Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal has alleged that many of the political positions he has held were contested not on the basis of his ability, but because of his ethnic and religious identity.
Speaking from 8:04 on TVC, he said, “I’m a Kilba man from Adamawa State. All my life, I have grown up facing discrimination and having to work harder than anyone else to prove my competence. There are times the positions I occupy are not ascribed to me because of my competence. People opposed me because I’m a Kilba man from northern Adamawa and a Christian from a small tribe, so I’m supposedly not entitled to the position I hold.”
The former SGF said the discrimination was not something that shocked or broke him and that it was a reality he grew up with and eventually accepted as part of his lived experience in northern Nigeria.
He argued that the northern Nigeria is effectively divided into two categories of people. He noted that those in category one believe they are entitled to whatever they want, whenever they want it, simply by virtue of who they are, and that those in category two, like himself, must fight twice as hard for opportunities that others assume are theirs by right….Read_More…