By Kabir Dakata 

In a political era like the current one we are in; Nigerian politicians can use any sentiment to mobilize support from the uninformed electorates. They mostly use religious, ethnic and regional sentiments to achieve that.

They hardly consider those sentiments when they are relating among themselves (elites/politicians), they only talk about them when they want to deceive the masses. In recent times, we have seen how politicians changed their mode of dressing, some even strategically changed/borrowed names, claimed to have been grown up in certain regions, claimed to have been to every part of the country, etc. all in preparation for the upcoming 2023 elections.

Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the Nigeria`s Vice President, is one of those politicians. In his recent presidential declaration speech, he stated that he has been to almost every local government in Nigeria. Can this be halftrue? NO! I can’t remember when he came to my local government (Nassarawa local government) and what brought him. But being a local government in the Kano metropolis, it is possible that he once or severally been there.

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But what about the local government of my grandparents? I placed phone calls to my relatives in Kunchi (approved Ghari) local government to find out when did he come, how long has he been there and what was the purpose of his visit, the answers I got shown that he has never been to that local government and I’m sure those answers can be applied to many local governments in Kano state and in Northern Nigeria.

Before his official declaration, he was described to be an extremist Christian whose hate to Islam was proven beyond reasonable doubt by Prof. Farooq Kperogi in a piece titled ” A Yemi Osinbajo presidency would, without a doubt, plunge Nigeria into the depths of a smoldering…” He posted it using his twitter handle @farooqkperogi and some media platforms shared it. In that piece, the author gave 10 convincing reasons that suspect “Osinbajo Will Ignite a Religious Civil War.”

As a response to the Kperogi`s piece, the appointees in the office of Prof. Osinbajo appeared in a video, stating their Muslim identity. For me, the video raised more questions than the answers it intended to give. Some of the questions include the following:

1. Based on that video, we saw about 12 Muslims staff working in Osinbajo’s office, we did not see the Christians staff working with him. Who are they and how many are they?
2. Some of them said they are Special Assistants to the President but working in the Office of the Vice President (Prof. Osinbajo), who appointed them? For instance, can an appointee of the president, working in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), give a credit for his appointment to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation or to the President who appointed him/her?
3. Of the people that appeared in that video, how many are currently working with Prof. Osinbajo and how many are no longer working with him?
4. If they want to show Osinbajo`s lenience and tolerance to Muslims beyond when he is a Vice President, can they state the number of Muslims and Christians who worked with him in the previous political and professional offices he held?

As we move closer to the 2023 elections, I wish to see politicians presenting their real character, competence and capacity, and do away with those sentiments that overtime have not benefited the majority of Nigerians who are easily deceived with them. In Nigeria of today, we are less interested in your religion, ethnicity, region, etc. we are more interested in what you can do to rescue the country from the multiple challenges bedeviling her, how can you do them? Have you done similar things in the past even at a lower level (state level for instance)?

For the masses/electorates, we need to be wiser enough, those people that abandoned us since 2019 will now come to our houses, attend social activities with us, eat the local food we eat, meet us in the market, mock our sources of earning a living like roasting of corn, frying of akara, riding okada, doing conductor, etc. if you trust them, we will all continue to feel the pain.

Dakata, writes from Kano and can be reached at kabirudata@gmail.com