Former Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, has offered a critical analysis of how ethnic considerations influence political opposition and accountability in Nigeria.
In a video posted on Symfoni TV, the former lawmaker identified ethnicity as a key factor determining whether citizens challenge their leaders or remain silent about governance issues.
“One fundamental factor is ethnicity,” Senator Sani stated. “When the person in the position of authority and power is from your ethnic group, people keep quiet. People are silent. They don’t stand up to challenge him. They don’t stand up to tell him the truth. And they don’t fight him because he is from their ethnic group.”
The former senator illustrated this pattern by citing examples across Nigeria’s major ethnic regions and their typical political alignments.
“If you have a Buhari in power, you will have opposition from the southwest, southeast, and south-south,” he explained. “If you have a Yoruba man in power, you will have an opposition from the southeast, north and part of the south-south.”
Senator Sani predicted that the same pattern would repeat regardless of which ethnic group holds power.
“One day if you have a southeasterner in power, the whole of southeast will become pro-government and other parts of the country will start fighting,” he concluded.
His remarks highlight the persistent challenge of ethnic politics in Nigeria, where regional and tribal loyalties often supersede objective assessment of leadership performance.
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