NewStats: 3,264,131 , 8,182,731 topics. Date: Monday, 09 June 2025 at 07:48 PM 55676i

Last week’s column on what I called the “relentless Yorubacentric take-over of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC)” based on information I was given by a Yoruba er of Tinubu who is close to the circuits of power in the Tinubu presidency drew far more attention than I had anticipated.


Northern politicians like former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai who had defended, or at least had no problems with, Muhammadu Buhari’s never-before-seen provincialism (and who probably hated me for calling it out at the time) used my column as a crutch to get even with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who threw him under the bus after his full-throated for his election. Well, such opportunistic pivots are part of Nigeria’s political theater.

However, anyone who follows my public interventions knows that I have no allegiance to any set of narrow, predetermined interests and that my public commentaries are animated by my well-considered estimation of what constitutes Nigerian society’s collective good.

That’s why I have a revolving door of critics and irers—praised by one group under one istration, scorned by the same group under another. My principles remain constant, even if public sentiment does not.

Several of the people who applaud my critiques of a southern president revile and slander me when a northerner is president, and several of the people who are bent out of shape because of my critical columns on Tinubu praised my “bravery” and “truth to power” when I wrote similar columns under Buhari.

This isn’t the reason, of course, for revisiting my column (which I rarely do) because self-interested commendations and condemnations of the expression of critical opinions are natural to the territory of public intellection.

I am returning to the issue because I felt compelled to clarify an important aspect of last week’s piece.

A trusted older friend pointed out that Bayo Ojulari, who is rumored to be Tinubu’s pick to succeed Mele Kyari as head of the NNPC, is not merely a Yoruba man but a Yoruba northerner from southern Kwara State. This distinction fundamentally alters the narrative.

Had I known this earlier, I would not have written the column as I did. I have no desire to perpetuate the regressive, ethnocentric narratives that gained prominence during Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency where the North was invidiously dichotomized into a “core” and a “periphery.”

Northern identity, as historically defined, transcends ethnicity, religion, or geography within the former Northern Region. It is a shared geo-political and cultural construct.

A northerner is anyone from the former Northern Region irrespective of ethnicity, religion, or location within the region. Being a northerner requires nobody’s approval and isn’t invalidated by anybody’s disapproval.

As the late Sunday Awoniyi used to say, when Frederick Lugard delineated the North and included his people into it, his ancestors were not consulted; he just found himself a northerner and embraced it because it has defined him since his birth. (The only prominent Yagba people from Kogi State I know who say they are not Yoruba are Professor Etannibi Alemika and prominent journalist Tunde Asaju).

The North isn’t an ethnic group; it’s constructed geo-cultural and political identity that encomes a diversity of ethnicities. It’s Nigeria’s most complex, ecumenical identity.

As I pointed out in previous columns, a real, Ahmadu Bello-type northerner would regard Yoruba people from Kwara and Kogi states, or even Igbo people in Ado, Oju, Obi and Okpoku local government areas of Benue State, as integral “regional kin” deserving of every privilege that is accruable to a northerner.

To argue that certain individuals cannot represent the North based on their ethnicity invites uncomfortable questions about the region’s cultural and political boundaries.

If Bayo Bashir Ojulari, an Ahmadu Bello University-trained engineer who identifies as a northerner by origin, cannot lead the NNPC because of his Yoruba heritage, then the resentment of Yoruba people in Kwara and Kogi seeking affiliation with the Southwest becomes understandable.

It becomes intolerably churlish to talk about “outsiders” “dividing” the North, as we like to do when fissiparous tendencies emerge within the region. Either we accept all as northerners, or we fracture the identity entirely.

This clarification is necessary because I do not want to be on record as having opposed Ojulari’s ascension to the headship of the NNPC on of his ethnicity, especially after realizing that he is a northerner who just happens to share the same ethnicity as the government

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2025/01/nnpc-and-fresh-perspectives-on-ojularis.

Ojulari is from Share, Ifelodun, he has paid his dues in SPDC. He will be a good choice.

Kwara is 90% Yoruba and I challenge anyone to tackle me on dis, kogi has a majority Yoruba tribe in the west, Dino melaye, smart adeyemi, deji adeyanju, and abiodun faleke, are all from dis region..... North-Central zones has a lot of diversity in of language as many tribes fall into dis zones..... It amazes me that instead of looking at competence in 2025,some people are still playing regional politics.....

Hmmm

May God bless all yoruba people in Kwara and kogi

We should be to our brothers in SW

Nice

Am from southern Kwara and am a full blood Yoruba man, in politics our name is North Central, but in reality we are South West Nigeria.

It's fair to own up to errors and correct them. Kudos Prof.

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Eye dey clear

Tinubu started the ONE DAY GOVERNOR of a thing where a brilliant student that emerge winner from the spelling bee competition become a one day governor in Lagos.

Report reaching me say Jagaban is planning to start the same program at the federal level but this time na for adults who can emerge as one day president. This is a big opportunity for Peter Obi. But can Peter Obi win a spelling bee competition?

Good for him.

