Of hatred and new realities

These are interesting times. It is a time when the wind of controversy has hit the rooftops and is freely exposing the rump of the chicken. It is a time when accustomed men of controversy are courting more controversy by throwing faggots into a blazing fire. And what we are reaping in the process is an unpalatable amalgam of the bad, the ugly and the ridiculous.
A very notable figure in this regard is the man called Ango Abdullahi. Many of us first encountered this man in 1986. He was then the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University. A certain crisis had erupted in the university, leading to the death of four students. There was uproar against the authorities of the university led by Ango Abdullahi. But the man at the centre of the storm saw the situation differently. He did not see the reason for the hue and cry for, according to him, “only four” students died in the fracas. That insensitive remark infuriated Nigerian students. They embarked on solidarity protests that led to the closure of all Nigerian universities for six weeks. That was Ango Abdullahi. He made all of us to stay at home compulsorily for six weeks. Ironically, the man who shut down the entire university system in Nigeria some 31 years ago is today protesting the shut down order by some young men in Eastern Nigeria, a region that he probably may not have visited.
Even though Ango Abdullahi sinned against the critical mass of the country at that time, he went scot-free. The Nigerian government led by Ibrahim Babangida did not stigmatise him. He served out his tenure as vice chancellor. At that time, some pitied the man because they thought that he committed a Freudian slip. They thought that he, privately and inwardly, regretted his verbal blunder. But he did not as the events of later years were to prove. Thereafter, he retired into oblivion.
Not much was heard about this man again until 2014 when the campaign for the 2015 presidential elections assumed feverish dimension. Abdullahi popped up again. This time he gave himself away as an irredentist. His views had a clearly regional slant. You could not believe that someone with his level of education could be so parochial and sectional. He was not just a regional champion; he pushed his agenda across in a very crude manner. Some attributed his irascible disposition to old age. But those who knew him way back were differently persuaded. They said he was being his vintage self.
In recent weeks, this man has been in the news for the wrong reasons. In a recent interview he granted to a national newspaper, the man castigated the idea of Biafra’s separatist agitation. He was not the first to do so. But he descended to the pit of abuse and guttersnipe when he spoke so disparagingly of the Igbo. He said the first military coup took place in Nigeria because the Igbo wanted to “pocket” the rest of the country. He justified all the reprisals that the Igbo have been facing since then and advised the authorities to descend on the agitators with strong hands. Nobody bothered to join issues with him. He had his say and his way.
But those who took notice of his hateful remarks could no longer look away when the Arewa youths came up with the anti-Igbo rhetoric. The youths in their Kaduna Declaration mirrored Ango Abdullahi very faithfully. They amplified his position that the Igbo, through the first military coup, inflicted bloodshed on the country and should, therefore, be despised and punished. And to confirm the fact that he is in league with the belligerent youths, Ango Abdullahi stepped out boldly to endorse their declaration. It then became evident that the Arewa youths did not act on their own; they had their script written for them by Abdullahi and his cohorts. I have not stopped wondering at the old man’s hateful disposition. Is it proper that someone should go to his grave, promoting and propagating hate against his fellow mortals? Hate taken to the grave must be of a very poisonous variety. Certainly, Abdullahi has cultivated a lot of disciples. The Arewa youths are his faithful offspring.
When you leave the hateful province of the Ango Abdullahis, you step into some other budding irredentists whose disposition may not bother so much on hate but on blind allegiance to the inequitable order, which the North is very protective of. A frontline representative of this tendency is the man called Rabiu Kwankwaso. This former governor of Kano State may not be seized by hate like Ango Abdullahi, but he is known to be fiercely protective of those structures that have given the North an advantage in the Nigerian equation.
A few years ago, Kwankwaso rose against Festus Odimegwu, as the Chairman of the National Population Commission. Odimegwu had remarked then that no credible population census had taken place in Nigeria from inception. He promised to conduct a census that would reflect the true picture of things in Nigeria. No sooner had Odimegwu said this than the Kwankwasos of the North descended on him. They told President Goodluck Jonathan to remove Odimegwu else the North would boycott the next census. Jonathan obeyed and Odimegwu lost his job.
Kwankwaso is at it again. He has lent his voice to the tension in the land occasioned by the Kaduna Declaration. Kwankwaso’s response is that the Igbo should renounce Biafra. Can you see how unthinking some highly placed Nigerians can be? The Igbo as a collective have not said they want Biafra. What we have are organised groups, agitating for Biafra. But if Kwankwaso were to be interested in practical reality, he would not have said what he said. He would have recognised that Biafra is not something that anybody can wish away. He would have taken into consideration the fact that Biafra defines the Igbo story and cannot, therefore, be dismissed with a wave of the hand. Kwankwaso was not reflective in his statement. He, in a way, betrayed his private convictions, which is that the quit notice his boys issued to the Igbo stays except they drop the agitation for Biafra. Nothing can be as shallow as this kind of remark.
Certainly, Nigeria is squirming with discomfort over the likes of Ango Abdullahi and Rabiu Kwankwaso. But there appears to be a silver lining at the end of the long, dark tunnel. And that hope of a bright new day is represented by the likes of Ibrahim Babangida. As a former military Head of State, Babangida was one of those who bequeathed to Nigeria the very system that the Kwankwasos of the North are guarding jealously. But in old age and after taking practical realities into consideration, Babangida has advised those at the helm of affairs in the country to restructure Nigeria. That is statesmanship. It is a show of maturity. Babangida is not sticking to the old order because he was one of those that created it. He has reflected on the mood and condition of the country and has decided to respond appropriately. Nigeria needs this kind of flexibility to save itself from the looming danger.