Opinion:
ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
Nigeria is sick. We might be feeling the pangs of a struggling economy and the discomfort of a dilapidated infrastructure and even the terror of insecurity, but those wouldn’t have arisen, if we were not sick of bigotry. Bigotry is Nigeria’s biggest problem, even though, our diversity was supposed to be our greatest asset, but the mismanagement of this asset has placed us in a precarious position as a nation, because instead of tapping into the gains of our wealth of talents, those at the helm fear that the talents inherent in a particular set of people in this country is a threat, hence, they work to suppress these talents and discourage the growth of our commerce.
Allen Onyema is not the only Igbo businessman who is suffering because he is Igbo, but we hear about him, because he somehow manages to stay afloat even with all the obstacles placed on his way to growth. Did you not hear him complain about the unnecessary delay he had to bear before he could get the required documentations from Nigeria’s aviation regulators for what they call the Third Country Operators Permit and other bureaucratic obstacles he has had to endure in his years of running one of Nigeria’s most successful aviation firm.
There is nowhere in the world where we do not have a problem of bigotry, ethnic bigotry, precisely. Even the freest parts of the world have this problem, so, it won’t be correct to say that this is peculiar Nigerian problem. In fact, when properly analysed, we may find out that Nigeria is one of the least ethnocentric nations in the world. I have not been convinced that tribalism is one of the reasons this country has not developed, but rather, the insensitivity, senselessness, myopia and corruption of the political class.
The difference between Nigeria and most other countries where we feel that tribalism is less, is that while ordinary citizens could be racists, governments in those countries make deliberate and concerted efforts to discourage official tribalism and any form of discrimination based on race, colour of the skin, language, gender or even sexual orientation, but in Nigeria, it is rather the government and its operators who promote ethnocentrism.
When President Bola Tinubu was campaigning for his Party’s nomination, he did not mince words in declaring that he was contesting the presidency, not necessarily, because he was better qualified than his rivals, nor because of any compelling altruistic vision for the benefit of the country, but because; it was his turn, and the turn of the Yoruba, to rule Nigeria. There were millions of Yoruba people who rejected that campaign message and went ahead to vote for the person whom they consider better qualified and who had better vision and motivation for seeking the office of the President of the Federal Republic, thereby, buttressing the argument, that the ordinary Nigerian, rarely cares about tribe or religion as we might have wrongly been made to believe.
Since assuming office, President Tinubu has systematically Yorubanized the country. While he is gradually dismantling his predecessor’s Fulanised country, he has replicated Buhari’s obnoxious cronyism, by showing his apparent distrust or even disgust at other tribes of Nigeria, especially, the Igbos of the Southeast, who were, until, my Party took over the reins of federal power in 2015, an indispensable part of the Nigerian tripod. Tinubu is probably, the first Nigerian President since 1999, that has constituted the nucleus of his Economic team from his own tribe. This is not because there are no better heads from other tribes who could provide the much needed economic ideas to transform Nigeria and pull her out of the Golgotha, but because, the President probably, does not trust people from other tribes.
When you read the trolls against Chief Allen Onyema, the Airpeace Chairman, ostentatiously, because he chose a garment design popularly known as the identity of his Igbo tribe, you do not understand it to be that ordinary Nigerians do not like the Igbo, but it is rather a manifestation of what the head of the government has inspired in some of his key supporters. These trollers of the Airpeace Chairman are not from a particular tribe, but mostly, blind supporters of my Party. I know of at least, three Igbo social media users, who joined in condemning Airpeace’ choice of clothes for their air hostesses. These Igbos who joined their colleagues in the unwarranted trolling, did not do this, because they hate their tribe, but because, the body language of our Party leader has suggested, an uneasiness with anything Igbo.
Against what you might have been made to believe, Allen Onyema is not being trolled because he allowed his air hostesses to wear Isiagu materials, but certain powerful interests within Nigeria’s political and economic ecosystem wanted to register their frustration about the fact that with all the economic and political marginalisation meted against the Igbos, we continue to blaze the trail. It is disturbing to them that Omo Igbo, Allen Onyema, could be the one who achieved this feat, and not one of their own.
If Nigeria wasn’t sick, Allen Onyema should have received great accolades from Nigeria’s President for his resilience and great business foresight. The Nigerian federal government could have designed a policy to empower him further to take over the skies of the world with Nigerian colours, by going into an agreement with him to resuscitate the moribund Nigerian Air.
LET NIGERIA HEAL!
