By: Tabia Princewill
Nigerians need to be more discerning. In a country filled with special interests and rapacious individuals who would stop at nothing to safeguard their predatory lifestyles, one must always analyse and think critically about political statements: who benefits?
This should be the question on everyone’s mind whenever any issue is raised in Nigeria. Does the political elite in the South-East truly support the idea of Biafra, of secession, or is the issue of Igbo marginalisation funded, used as propaganda to derail an administration which has made fighting corruption one of its central objectives?
It is interesting to note that under a South-South President, a time which might have been the best to raise and finally address all issues of marginalisation for the South-South and the South East, many politicians of this extraction chose to blindly support their “son” and partake in many of the scandals which have come to define the era. Why did the politicians of Igbo extraction not raise their voices to call for more development in the South East under President Goodluck Jonathan? Why didn’t they speak on behalf of the poor Igbo or Niger Deltan?
“Marginalisation” only becomes a trending issue in Abuja when political appointments don’t seem to favour Igbo politicians. The idea, sadly, has little to do with the average Nigerian. In truth, all Nigerians are marginalised. The well-being of the poor and middle-classes, from the North, to the South, has hardly ever been a political priority. It is therefore all too easy to manipulate sentiments of desperation and hopelessness thus benefiting, yet again, the same selfish politicians who squander their chance at leadership on comforts for themselves and their immediate families alone, rather than acting on behalf of their communities and the country as a whole.
It is ironic that the anti-corruption fight is also viewed through an ethnic lens. Because the past President is from the South-South, any attempts at unveiling corruption which occurred under his watch is viewed as an attack on the entire region and its indigenes which is curious because whatever money left Nigeria’s coffers illegally, as the many cases and corruption allegations which are now in court show, did not serve to develop the region. It landed instead in private pockets. It was easier to
