Here is the thing about these 2015 conversations that many appear to have refused to move on from.
They should be a teachable moment. Sadly, aren't asking the right asks. Too many people from my neck of the woods (SE/SS) keep insisting on narratives that won't stand scrutiny.
First, Benue. In 2015, Benue state voted for Buhari.
No one within the set of people who keep shouting about ethnic jingoism ever seems to ask themselves why.
There are/were two reasons: first, Gabriel Suswam's government was unbelievably bad.
Instead, Suswam was mollycoddled by the GEJ govt.
https://t.co/bDkC2QLy4r
Terror in Nigeria\u2019s Food Basket \u2013 A report on the violence in the Middle\xa0Belt https://t.co/hadraIzy2W pic.twitter.com/KmKdI19q52
— SBM Intelligence (@sbmintelligence) October 20, 2015
Benue people were fed up, and the 2015 vote, which was close for the record, was a major protest.
To now reduce those decisions to the effects of "an ethnically driven PR campaign" is to do the Benue people a disservice.
Many of the people who shout about an ethnically driven agenda by Yoruba people against GEJ have probably never taken a look at Nigeria's voting patterns, at least since 1979.
Persisting with this accusation risks alienating people we should be having more constructive engagements with.
The only time they came close to voting as a bloc was in 1999.
The pic below shows the breakdown of votes by GPZ in 2015.

The corresponding ratios for the SE and SS were 13:1 and 11:1 in favour of Goodluck Jonathan, while for the NE and NW, the ratios were 7:2 and 5:1 in favour of Buhari.
Shouldn't it be something we honestly want to discuss amongst ourselves? A herd mentality eventually breeds a messiah.
FTR, this pattern has repeated itself since 1999.
https://t.co/uJCOq0v1JT
1/ As is becoming habit, the complete thing is here, for those who can sit and read: https://t.co/jTgkZ6NGvZ
— Chxta (@Chxta) June 20, 2016
Neither is it a bad thing to have opposed interests. It is how to bring those interests together that counts, and this is where my people are dropping the ball.
This is where wise politicking comes in.
We, for example, have the common interest of weakening Abuja.
With the South-South we already have a relationship that is both fractious and familial. We have to manage it properly.
We have been hurt by the poor Buhari economy.
The Buhari economy has also hurt the SW, and even though many won't admit it, their treatment by the North has also hurt their pride.
No.
Do we have to trust the South-West to make an alliance with them?
No.
More from History
Joshua Hawley, Missouri's Junior Senator, is an autocrat in waiting.
His arrogance and ambition prohibit any allegiance to morality or character.
Thus far, his plan to seize the presidency has fallen into place.
An explanation in photographs.
🧵
Joshua grew up in the next town over from mine, in Lexington, Missouri. A a teenager he wrote a column for the local paper, where he perfected his political condescension.
2/
By the time he reached high-school, however, he attended an elite private high-school 60 miles away in Kansas City.
This is a piece of his history he works to erase as he builds up his counterfeit image as a rural farm boy from a small town who grew up farming.
3/
After graduating from Rockhurst High School, he attended Stanford University where he wrote for the Stanford Review--a libertarian publication founded by Peter Thiel..
4/
(Full Link: https://t.co/zixs1HazLk)
Hawley's writing during his early 20s reveals that he wished for the curriculum at Stanford and other "liberal institutions" to change and to incorporate more conservative moral values.
This led him to create the "Freedom Forum."
5/
His arrogance and ambition prohibit any allegiance to morality or character.
Thus far, his plan to seize the presidency has fallen into place.
An explanation in photographs.
🧵
Joshua grew up in the next town over from mine, in Lexington, Missouri. A a teenager he wrote a column for the local paper, where he perfected his political condescension.
2/

By the time he reached high-school, however, he attended an elite private high-school 60 miles away in Kansas City.
This is a piece of his history he works to erase as he builds up his counterfeit image as a rural farm boy from a small town who grew up farming.
3/

After graduating from Rockhurst High School, he attended Stanford University where he wrote for the Stanford Review--a libertarian publication founded by Peter Thiel..
4/
(Full Link: https://t.co/zixs1HazLk)

Hawley's writing during his early 20s reveals that he wished for the curriculum at Stanford and other "liberal institutions" to change and to incorporate more conservative moral values.
This led him to create the "Freedom Forum."
5/
