It is a fact that leaders all over the world, and especially Africa, do not take their followers serious, perhaps, because over time, they have seen that no matter the action they take, all the followers do is criticise. The people have, therefore, been reduced to mere puppets whose votes should be sought where necessary, and most often, whose opinions should be discarded while the leaders carry on with whatever scheme that serve their selfish purposes.
This is a critical issue. For the people should have elevated themselves to the level of intellectual counter-balance, rather than mere reactionaries. We, the people, should be taken much more seriously by those who emerge as our leaders. But the question is, whether we know how to take ourselves seriously.? When so-called intellectuals (who I am certain are the problem with Nigeria), cannot think original thoughts and merely react negatively to every action, inaction, decision and indecision of their leaders, without any exertion of real intellectual rigour, then there is a huge problem. When ‘intellectuals’ capitulate in this manner, what do we expect of the less-educated?
Atiku Abubakar, like most other Nigerian politicians, has a huge baggage of corruption and whatnot hanging over him like a halo. But what did we expect? What would have been better? Would the northern leaders have earned any laurels from us if ten northerners contested the PDP primaries with Jonathan and thereby split their votes all over the place? Would we writers not have ridiculed the north as we regularly do? So I think we should commend the northern leaders for being able to agree on one out of four formidable candidates. Indeed it is an example that other regions should emulate, as the inability to reach such a consensus is a clear indication of political barbarism.
For me, it doesn’t matter if the process of reaching the consensus throws up a leper. The fact is that it was not an easy thing to achieve. It was a consensus that Yoruba leaders did in 2003 when they fell into Obasanjo’s trap; albeit the Yoruba leaders did theirs in secret. Then it was simply a case of ‘let us support Obasanjo because he is our son’. Today, the entire fraud perpetrated by Obasanjo is unfolding before his very eyes, and we are back again to core ethno-religious politics, only this time with a huge overhang of bitterness to boot. The Igbos have really never been able to reach such consensus when they needed, as was apparent in 2003 and 2007. So, we have a lot to learn from the northern leaders in playing mature politics.
The consensus was made necessary by the fact that President Jonathan crossed the Rubicon in contesting the next election when he ought to have toed the path of honour. I really don’t care about zoning and where the next president is from. But I care that my president should keep to his words, especially where his signature is on a document. And I care that people in power should not use the power of incumbency inordinately and maximally, in achieving whatever catches their fancies. That is the prism through which I see the consensus issue. And I must express my admiration for those candidates who lost the poll – especially IBB – for expressing support for Atiku and making available their structures to push Atiku’s agenda. They should keep striving to maintain their integrity, as difficult as that may be…
What better lesson do we need as Nigerians? IBB and co have made it clear that their lives do not depend on the next elections. Contrary to what the southwest press would have us believe, perhaps IBB is not such a desperately evil man after all! Perhaps he and most of the other leaders – Ciroma, Gusau, Saraki, Ogbeh and co – really do believe in keeping their words. That is more than we can say for the serving president, who denied that there is anything like zoning in his PDP party in the first place! That is obviously a blatant lie! Arguing that ‘zoning’ is not democratic is being clever by half. Democracy is not sacrosanct, and if a people do not adjust its implementation to fit with their own reality, democracy does destroy a people.
President Jonathan recently put the statement below on his facebook page; “I was loyal to my leader, the late great President Umaru Yar’adua. I am loyal to Nigeria, I don’t claim to represent North, South or a Committee-I represent Nigeria. I am loyal to Nigeria’s economy, I don’t have accounts or property abroad, ALL my children live and school in Nigeria. I am loyal to my wife and friends. Can those who accuse me say the same?”
I never knew that Yar’adua was ‘great’. If he was, why did Jonathan not attend his burial? Why did Nigeria move over his demise like a bulldozer would move over an ant? What is the man trying to tell us now? And why bring his children into the fray? We don’t even know who they are, so we can’t verify his claims. And that talk about being loyal to his wife is simply ridiculous! I sense desperation. If he doesn’t have any account abroad, it must be because he didn’t have the exposure, for it’s not a big deal, especially for someone who has been around as long as he.
I took up Simon Kolawole over his last article on Atiku. Simon had claimed that if Atiku wins and becomes president, then after eight years the presidency will revert to the south. I asked him why he thinks that will be so. The struggles that the north is going through today is because we southerners are changing the rule in the middle of the game. Before the elections of 1999, the south was frenetic in its demand for zoning. Now we are at advantage and we say zoning is ‘undemocratic’. If Atiku should become president, the south should no longer expect to have the presidency on a platter, unless we become cry babies again and start making noise asking that the rule should change. We have broken whatever is left of the cycle of integrity. We have betrayed our own treachery.
By forcing the north to concede the presidency to us in 1999, by denying that today and watching the north reach a consensus now (no matter how flawed), by expecting the same north to cede the presidency to the south after eight years if they win it through sweat and blood now, and by expecting to damn the north and keep holding to the presidency if we win the presidency in 2011, the south is only confirming its ‘inferiority’ of mind and politics. Need I say more?
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