Middle Belt Dialogue
Suite 21, Silla Zeka Plaza, Adebayo Adedeji Crescent, Utako, Abuja
July 24, 2013
The
“North”, deceit and Illusions of 2015
Our attention has been drawn to the
activities and pronouncements of the Governors of Adamawa, Jigawa, Kano and
Niger States who have been going round the country inciting tension and
division with the obvious intention of destabilizing the government of
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The objective of these activities, as they themselves
trumpeted is to get a “northerner” by which they mean Hausa Fulani, replace
President Jonathan in 2015, or even by any means possible.
After meeting with Rivers State Governor
Mr. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi in controversial circumstances aimed at inciting
tension between the Niger Delta and other parts of Nigeria, the group proceeded
to Abeokuta to see General Olusegun Obasanjo and therefter to Minna to meet
with Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalam Abubakar to “report” President
Goodluck Jonathan. They reportedly asked the two Generals to intervene in a way
that will make “our dreams become a reality”.
General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, the man who annulled the June 12 elections
and championed the northern consensus programme that excluded Dr. Sarah Jibril,
thereafter declared them patriots for their actions.
It is obvious to see the direction these
people are coming from. Like Ango Abdullahi and a few others crying themselves
hoarse about “it is the turn of the North(arewa) in
2015” it is inconceivable and totally unacceptable to them to be out of power
“for so long” . As far as they are concerned only them should rule Nigeria,
notwithstanding the fact that the Hausa Fulani North have had as President and Prime
Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa , Alhaji Usman Aliyu Shehu Shagari, and
Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar Adua. They have had, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Alhaji Namadi
Mohammed Sambo as Vice Presidents.
General Obasanjo of the South West was
President for eight years, and Yar ‘Adua’s eight years would not have been
debated if God had not ruled otherwise by allowing the cold hands of death on
May 5, 2010 to snatch him away from us. Yar’ Adua’s
erstwhile Deputy, from one of the many minority ethnic groups naturally
contested and, thanks to the support from his native South South, South East,
Middle Belt and South West, won the 2011 Presidential Election. This is the first
time Nigeria’s Leader has emerged from the South South.
For Aliyu Muazu Babangida, the man who
voted against President Goodluck Jonathan during the PDP Primaries and in the
2011 general elections, Jonathan should not have been elected in the first place
and anything done to get him out as quickly as possible is patriotism, hence
the desperation. It would have been funny were it not so rude, incorrect and
based on a flawed understanding of the dynamics playing out in Nigeria today.
Secondly the patriotism which these
gentlemen were adorned with by General Ibrahim Babangida must be
based on the recent “disgrace” they meted out to Governor David Jonah Jang.
Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the former Right
Honourable Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, when Babangida was
military president gloated that they
played politics on Jang and President Jonathan, when he, Kwankwaso at a meeting
presided over by Aliyu Babangida, and attended by
other northern Governors, nominated Jang as consensus candidate for the NGF
chairmanship only to dump him a few hours after.
Hapless Jang, who had no intention of
contesting for the chairmanship of the NGF, was left stranded? or so they wished.How will this not be patriotism to
General Ibrahim Babangida? During Babangida’s transition to civil rule
programme General Yakubu Gowon had the same Jang treatment meted to him when he
was asked to start his option A4 presidential bid from Zaria.
What is more? Kwankwaso gleefully
related what happened to the media and said they wanted to teach Jonathan
politics. To nominate someone who was not interested in an office with the
intention of disgracing him shows how honourable Kwankwaso really is. And
Jang’s constituency, the Middle Belt, is supposed to be amused by such a shoddy
treatment of our own? We are supposed to nod our heads enthusiastically when
the establishment cries “there is only one indivisible north”! Besides, can
these Honourable men whose words don’t mean anything to them be trusted when
they speak of one north? How will you know when they want to teach politics and
when they are telling the truth?
A section of the North overwhelmingly
voted for Buhari in 2011. As a matter of fact Kwankwaso in Kano printed
campaign posters with the pictures of Buhari superimposed on them. Aliyu Muazu and Murtala Nyako voted for Buhari in
the 2011 elections. The President got about 18% of the votes in Kano. Yet President Goodluck Jonathan has bent surprisingly backward to accommodate and make them the mainstay
of his government. The fact that they nominated most ministers and senior
political appointees has not satisfied them. They are working assiduosly hard to throw him out before the end of his
tenure.
We reaffirm our position that post-Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan presidency is for the Middle Belt. We in the Middle Belt do not
agree with the agitation that power should leave the Niger Delta now. By the
natural reconfiguration of the zoning formula as a result of the natural death
of President Umaru Musa Yar Adua, the Niger Delta is still supported by the
Middle Belt to conclude its eight year tour of duty. It is significant to note
that the artificial security challenges created by those who said that they
would make the country ungovernable are being addressed; the railway lines
which stopped working during the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida
have slowly but steadily started to work; massive power
transmission lines are being installed across the country. In terms of
performance therefore, those persecuting Jonathan cannot claim to have
performed as much as he has let alone say better.
On Governor Amaechi and the orchestrated tension in Rivers State, we wish to align ourselves with
the advice given to him by Yinka Odumakin, and echoed by the South South
Peoples Assembly; We wish to remind him that those who ride on the tiger back
end up in its belly. Those who are clapping for him now to weaken and or
undermine President Jonathan love him only to the extent that he keeps
undermining Jonathan. Not long from now they will give him the Gowon, Abiola
and Jang treatment.
Amaechi and his cohorts
should remember how the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) used Akintola to
weaken Awolowo’s support base in the early 1960s; The people of South South are not so unwise calculators that will prefer the number two position of
Governor Adams Oshiomhole or Rotimi Amaechi to the
number one? Come on!
We wish to remind the South South citizens that the
Northern agenda, as championed by these Governors, is to use a southerner to
destroy a southerner and nothing more. These characters lauded as patriots are
but cheap traitors running an unpopular
script that is doomed to fail.A word is enough for the wise.Abi-O.
Honourable
Aminu Zang
Member,
House of Representatives -1993
For
the Secretariat
