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Thursday,Dec 24,2009
Dim Ojukwu and Peter Obi’s Re-election Campaign
Former Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, has reportedly vowed to return Peter Obi to the Government ....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Dec 17,2009
Don’t Cry for Me, Nigeria
It must have been around 1984 that Wole Soyinka declared his generation, ‘the wasted generation’. The 1....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Dec 10,2009
A Nation in Coma: Beyond Constitutional Provisions
Nigeria is once again at one of those junctures where tripping over the precipice cannot be ruled out. At issue is ....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Dec 03,2009
Uba’s Honorary Doctorate: Why UniZik Was Right
The recent award by Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UniZik), of an honorary Doctor of Public Administration (DPA), to An....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Nov 26,2009
Sanusi: A Radical in a Conservative Job?
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is a very brilliant man. He writes the English language with remarkable authority, and e....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Nov 19,2009
Anambra State Needs Liberation
Anambra state has been in the news, often for the wrong reason, for much of the 4th Republic. It has in many ways b....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Nov 12,2009
Heroes, Democracy, and the ‘PhD’ syndrome
A nation that does not honour its heroes is not worth dying for –so goes the cliché. This appear....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Thursday,Aug 06,2009
Are We Trying to Pull Down Barrack Obama?
Since Barrack Obama announced a visit to Africa, his relationship with Nigerian Internet bloggers seems to have sou....
By Jideofor Adibe
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Yaradua’s AWOL and Ethnic Profiling*
By:
Jideofor Adibe
pcjadibe@yahoo.com
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Since President Yaradua vamoosed from Nigeria nearly three months ago, on medical trip to Saudi Arabia, without officially notifying the National Assembly, there has been palpable anger and frustration in the land. There is understandable fury that Nigerians are being taken for a ride by a cabal around the presidency who apparently prefer to play a hide-and-seek game with Nigerians while the country hung on a precipice. Thee are also frustrations that the President’s ‘Away Without Official Leave’ (AWOL) seems to have grounded the country to a halt while this shadowy group continues to argue that everything is OK and that the President’s absence has not affected governance.
Predictably, Yaradua’s AWOL has led to a sharpening of the old North-South divide, with some nationalities openly threatening secession and accusing the “Hausa/Fulani oligarchy” of treating the rest of the country with contempt. Implicit in the argument of this group is that because Yaradua is from the North, the entire North has conspired to take Nigerians for a ride just because “it does not want to relinquish power to someone from the political South.”
While the position of some Northern groups may not have helped matters, I would however argue that blaming the North for the current constitutional crisis arising from Yaradua’s AWOL is simplistic:
One, the North as a geographical expression and entity cannot take any action on its own. People act in the name of geographical entities - North, South, West, Southeast, South South etc. There are factions and even fractions within the elites in every ethnic group and geographical entity. These elites also belong to groups that could be crosscutting such as political parties and professional or social associations. At any given issue, the interests of some factions of the elite from each ethnic group could converge, leading to temporary alliances. In this sense, it is possible that most of those purporting to champion the interest of the North or South in the current situation in the country are merely different geographical factions of the Nigerian elite who are conveniently using ethnic sentiments to mask their vested interests. Of course there are those who are motivated purely by ‘national interest’.
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Articles published on this website are reviewed before publication, which means there may be a delay between the time you sent your article and its appearance on the website. Holler Africa! reserves the right to edit articles for style and length.
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This article has simplified / clarified this hot issue in Nigeria.
Africa always has new problems and Europe and the West always learn from Africa's mistakes. The west always learn and strengthen their democratic institutions mainly in the area of transparency.
The crux of the matter is does Africa learn from its own mistakes? How many African countries are actively taking a leaf from what is happening in Nigeria and are already strengthening their democratic institutions?
Dr Adibe it would be good to know how many people are in the North and how many are in the South (population)
It is a great article.
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