Speech Delivered By His Excellency, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON, The Acting President Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria At The Graduation Ceremony Of Senior Course 39, The Armed Forces, Command And Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State On Friday June 23, 2017
PROTOCOL
“When you hear a person say that my tribe has been marginalized usually what he is saying is appoint me. The ethnic card is an effective bargaining tool.”
“When people are charged with looting public funds they quickly find a counter narrative. It is because I am Yoruba, Fulani or Igbo; or the Christians or Muslims are after me.”
I am especially pleased and indeed privileged to share this special day with you the staff, graduands and proud family members of the graduands of Senior Course 39.
We must give glory and thanks to the Almighty God by whose mercy and grace we are able to witness this celebration of achievement.
You have made a success of this course after 48 grueling weeks. Congratulations. Of course we must specially commend all the spouses of our graduands here, but for whose sacrifices and personal deprivations there would have been no celebrations for many here today.
It is also gratifying to note that amongst the 187 graduating students are 10 students from sister African countries, and 5 senior members of Staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Defence Intelligence Agency, Nigerian Defence Academy, Nigeria Police Force and the Federal Road Safety Commission.
I must commend the governments of Cameroun, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, The Gambia and Togo who nominated their officers to attend this course. By so doing they have strengthened the brotherhood we share as Africans but more so they have shown great foresight on the issue of our common security concerns on the continent.
The occasion of the graduation of the elite corps of our Military, armed services, intelligence and Foreign Service members is one that offers an opportunity for reflection on national issues.
We are the identifiable public service elite of our nation, paid for with taxpayers money, and so we must be its foremost think-thank. So, permit me to address you for a short while on the subject – We can build a new Nigeria.
The last two decades in Nigeria have witnessed the quickened retreat of the Nigerian elite to their ethnic and religious camps.
I would like to emphasize the fact that this was essentially an elite phenomenon – unity and disunity are promoted by the elite to which the vast majority of the Nigerian people were only later conscripted.
In these past few years, more and more, we began to hear expressions such as Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities; we began to see more identification by race and geopolitical zones, Ndigbo people, Arewa people, the Yoruba people, South-South, North-East, South-West, North-West and South-East; and other parochial description that were hitherto unknown.
The rise of ethnic chauvinism rode on the wings of several agitations. The narrative of most agitations centres around alleged marginalization and fears of dominance of one faith over the other.
In the 2015 elections, the ruling party repeatedly tried to cast the opposition as a party of Islamists determined to islamise Nigeria. The expression Janjaweed party took root.
Most ethnic agitations are centered around getting a larger share of the national cake or more favoured placement in the food chain because they were essentially elite claims: the vast majority of the populations of the ethnic groups that win some concession or the other never really benefit.
So, the mere fact that a South-South person became President did not necessarily translate to prosperity for the tribe, neither was it the case when a President from the North-West emerged, nor one from the South-West.
Aside from a few individual beneficiaries of some appointments or the other, there is usually nothing to show for the ethnic group of those who emerge in Nigeria’s numerous ethnic contests for power. Yet, the contests of the tribes are heightened by the elite, usually for personal political or commercial ends.
When you hear a person say that my tribe has been marginalized usually what he is saying is appoint me. The ethnic card is an effective bargaining tool.
A major drawback of ethnic chauvinism is the way that it is used to mask wrongdoing and promote impunity. Notice that when people are charged with looting public funds they quickly find a counter narrative. It is because I am Yoruba, Fulani or Igbo; or the Christians or Muslims are after me.
Appointments in the public service are no longer even judged on merit. The question is how many are from my own ethnic group. A terrible affliction, when you consider that what we are looking for are men and women of integrity and talent to run our economy and create a future for our children.
Why is that when we want to win at football we don’t ask which ethnic group the players are from? But perhaps at its most extreme and dangerous are hate-filled agitations for secession or autonomy.
In the past few weeks we have as a nation witnessed the escalation of such agitations usually couched in deliberately intemperate and provocative language.
The reckless deployment of hate speech and the loud expressions of prejudice and hate, name calling of those of other ethnicities and faiths is a new and destructive evil in our public discourse.
But even more divisive words, expressions, and actions calculated to create fear and uncertainty have also been freely used.
