The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has condemned the manipulation of ethnic sentiments by the elite for political gains.
Naijaonpoint reports that the spokesman of ACF, Professor Tukur Mohammed-Baba stated this while speaking on nepotism in political appointments in the country.
In an interview with News Central, Mohammed-Baba noted that good governance would address focus on ethnic sentiments.
He explained that the government’s failure forced citizens to return to primordial sentiments. He explained that inclusivity and competence should be the goal of all administration in political appointments.
“The federal character provision in our constitution and of course all the institutions that have been in place, the processes, rules and regulations are supposed to allow for equity, not necessarily equality perhaps. It’s supposed to allow for equity for inclusivity. I don’t want to be seen as defending one region, one religion, one tribe or the other.
“The major problem has to do with the failure of governance in them. The social contract between citizens and the state has not been fully discharged. If there is corruption, if there is lopsidedness, if there is impunity that is when people begin to go back to their primordial identities, religion, tribe, location and so on.
“The average citizen in my opinion would like to see good governance. The principles of good governance, anti-corruption. And so on and they would go about their business, pay their taxes without worrying who is in positions of power and authority. But what we have is it has been a set of elites that have been manipulating these primordial sentiments.
“It doesn’t matter to me for example if a pilot I’m flying in a plane from Sokoto to Abuja is Igbo, is Muslim, is a Jew, is a pagan, is an atheist and so on. What matters to me is the competence of the pilot,” he said.
Arewa Consultative Forum spokesman noted that some parts of the country have more experts in some areas because of education exposure. He added that what the government should focus on was good governance and creating a functional society.
Professor Mohammed-Baba continued, “If you go to any part of Nigeria today things have changed, in any profession, for any calling, you will find people who are equally competent, who are experienced educationally. They have achieved a lot in education and so on.
“Come to the North, in fact, I think is the other way around if you go to higher institutions, state and federal. In the North, in many places I’ve seen in my profession, there are more Southerners than there are Northerners for obvious reasons.
The South has advanced much more in their position of modern education. So you find a lot more students from that part of the country. The North is still lagging behind.
“I think what’s the problem is the nature of governance. If our system of government remains eating the national cake and not baking it, then we have a problem. If, of course, appointing people has to do not necessarily with their competence but their primordial sentiments, then there is a problem.
“If people do things and get away with it without being punished, without being held into account, then obviously people will go back to the primordial identities.”