As indicated here last week, the book, Peace Culture: A Monumental Evidence for Global Co-existence, written by Professor Ola Makinwa et al, will shine a light on our offering in this column today. Many have been badgering me on why I “ignored” the ongoing ten-day #EndBadGovernance protest rocking the country.

The protest, now in its eighth day, has not only become violent but also bloody and the security chiefs are still talking tough, meaning that it may even get bloodier in the coming days.

But it was a crisis foretold. Any discerning observer who witnessed the desperate manoeuvres of the government aimed at pulling the rug from under the feet of the protesters will know that in the event they went ahead with the protest, a mortified, albeit vindictive government will infiltrate the protest and ensure that it became violent in order to justify a bloody crackdown.

For a security architecture that clearly prioritises regime protection over and above the lives and properties of citizens, the brutalisation of people peacefully protesting over excruciatingly biting hunger didn’t come as a surprise.

Sadly, the security forces have not shown the same dexterity in dealing with the real enemies of Nigeria – non-state actors who have ensured that bona fide citizens are sacked from their ancestral homes and subjected to unimaginable indignity as refugees in their own country.

Professor Kingsley Moghalu was forced on Monday to lament that the police and other security agencies in Nigeria have an unfortunate mindset. “The Nigerian state has little regard for its citizens, political rhetoric aside,” he wrote on X.

Professor Wole Soyinka concurred when he, in reaction to President Bola Tinubu’s broadcast on Sunday, pointedly warned that: “The serving of bullets where bread is pleaded is ominous retrogression, and we know what that eventually proves – a prelude to far more desperate upheavals, not excluding revolutions.”

But what is going on is a true reflection of who Tinubu is: a civilian with an overdose of dictatorial reflexes antithetical to democratic norms. Tinubu and his political constituency take no prisoners. He brooks no opposition and has zero tolerance for criticism no matter how constructive. For him, governance is about state capture. So, Nigerians must brace up for the creeping fascism.

So, those who are calling for the arrest of people behind the satanic #IgboMustGo campaign, which demands the forced relocation of Ndigbo from Lagos and other South-West states, may well save themselves the agony of disappointment.

Why? Because the Tinubu government is behind the virulent campaign of calumny against Nidgbo. One of the briefs given to Bayo Onanuga as the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President is the unremitting demonisation of the Igbo race. So, asking the same government to investigate and bring to book those behind the genocidal crusade is tantamount to asking the government to probe itself.

The insidious campaign is only but a sequel to Onanuga’s ethnic baiting gambit when he maliciously accused Peter Obi and by extension Ndigbo, his bête noire, of promoting the #EndBadGovernance protest. Not that there is anything wrong if Peter Obi champions protest against bad governance. But Onanuga lied knowing full well that the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election knew nothing about it. The security chiefs also knew that for a fact. Yet, without any shred of evidence, he went on the shameless voyage having the back of the Nigerian state.

But that will not be his first time. On March 21, 2023, Onanuga, spokesperson for the then President-elect, Tinubu, warned Ndigbo in Lagos against “interfering” in politics in the state. “Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics. Let there be no repeat in 2027. Lagos is like Anambra, Imo, any Nigerian state. It is not No Man’s Land, not Federal Capital Territory. It is Yoruba land. Mind your business,” he tweeted.

While well-meaning Nigerians were horrified, Tinubu, his puppeteer, remained silent. How Onanuga decided to become a consummate dog whistler at the age of 67 beggars belief. But history is never kind to his likes. Never!

The bigger tragedy is that it took the umbrage of Waziri Atiku who called on the Federal Government to prosecute the promoters of the anti-Igbo genocidal campaign for both Lagos State and Abuja to react to the incendiary charge that Ndigbo living and doing business in Lagos and other South-West states should leave the region within 30 days.

Atiku, who was unsettled by the demand on the X account @Lagospedia, noted thus: “It is alarming that five days after this threat emerged, there has been a troubling silence. Immediate action to arrest, investigate, and prosecute those behind this heinous agenda is crucial. This will serve as a deterrent to others who might consider pursuing similar paths that threaten our national security.”

Since then, the hashtag ‘#Igbo must go’ has continued to fester on social media. A recent X Spaces conversation tagged, Yoruba Ronu Space, led by self-acclaimed Yoruba influencers, called for an Igbo must go protest. One of the contributors alleged that Ndigbo are disrespecting their traditional rulers and leaders and have no right to own land in Lagos.

Tinubu in his nationwide broadcast on Sunday, pretended to be offended by the campaign, when he, tongue in cheek, condemned those he alleged to have taken undue advantage of the #EndBadGovernance protest to threaten some sections of the country, stating that there is no place for ethnic bigotry in Nigeria. Really? Who then is the godfather of ethnic bigotry?

But that was sheer sophistry. It is also worthy of note that the security chiefs who threatened fire and brimstone on Tuesday in Abuja did not deem it necessary to include the genocidal threats against Ndigbo in their basket of deplorable developments that threaten the country.

Those who claim to be investigating the devil behind this anti-Igbo genocidal threat are living a lie and should not be taken serious because the truth remains that if they are, indeed, serious, they need not look beyond Bayo Onanuga. If Onanuga was Igbo (God forbid) making these incendiary comments against the Yoruba, he will be behind bars by now.

But it is surprising that Tinubu who knows the history of Ndigbo and their resilience in the face of intimidation is adopting gaslighting as a governance strategy. Those who think they can succeed even where the British colonial masters failed woefully, are entitled to their foolhardiness. But they should be reminded that General Muhammadu Buhari traversed that odious route in eight years and left Aso Rock in disgrace.

My simple advice is that rather than resorting to the hare-brained tactics of scaremongering and ethnic baiting against Ndigbo in order to deflate attention from his self-inflicted governance woes, the President may do well to read the Peace Culture, which according to the authors “is a handbook to mediate into conflict, manage anger, negotiate, resolve conflict and build peace for prevention of conflict.”

Chapter Six of the fascinating ten-chapter book with 232 major topics and 101 sub-headings which dealt with the issue of good governance talked about political tolerance, equity and inclusiveness.

“A society’s well-being depends on ensuring that all its members feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of society. This requires that all groups, particularly the most vulnerable, have opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being,” the book said.

It further noted that: “Government was created as an instrument to unite the people, develop the land, provide essential amenities and democracy that will make life comfortable, meaningful and bearable for the existence of man and where these things are lacking, agitations, expectations and ambitions set in from the people and where the government lacks good advice or arrogant or becomes autocratic, conflict sets in. This is always the result of bad governance. Bad governance fails to see to the plight of the people and shuts its eyes against unity.”

Rather than allowing Bayo Onanuga and his gang to scapegoat Ndigbo and set the country ablaze, Tinubu may well heed the advice of Prof Ola Makinwa and his colleagues as expressed in the book – Peace Culture.