Why I Now Endorse Jonathan for the Office of President of the Federal Republic Nigeria
Posted April 15, 2011 · Charles O
Up until around the evening of Wednesday, April 13th, 2011, I was leaning heavily towards Buhari, under the theory that he is the most likely of all the candidates on offering, to tackle the issue of corruption—that bane of our nation. That was until I started hearing of not-so-clandestine meetings among Buhari, Babangida, Atiku, Ciroma, Gusau, et al. …
Buhari has lost himself the support and endorsement of a great many southern progressive as well as potentially millions of votes (I would hope) by, this week, consorting with Babangida, Atiku, &co. on strategies to consolidate the northern vote in such a way that leaves much to be desired. The message the consortium of Buhari-Babangida-Atiku-Gusau-Ciroma-et al sends to us southern progressives is that Buhari is officially part of a Northern Agenda to wrest the Presidency without regard to the best interest of the country.
To begin with, Babangida, Atiku, and Gusau all contested the PDP nomination against Jonathan, and Jonathan won the nomination fair and square. Were there not a Northern Agenda, Babangida, Atiku, and Gusau would have stood behind and backed their party’s flag-bearer and given him their full-fledged support from the primaries through the general elections. Of course, the problem from their perspective is that Jonathan is not a Northerner, and they have now decided to find the most likely northerner—forget that he belongs to a different political party, and is, at least theoretically, not aligned with them ideologically—and to throw their weight behind him; their explicitly stated objective being the ascension of a northerner—any northerner—to the Presidency.
Do the actions of Babangida, Atiku, and Gusau surprise anyone? No. What shocks one—what engulfs one with a sense of total betrayal is the fact that Buhari—the man whom many southern progressives had backed as the most likely candidate to tackle corruption as well as the most likely to seriously prosecute the crimes of previous administrations (i.e., the Babangidas and Atikus of the world) is the same man who is now strategizing with the Babangidas and Atikus on how to consolidate northern votes in support of a consensus northern candidate—presumably, himself. This is not merely the politics of vote-garnering; this is a really deeply insidious and dangerous policy of perpetuating a northern hegemony.
Moreover, let us be even so insufferably charitable as to stipulate that Buhari is still incorruptible. Even under that stipulation, how does he expect to retain the ability to prosecute the Babangidas, Atikus, &co. for their sundry crimes against the Nigerian state, particularly given that such actions are necessary if we are to be even remotely serious about fighting corruption in Nigeria, now that these men are essentially his kingmakers. And even if, to stretch credulity, Buhari is now and were to remain incorruptible, would he not be beholden to them for arguably bringing him the northern vote and essentially helping him to attain the presidency? Isn’t this akin to godfatherism, the bane of Nigerian politics?
How incredibly naïve and gullible we have all been. While hiding behind the argument that the objective is the removal of PDP, the northern powerbrokers are busy consolidating an agenda that advances the North’s stated mission of installing a northerner in Aso Rock—at any cost. If, truly, the objective is the removal of PDP, then Babangida, Atiku, Gusau, Ciroma, &co. would have no business being part of that conversation since PDP is their political party. Fellow countrymen, the removal of PDP is not the agenda here; the northern agenda, simply, is ensuring that Jonathan does not win the Presidency, and, even more importantly, that a northerner—in whatever incarnation—does in fact win.
So, damn it: let us regionalize the 2011 elections. I refuse to continue to make the argument that we should place our national interest above primordial ethnocentric interests—an argument that is now made hollow by the north’s unabashed designs on the presidency. The northerners are actually, really, and truly convinced that they own the presidency (in fact, I hear one of the northern states’ slogan is “Born to Rule”).
I say let us all vote along regional lines. Northerners do not own the presidency and were not born to rule anybody. To that end, I hereby declare my support of and endorsement of my fellow southerner Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
God bless Nigeria.
CEO
April 15, 2011
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