South westerners and the Niger Deltans have contributed and still contributing pricelessly, to the continued existence of what we called Nigeria today, how many of our kinsmen have been allowed to ride the rosy horse of supreme power since independence?
The likes of Mamman Daura are not only selfish, inconsiderate and narrow minded but are terrible confusionists, absolute retrogressives and blatant political hypocrites who only lust for power, fight for power at all cost and are slaves to power, as long as the gong of power is being beaten by their clannish and ethnic brothers from Daura, Katsina State.
Yes, who says our country should not go for the best presidential material available for 2023; who says President Muhammadu Buhari should not continue in office if he would be able to adequately discharge and acquaint himself progressively in office before the 2023 presidential fever starts? Who says an average patriotic and cerebral Nigerian likes political zoning in the first place?
I don’t like zoning for sure, but those who initiated zoning formula did it out of the fact that a section of the country was riding rough shod over the others.
What gave birth to the zoning system in Nigeria, which became an intoxicating idea mostly during the Second Republic?
In case some of us have forgotten quickly, political zoning in Nigeria became a factor because Nigerian rulers, especially from the Hausa Fulani extraction, since the days of Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa felt the right to first class political governance belong to them.
Again, the clamor for political zoning system became a serious national issue because, the northern extraction within the military top brass in Nigeria, beginning from General Yakubu Gowon, selfishly cornered the office of the ‘Commander-in-Chief’ in Nigeria, for several years, along with deliberate placement of fellow tribesmen in charge of every first class political and management pie available.
It has even been a tradition in Nigeria that some Nigerians have had to change their religious toga for Moslem faith, in order to access’ contracts and juicy job placements’ within the system, because of the so called Northern tribal and religious superiority.
We have had painful unforgettable insults for decades, coming from people who called themselves ‘Nigerians’ or co-travelers in the name of Nigerian project, but who have exhibited the worst form of treachery, incompetence and profligacy in and around the corridors of power.
Bearing in mind that the bulk of the hard earned resources (crude oil) being used to run the country; and being utilized also to pamper and provide for characters like Mamman Daura, is from our soil in the Niger Delta, his recent statement is quite insultive.
It is insulting that Mamman Daura, who is at the head of a chain of desperate Fulani hegemony, that has forced buffoons, morons, idiots and mediocres on us as managers of our affairs in every strata of governance, since 2015, is now telling us about looking for ‘competent personality’ come 2023 presidential election.
This insult coming from Mamman Daura has thrown a challenge to our generation, to rededicate our will, resources and our sacred honor, to a drastic process of restructuring the political landscape of Nigeria; to disconnect ourselves from the perpetual political strangulation orchestrated by the determined enemies of our patrimony; of putting our foot on the ground that political zoning and other parochial convenient tools being used to enslave us politically must be dismantled and thrown overboard.
It is vexatious to know that the hopeless political system here has sucked the people of Nigeria into the orbit of unprecedented disaster and frustration, given the extreme powerlessness of the voter in changing the course and content of Nigeria’s democratic process.
We still have a genuine opportunity before 2023, to struggle fiercely; to uncompromisingly occupy a space in the political windows available; to vigorously push the best amongst us, who would pull our country, like what Abraham Lincoln did to United States of America in 1863 from the gutter of global ridicule, insults and shame.
