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Ethnic Engineering 101: How Tinubu Turned Northern Yorubas from Forgotten Minorities to Political Gatekeepers


From Invisible to Indispensable: Tinubu’s Pan-Yoruba Strategy Reframes Northern Nigeria’s Political Landscape

In recent weeks, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has escalated a subtle yet powerful project to reposition Yoruba identities across Nigeria’s traditional regional divide. His latest move—appointing Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan as Chairman of INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission)—follows a pattern begun earlier this year, which seeks to elevate “northern Yorubas” into positions of national visibility previously unimagined. What we see unfolding is not simply patronage for his ethnic base, but a potential reconfiguration of how identity, loyalty, and regional power interact in Nigeria’s political order.

A Strategy in Three Acts: Money, Mandate, and Morality

The broader pattern is now unmistakable:

1. Flow of Resources
In April 2025, Tinubu broke convention by naming Bashir Bayo Ojulari, a Yoruba Muslim from Kwara State, as Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPC Limited—Nigeria’s energy behemoth and ultimate fiscal juggernaut. That appointment put a Yoruba voice at the center of national revenue control.


2. Control of Electoral Mandate
Now, with the nomination (and ratification by the National Council of State) of Professor Amupitan, a Yoruba Christian from Kogi State, as INEC Chairman, Tinubu is placing Yoruba representation at the axis of mandate and legitimacy. 

Amupitan’s nomination has stirred controversy: critics frame it as a consolidation move for the 2027 elections. HURIWA (Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria) accuses the president of selecting him more for loyalty than competence. 

Observers, however, suggest this is a moment of reckoning: if he conducts credible elections, it could rehabilitate the public’s faith in electoral institutions. 



3. Symbolic Governance in the North
Tinubu’s appointments in the North reflect an even deeper layer of his strategy: reversing the historical invisibility of northern Yorubas in regional governance. One vivid case is Joseph Aderibigbe, a Yoruba Christian from Erin-Ile (geographically just across the conventional North–South divide), who was installed as Provincial Secretary over the historic Sokoto Province (spanning Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, parts of Niger). He was once a councilor in Sokoto and is often humorously referred to by local politicians as both “boss” and “subordinate” depending on geographic orientation.



Taken together, these appointments do more than reward ethnic affinity: they weave a narrative that aims to blur the scars of Nigeria’s North–South segmentation by recasting northern Yoruba identities as central to national governance.

A Mirror to Sir Ahmadu Bello’s Vision—If Embraced Wisely

In many ways, Tinubu’s strategy echoes the ideological posture of Sir Ahmadu Bello (the late Sardauna of Sokoto), who argued that no part of northern Nigeria should claim more “northern-ness” than another. For Tinubu, the strategy seems to be: if the North has not embraced its Yoruba sons, then let them serve, mold influence, and shift the region’s narrative from within.

Yet, this is also a political minefield. The mistake for northern elites would be to spurn these appointees on narrow linguistic or cultural grounds—i.e., reject them as “Yoruba intruders” while denying their northern credentials. Doing so would invite the very division Tinubu may be engineering.

Instead, northern leaders with symbolic and cultural clout—traditional rulers, religious custodians, regional opinion shapers—would be wise to approach these appointments strategically: recognize that their presence is both a challenge and an opportunity. It can be turned from an ethnic project into a de facto northwide empowerment, if the region responds with inclusion and political maturity.

Why This Matters in 2025 Nigeria

Reconfiguration of Identity

For decades, northern Yoruba populations—spanning parts of Kwara, Kogi, Niger, and even smaller enclaves—have lived in what might be called “symbolic amnesia.” Their Yoruba heritage rendered them invisible in narratives of Northern political identity; their residence or cultural ties made them peripheral in Yoruba national discourse. Tinubu’s appointments force them into the spotlight.

Power Over Resources and Authority

When one person from the Yoruba world controls the national oil company and another oversees the electoral arbiter, the structural levers of financial and political power begin to align with an ethnic geography hitherto marginalized in formal discourse. That’s not simply severing old hierarchies—it’s constructing new ones.

Test of Regional Cohesion

If northern leaders respond by ostracizing or denouncing these appointees, they will validate Tinubu’s cynical framing and weaken the region’s capacity to act as a unified force. If, conversely, they lean into inclusion—accepting that diversity within the North is not dilution—they may expand their moral and political capital.

The Stakes Ahead and the Ball in the North’s Court

Will Amupitan conduct elections that surpass, or at least match, past credibility thresholds? His performance will either expose the appointment as an ethnic stratagem or deliver a rare moment of institutional redemption.

Will northern elites recalibrate their acceptance of “northern Yorubas” as belonging—rather than intruders? Their response could either enforce the old divide or forge a more expansive regional identity.

Can the North absorb this shift without splintering under intra-ethnic resentments? The temptation to treat Yoruba-speaking northerners as outsiders will test the region’s self-image.


In short: Tinubu may be exporting an ethnic agenda, but the North can turn it into a political dividend—or let it metastasize into symbolic bait. The future strength of Nigeria’s largest region may depend on whether it embraces its own internal diversity as a source of cohesion—or rejects it as an illusion.

Let this moment be both a provocation and an invitation. Rejecting Yoruba-speaking northerners for their tongue or ancestry is not resistance—it is stumbling into the trap. South and North alike should watch closely: we are witnessing the construction of a new axis of influence, one that may outlast the current presidency if the structural foundations are laid well.


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