I HAVE never voted in a Nigerian election. I have
only ever voted once, but it was in Britain and not in Nigeria. As a Commonwealth student in
England in the 1970s, I was allowed to vote for the re-election of Harold Wilson’s Labour party.
However, I am seriously thinking of casting my
vote, for whatever it is worth, in Nigeria’s
forthcoming elections in 2015. There is only one
reason for this. I am determined that a
“Northerner” must not be the next president of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Cry-babies
I have nothing against the North per se, but I
have reached the conclusion that it would be
unhealthy for Nigeria’s next president to come
from the North. To accede to the insistence of
certain loud Northern politicians that the North
must produce the next president, is to send a
wrong signal to the North. The North has
become the spoilt-child of Nigerian politics. It
always has a grudge when it is not in power.
This must be discouraged.
When Moshood Abiola, a Southerner, won the
election in 1993, the Northern elite conspired to
scuttle it. When they finally succumbed to a
Southern presidency in 1999, some of them
nevertheless sought to make trouble by
politicising sharia. When Jonathan won in 2011,
there was instigated rioting in the North. Some
of the elite even decided to sponsor terrorist
activities in disgruntlement. This terrorism has
now backfired, to the extent that it is now beyond
the control of its initial sponsors.
The North has to learn to live without political
power at the centre. The rest of the country has
learnt to do this over the years, as the Northern
elite have monopolised power. But Northern
politicians seem to believe political power is their
entitlement. As a result, the “Northern” blackmail
is now in full swing. Certain spokesmen of the
so-called North are threatening to hold the
country to ransom come 2015, if a Northerner is
not elected the president of Nigeria. They are
saying: “It’s either our way or no way. If we
don’t get the presidency, then Nigeria cannot
continue.” This is poppycock!
Vain threats
Adamawa Governor, Murtala Nyako, says: “we
must stop President Goodluck Jonathan’s
attempt to go for second term, as that will lead
to civil war.” Who exactly are the “we” Nyako is
talking to here and who is going to start this civil
war? Senator Joseph Waku of the ACF (Arewa
Consultative Forum) says: “President Jonathan
should not even contemplate making any move to
contest the 2015 election because such will be
catastrophic.” I am curious as to what the
catastrophe would be.
Junaid Mohammed says there will be mayhem in
Nigeria should President Goodluck Jonathan and
the PDP rig the 2015 election. Junaid is a
Second Republic politician. When Northern Shehu
Shagari rigged the election in 1983 and won by a
“moonslide,” Junaid did not declare mayhem on
Nigeria at the time. When the election was
massively rigged for Northern Yar’Adua in 2007,
we did not hear of mayhem from the likes of
Junaid. But with the probable re-election of a
non-Northerner, Junaid is threatening violence.
Well, the violence will consume no one but Junaid
himself.
Precisely because of these bombastic threats, it
will be impolitic for Jonathan to decide not to run
in 2015. The entire nation must call the bluff of
these power-hungry Northerners. Let us see
what they will do if Jonathan not only runs, but is
re-elected. These threats are irritating and vain.
Southerners do not throw these tantrums when
Northerners are in power. The Igbo are a major
ethnic group in Nigeria. They have been denied
the presidency for virtually all of Nigeria’s 53 year
history. Yet, they are not crying wolf. They are
not threatening fire and brimstone. But those
who have monopolised the presidency for 38 out
of 53 years are the ones shouting till they are
blue in the face. What cheek!
It is not the birthright of Northerners to rule
Nigeria. It is the prerogative of all Nigerians to
decide who will be our president. The ethnic
chauvinists of the ACF have no right to determine
who Nigeria’s president should be or where he or
she should come from. If the president of Nigeria
does not come from the North for the next 20
years, there is nothing the ACF or anybody else
can do about it.
Smoke and mirrors
The ACF position is just so much smoke and
mirrors. The body does not speak for the North.
It is simply the mouthpiece of certain Northern
politicians who are indolent and are craving
another opportunity to loot the treasury at the
centre. The fact of the matter is that the North
no longer exists if it ever did. It is hardly a
homogeneous political entity. More than any
other part of Nigeria, the North is deeply divided
between the haves and the have-nots. After 38
years of deception and betrayal by Northern
politicians, the Northern poor do not need to be
told that such mouth-organs as the ACF and NEF
(Northern Elders’ Forum) have little or no interest
in their plight.
