Nigeria: President Buhari and the Igbos - the Bitter Truth of an Open Secret?

28 September 2015

... for the Igbos to focus on the excesses of President Buhari is to grossly miss the mark, and President Buhari's seeming inclination towards political decisions informed by his personal idiosyncrasies is to promote dangerous personality-based politics, which undermines the development of our democracy. The relationship between the Igbos and President Buhari can be enhanced if both parties focus on virtue.

The argument is often constructed like this: the clamour of the Igbos for political positions in President Buhari's administration is bizarre. Recently, they did not vote en masse for the All Progressives Congress (APC) - President Buhari's political party. Historically, they attempted to secede from Nigeria, as Biafra. As such, they are not expected to benefit from President Buhari's reign. Such expectations are invariably tantamount to the ad misericordiam (i.e. appeal to pity) fallacy, exemplified in the classic case of a man who murdered his parents, and when it came to sentencing him, he pleaded to the judge for leniency, as he was now an orphan. Therefore, the Igbos should learn to live with the consequences of their choices, which includes, amongst other things, marginalisation by President Buhari's administration.

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