EMA GABRIEL writes that President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will be faced with the arduous task of uniting a people torn apart by religious and ethnic sentiments.
The 2023 general elections came with a lot of public disquiet but ethnicity and religious politics took the centre stage, particularly in the context of zoning and power rotation politics.
The balancing that produced the All Progressives Congress (APC) Muslim–Muslim ticket, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) Muslim–Christian ticket, and the Obi Southeastern factor, all of these left the country bitterly divided as followers and supporters fiercely advocated the righteousness of their political permutations against the opposition’s positions.
While the Christian assemblies, South easterners, and the youths saw the former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, and his Labour Party as the only hope for the salvation of the country, others in other sections of the country, particularly in the North and Southwest were favourably disposed towards the other major parties, especially the Peoples Democratic Party and the APC.
Ironically, the three candidates, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi pledged to unite and secure the country if elected president.
The country has since after the presidential election become more polarized along ethnic and religious lines.
But today, the onus lies on the president-elect, Bola Tinubu to heal the pains, disappointment, and agony that trailed the 2023 general elections and create ample opportunities for healing.
The separatist agitation in the South-east, which will certainly resume in full force after May 29, given the fact that Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party who is also from the region didn’t win the election, is already raising concerns.
Many aggrieved politicians in the region and their supporters are still nursing their wounds amid reports of massive rigging, voter intimidation, and violence that trailed the polls.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP have approached the election petition tribunal to challenge the outcome of the polls conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, in his first step to calm frayed nerves and begin the process of healing, the president-elect has extended a hand of fellowship to his two major opponents and their supporters to join him in the healing process.
In a statement issued by his media office and titled: ‘Elections are over, the Healing process must begin’, Tinubu called for calm.
While congratulating all the candidates-elect from the February 25 and March 11 elections, the former governor of Lagos State also praised the commitment of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, INEC, security agencies, observers, and Civil Society Organisations (CSOS)
He stated that he believed that consolidating democratic governance at the sub-national level would bring about more development and improved quality of life for the masses.
Disunity has always been one of the major banes of the Nigerian nationhood journey as various socio–cultural groups vie for power and control often through various means.
While successive governments have done their best to rein in such centrifugal forces, such tendencies show no signs of abetting particularly with Nigeria’s economic woes, perceived marginalization, and the lack of political will by those in authority.
Many people would agree that the outgoing administration has divided Nigerians along ethnic and religious lines, particularly through its appointments, which they say have ethnic and religious colouration with the southeasterners being at the receiving end.
While some see it as a consequence of the paltry support of the ruling APC in the region, others attribute it to the natural nepotistic idiosyncrasy and inclination of the president and the so–called Aso Rock cabal.
This perceived marginalisation and mismanagement of the country’s diversity, they say, has led to the escalation and worsening of the country’s security situation.
While Tinubu is an influential member of the APC, he is not known to have had or shared such a streak. His antecedent as Lagos State governor shows him as a detribalised Nigerian willing to seek, find and deploy the best hands and brains to the project or the task at hand regardless of their religious or ethnic background.
The likes of Joe Igbokwe and Wale Edun were notable faces in his then administration and they are projected to make the next Federal Executive Council list.
This is in addition to the fact that he is married to a Christian evangelist, Senator Oluremi Tinubu. The master strategist while eyeing his grand political ambition had always strived to extend his tentacles to all regions of the country, and he is a benefactor to many of these politicians. No wonder the likes of Senators Ken Nnamani and Chimaroke Nnamani and others in the southeast rallied to his call even against the tide of the OBIdient tsunami.
Tinubu was a prominent member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) movement that fought against the military and thus is no learner of Nigeria’s history, his rhetoric on the campaign trail, despite his Muslim-Muslim ticket has always captured the crux of the Nigerian ethnic–religious problem as he emphasizes competence and national integration.
Coming to the saddle with the May 29, inauguration, Tinubu a shrewd political operator will relish dismantling the perception tied to the incumbent administration by stretching his hands across the Niger and the four corners of the nation to show he is a detribalized president of the country.
While this will no doubt be a difficult challenge coming from an election that has been highly controversial with many in the opposition quarters unyielding, it is, however, imperative for him to pull all sections of the country together.
He is a man who has used diversity for his own end in the past and is keen on replicating it and in this, he seems to have the support of his party, which in recent times has been clamouring for greater representation of the southeast in the administration of things.
His campaign council paraded a rainbow of some of the most brilliant minds from across the country and these personalities were accessible to him, the likes of Andy Uba, Orji Uzor Kalu, and Victor Ndoma Egba among others.
The president – elect has been seen trying to rally some prominent faces to his unity agenda, including the likes of Tony Elumelu.
So, no doubt Nigerians should expect to see a new era of better diversity management, inclusion, and stability.