Lessons to learn as President Buhari congratulates Kaycee Madu By Prof. Okechukwu Nwafor

Almost coinciding with Kaycee’s appointment is a violent massacre of about 20 members of IPOB in southeastern Nigeria, Kaycee’s homeland, by the Nigerian security forces. Members of IPOB were alleged to have gathered for a peaceful assembly when the Nigerian security forces engaged them in unwarranted provocation and subsequently unleashed terror by gunning down about 20 of their members. It was also alleged that 2 security operatives were murdered in the process.

The president’s moral persuasion to congratulate Kaycee is compromised by his position on ethnic politics in Nigeria. Kaycee does not require a congratulation from someone who does not understand the significance of merit to the realization of an egalitarian and democratic system, especially one as magnificent as Alberta. Kaycee does not require congratulation from someone whose political appointments are swayed by ethnic bigotry, partisanship and kinship ties. Nigeria as currently constituted is a fatal error.

The president must allow this congratulation to reawaken the dead democratic principles in Nigeria. It should offer the president an occasion to rise above politics of bitterness and replace the mediocre, ill-bred, ethnic profiteers in his cabinet with erudite technocrats and experts. Otherwise, the congratulation remains lip service devoid of genuine motivation.

Kaycee belongs to an ethnic group in Nigeria that is currently undergoing persecution. He belongs to an ethnic group that has suffered genocide in the hands of the Nigerian government with the loss of more than 3 million of its men, women and children. The Igbo ethnic group is still suffering unimaginable marginalization, persecution and discrimination under the current government. The recent massacre is clear proof.

Indeed, Kaycee represents the triumph of righteous administrative policy over cronyism, nepotism, and clannish interests. Kaycee symbolizes distinction over failure. Nigerian appointments are marred by the amateurishness and self-opinionatedness of failed statesmen.