This column originally appeared in Vanguard
I am sharing this article by my friend Otunba Abiodun Olufowobi (otherwise known as Pabiekun) because it would make a lot of sense if Nigeria was less warped and if President Tinubu was more trustworthy!
While global attention remains fixed on the rising tensions among the United States, Israel and Iran, Nigeria has once again found itself wrestling with a more familiar conflict — not of missiles, but of mindset.
The appointment of Taiwo Oyedele, the Ikaram-Akoko–born former PwC tax specialist, as Minister of State for Finance under the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ought to have been a straightforward story of expertise summoned to serve a strained fiscal system. By every visible credential, it appeared to be competence meeting necessity — a technocrat drafted to strengthen revenue architecture at a time when Nigeria’s economic foundations require precision and reform.
Competence should have been the headline. Instead, geography became the debate. Before commendations could settle, accusations surfaced that the administration had “Yorubanised” the finance architecture. The résumé was eclipsed by regional arithmetic. The operative question shifted from ‘Is he qualified?’ to ‘Where is he from?’
This reflex is neither new nor accidental. In Nigeria, geography often precedes merit. We inspect the map before the curriculum vitae. If origin satisfies sentiment, the appointment is acceptable. If it does not, suspicion fills the vacuum. Excellence becomes conditional — subject to ethnic validation. This instinct thrives among the poor and the polished alike. It survives foreign degrees and cosmopolitan exposure. It is forged in diversity, sharpened by history, and sustained by distrust.
I have long described this phenomenon as ethnic emotion — a powerful impulse that quietly subordinates logic to lineage and converts governance into cartography.
Let me be clear: this is not an uncritical defence of any administration. It is a defence of principle.
I humbly posit that it is a subtle but corrosive form of corruption that rarely announces itself as such — the desire that public office be reserved for “our own” for reasons of anticipated access, leverage, or sectional comfort.
Corruption does not begin with stolen billions. It begins with the private wish that power should circulate within our ethnic orbit. It is polite corruption. It is respectable corruption. But it is corruption nonetheless.
Patriotism demands the opposite instinct. It asks not: Who benefits my tribe? But: Who best serves the nation? When the first question consistently overrides the second, loyalty has shifted from republic to clan.
Defenders of ethnic preference often appeal to precedent: Others did it; why should we not? Accusations of regional concentration trailed the administration of Muhammadu Buhari. During the tenure of Goodluck Jonathan, complaints of sectional dominance were equally persistent. Under Olusegun Obasanjo, critics made similar claims.
The pattern is systemic, not tribal. It is reciprocal entitlement masquerading as justice. We say: Eniti saara ko ba kan ni npe ni haraam — we condemn nepotism when excluded; we rationalise it when included.
But repetition does not convert error into virtue. A wrong multiplied does not become right; it becomes tradition.
There is, however, a counter-current in our national discourse — one that declares almost defiantly that fairness itself is a curse. Its proponents argue that Nigeria has never truly operated on fairness, and that demanding balance now is selective morality. If previous administrations consolidated power when opportunity favoured them, why should restraint suddenly be imposed when the advantage shifts?
In this worldview, political power is strategic insurance. In a fragile federation, influence is seen as protection. Appointments are not merely administrative decisions; they are instruments of survival.
But here lies the paradox.
If every bloc justifies consolidation on the grounds that “others did it before,” the cycle becomes permanent. Each administration becomes a corrective for the last — not by elevating standards, but by redistributing advantage. Competitive sectionalism hardens into doctrine.
That reasoning may be emotionally satisfying, but it collides with a higher truth: public office is a national trust, not a tribal settlement.
History beyond our shores reinforces this lesson. In the early United States, presidents such as Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson relied heavily on regional allies. Patronage was normal. Yet the spoils system became so corrosive that reforms followed. Civil service laws and institutional guardrails were erected to restrain sectional excess. No modern American president could overwhelmingly populate his cabinet from his home state without backlash. The federation would resist it.
Nigeria, too, is a federation.
If every electoral victory becomes an ethnic harvest, public office is reduced to compensatory distribution. Standards erode. Geography displaces excellence. Mediocrity acquires legitimacy so long as it satisfies sectional arithmetic.
Institutions lose moral authority. Ministries are perceived not as national platforms but as demographic estates. Trust fragments.
Corruption deepens. For if ethnic loyalty justifies appointments, it becomes easier to justify preferential contracts and selective enforcement. Patronage breeds patronage.
The economy does not discriminate by tribe. Inflation does not consult dialect before eroding savings. Fiscal mismanagement punishes North and South alike. When an unqualified person occupies a strategic office, the damage is universal.
Government exists to get the work of the nation done.
Security must be strengthened.
Infrastructure must be built. Revenue must be efficiently mobilised. Institutions must function. A minister is not appointed to soothe ethnic pride. He is appointed to solve national problems.
Those clamouring loudest for ethnic stacking often posture as defenders of justice. Yet many would replicate the same pattern if granted identical opportunity. Their indignation is frequently displacement, not doctrine.
Representation in a diverse society is legitimate. No region should feel structurally excluded. But representation must operate within the discipline of merit. Inclusion without excellence is tokenism; excellence without inclusion breeds resentment. The hierarchy must be clear: competence first, sentiment second.
If unfairness yesterday becomes the moral licence for unfairness today, we institutionalise grievance as governance. A federation cannot stabilise on the doctrine of “our turn to dominate.” That is not fairness; it is rotation of grievance.
The urgency of national survival — economic fragility, security threats, institutional decay — demands something higher than ethnic consolidation. If the house is burning, the priority is to extinguish the fire, not to argue over who holds the hose.
READ ALSO: SWEET AND SOUR: TAX REFORM ISSUES
History shows that every major Nigerian bloc has tasted both power and complaint. None can claim permanent innocence; none can claim permanent victimhood. The temptation to use state power as ethnic leverage is cyclical. A nation matures when it refuses to justify tomorrow’s excesses by yesterday’s wounds.
The true test of leadership is not whether one can advantage one’s own. It is whether one can rise above that instinct in service of the whole. When truth and logic are defiled by ethnic emotions, fairness is not the casualty — the nation is.
Otunba Olufowobi wrote via:Aisoaba@yahoo.com
RESPONSES TO donzol2002@yahoo.co.uk or to 0805 404 6887.
(TEXT ONLY). PLEASE NOTE THAT UNLESS YOU REQUEST ANONYMITY, YOUR EMAIL OR TEXT MAY BE PUBLISHED WITH YOUR NAME AND CONTACT DETAILS ATTACHED.
DONU’S WORLD
DONU has a YouTube channel. It’s called DONU’S WORLD.
NIGERIA UNFILTERED – spicy commentaries on Naija issues – appears every Wednesday, while DONU’S WEEK appears on Fridays and is international as well as local and covers a mish-mash of soft and tough issues around Donu’s personal life, her work and her worldview.
A few days ago on her Nigeria Unfiltered video, she talked about Fulanis who are unfairly blaming Peter Obi for escalating frictions between themselves and Northern Christians as well as non-Fulani Muslims.
You might check out Donu’s World library (dating back to early 2024) on YouTube, plus the new videos she produces every week. Donu would love to hear your opinions and any constructive criticisms you may have to offer. And she will be very grateful if you “like”, subscribe and share!