By Olu Fasan
Shortly before the 2023 presidential election, I wrote a piece titled “Yoruba ronu: A Tinubu presidency would tarnish your race” (Vanguard, February 16, 2023). The premise of that thoughtful and, in my view, patriotic intervention was threefold.
First, Bola Tinubu’s miasmic past was the antithesis of the honour-signalling ‘omoluabi’ ethos that Yorubas claim define them. His self-serving and feudalistic politics was entirely at odds with the ‘omoluabi’ core values. Second, Tinubu staked his presidential bid on “Emi lokan” (It’s my turn), but also on “Yoruba lokan” (It’s Yoruba’s turn).
Indeed, he said he was running for president to “save” the Yorubas. Third, despite Tinubu’s deep character flaws and divisive politics, some tribalistic Yoruba leaders abandoned the ‘omuluabi’ ethos and backed him simply because he’s Yoruba. But the chickens have come home to roost and the joke is not only on those Yoruba leaders; all Yorubas are vicariously liable for Tinubu’s failures.
Let’s be clear. Less than two years in power, Tinubu is an unmitigated failure. Every aspect of Nigeria’s political, economic and social life has deteriorated under him. His so-called economic “reforms”, which even the IMF recently said are not working, have deepened poverty and misery in Nigeria, and have decimated businesses, forcing the exit of several foreign ones. Recently, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, said nearly N1.5 trillion worth of finished products were unsold in the first half of this year, a 357.6 per cent increase from the first half of 2023, due to the precipitous decline of consumer purchasing power amid acute policy-driven inflation and cost-of-living crisis.
But leaving aside Tinubu’s policy blunders, another disturbing fact is that his government is entrenching state capture, utterly unconstrained by conflicts of interest. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently raised concerns about the state capture, the presidency responded, as it always does, with abuse and insults. Yet, truth be told, state capture, something Tinubu was reputed for in Lagos, both as governor and as godfather, has become a defining feature of his presidency. The subject is so important that it deserves a column of its own; so, let’s leave that for another day!
My focus here is another very important matter: Tinubu’s deliberate mismanagement of Nigeria’s diversity and utter disregard for the norms of equity, justice and fairness that must underpin Nigeria’s unity and stability. Tinubu ran for president by ruthlessly deploying the wedge issues of religion and ethnicity, and, in power, he doesn’t only run the first Muslim-Muslim or same-faith civilian presidency in Nigeria, but he also runs the most ethnicised government, Yorubanised at its core.
Tinubu famously said in an interview with ThisDay newspaper during the Abacha era: “I don’t believe in One Nigeria.” Well, one must wonder whether, deep down, Tinubu now does beyond fulfilling a self-interested ambition to rule the country. For how can any leader who truly cares about Nigeria’s unity flippantly stoke the two issues – religion and ethnicity – that can either unite or divide this fragile country?
The Muslim-Muslim presidency condemns Christianity to an inferior status by suggesting that no Christian is good enough to be vice-president to a Muslim president in a country where Christians and Muslims each make up about half of the population. But like Herod who after killing James went after Peter because he believed he could get away with it, Tinubu took the tolerance of Christian leaders on the Muslim-Muslim ticket to mean he could extend his self-serving divisiveness to ethnicity by filling virtually all the critical positions in his government, nay Nigeria’s government, with people from his ethnic group: the Yorubas.
Recently, the Vanguard columnist Dr Ugoji Egbujo called out the utter perversity of the Yorubanisation of Tinubu’s government in a column titled: “Is Tinubu settling scores?” (Vanguard, October 26, 2024). He pointed out rightly that virtually all the great offices of state are occupied by Yorubas.
Take the economic offices, a Yoruba is the CBN governor; Minister of Finance; Coordinating Minister of the Economy; Minister of Blue Economy; Minister of Digital Economy; Minister of Solid Minerals; Minister of Trade, Industries and Investment; Minister of Petroleum (Tinubu himself!); Head of Bank of Industry; and Head of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS. In the security fields, a Yoruba is the Chief of Army Staff; Inspector-General of Police; Head of DSS; Head of Immigration; and Head of Customs.
Indeed, a Yoruba is Tinubu’s Chief Protocol Officer, ADC, Chief Security officer and Commander of Brigade and Guards.
Of course, a Yoruba is the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, and Head of EFCC, not to mention the Chief Justice of the Federation!
Every conscionable Yoruba must be appalled by the utterly Yorubanised appointments. To its credit, Afenifere, led by Chief Ayo Adebanjo, condemned Tinubu’s outrageously lopsided appointments, describing them as “a threat to age-long inter-ethnic relationship and peaceful coexistence in Nigeria.” However, Chiefs Reuben Fasoranti and Olu Falae, who led a faction that supported Tinubu’s presidential bid, have remained silent. Remember that Pa Fasoranti had, in a letter, resigned and retired as Afenifere leader but came out of the woodwork to “reclaim” the leadership and endorse Tinubu.
Chief Falae said: “How can a national leader go against candidates that hail from his part of the country?” Put simply, they based their stance on a Yoruba saying that ‘omoeni ki sedibebere, ka fi ilekesiidiomoelomiran’, meaning that even if your child’s bottom is unfit, you won’t put beads in the bottom of someone else’s child. But endorsing your child to run a country of 230 million people and 370 ethnicities despite his deep character flaws and integrity deficits undermines the omoluabi ethos.
During the campaign, Tinubu told the Yorubas he was running for their sakes. “This election is yours. You will use it to liberate yourselves,” he said, adding: “They want to turn us into slaves. We are not slaves.” The “they” was the North. But in power, Tinubu’s policies have turned ordinary Yorubas into economic slaves while enriching his Yoruba cronies.
Yet, the Yorubas can’t escape vicarious blame for Tinubu’s failure. By putting Nigeria’s economy and security entirely in Yoruba hands, Tinubu is saying the Yorubas are a superior race. If he fails, as current trends indicate, the Yorubas will be tarred with the same brush.
Olu Fasan is a Visiting Fellow in the International Relations Department of the London School of Economics (LSE), and a member of the LSE’s International Trade Policy Unit.
He is also currently a senior adviser on energy and climate change policy with the UK Government.
