BUHARI’S POLICIES AND THE ARAB AGENDA

Ihad this dreadful hunch deep down in the pit of my gut in the run up to the general elections of 2015. My trepidation was heightened by the dark mood prevalent then in the northern part of the country. Generally, the narrative was that, over there in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria’s flag was flying at half-mast because a “Christian unbeliever” in the person of Goodluck Jonathan was president of Nigeria. To the average northerner, if the “pure nobles of the unsullied prophet’s stock” (that is the Saudis) would be miffed with Nigeria, then Nigeria was doomed and the souls of its citizens would suffer equal damnation in the “hereafter.” Strange as it sounds to the refined mind, that melancholic broodings was as real as the fact that the president of Nigerian at that time was called “Goodluck Jonathan.” There was no doubt that Buhari contracted this infectious broodings whilst campaigning for the presidency. People like Femi Fani-Kayode and Gov. Ayodele Fayose did their utmost to bring to the consciousness of Nigerians that Buhari was not as cured of his religious jingoistic inclinations as he was making out during the campaigns. Alas, two years on from 2015 both Mr. Fani-Kayode and Gov. Fayose would readily gush in sheer delight that their prophetic insights were ignored to the perils of Nigerians who are now groaning under all manner of strange and haphazard government policies; especially to worry us is the de-secularisation of Nigeria in the name of some religio-financial treasury bond (sukkuk, uh? And where was this sukkuk when the world’s poorest people are to be found between latitude 400 north and latitude 400 south, corresponding to the region of the globe populated by Muslims?) Apparently, President Buhari has taken this creedal affair too far; what any sort of religious financing is expected to do is to shore up charities that are set up to reduce poverty amongst the adherents of that religion, not the sort of road-building programmes the government is touting. In the light of this fact, who will blame IPOB and other Christian groups who are demanding separate homelands for their people? President Buhari’s body language could be interpreted in the skewed appointments he has made to “key” positions of government and the cue taken thereof has been one of discrimination and insubordination against the “unbelievers” (the NHIS boss disrespecting the “unbeliever” Prof. Isaac Adewole, his boss; the Comptroller of Customs disrespecting the “unbeliever” Kemi Adeosun, his boss; the NNPC helmsman disrespecting the “unbeliever” Ibe Kachikwu, his boss; the storyline is everywhere one cares to look). In contrast, President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration did not emphasise religious differences because, beginning from his rich cabinet, every ethnic group was represented. It was President Jonathan who decided that the Sultan of Sokoto should be the permanent Amir Hajj and he backed the Sultan and other northern emirs in their varied endeavours. Now, the Emir of Zaria is being snubbed by President Buhari and Gov. El-Rufai because this emir “adopted” President Jonathan as “one of his sons.” To add salt to injury, it is “unbeliever” soldiers and policemen who are constantly risking all to lead the fight against the Boko Haram terror group because it is “haram” for “believers and brothers” to face off against one another in battle (ISIS would not produce graphic, gruesome videos of ambushes if they were sure they were fighting their fellow “believer” soldiers). Strange administration, this government, uh? And now, this revelation by the World Bank that Nigeria’s president sees a great chasm between a “Muslim North” and a “Christian South” and thus World Bank intervention projects should go to this “Muslim North” is not fair to the South because Islamic reactionaries in the North (Boko Haram specifically and Shariaphile governors generally) should not have arrested development in the North in the first place by wanton physical destructions and by stifling personal freedoms in deciding what sort of businesses individuals choose to pursue to better their lots.

Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna