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.
#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.
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.
#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.
 |
| A NORTHERNER MUST NOT BE PRESIDENT 2015 |
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