Written by Wole Olaoye. 

One year ago, Citizen Bola Ahmed Tinubu became Nigeria’s president. In the run-up to the elections, a lot of hate was brewed on all sides of the political divide. That, I dare say, is the nature of politics all over the world. Contestation for the minds and votes of the people is revved up to trigger the basest of instincts. Just like in the First Republic, every election cycle shears the fragile fabric of national cohesion to such an extent that we are much more divided today than we were at the onset of the current democratic relay race in 1999.

Take a trip on the superhighway of social media and see how we advertise our mutual hatred and call other ethnic nationalities by names that our dogs— even the common Bingos used for dog meat pepper-soup— would find discourteous. 

One year into the Tinubu administration, we are yet to start the healing process of pulling ourselves together so that our forward march can be as one people, even as we have— and jealously guard— our different political perspectives. There is nothing wrong with political disagreements. There is everything disagreeable with establishing a dynasty of implacable warriors in the name of political followers whose sole duty is sustaining the E-wars on the internet or the thinly veiled TV diatribes where we de-market each other.

This retrogression shall not be televised. We shall keep it hushed in whispers among our various clusters. What we had hoped would be a centripetal pull has rent us asunder and made us, not just perpetual opponents, but infernal foes to each other. The simple matter of electing our leaders has morphed into an unprecedented political chasm destined to consume the atavistic forces it has unleashed.

Yet, this was the same country in which, nine years after the civil war, Dr. Alex Ekwueme from Anambra State in Southeastern Nigeria was voted as Vice President to Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Augustus Meredith Akinloye (Always Mentally Alert) was the all powerful chairman of the ruling party. The president deferred to him at all party functions. The calibre of the opposition was high: the redoubtable Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the UPN; Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of the NPP; Alhaji Aminu Kano of the PRP; and Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim of the GNPP.  

Even with all the warts of Second Republic politics, we still look back at those days as comparatively glorious. The urgent task before us all is to reset to brotherhood mode. Waziri Ibrahim called it “Politics without bitterness”. Could that be the dream that fired Senator Opeyemi Bamidele to sponsor the bill seeking to restore our former national anthem (Though tribe and tongue may differ in brotherhood we stand…)? I would rather we use our magic wand to return the Naira to its value in 1980 (98 kobo=$1) instead of re-echoing the colonialists’ colourful words such as ‘native’ and ‘tribe’.

I think the more desirable thing for us right now is to look ahead and change gear. It is one year of the Tinubu administration. Last week, the ministers rendered an account of their stewardship on national television. If I was the president, I would by now have done my own assessment to compare with the lies that some of them openly told. But, thank God for little mercies, the Tinubu administration’s perform-or-be-fired mantra is several miles better than Buhari’s style of leaving appointees in office even when they start becoming rancid.

So, let the president rejig his cabinet. There’s no point allowing passengers to continue occupying the driver’s seat. And let’s have a closure on the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Dr. Edu.