Oladipo Oluwole
OpenLife Nigeria reports that as preparations gain momentum for the 2027 general elections, Mr. Oladipo Oluwole has warned against the deployment of ethno-religious sentiments to achieve predetermined objectives.
Outlaying dire consequences in such unhealthy persuasions, Oladipo, a retired top civil servant in Ogun State, gives further insights into the political trajectory of Nigeria, cautioning political players and columnists, who shape opinions in the public space, to re-order their bearings.
Using classical anecdotes, Oladipo fingered Chief Bode George and Alhaji Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, saying: “There is Chief Bode George’s spirit in Alhaji Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, while that of Baba-Ahmed seems to be very much in some journalists cum columnists, and Nigerians, as well.”
Oladipo Oluwole’s thoughts are reproduced below unedited
Chief George, a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, was hell bent on His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s disqualification from the 2023 presidential election, and if peradventure he won, he promised to ‘japa’ from the Nigerian shores. Asiwaju Tinubu eventually won the presidential election.
Somehow, many have ‘japad’, except Baba George! And he has, equally, been threatening His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, not to contest in 2027.
Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, an All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain, and a member of Northern Elders Forum, (NEF), recently resigned from President Tinubu’s government, as a political adviser.
He has, thereafter, followed Chief Bode’s political trajectory in calling on Tinubu and Atiku not to contest in 2027, (Both Baba George and Baba Ahmed have forgotten that God’s ways are, often, not of human comprehension.)
Baba-Ahmed’s recent remark on Northern political electoral strength in the build up to 2027 has equally received a lot of backlashes, in both the traditional and social media.
However, the intention of some Nigerians to condemn or praise Baba-Ahmed over his alleged overboard ethnic vituperation, has equally exposed some Nigerians as culprits .
By meshing with the issue of ethnicity, they were trying to condemn, or praise Baba-Ahmed for their own overboard sweeping ethnic generalization of an individual’s, or a group’s, view.
This gives filip to the saying that “ Until you have money to finance your temptations, don’t brag about morals.”
In essence, the sacred divine purpose of a good citizen, professional writer, journalist, columnist, or an author, is to enlighten the people, and change the society for the better, without any ethno-religious, political sentiment, prejudice, emotion, or whose ox is gored for writing, and speaking the TRUTH, whenever it matters most.
It is not to perpetrate crises, chaos, and falsehood)- 1994, Rwandan genocide, in view, please!
Hence, anyone, no matter the status, who is currently entrenched in the divisive religious and ethnocentric behavioral patterns, or any political self-interest permutation, towards the 2027 general elections, needs to be examined, and condemned as a number one enemy of this country which is on the edge of a precipice.
The duo of Tinubu and Atiku, (no matter the individual perception of each of them), are notable Nigerian political titans, still very much alive, visibly standing and politically relevant by God’s Special Grace.
Their political activities and wherewithal traversed the nooks and crannies of the Nigerian political landscape for decades with wide range of experiences.
Hence, for anyone to have dismissed, or relegated them to the background on mundane issues in the scheme of things, and the emerging new Nigerian nation is like tinkering with the seamless divine hands of The Almighty God in the affairs of men, or a nation’s critical moment.
To change a system, you often need to be part of the system, indeed.
In any thriving democracy, political party is an important institution for leadership recruitment process because it is a congregation and convergence of different interest groups, (ethno-religious, socio-political, and economic classes, low, middle, and upper, etc.)
Any extraneous, and divisive issue, like ethnicity or religion, therefore, outside the political parties, is extremely dangerous.
In essence, in the 2023 presidential election,it would have been morally wrong,not constitutionally for the APC to have chosen its presidential candidate from the North after His Excellency, former President Mohammad Buhari, a northerner’s 8years rule.
In like manner, it would have been morally wrong, not constitutionally wrong for the PDP to have chosen its presidential candidate from the South when a southerner, His Excellency, former President Ebele Jonathan, was the PDP lastest President- (And their Excellencies, former president Olusegun Obasanjo and Jonathan, both Southerners, had governed for 13years, out of the 16years of the PDP government- Except, the PDP is majorly a Southern political party?)
Hence, tactically employing any false narrative, or isolated divisive means like ethnicity or religion for whatever reasons, tends to be retrogressive in a multiparty system where each political party has its own internal mechanisms, moral rules and regulations for fairness, or to win an election..(APC, 2023 presidential Muslim/Muslim ticket, in view).
Therefore, Zoning, in any form at both the federal and state levels, could only be evenly and seamlessly implemented, when it is expressly enacted in the Nigerian constitution, except in a one party system.
More often, ethno-religious sentiment is employed by the politicians, not necessarily in the interest of the people, but whenever it’s convenient for their political self interests, and to achieve certain preconceived political ends or power.
Both Tinubu and Atiku, therefore, in their oneness passion for services to the nation, in their respective twilight years, could not have been the problems, if the APC, PDP, and the Nigerian political elites are sincere enough, not to become their own problems because of their political self-centrednesss!
The Nigerian masses, in the process of ignorantly, or knowingly following the wrong political narratives of the politicians cum political parties often allowed themselves to be misled in their choices of political leadership.
In essence, if peradventure, omission, commission, ethno-religious or politico-selfinterest are allowed, it’s not only going to be a great disaster for the parties involved, but future grief, and lamentations, of the highest order, for the entire citizenry.
Oladipo Oluwole, Public affairs analyst and Social commentator can be reached via: oladopooluwole21@gmai.com
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