ONU JOHN ONWE 
Th Recently this disturbing news of ‘Citizen’ Eucharia Nwamara’s proposed appointment as caretaker chairman of Odigbo Local Government Development Area by Ondo State Government and the indigenes of the area’s opposition against it because of her ethnicity bring in sharp focus the stark reality of Nigeria’s dysfunctional condition a lie to whatever promise of hope President Bola Tinubu holds out to Nigeria. Indeed, I listened to Mr. Tinubu’s address to the Nigerian Bar Association at the opening ceremony of its this year conference at Abuja and I came away with the conviction that he does not understand what Nigerians hope for, and aspire for in nation building.
If all Mr. Tinubu told the delegates to NBA 2023 Annual General Conference is what his renewed hope mantra is all about then there is no hope for Nigeria. Tinubu talked about ‘’banishing poverty, improving Nigeria’s economy by reversing the present State of using virtually Nigeria’s earnings to service foreign debts and of course building infrastructure. All these were the usual preoccupations of Nigeria rulers once they seized Nigerian State either through sham elections or Coup d’états from 1960 to date.
Ordinarily, the NBA National Conference offers any political leader, especially the president of Nigeria a great opportunity to reason with this very critical public of Nigerian society on the Nigerian condition but that opportunity was frittered away starting with the NBA President, Maikyau’s sycophant poor address and Mr. Tinubu’s equally sarcastic political ‘yabbis’ he is noted for. The core or taproot of Nigeria’s problem does not lie in failed socio-economic infrastructure (public debts, poor energy resources, lack or poor transportation system, and in- security.)
Nigeria’s problem Achebe tagged “trouble” lies in the basic question: do we have a nation that Nigerians people have agreed to live, work and prosper in with the status of undivided citizenship? This is the basic question and that is the question if truthfully and honestly answer will determine if Mr. Tinubu’s ‘renewed hope’ or indeed any other hopes can give rise to a healed nation and resuscitated Nigerian State. Unless this basic question is answered very truthfully and honestly, Nigeria can never rise beyond the present cloud of uncertainties and social stupor.
Whatever hope or faith held by President Tinubu or those supporting him will come to naught because hope like faith does not hold any substance or real likelihood or probability of actualization unless it is anchored on honest idea and good work or labour. So, it against the backdrop of Mr. Tinubu’s effusive recline on his ‘renewed hopes’ mantra that ‘Citizen’ Eucharia Nwamara’s political odyssey may be juxtaposed and interrogated.
According to the news swirling around ‘Citizen’ Nwamara and her proposed appointment as the Caretaker Chairman of Odigbo Local Development Area of Ondo State by the Ondo State Government, the proposed appointment was virulently opposed by the indigenes of the local government development area. She is an Igbo. Being an Igbo, to her antagonists she is disqualified to be so appointed because according to the indigenes and their traditional ruler and leaders they cannot be subjected to the odious situation of being led or answerable to a non indigene that does not understand their custom.
But according to the news report, ‘Citizen’ Eucharia Nwamara is an elected councilor and has lived in that locality for over 38 years but all these attributes are not good enough to qualify her to be appointed into a higher office. And the only limiting factor that disqualifies her is her ethnicity and perhaps, her gender, though this was not quite pronounced in the opposers’ statements of opposition. There is the other factor, though not directly stated but highly nuanced in the opposers’ statements of opposition which is the suspicion that the proposed appointment is being attributed to the wife of the Governor, Mrs. Betty Akeredolu who is an Igbo.
So, to the jaundiced minds of the opposers to the appointment of ‘Citizen’ Eucharia Nwamara, there was no merit in the appointment of her without a probable nepotistic or tribal intervention of Mrs. Betty Akeredolu. But it would also be right to ask the opposers if it was Mrs. Akeredolu that imposed ‘Citizen’ Eucharia Nwamara on the Ore ward people and party before her party proposed and sponsored her for her present position as councilor in the local government.
The opponents, clearly are utilizing the tool of blackmail and ethnic profiling which the Lagos rabble utilized to a devastating ends during the 2023 general election against the Igbo and other ethnic group in Lagos without any governmental or All Progressives Congress leaders’ condemnation or stricture. The problem of Nigeria is the hypocritical leadership that refuses to understand or if they understood, the fact that Nigeria was not formed by the peoples of Nigeria but rather that Britain formed Nigeria for its own selfish purposes.
Three political leaders (Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello and Obafemi Awolowo) understood this point clearly and declared their stands as early as 1947, 1951 and 1960 but Britain manoeuved them from interrogating their ideas and deploying them to the formation processes of Nigeria. The result of this denial of the leaders their right to utilize their political standpoints led to the imposition of a constitutional framework that emphasized tribal State structure and autocratic constitutional framework in the formation and operation of Nigeria.
By 1966 this Nigeria’s State structure and autocratic constitutional framework were twisted to grotesque state and the country has stumbled from one tragic end to the other since 1960 to date. And the leaders have pretended that the problem of Nigeria is leadership and corruption. Each ruler takers over from the other promising heavens and the earth and always hoping that his own tour of duty would be better than that of his predecessor but at the end his administration would turn out worse.
What is responsible for this outcome? What is responsible is the hypocrisy that blinds the leaders from the truth that Nigeria is not created on the hopes and faith of Nigerian people. It was created on the hopes of Britain founded on its selfish interests. It is the refusal of the Nigerian rulers to acknowledge this fact and work to resolve this fundamental existential issue or question and purpose that is responsible for the dysfunctional condition of the country. Mr. Tinubu promises ‘renewed hope’ but his ideas of hopes are radically different from that of the common people’s of Nigeria.
Mr. Tinubu thinks about the bad economy, insecurity and decayed socio-economic infrastructure but never appreciates the fact that the people’s hopes to be free, to relate with each other as Nigerians, organize themselves to do those things which every person or community can do to raise themselves and overcome daily challenges of life is the bedrock of societal progress and achievement of nationhood. Think about it, who is that Yoruba man, Igbo man or Hausa man that will open his mouth in condemnation of his fellow Nigerian or lift a hand to hurt his fellow Nigerian except the rulers manipulated them to that end?
None! Lagos in its cosmopolitan nature best epitomizes Nigerian dream of Unity in diversity but it took the All Progressives Congress politics of 2015-2023 to excite ethnic hatreds between the Igbo and Yoruba in Lagos where Oba of Lagos threatened to drown in the Lagos lagoons the Igbo that refuses to vote APC and this threat was carried out in 2023 by the APC mob as can be seen in the ‘Citizen’ Eucharia Nwamara debacle in Ondo State, the virus of ethnic hatred is spreading.
The ‘renewed hope’ President Tinubu can present to Nigeria is to recreate Nigeria on the framework of freedom, equality and egalitarianism. If the constitutional framework is recreated to assure Nigerians of undivided common citizenship clothed with fundamental rights then his renewed hope must have become real instead of worthless political mantra that it is presently.