The North is currently at war with itself. The
Boko Haram has become an instrument for further
Northern division and impoverishment. It has
started an intercinine war where some Northern
Moslems have been killing Northern Christians.
Undoubtedly, the effect of this scourge in dividing
the North politically along religious lines will be
evident in future elections.
Moreover, as was evident in the 2011 elections,
the far North no longer shares traditional affinity
with the Middle belt or with the North Central.
The far North voted en bloc for Buhari, while the
Middle Belt and the North Central voted en bloc
for Goodluck Jonathan. Abuka Onalo, president
UMYC (United Middle-Belt Youth Congress)
insists the people of the Middle Belt are not
Northerners and have never been treated as
Northerners by the Hausa/Fulani. He says they
are: “now remorseful of their roles in past actions
of spearheading Northern interests that did not
benefit their people.”
Back-room deals
Nyako maintains Jonathan signed an agreement
with some northern governors in 2011 to serve for
a single term of four years. This position raises a
number of annoying questions. Who exactly are
these northern leaders and what special place do
they have in the selection of a Nigerian president
that anybody needs to make an agreement with
them? Nyako and his colleagues are dreamers.
Whatever role they presume to arrogate to
themselves in Nigerian politics is a result of their
delusion. Goodluck Jonathan did not need them
in order to win the last election.
In 2011, Jonathan lost to Buhari in all the far
northern states of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa,
Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto,
Yobe, and Zamfara. Nevertheless, he still went on
to win the election at the centre with a plurality
of over 10 million votes. Therefore, it is
immaterial whether or not he made an agreement
with these Northern jokers. Those he is alleged
to have made the agreement with could not even
deliver their side of the bargain. Nevertheless,
Jonathan went on to win the election. That
should tell these pretend power-brokers that they
are actually irrelevant in the Nigerian political
equation. Under the circumstances, it is
preposterous to now insist Jonathan must keep
his part of the alleged bargain. Clearly, the
bargain, if it ever existed, was a waste of time.
It is disrespectful to Nigerians for Nyako to have
the audacity to say that, in a democracy, a group
of Northern governors reached a private
agreement on who should be the president of
Nigeria. That is balderdash. Perhaps, we should
just cancel elections altogether and have Nyako
and his friends decide every four years who
should fill what posts. These people are just
fooling themselves. The fact that Jonathan
subsequently became president should not
obscure the fact that their presumptiveness was
shown to be false. The governors could not
deliver the North to him. Obviously, they had no
control over Northern voters.
One-term agreements
For 38 years, when Northerners ruled Nigeria,
there was no talk of any agreement with anybody
to serve for a delimited period. Balewa signed no
agreement for six years. Gowon entertained none
for nine years. Murtala did not deem it necessary
to put any pen to paper. Shagari ran for a
second term without making a treaty with the
South-South. Buhari succeeded Shagari without
thinking it was high time a Southerner became
head of state. Babangida replaced Buhari for nine
years without signing an agreement with
anybody. Rather than entertain Southern rule,
Abacha truncated it. After five years, he reached
an agreement with himself to succeed himself.
After Abacha came Abdulsalaam; yet another
Northerner.
But once Obasanjo, a Southerner, became
president; the Northerners started talking about
an agreement that he should only be president for
one-term. The same irritating noises are being
made again now that, for once in the history of
Nigeria, a South-South man is president. For this
very reason, under no circumstances should the
next president of Nigeria come from the North. In
the interest of national unity, these cry-baby
Northern leaders need to be taught a lesson. I
repeat: the presidency of Nigeria is not their
birthright. If these characters don’t know this by
now, 2015 is the time for them to know it.
People like Professor Ango Abdullahi of the NEF
claim to be against President Jonathan on the
grounds that his government has not performed.
Pull another leg! The North is not known to
produce good presidents. Yar’Adua was a
remarkably lousy president. He was also the
most tribalistic president in Nigeria’s history. He
ignored federal character and filled the
government with Northerners. For example, under
him, the Minister of Finance, Minister of National
Planning and the Governor of the Central Bank
were all from Kano. The NEF kept mum even
when a sick Yar’Adua was holed up in a Saudi
Arabian hospital, while his Northern acolytes went
on a looting spree of the treasury, forging cheques
in his name.
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