Nigeria 2015 elections: Northern governors must make peace with their people

Politics - We have been told
that the presidency is worried
and not quite happy with the
position the Northern
Governors' Forum (NGF) took
after their meeting last week
in Kaduna to unite for a single
presidential candidate in 2015.
This was obviously a fallout of
General Muhammadu Buhari's
statement in which he
insinuated that anyone who
was preparing to rig the
elections in 2015 should also
be ready to pay with his life.
The presidency was also not
happy about Buhari's
statement and the president's
guard dogs have come out
raving and unnecessarily
disturbing our peace. I do not
see what the presidency is
jittery about or complaining
about in both Buhari's
statement and Governor
Babangida Aliyu's comment.
The chief servant spoke on
behalf of northern governors.
If I understand the position of
the northern governors well,
what they said, through their
chairman, was that they
would unite behind whoever
their people - northerners -
want. What is wrong with
that, and why is Jonathan so
worried about that? Or, is it
that the president does not
want them to be on the side
of their people?
I thought that is the whole
idea of democracy. And if I
understand Buhari's position
very well also, if you are not
planning to rig the elections,
then you have nothing to
worry about. What is wrong
with that anyway? Why should
the president and his handlers
be so worked up over a very
simple statement about free
and fair elections?
I thought they should agree
with the Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC)
leader on this, or are they
planning to rig the elections?
Maybe they think that people
don't know when their votes
are stolen.
Even Sheikh Ahmed Lemu's
report said that the post-
election violence last year in
the northern states was
because the youths expected
change, which simply meant
that the result eventually
announced was totally
different from what they
thought they voted for. By
2015, it would not be only the
youth of the north that would
expect change.
Youths all over the country -
indeed all Nigerians of
different tendencies who have
suffered as a result of the
massive corruption that has
left nothing in the coffers to
fight insecurity, create jobs,
provide meaningful education
and medicines in public
hospitals - will closely watch
how their votes are managed
or mismanaged and they
would respond accordingly.
Is it not such an irony that
the presidency is not in the
least concerned about the
desperation for free and fair
elections among Nigerians - a
sentiment that was only
echoed by the CPC
presidential candidate and
endorsed by the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN)?
There is a lot to blame the
opposition themselves for the
outcome of the 2011
presidential election, and I
have said it here several
times that the day the
alliance efforts of the CPC and
ACN collapsed was the same
day that the PDP picked the
presidential election victory on
a platter of gold. But every
fool knows that the PDP still
went ahead to rig the
election, causing unnecessary
tension in the polity.
There is no way the PDP
presidential candidate would
have received the so-called 25
per cent in several states of
the north where both the PDP
and INEC claimed he did, and
there is no way anyone would
have got those magical figures
in the south-east and south-
south states as the president
did.
What Buhari said was only a
piece of advice and, except
for those who have other
motives, there is nothing
offensive in that. Or, do the
people planning to rig
elections think that there
would not be consequences
for their actions on
themselves and their families?
If the government is not
punishing election riggers, the
society would always find its
own way to do so. This is
elementary logic anywhere in
the world. The opposition ACN
has supported Buhari's
statement and Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu has also denied ever
saying Jonathan's presidential
election was credible. And, by
the way, it was actually funny
seeing people who don't speak
or understand the Hausa
language attempting to give a
literal English meaning to
Buhari's metaphor of "kare
jini, biri jinni" ending up with
the story of the dog and the
baboon.
But whether Buhari made that
comment or not would make
no difference for 2015.
Nigerians everywhere -
whether in the north, south,
west or east or even
Christian, muslim or pagan -
now know the importance of
government to their lives, and
not to talk of the youths and
the disparate tendencies that
make up the Occupy Nigeria
Group. With the way the
government has supervised
the heartless stealing of N2.6
trillion of the people's money
via fake fuel subsidy payments
and yet the same government
would be shameless enough to
want to punish the people
further by, first, increasing
fuel price from N65 to N97 per
litre and now threatening to
go the whole hog of the fuel
subsidy removal, no one is
contemplating 2015 lying low.
And this is not to talk about
the total collapse of public
order and security in Nigeria
of which the current
government has totally no
clue. Besides, the increasing
poverty in the land has left
110 million Nigerians so poor
that they are unable to
afford the basic necessities of
everyday living.
The position of northern
governors is actually smart
and appears very well
considered. By 2015, many of
them will no longer be
governors and they are only
trying to negotiate a "soft
landing" with their people.
Many of them know that they
are not on the same page
with their people and, so far,
they have been living very
dangerously: their people
consider them enemies and
traitors. Many of them serially
rigged past presidential
elections against the popular
choice of their people and
have proceeded to rig
themselves back to their
government houses. Even if
they deceive themselves, they
know that it is only a matter
of time before the tension
and angst in their domains boil
over. Many of them and their
families cannot walk freely
within their states and have
to rely on the protection of
the coercive apparatus of the
state 24 hours a day.
The people think that these
governors rig elections
against them and then loot
the state coffers to bribe the
judges to legitimise these
rigged elections. After that,
they proceed to steal more
money for themselves and
their families while the
poverty in their states
continue to rise. The
scholarships which many of
these state governors
enjoyed when they were in
universities are no longer
available, even though the
nation now earns more money.
Even where the scholarships
still exist, they are grossly
insufficient to be of any use.
There are no decent public
schools anymore and the
hospitals of the state are of
no use to anyone; they are
worse than the more
consulting clinics of 1983. They
are now places where people
go to die. And the people see
this every day.
2015 is going to be very
critical for this country. It will
also be a very critical year for
the opposition, the ruling
party, INEC, the police and
everyone or group that would
be involved with the elections.
The fact that the campaign
has already started, when
Jonathan has not even
completed his first year in
office, should give an
indication.
The campaign has started
within the PDP and the
opposition parties are also
regrouping to present a
common front. The reason the
struggle for 2015 is being
fueled is the president's
perceived incompetence.
People are simply angry about
what Nigeria has become. So
the president should not be
surprised that the governors
are already tacitly pledging to
take sides with their people in
2015. That is actually a very
smart thing to do. Because, at
the end of the day, Jonathan
will go back to Otuoke in
Bayelsa State and the
governors will have to go
back to their different
enclaves and face their kith
and kin.
Saying that the governors
are going to unite for 2015
does not mean that the
northern consensus candidate
must necessarily be a
northerner. History has a
different interpretation. It
was the north that united to
ensure Olusegun Obasanjo
became president in 1999 and
also massively voted for MKO
Abiola in 1993 even against
Bashir Tofa, the candidate
from the north. People always
have different reasons for
adopting a candidate but will
do so if it will be in their
interest to do so.
If President Jonathan wants
to win the north's votes in
2015, it is very possible. But
today, he behaves as if he
does not need their votes. In
fact, he behaves as if only
Ijaw votes are important to
him, not even all the south-
south votes. And he should
stop pretending that he would
not be contesting the 2015
presidential election because
we all know he would - he
would be the 2015 PDP
presidential candidate. And
that's also one of his
problems.
He will be eligible to contest
but he should not have
promised to exclude himself as
he did before the elections
last year and now thinks he
can just renege on his word.
Any person who cannot keep
a simple promise freely made
should not be trusted - such
person has no integrity. That
would be Jonathan's cross in
2015 in addition to the other
albatross of incompetence and
the massive corruption of the
government he heads.
By 2015, there would be a
consensus among all Nigerians,
and not just northerners, to
vote for someone they think
can save the nation. And if
the governors - and here I
mean the 36 state governors
of Nigeria - still remember
what happened with the fuel
subsidy protests in January,
then they would be serving
their interests better not to
help anyone rig the 2015
elections.
Source: Afriquejet News