The other day, I watched a video clip running on social media. The voice-over was warning of a plot by President Bola Tinubu to turn the North over to the French. I was very upset that any reasonable person would think up a thing like this and hope to sell it to any reasonable Northerner. I was so incensed that I wanted to ‘kill’ the video there and then. But my sixth sense said to watch it to the end. Then I would be able to react reasonably. So I did.
Does the man behind the plot shoot, a northerner doubtless, have ‘chief’ or mischief for a motive? Let’s start the unraveling right from here. Firstly, President Tinubu took the oath office to “protect, defend and uphold” Nigeria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Constitution gives his office extensive powers but not including one to sign away a part of the nation’s land space. If the president chooses to do that, which is what Mr. Shehu is implying, he breaches his oath of office and the Constitution at large. This makes him a traitor and liable to removal from office. An impeachment, not arguably, should be easy since the majority of senators are northerners. It should not be difficult for to pick up additional votes from senators even from the president’s geopolitical zones who do not back his treachery against the nation. The northerner is fearsomely patriotic, as seen in the prosecution of the Civil War. Having sacrificed so much, in life and material, to keep Nigeria one, he would not be about to undo all of this. Take that away.
Secondly, a president that is plotting to give away the North for recolonization shouldn’t be having very many ministers, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who knows and keeps government’s secrets, in his administration. It will be foolhardiness. A plot to split the country will be dead on arrival. A wet chicken, so to speak. Unless, Mr. Shehu Mahdi is suggesting that those ministers, including those for defence and interior as well as the Chief of Defence Staff, are a part of the plot. Which is doubtful because it will not be in their character to betray their region and people.
Now, let’s see the foreign power that is supposedly ready and prepared to buy a North-for-sale. France. The argument is that, having been forced out of their former colonies Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the French are looking for a new geopolitical foothold in West Africa. This also is a wide shot. For one, Paris, at the moment, is not politically stable to contemplate the revival of a long dead colonial fire. It died in the 1960s and France has said repeatedly that it wouldn’t be coming back to Africa or anywhere else as a colonizer again. It has kept its word so far. As for the loss of its economic investments in those parts of West Africa from which it has been sent away, by young soldiers who fought their way to power and state resource control, there is no indication that the losses are permanent. The soldiers won’t be in power for a very long time. Maybe a year or two. New civilian governments, certainly, will welcome the French back, with their weapons and business cards. It had happened before. The French know this and it is why they have quietly packed up and left. Thirdly, and let’s admit it, taking over northern Nigeria now won’t be a good buy geopolitically and economically. The north is a huge security red zone and nobody, least of all the French, will want to walk into an inferno like this one.
Now that the ‘chief’ is out of the picture, we have the mischief element left. A lot of it. It is obvious, the Tinubu government, right now, isn’t the beloved of anyone, not even in his Yoruba base. Everyone is hurting from its tough economic reform drive. But some are worse hit than others. And it’s these that, today, are playing crabs in a basket. There are individuals, in the North in particular, who have lost many of the privileges they enjoyed under the squander mania and freewheeling corruption of past governments. They are angry and want to hit back. How best to do it than make it look like everybody else is hurt! The North has become the political weapon of choice for disgruntled individuals to use against any government or system that seems not to favour them. It worked in the past because the purpose was noble, genuinely ideological and fixedly northern in context. Not so now. Statism has taken over and any shout of North! sounds hollow in the ear. The current anti-Tinubu campaign dressed in pro North sloganeering will not fare any better. If the goal is to pull down Tinubu, 2027 is still too long way away. But some desparados won’t stop trying.
Having now identified the blasphemer “King of the Jews”, let me, like Pilate, ask, “what do I do with him?” I hear some say “Crucify him! Crucifer him!!” No. Instead, let’s, like Pilate again, hand him over to his people to do with the enemy within as they please.
