omohayek:
Your comments here are much more cogent and fact-based than the one you started the thread with, or the follow-up in which you insinuated (while carefully avoiding being explicit about who you were referring to) that Yorubas prefer northerners to people from the SE - which is rich with irony, given how many of the comments responding to this thread have been by the usual tribal warriors from that region gleefully mocking your "road to Damascus" experience or indulging in childish gloating.
Perhaps you ought to reflect on the possibility that any apparent lack of fondness for the SE you might be seeing just might stem from the unrelenting hostility, arrogance and hypocrisy of so many who claim that region as their place of origin (as witnessed on this very thread). The fact is that one hardly ever sees Hausas expressing such malicious intent towards people from the SW, and it is beyond reason to expect people to love those who seem to hate them intensely, despite millions of the group expressing said hatred having lived in their millions amongst the people they despise for decades, all the while unmolested and allowed to prosper. That said group seems to hate the northerners as much as it hates people from the SW is hardly any kind of redeeming feature.
Now, returning to the points you've made above, I agree with you that Cardoso has yet to prove himself being close to fit for the role of CBN governor, and I said as much on here, on the very day his appointment was announced. A good CBN governor needed to be someone with a strong economics background, as well as the backbone required to hike interest rates as needed no matter what Tinubu or other politicians might have wanted. Cardoso clearly lacked both qualities, which was why I foresaw he would be a failure in the role. It's clear that Tinubu has lost all appetite for serious reform after the backlash to his half-hearted effort at abolishing the petrol subsidy (which is still in place no matter what they say to contrary), so the last thing he wants is a CBN governor who is determined enough to bring down inflation to cause serious economic pain. Anything even slightly controversial (like deregulation of the power sector, or privatization of money-pit "parastatals" ) has been put aside for meaningless "palliatives" and other such measures to appease the masses. The consequence is that Nigeria's economy is now doomed to another 3 years of lackluster growth as we wait for the next electoral cycle to begin.
Having said all the above, what you need to ask yourself is not whether supporting Tinubu was the right thing to do, but whether any of the alternatives would have done better. Neither Atiku nor Obi have magic wands they could use to wish away the pain from abolishing the petrol subsidy, but they would still have been forced to start their terms by doing so, as the alternative was Nigeria defaulting on its foreign loans, and then being shut out of the financial markets for decades. Where would the funds have come from to offer more meaningful "palliatives" to appease the public wrath?
In addition, there is the question of whether either Atiku or Obi have shown themselves in word or deed as being even an iota more principled, honest or intelligent than Tinubu, and the answer is a clear NO. Atiku made his fortune by abusing every one of his public offices to award himself favorable concessions, while Obi refused to pay salaries or maintain roads for months on end, so he could skim the interest from parking the funds in a bank he had a share in, a sin he compounded through his theft of security vote funds (for which he was nabbed red-handed), his use of public money to prop up a brewery he controlled (by using his parents as fronts), and his opening of an offshore account in a foreign tax haven 4 years into his governorship. That was bad enough, but then look at how both men have pandered to the public at every turn since losing the election - neither has been honest that Nigeria was headed for serious short term pain no matter who won. I won't even get started on the reality that Obi could never have passed any legislation or got a single appointment through a NASS in which both the House and the Senate are controlled by the APC (and therefore, by Tinubu).
Please continue your criticism of Tinubu (criticism he richly deserves), but you don't do your argument any favors by giving it a tribal coloration suggesting he's in office because Yorubas are somehow particularly guilty of tribalism. If they were, Obi wouldn't have won in Lagos and Atiku in Osun, even as 90% of the SE gave their vote to a man they themselves called a "do-nothing" mediocrity while he was governor. If anything, it's the relentless, mostly baseless, and very clearly tribal nature of the attacks on Tinubu emanating from certain quarters which makes it harder for Yorubas to hold him to account. If the loudest voices against Tinubu are motivated purely by tribalism without regard for political ideology or personal records, what do Yorubas have to gain by abandoning their own for someone else's tribal champion who has nothing to offer beyond skewing appointments to his own "kinsmen"? Very succinct. |
