The Rage of a Former Senator

Joseph Waku, former Senator from Benue State and the current Vice National Chairperson of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF)

This has been a particularly difficult week for all those who have been fighting to keep Nigeria united. Metaphorically, Nigeria is like a sinking ship. And there are two distinct camps engaged in the fight to save or abandon that ship. They are the agents of peace and the managers of a violent form of religious ideology. From the army and the police, from the department of state security right up to the presidency, the future of Nigeria is being contested violently and vigorously by those who want the country to remain united and those who subscribe to the weird idea that everyone must subscribe to their religious beliefs or be consumed by violence.

The agents of violence do not believe in dialogue or compromise or anything that would subject their creed to some form of negotiation. Their manifesto is constructed on the platform of the devil’s alternative – the notion that you are either with them or you are an infidel who must be obliterated.

The struggle to save Nigeria has not been helped by politicians who express acerbic sentiments that highlight regional and religious differences that are designed to inflame public opinion about how to rescue Nigeria from tumbling into an abyss. No country is managed successfully on the basis that one group holds a superior idea about how the nation should be governed. This is precisely the kind of silly perspective that Joseph Waku, former senator from Benue State and current vice national chairperson of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), propagated provocatively in an interview he granted this week to the Daily Sun (Sunday, 12 February 2012).

Waku’s comments in the interview portray him in two ways: first, as a victim of creeping senility who deserves sympathy; and second as an agent provocateur of the north. In either case, he presented himself as a man with something of a split personality. He is originally from the Middle Belt, a region that has never been accepted by northerners as part of the “north”, and yet he considers it marvellous to speak as the chief defender of the north.

Waku’s contempt and hatred for President Goodluck Jonathan were evident in the outlandish comments he made during the interview. He perceives Jonathan as an ethnic champion, a man who has appropriated all important national posts and offered them to his kith and kin. For example, Waku said: “Jonathan went and picked National Security Adviser from his village. He picked Director-General of SSS from his village. He picked Chief of Army Staff from his village. So, Nigerians are folding their arms to watch these people if they can help to solve the nation’s security issues. He also brought in an Inspector-General of Police whom he knew ab initio of his incompetence when he served as the Commissioner of Police in Bayelsa State during his tenure as the governor of the State. Is this a pay-back time? You don’t personalize governance. If you personalize governance, the nation suffers. And that is the dilemma we are going through today.”

Comments like these are not only designed to spread inter-ethnic tension and hatred but are also intended to portray Jonathan negatively as a president who is more interested in empowering people from his region rather than commit to reflect the so-called federal character. In all the federal appointments that Jonathan made since he was sworn in last year, Waku has seen nothing to suggest the promotion of national character. All he has seen, even with the aid of his distinctively ethnocentrically-coloured glasses, is the elevation to high offices of people who share the same ethnic and regional origins as the president.

While I am not a defender of Jonathan and his government, it must be said that what Waku overlooked conveniently in his critique of Jonathan’s presidency is that, over the years that Nigeria was ruled by military tyrants or governed by elected presidents, not only did the north benefit from more appointments at the federal level but, more significantly, in the history of this nation, the north has also produced more presidents and more military dictators combined. In fact, in terms of the region of origin of holders of key federal positions, no region comes anywhere near the record held by the north.

In response to a question about the impact on the nation of Boko Haram’s excessive indulgence in violence that has gripped the north, Waku made an eccentric allegation. He claimed, fallaciously, that Jonathan must have encouraged the emergence of Boko Haram to serve as a springboard for one part of the country to break away from the rest. Here is Waku’s wacky allegation: “We northern leaders are even contemplating that Boko Haram is his (Jonathan’s) own making to blackmail the north so that they can secede. It has reached a dimension for one to believe that there are some people somewhere that are fueling this crisis to give a dog a bad name so that they would have a reason to secede. We are beginning to suspect that there is a plan against the north.”

This is an infantile allegation that, most certainly, will hurt Waku rather than Jonathan to whom it was directed. It is odd that a Middle Belt man should abandon his region of origin and proclaim himself a “northern leader”. Joseph Waku does not believe there are times when it is more dignifying to remain silent than to utter silly and outrageous comments that expose one’s juvenility.

Waku perceives himself as a solicitor and an advocate for the less privileged. Nevertheless, he expressed his repugnance at some comments which he attributed to the South-South Youth Forum some of which he said threatened the unity and progress of the nation. He said angrily: “I am disgusted with the so-called South-South Youth Forum, threatening Nigerians… I have never heard a responsible person from that region coming up to say these young people are saying this on their own. So, one begins to wonder whether this is a grand plan to cause confusion so that Nigeria can disintegrate. To hell with disintegration of Nigeria. Let everybody answer his father’s name. Let them go and drink their oil, we will eat our yam. Yoruba will eat their cocoa in their region. Life will still continue. But does that solve the problem? The answer is no.”

The interview revealed a lot about Waku’s twisted persona, his temperament, his skewed perceptions of non-northerners, his lack of the fundamental elements of inter-ethnic relations, as well as his lack of respect for other people. Indeed, the interview was filled with Waku’s incoherent and sometimes angry outburst. Not surprisingly, anger has a way of clouding a man’s reasoning capacity. And it is obvious from most of the things Waku said that the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) selected the most inappropriate and incompetent person as its spokesperson.

During the interview, the Daily Sun reporter asked Waku emphatically: “Boko Haram has become a big threat to the unity of this country to the extent that the Igbo have given directive to their people in the north to move back home owing to the feeling that they are being targeted. How do you see this development?

In his reply to the question, Waku said: “Ndigbo are not being targeted… So, northerners have not given any instruction to Igbo to leave. We are under a constitutional provision which allows freedom of movement and association. But if those staying in the north are tired of staying in the north, they are free under the constitution to move. But the north cannot accept a blackmail that Igbo are being targeted. Let them come out with what is motivating them to move back home. Of course, they are free to move anywhere in this county.”

Comments such as these do not portray Waku as a leader. He must be blind to not know what has compelled Igbo leaders to recall their people who are being massacred in the north. Waku’s response was disgraceful. It was disrespectful of Igbo people and other non-northerners. It shows that Waku, the bumbling politician, is clearly insensitive to the victims of the violence in the north. Unashamedly, Waku still harbours a cruel attitude to the unwarranted killings of the Igbo and other Nigerians in the north. Waku demonstrated an astonishing lack of sympathy for the reckless destruction of the property of non-northerners who are the direct victims of the widespread violence in the north, just as the constant threats to their lives are of no concern to Waku, the self-styled advocate of the less privileged.

In a comment that exposed Waku’s unflinching support for the north and northern leaders, he said impudently: “… the president is sitting down there and listening to people making advertisement of secession and they are not arrested. Yet, some fools somewhere are saying why don’t you arrest Babangida? Why don’t you arrest Atiku? Why don’t you arrest Gusau? Why don’t you arrest Ciroma? What have they done that warrants their arrest? And you think by so doing, the nation’s problem will be solved. How can some people say we will secede and the national security operatives didn’t say anything or fault the threat?”

When Nigerians who reside in the north are hounded and brutally murdered by members of an inchoate organisation known as Boko Haram, the only wise option left is for the victims to return to their states of origin. That is not a crime. It is self-preservation. And that is what Joseph Waku must accept, whether or not he likes it.

Written by Levi Obijiofor on Feb 17 2012 Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.