Opinion: Stop Lying, We Know Who Introduced Religion, Ethnicity Politics in 2023
By Comr Amos Kalu
The Presidency and his boys should wake up to their responsibility of fixing Nigeria and stop acting as if every Nigerian is blind because they are holding the helm of affairs on behalf of Nigerians. Gone are those days when they come up on National Dailies to twist our minds on realities of governance, no, today we are in the era of social media that doesn’t easily forget as evidence always abounds for anyone interested in the truth to confirm it.
It is a shame that the current administration has continued to make the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election their bone of contention at a time greater percentage of Nigerians are enduring hunger and starvation-induced by ill-informed policies and decisions of the administration, yet they come up on our national TVs and other fora to discuss Peter Obi instead of hunger, starvation, insecurity and struggling FX induced inflation on the economy.
They do it as if Peter Obi was the only contestant in 2023, why? If they are doing everything right, they should be less worried about 2027 and deliver on their mandate for time to be the deciding factor, not propaganda.
The latest outburst of the Presidency through Bayo Onanuga, the Special Advisor on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, that Obi incited religious and ethnic tensions during the 2023 Nigerian elections is a big fat lie that must be called out. Rather, it was the desperate APC led by Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu that not only introduced religion and ethnicity but also acted it out on all fronts during the balloting. Let me give you a few instances.
A leadership that is pointing at religion to dent their perceived opposition is the one that settled for a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the first time in Nigeria and still went away with it. They were so religiously desperate that they created fake Bishops and priests to endorse the abnormality, and we moved on as if nothing happened. But they pushed religious sentiment to Peter Obi because he visited a Church as a Christian and he was welcomed like everywhere else he went. In their tribalistic manner with subtlety, a supposed private conversation with a popular Pastor of Yoruba origin finds its way to the public domain and we get engulfed in discussing it and forgetting the Muslim-Muslim Ticket that was bothering us. They know exactly how the mind of the average Nigeria works and know how to manipulate it through the media at their disposal, So on what moral grounds is Onanuga talking about Peter Obi introducing religion to Nigerian politics when they were the ones who did not just introduce it, but they rode on it to snatch power by all means?
As for the ethnicity angle, we know who are the merchants of playing ethnic cards. That Tinubu brought a demonic same-faith ticket and Emilokan ethnic, tribal, and thuggery brand of politics is not a crime for Onanuga because in Nigeria the winner takes all. The ethnic card was their only guarantee to frustrate other tribes from winning them in Lagos and other Yoruba lands because their enlightened sons and daughters were strong proponents of the obedient movement. They were scared of the unity of purpose and Tinubu played that dangerous card and It worked for him. They were so desperate at it that they added violence and intimidation to it in public glare and at the end of the day, the proponents of those shameful acts in supposed ONE Nigeria are the Lords of the farm deciding what is right or what is wrong.
Mr. Bayo Onanuga should know that what created the Obidient movement was a necessity and desire for a paradigm shift and it cuts across creed, religion, tribe, and ethnicity, and is devoid of propaganda
Since you succeeded in snatching the power to make changes, focus on doing the right thing because neither Peter Obi nor his Obidents are responsible for your bad choices in policy that forced hardship on Nigerians. The way you have jettisoned governance to focus on Obi is a sign of your discomfort. You don’t need to tell us you’re not distracted because we already know how distracted and scared you have been for a man not in power to be getting attention both home and abroad more than all the power-holders put together. If you perform well enough, you shouldn’t be too worried about 2027.
Don’t be the Igbo proverbial Okorie that busied himself with chasing rats while his house was totally on fire.
Comr Amos Kalu is a Media Practitioner, Website Developer and ICT Expert. He writes from Abuja.
