June 20, 2010
After the so-called revenge coup of 1966 some Northern hotheads had actually wanted to secede (araba) from Nigeria until it was made clear to them that power had reverted back to their region. Ever since, all makes of Northern wannabes have latched on to the born-to-rule mentality that makes the region quite parasitic in the Nigerian scheme of things. Power thus becomes an end in itself, aimed at consuming things produced from other zones of the country.
After the so-called revenge coup of 1966 some Northern hotheads had actually wanted to secede (araba) from Nigeria until it was made clear to them that power had reverted back to their region. Ever since, all makes of Northern wannabes have latched on to the born-to-rule mentality that makes the region quite parasitic in the Nigerian scheme of things. Power thus becomes an end in itself, aimed at consuming things produced from other zones of the country.
Now in a tribal move to counter the alleged ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan to contest for the presidency in 2011, some 150 top politicians from the North converged in Abuja to plot on how to enforce the contentious zoning of the presidency to the North in 2011 based on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) zoning arrangement, which they claim cedes power to the region till 2015.
Former military President Ibrahim Babangida, who madly wants to return to power as civilian president in 2011, led the list of attendees. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar who equally lusts after the top job was also there. National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Gusau, who also wants the highest job in the land was there to identify with the region at the meeting. Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Gen. David Jemibewon, Gen. Mohammed Magoro, Air Cmdr. Hamza Abdullahi and former PDP Chairman Audu Ogbeh also made their eminent presences felt.
According to some strategic sources, only one agenda was up for deliberation at the meeting, and it’s simply this: how the North will reclaim power and keep it till 2015.
The catch remains how the North will negotiate with other regions to ensure that the “gentleman's agreement” is respected.
It should be recalled here how the late Alhaji Wada Nas had warned his beloved Northern region that his people would forever regret double-crossing the Southeast in the so-called zoning arrangement back in 1999. Power has by divine order come on the lap of a man from the South-South who happens to come from the Eastern tripod that used to form the Nigerian nation. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan cannot be denied now without something giving eternally within the ambit of the cohesion of the entire country.
Promoters of the zoning ruse will have us believe that President Olusegun Obasanjo had done the South’s two terms of eight years based on the agreement, and that the North is expected to produce the president for eight years till 2015, notwithstanding the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 6, 2010 after three years on the saddle. This takes no notice of the tripod that used to be Nigeria and the donkey years that the North had ruled the country without moving anybody forward, least of all their own very people. Even Obasanjo who allegedly benefitted from the zoning arrangement has denied its existence!
It was therefore with their tails between their legs that the Northern titans met at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, from around 8 in the night till the wee hours. Of course power-seekers hardly ever sleep. For these people, there is no life at all whatsoever outside power. Five delegates from each of the 19 states of the North attended due to the urgent need to reclaim what belonged to the North: the Nigerian Presidency. The meeting did not end until about midnight, with former Senate President Prof. Iyorcha Ayu flanked by Babangida and Atiku addressing the press. Talk of Northern solidarity. If the Southerners should behave this way, it would then amount to: To thy own tents, all tribesmen of Nigeria!
It fell on poor Ayu, a former self-advertised “comrade radical” to tell Nigerians that the meeting was not targeted against any individual or zone but that it’s an effort at strengthening national cohesion and peace. According to him, the aim is to prevail on concerned individuals and groups to respect the agreed template on zoning.
It is indeed remarkable that when Ayu was asked if the agenda of the meeting is to pave the way for the emergence of a Northern candidate, he queried: “what is wrong with that?” His justification for it was that “after all, the person who was president between 1999 and 2007 was not a Northerner.”
The arrogance of the so-called North amounts to crass impunity. The thinking that the North will forever pull the wool over the eyes of the entire country as it pleases has had its day. The time is now to call the bluff of the Northern atavists. This crude tribalism is idiotic! It all amounts to arrant Northern nonsense!
Now in a tribal move to counter the alleged ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan to contest for the presidency in 2011, some 150 top politicians from the North converged in Abuja to plot on how to enforce the contentious zoning of the presidency to the North in 2011 based on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) zoning arrangement, which they claim cedes power to the region till 2015.
Former military President Ibrahim Babangida, who madly wants to return to power as civilian president in 2011, led the list of attendees. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar who equally lusts after the top job was also there. National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Gusau, who also wants the highest job in the land was there to identify with the region at the meeting. Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Gen. David Jemibewon, Gen. Mohammed Magoro, Air Cmdr. Hamza Abdullahi and former PDP Chairman Audu Ogbeh also made their eminent presences felt.
According to some strategic sources, only one agenda was up for deliberation at the meeting, and it’s simply this: how the North will reclaim power and keep it till 2015.
The catch remains how the North will negotiate with other regions to ensure that the “gentleman's agreement” is respected.
It should be recalled here how the late Alhaji Wada Nas had warned his beloved Northern region that his people would forever regret double-crossing the Southeast in the so-called zoning arrangement back in 1999. Power has by divine order come on the lap of a man from the South-South who happens to come from the Eastern tripod that used to form the Nigerian nation. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan cannot be denied now without something giving eternally within the ambit of the cohesion of the entire country.
Promoters of the zoning ruse will have us believe that President Olusegun Obasanjo had done the South’s two terms of eight years based on the agreement, and that the North is expected to produce the president for eight years till 2015, notwithstanding the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 6, 2010 after three years on the saddle. This takes no notice of the tripod that used to be Nigeria and the donkey years that the North had ruled the country without moving anybody forward, least of all their own very people. Even Obasanjo who allegedly benefitted from the zoning arrangement has denied its existence!
It was therefore with their tails between their legs that the Northern titans met at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, from around 8 in the night till the wee hours. Of course power-seekers hardly ever sleep. For these people, there is no life at all whatsoever outside power. Five delegates from each of the 19 states of the North attended due to the urgent need to reclaim what belonged to the North: the Nigerian Presidency. The meeting did not end until about midnight, with former Senate President Prof. Iyorcha Ayu flanked by Babangida and Atiku addressing the press. Talk of Northern solidarity. If the Southerners should behave this way, it would then amount to: To thy own tents, all tribesmen of Nigeria!
It fell on poor Ayu, a former self-advertised “comrade radical” to tell Nigerians that the meeting was not targeted against any individual or zone but that it’s an effort at strengthening national cohesion and peace. According to him, the aim is to prevail on concerned individuals and groups to respect the agreed template on zoning.
It is indeed remarkable that when Ayu was asked if the agenda of the meeting is to pave the way for the emergence of a Northern candidate, he queried: “what is wrong with that?” His justification for it was that “after all, the person who was president between 1999 and 2007 was not a Northerner.”
The arrogance of the so-called North amounts to crass impunity. The thinking that the North will forever pull the wool over the eyes of the entire country as it pleases has had its day. The time is now to call the bluff of the Northern atavists. This crude tribalism is idiotic! It all amounts to arrant Northern nonsense!
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