A former commissioner for Agriculture in Kaduna State and Director-General, Nigerian Agribusiness Group, Dr Manzo Maigari, made a submission the other day. In an interview with The PUNCH he tied the support northern All Progressives Congress governors gave the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the last election to “individual’s interest.” His explanation is that politics is about interest and the support northern APC governors gave Asiwaju isn’t surprising because every politician is in this to protect their interest. Here, I take the conversation further.
Incidentally, just last week I promised one day to take a closer look at the manner northern APC governors supported Asiwaju before and during the presidential election. Maigari’s submission has stampeded me to take on the topic now, even though I’m not sure the implications of what the governors did have fully matured enough in my mind for me to do justice to it. For what they did isn’t a phenomenon that should be undervalued or misunderstood in the scheme of things as they stand. Their action deserves more than that and it’s the contribution I’m making here.
Now, Maigari is a friend, known to me since 2015 in the course of the political campaigns in Kaduna State. I interviewed him on a couple of occasions and remained in touch while he was a commissioner in the state. I know him to speak frankly to issues. He campaigned vigorously for Malam Nasir El-Rufai in the southern parts of Kaduna State where he comes from. I recall him telling me how much he had to struggle to counter the lies of the opposition who went about saying that the APC government under the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) and Governor Nasir El-rufai would Islamise Nigeria. He travelled to remote places to disseminate information about these candidates. As for his view on northern APC governors’ support for Asiwaju, I think Maigari interpreted things as a northerner and politician. But I express my view here as a southerner and a journalist with a political science background.
No doubt interest drives politics. It’s what brings people together under one party to seek political power. Each person stays where there’s a chance for them to fulfill their political aspirations. It’s also important that a politician operates within a team. The team watches his back and protects his interest. In order to execute what they have in mind, being in politics and liaising with others of like-minds is equally important. Interest as a spur for playing politics extends to that and much more. But there’s a point where playing politics must move from individual interest to national interest. It extends into what is for common interest, the public good, something philosophers of ancient times spoke about extensively.
I think the picture isn’t complete when playing politics is narrowed down to interest of the individual or interest of a team of politicians under a political party. Across Africa, political office holders are accused of pursuing personal interests as against those of the people. This is manifested in corrupt practices in government offices that ensure public services are poor and the masses suffer the consequences. We see this when politicians choose to pursue policies that serve mainly their individual interest. It’s there when politicians make laws that serve their purpose and when they make laws that serve the moment not the future. The harm this does is not small. Self-serving politicking ends up narrowing space, excluding the majority, and it sometimes disunites the nation. This situation may even lead to discontent that spurs calls for, as well as acceptance of, illegal challenge to power such as military coups that have resurfaced on the continent.
In Nigeria, I think what transpired before the party primaries in 2022 and the presidential election in 2023, hasn’t been fully digested by most Nigerians. Here, I specifically refer to the support of northern APC governors to the emergence of a southerner as president-elect. These governors, at the risk of opposing some entrenched interests, came together for the emergence and election of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Sometimes, I imagine the callous destroy-it-all campaign launched by those who put a party together months before election and hoped they could win the presidency fouled the air so much that this nationalistic move by northern APC governors hasn’t been appropriately assessed and appreciated. Their activity and utterances don’t allow many Nigerians to see the super-relevance of the northern APC governors in the scheme of things. For me, the fact that this nation is where it is, in peace and awaiting the swearing-in of the president-elect, is in large part due to the kind of decision northern APC governors took at the time they did.
I made some points regarding this in passing in my previous interventions. I stated that had the two major parties – APC and PDP – produced presidential candidates of northern extraction, this country wouldn’t be where it is at the moment. If another northerner were to succeed the president the country wouldn’t be where it is. The South would have been in full mutiny. But moving the presidency to the South, the unwritten rotational arrangement, has helped to stabilise the nation. That’s the stage where we are in our political development. It’s the reality. Ignoring that reality is in itself playing with the well-being of the nation. Northern APC governors knew this so they took a decision in favour of the nation. That’s beyond individual interest. It’s working for public good.
I think I can congratulate myself over how northerners in general supported a presidential candidate from the South when they could have supported a candidate from the North. At the primaries northern APC governors could have supported an aspirant from the North. The 2023 presidential election hadn’t even happened when they said they would support Asiwaju and that they would persuade their people to do the same. My congratulating myself over this is linked to a discussion I had in 2018 with an educated person who was from the South. He claimed that northerners couldn’t be trusted. He said northerners would support another northerner in 2023.
Many from the South share this kind of sentiment about northerners over every issue. It’s those who don’t like northerners and don’t see anything good about northerners that mostly do this. Ironically, they tend to be those who don’t know northerners close-up but believe the negative news about the North which some media outlets dish out. I told this educated person that I didn’t read the politics that northerners play that way and I said northerners would surely support a presidential candidate from the South in 2023. If one has been in contact with northerners for decades, and has sat in discussion with those who have influence on their people, his view won’t be different from mine.
When one has listened to relevant people in the North, one would know that their zeal is for the well-being of Nigeria and they would support any measure to ensure it. Those are the northerners I know. In terms of watching out for the good of this nation, such northerners cannot be differentiated from any southerner who shares the same orientation. They are as patriotic as anyone may want to claim to be. Northern APC governors put this on display in the last election and thereby proved my understanding of the North right.
That time, it wasn’t individual interest that these governors pursued. I imagine a self-centred politician from the North might feel that a northerner as president would better serve their interest. Northern APC governors didn’t think that way. Some other politicians might have thought they would get the support of northerners better if they supported a presidential candidate from the North. In fact, this would have been easier for northern APC governors to do.
Instead, they worked hard to convince even relevant stakeholders such as Muslim clerics and traditional leaders (the opinion leaders many core northerners listen to) to support Asiwaju for the sake of the nation’s unity. To cap it all, and for the same reason, many past political office holders from the North supported the emergence of a president from the South rather than another one from the North. This thing is beyond the individual’s interest. It’s statesmanship at its best on display.
