NIGERIA: Why Any Southerner That Joins #EndBadGovernance Protest Is A Fool

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There is no doubt that the political governance of Nigeria is beyond "bad". And there's no doubt that many key indices of the economy nosedived under the Bola Tinubu Administration. Yet, I make bold to say that any Southerner that joins the proposed #EndBadGovernance protest is totally deluded. Read on and get my points just now.

To start with, I challenge anyone to tell me anything that the Tinubu Administration has done that is a tenth as bad as what the Buhari Administration did when it backed Fulani herders to kill, maim, abduct, and rape Nigerians with impunity across the country for 8 years? Until someone takes this challenge, let me make my points based on the premise I've just established.

In case you don't agree with my points, that's okay. But you will only be fair in criticizing me if you read through attentively first before your criticisms come. Here are my points.

North Protected Buhari When He Did Far Worse Than Tinubu

Southern Nigerians are so complacent that they easily forget the past. So, I won't be surprised if someone thinks that the overall performance of the Tinubu Federal Government is worse than that of Buhari’s just because of the current pain of hunger. So, let me refresh such people’s memory…

The Buhari Administration committed the worst crimes any government can commit against its citizens. Perhaps, the worst of these crimes was about the then President Buhari empowering his own tribe to terrorize the country unhindered, with the help of the legislature, the judiciary, the police, and the armed forces.

Yet, there was never a single protest from Nigerians. When there was a protest at all, it was against police brutality rather than against much much weightier issues that should have pointed directly at the administration. Imagine what will happen now if the Tinubu Government goes as far as unleashing his Yoruba tribe on the rest of Nigerians to kill, maim, abduct, and rape them under the protection of the Federal Government police and the military and with zero interference from the legislature and the judiciary!

That's exactly what the Buhari Administration did with the Fulani for 8 long years and nobody ever protested against it. And even when Nigerians dared to protest at all against SARS (not even directly against the police or the Federal Government), Northerners were unanimous against the protest. Northern youths even went to the point of organising to fight against those southerners residing in the North who tried to join the protest.

Northern Criminals Enjoyed Kingly Treatment Under The Buhari Administration While Southern Freedom Fighters Were Treated As Criminals

It was more than obvious that the Buhari administration was using the Fulani against other Nigerians. Among other things, what made it most obvious was the fact that any southerner that dared to stand up against what the Fulani were doing, was immediately criminalized and treated very harshly by the same government. Are Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho not living examples of this with us today?

Yet, fellows like Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore’s Bodejo and Sheikh Gumi incessantly made highly seditious public statements but were never even invited for questioning for once by any of the security agencies. Yet, all the southern lawmakers sat so complacently with their overfed brains and bodies, and never spoke up against such clear injustices for once for 8 long years!

Now, imagine on the flip side, Tinubu using OPC to kill, maim, rape, and abduct Northerners right in their Northern communities. As he does this, Femi Fani Kayode comes up from time to time to defend  OPC’s terrorism saying it's happening as a result of Southwesterners being largely unemployed (as Gumi actually did). As Kayode is doing that, Gani Adams grants interviews to the press from time to time saying unapologetically that “Yorubas own Nigeria” (as Bodejo and other Miyetti voices actually did)!

You see, Nigerian southerners are so politically naive that I often feel like weeping for them. I blame this on a misguided understanding of the Christian teaching on love and forgiveness. Of what use is love and forgiveness when it works against those closest to you? Doesn't charity begin at home any more?

The #EndBadGovernance Protest Is A Northern Attempt To Oust Tinubu And Install Shettima As President

Haha! Someone will come up and call this a conspiracy theory. But before that happens, let me explain myself with clear points.

The Muslim-Muslim ticket of Tinubu was an irresistible bait he used to take the government from the North. It appealed to the typical northern Nigerian Muslim mindset of dominating others using religion. It worked. 

But it did not work for the northerners as expected by them. 

• For one, due to Bola Tinubu's much publicized ill-health then, northern politicians supported him to become president with the hope that he would die soon and be replaced by the vice president. 

• Plan B was that, even if Tinubu didn't die, he would at least be so functionally dead that the real management of the country would fall on the vice president. This way, the northern agenda to foist terrorism on the rest of the country would have continued unabated.

• Plan C was that, no matter what, Tinubu would be so frail and weak on the seat that Shettima would be controlling him. Unfortunately for them, Tinubu beat all the three plans by refusing to pander totally to the ungodly agenda. This is the actual reason why the #EndBadGovernance protests began to crop up from the North (as it is clear in this Punch Editorial) and southerners are stupidly catching the fever. Don't be fooled by the later statements by a few Arewa leaders who may or may not be aware of the pulsating conspiracy by Northern political gladiators.

That's why one of the hashtags says “#TinubuMustGo”. If Tinubu goes, who replaces him? Your guess is as good as mine. If Tinubu should go because of what Nigerians have passed through under him in about a year, but Buhari did not go because of far worse things that Nigerians passed through under him for 8 years, then, where is the justice?

Conclusion

No one knows everything. I have made my points on this issue. If you think I am wrong or I didn't quite get it, you can say what you think. It's democracy. You can comment your view below or here on Twitter.

And, before you begin to accuse me of having been paid by the Tinubu administration to write this, I also wrote here that "Peter Obi is the only true national political leader that Nigeria ever produced" so far. I'm all for truth and justice and nothing other than these values. Thank you.