Belonging to everybody and to nobody. How quaint! by IDOWU AKINLOTAN

Buhari - Awoniyi

The most memorable part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s inaugural address was his assertion that he belonged to everybody and belonged to nobody. It was interpreted that he had sent signals he would not be held hostage by any religious, ethnic or political interest. Given his antecedents and hurtful opposition campaigns during the last polls that alleged religious and ethnic biases against him, the memorable statement signposted some relief to many Nigerians. President Buhari had indeed changed, they chorused. He himself encouraged and wore the change toga extravagantly.

Not many southerners will, however, accept that President Buhari has changed, or that he belongs to everybody and to nobody. In fact, the Southeast in particular has alleged that the president belongs unquestioningly to the North. Judging from their coverage of the president’s new appointments, the press also seems persuaded that his assertion of detachment from vested interests must be taken with a pinch of salt. After exhausting the security and presidency positions available, it must have become apparent where the president belongs. But don’t take the critics’ words for it.

Only President Buhari’s speechwriters know why he appropriated the phrase. It was not original to him, and his inaugural address did not indicate that he borrowed it. He can, however, be forgiven, for the phrase was used in December 2003 by Sunday B. Awoniyi who was chairman and guest lecturer at a book launch on Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna about 12 years ago. Chief Awoniyi was a Kogi-born politician and bureaucrat who was close to the late Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and was in 1975 permanent secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Broad Street, Lagos, when the then Col. Buhari was federal commissioner.

In the lecture, Chief Awoniyi contextually situated the paradoxes of his origin and politics, especially insinuations that he was at various times a Babangida man, a Buhari man, an Atiku man, or an anti-government man, and then declared: “It is a no-win situation. I want to say it loud and clear that I, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, am nobody’s man. I am everybody’s man. I am a Yoruba man and proud to be one. I am a Christian and glad to be one. I am from Okunland in the old Kabba Province of Northern Nigeria, now a state called Kogi State. That makes me a northerner…”

Chief Awoniyi could in the context he used the phrase claim he was everybody’s man. It is, however, not certain whether in the context he used it or as far as his actions so far are concerned, President Buhari can claim to be nobody’s man.

Ref: http://thenationonlineng.net/belonging-to-everybody-and-to-nobody-how-quaint/