Last Friday, I asked the question, “Do ‘common people’ play tribal politics?” Here I will use some observations to give some perspective on this question. In Nigeria, tribal politics has never benefited the common man beyond tribes and religions. Tribal politics was encouraged by political elites who named their political parties based on tribal affiliation, as seen in the First Republic. Politicians appeal to tribal prejudices to win over voters and sit first at the political table where they participate in sharing the “national cake”, but they are the beneficiaries of whatever cake is shared. .
The above becomes easier when we remember that people in political positions from the First Republic to the present day continue to devise cunning ways to maintain power by any means necessary. You’ll understand. Therefore, people do not always vote for politicians just because they are from their tribe. It is known that people’s choices are often brazenly blocked. In the First Republic, the leaders of the major political parties led the region, so the impression of tribal politics at the time was inevitable. How much responsibility were ordinary people responsible for this situation? Did the average Nigerian voter participate in tribal politics in the First Republic? Or did political elites appeal to tribal sentiments to seize power and maintain their grip firmly thereafter? ?
The Second Republic saw efforts to create national political parties while restricting tribal-based parties. The five registered political parties, later six, had a substantial national reach at the time, spanning 19 states. In contrast to what was witnessed in the First Republic, the leader of Nigeria’s ruling National Party was from the West, the President from the North and the Vice President from the East. Although the NPN was seen as favored by the north, prominent Yoruba businessman Chief MKO Abiola was also a member and hoped to contest the presidential race in the party's ticket.
It is worth noting that although the United Party of Nigeria led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo won the governorship seat in the West, the party’s performance in the federation as a whole was so strong that the result of awarding the presidency to the NPN was brought to court. The fact is that it was fought over. Even the Supreme Court’s “12 2/3” state verdict that recognized the NPN as the winner was based on arguments presented by Chief Richard Akinjide, a prominent figure in the Yoruba legal community and former member of the First Republic Action Group. This was the result. The performance of the UPN and NPN will show that ordinary people across the country voted across tribal lines. Some parties closely associated with tribal strongholds have not even been able to win gubernatorial seats.
It must be pointed out that the Yoruba people did not follow Awo in the Second Republic because he belonged to their tribe. During his time in the First Republic, he performed to gain public trust, and his party’s manifesto, which included free education and free healthcare, was very helpful. The popularity of the candidate presented by UPN, who is well known to locals and seen as a replica of Awo, also helped. Nevertheless, due to local sentiments, especially Ibadan who wanted an indigene as governor of Oyo State, the UPN lost to NPN candidate Chief Omololu Olunloyo in 1983. However, the UPN had earlier taken over Kwara State under the NPN.
In the former Bauchi state in the north, the UPN gubernatorial candidate (with whom I interacted years later) was so popular that pro-NPN chiefs stripped him of his traditional title, Galkwan Gombe, before the election. did. The reason for this was ostensibly because he belonged to “enemy forces.” party. “One former election official told me that he personally helped change the election results in the former Adamawa state, where the chances of the UPN gubernatorial candidate were very high as well. We delivered it to our party,” he said with a smile.
Such stories are not uncommon in states where the ruling party is determined to remain in power. Once the ruling party realizes that it has popular support, it typically devises ways to outmaneuver it, from polling bodies to the courts. This was the case in the First and Second Republics, as was the case in the Fourth Republic, and in modern democracies, although the opportunities for electoral fraud were gradually decreasing. I don’t think the average person in Nigeria is the type to vote tribal in favor of good governance, providing services to the people and providing opportunities for everyone to move forward. Tribal politics doesn’t give them all of that.
In fact, most Nigerians want to participate in so-called mainstream national politics by voting for centrist ruling parties, as politicians use this as a reason to promise that the dividends of democracy will reach the common people. There is a tendency. People may vote based on their emotions, and this is how people vote the way they do elsewhere in the world, but Nigerians often understand themselves best and We vote for the political party we believe will protect our interests and make our lives meaningful. If that political party is considered to be APGA in the East, PDP in the South and APC in the West and North, that is one sentiment that every voter is entitled to have. Such trends should not amount to “tribal politics”, as voters who voted for AD, ACN, PDP, APP in the past are known to have voted later for APGA, NCPP, Labor Party, or APC. , and vice versa.
This argument is strengthened when one considers that each party has locals as candidates from each tribe, who are also the faces of political parties that some would consider tribally based. If the candidate of a pro-Awo party among the Fulani people of the Adamawa Mountains best matches the aspirations of the local population, they will vote for that party. The same could happen if the pro-Igbo party happens to field a more popular local candidate in Jigawa State, and vice versa. And the coalitions and alliances that these parties later form show that they want to become as national as possible, rather than remaining tribally based.
This will lead to the 2023 presidential election. There have been accusations of tribal politics online, and even celebrities have been drawn into it. This was against the backdrop of Ndigbo and Yoruba people condemning and defending their respective regions in the country. Defending a part of your country when criticized by others does not necessarily mean playing tribal politics. This is a debate, and those who start accusing others, perhaps falsely, need to know that they do not have the exclusive right to criticize others. Accusations are calls for discussion, and if either side doesn’t like what they get in return, they should stop giving in the first place. So the online accusations and counter-accusations of allegedly playing tribal politics just don’t look the same to me.
In any case, who was in charge of tribal politics? Or the average person who voted based on who they think will make their life more meaningful, or the politicians who appeal to tribal sentiments? Several issues revealed how voters cast their votes in the 2023 presidential election campaign. Many agreed that it was now the South’s turn. Voters in the West believed that Awaju Bola Tinubu was the most prepared and would put up the best fight against the PDP opposition. Nevertheless, this is what the presidential election results in Lagos State did. The results in Oyo State were similar in the same western region, which some have accused of playing tribal politics.
In the east, there was a pre-election decision that no Igbo should be the vice-presidential candidate for anyone. Peter Obi received about 90% of the votes there. His supporters were not limited to the East. They were in the West, even if it did not lead to his electoral success. Asiwaju Tinubu secured enough votes across the region to win. Ordinary people across the country voted for each presidential candidate. Does this indicate that common people were conducting tribal politics? Those who publicly identified themselves as their tribe’s candidates and benefited from it were those who received 90 percent of the votes cast within their tribe. They were well aware of those themselves who called the 2023 presidential election a “religious war” in an attempt to appeal to particularly primal emotions.
