The Letter to the editor which appeared in the Daily Trust of July 17, 2018 entitled Yoruba and Bandwagon Politics by Mr. Frederick Nwabufo, made a very interesting reading. In one breadth, it exposes the typical mindset of an average Igbo-Man, and his infantile political development and persuasions in the Nigeria political firmament. In another breadth, it depicts someone with a poorly disguised envy laced with tinge of frustration for an ethnic nationality that have made significant headway worthy of emulation by all other tribes that constituted the geographical entity known and referred to as Nigeria!!
In truth, the Yoruba have been playing politics of ‘sheep and shepherd’ since 1960, despite their widely acknowledged educational accomplishment and wordly sophistication. It is also true that they have always requires a ‘chaperone’ to take them to the watering hole, not minding if the water is contaminated or not. In reality however, that has been the reason and secret behind their astronomical success and relevance in all sectors of human endeavors in Nigeria today!
Indeed, by uniting under a unified leadership, the Yoruba have been able to speak with one voice, often forging a common front in the pursuit of a definite target. This much have been their source of strength unlike the Igbos whose legendary clannishness, selfishness, Strong Individualism, psychotic love for Money, acclaimed lack of unity of purpose; and more often than note, working tangentially and at cross purpose, had rendered them perennial underachievers and mere political excess baggage roaming about like headless chicken in the Nigeria’s political wilderness!!
Mr. Frederick, unless your people wish to remain very poor students of politics till eternity, it was never too late to learn how to ‘TRUST’ in a single lodestar. And to do that, some personal sacrifices, and selflessness must come into play. Igbos MUST do away with such negative and selfish attributes which promote self-interest first before others and inability to speak with one voice in addition to mutual suspicion which more often than not negate political aspirations. And these have been the cause and reason for the mutual mistrust larger Nigerian society harbors against the Igbo Presidency. For, if the Igbos as a group, cannot trust any of their own brothers and sisters with leadership position, how much more, other ethnic nationalities?
President Buhari’s deployment of and total concentration of his attention to the SW, appeasing the Yoruba and giving them disproportionate and choicest portfolios, and huge capital votes for infrastructure development, to the detriment of other regions, especially the north, despite having giving the largest chunk of electoral votes which propelled him into power, testifies to the power of political bandwargonism and homogeneity which the Igbos and unfortunately the lacked at the moment!
However, it is not too late for Mr. Frederick to summons enough courage to wake his people up from their deep slumber and integrate them into the mainstream politics of Nigeria in their own enlightened self-interest and political survival if he can, because, as it stand today, clannishness, individualism, lack of unity of purpose and mutual distrust have been so much a serious disadvantage to the Igbos!
Kabir Tsakuwa, Kano