This is speaking from both sides of the mouth.
Although he is NC, he is still a Yoruba, which is the root word for Yorubanization.

I read thru comments on nairaland. Nothing intellectual nothing deep. Just 1 or 2 scattered rare smart talk. Its mostly for likes and clout.
We do not choose where we were born or how; or family and location of birth yet we banter each other with all ion and life like these things matter.
It is one of the most foolish things and venture of life.
Its only stark illiterates that insults other people based on where they came from which is 100% not their making.
Once I see someone denigraring another's tribe, I immediately see a low IQ fellow.

Ethnicity and tribalism, those are our mumu buttons.
Politicians have learnt how to press those buttons and they use them to control us like puppets.

Latakia:
Tinubu started the ONE DAY GOVERNOR of a thing where a brilliant student that emerge winner from the spelling bee competition become a one day governor in Lagos.

Report reaching me say Jagaban is planning to start the same program at the federal level but this time na for adults who can emerge as one day president. This is a big opportunity for Peter Obi. But can Peter Obi win a spelling bee competition?

You must think you're funny.

iwaeda:

https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2025/01/nnpc-and-fresh-perspectives-on-ojularis.

This guy has clearly taken it upon himself to be the self-appointed referee of ethnic identities in Nigeria. One minute he's critiquing 'Yorubacentric' appointments, and the next he's bending over backward to justify how a Yoruba man from Kwara magically fits into the northern identity.

It’s almost laughable how he’s trying to have it both ways—playing the victim of ethnocentric narratives while actively fueling them with his endless rambling. Seriously, who has the time to dissect all these labels and boundaries?

Instead of getting caught up in these pointless tribal classifications, maybe focus on the actual qualifications of the people involved and whether they can do the job. The country is struggling with real issues, but here we are, debating whether someone’s Yoruba-ness cancels out their northern-ness. If this isn’t a masterclass in deflecting from real problems, I don’t know what is

Judolisco:
Kwara is 90% Yoruba and I challenge anyone to tackle me on dis, kogi has a majority Yoruba tribe in the west, Dino melaye, smart adeyemi, deji adeyanju, and abiodun faleke, are all from dis region..... North-Central zones has a lot of diversity in of language as many tribes fall into dis zones..... It amazes me that instead of looking at competence in 2025,some people are still playing regional politics.....

I am from Kogi(Okun), this people have their dialect other than yoruba. You know nothing sir.

BoldBrainz:


You must think you're funny.

There's sense in what he proposes.

BoldBrainz:


You must think you're funny.

no vex if na because of your saviour yes daddy make u dey ask me this question

Kperogi is a clown.

Latakia:
Tinubu started the ONE DAY GOVERNOR of a thing where a brilliant student that emerge winner from the spelling bee competition become a one day governor in Lagos.

Report reaching me say Jagaban is planning to start the same program at the federal level but this time na for adults who can emerge as one day president. This is a big opportunity for Peter Obi. But can Peter Obi win a spelling bee competition?

Judolisco:
Kwara is 90% Yoruba and I challenge anyone to tackle me on dis, kogi has a majority Yoruba tribe in the west, Dino melaye, smart adeyemi, deji adeyanju, and abiodun faleke, are all from dis region..... North-Central zones has a lot of diversity in of language as many tribes fall into dis zones..... It amazes me that instead of looking at competence in 2025,some people are still playing regional politics.....

I'm a country with diverse cultures such as ours, regionalism would always play out. Imagine bringing the technocrats from the south to head sensitive positions in government. Would you be surprised if the north cry of marginalisation tomorrow?

This fool is worse than Reno. Who still listens to the gibberish he keeps uttering. Today, he says something else, tomorrow he completely reverses himself. Not once, not twice, but it has become his way of life.

Any country with such charlatans as opinion moulders or influencers will never progress. This fool is only looking for attention and hoping to get appointment.

Nigeria is in this mess because most of the people living in it have zero principle and zero character🤮🤮🤮

Content writing and journalism plays a huge part in national building as the third realm of governance. A content that is not well researched and thought out can bring a nation to civil war and can deny a nation of foreign direct investment. Kperogi, I have time without number critic your content on many occasions because there are most times not well thought out and researched as Remo Omokri does his without going back on correction and partial apology. Revisiting your content put you in the class of clout seeking individuals who want to attain fame with ease.
You are based in abroad and your content will easily be consumed by diaspora because of your position in the academia and your ties with your homeland, so a little mistake in your content can do a great harm to your country. Brushing off your written mistake by a wave of hand is not accepted but a total change in approach to your writing without bias is advised.
Research forms the bedrock of every genuine content rather than hearsay which can reduce your journalism to a mere beer parlour conversation.
Keep up your good work but a change in your approach is highly recommended. Do not the queue of illiterate journalism we have in Nigeria social media and renown Television stations, all interest is the click, like and traffic.

Oloriburuku Oloshi. Only the drugs traffickers and baby factory merchants listen to him

BoldBrainz:


You must think you're funny.

Frankly speaking, he is funny but I understand your anger too. In the end, we all want a better Nigeria.