In a recent interview with Channels Television, Bishop Matthew Kukah, the Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese, shed light on the longstanding political dynamics in Nigeria, drawing attention to what he termed as the marginalization of the Igbo ethnic group in the country’s power structure.
Bishop Kukah pointed out an apparent unwritten political agreement where power appears to rotate between the dominant ethnic groups of the Hausa/Fulani and the Yoruba. According to him, this unspoken arrangement has left the Igbo, despite their significant population, with minimal political influence.
> “What we have now is almost an unwritten agreement. When the Hausa/Fulani finish, they’ll give to the Yorubas, so literally, Nigeria has been between the Yorubas and… because the Igbos have only been a minor majority in the sense that they’re the big tree, but they’ve never had a taste.”
Bishop Kukah expressed concern that this pattern might persist, with the potential presidency of Bola Ahmed Tinubu representing the Yoruba’s turn in the rotation.
> “So maybe when President Tinubu finishes, the argument will now be that the North will say no, give us back, and then somebody from the South will say give us back.”
He emphasized the need to broaden the political conversation beyond the dominant ethnic groups, urging consideration for the interests of hundreds of thousands of other ethnic communities that currently lack political representation.
> “Meanwhile, nobody is paying attention to hundreds of thousands of other ethnic communities that have probably no access.”
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