The Presidential Consensus Candidate and the Northern

The Presidential Consensus Candidate and the Northern

Dr. Abubakar A. Muhammad

If there is one thing one needs to hear repeated again and again from now until the year of 2007, assuming the court in Abuja does not turn over the ‘419’ election of OBJ and numerous others, it is the statement that Arewa will not be short-changed in the presidential election of 2007. And no one is better qualified and trusted to make this statement than the erstwhile ambassador of the North, Mr. Sunday Awoniyi, the current chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum. The problem the North faces is not so much it is its turn for the presidency, a mandate any political party worth its salt will be warned to respect if it wishes to win, it is sticking to the commitment to find a truly credible Northerner that will, once elected, move this country forward from the shackles of disease, poverty, joblessness, corruption, and yes, greatest insecurity the country has ever faced in its history in these past five wasted years of OBJ’s ignoble administration. The mistake of 2003 must not be repeated when the same A.C.F. failed to help to ensure that the elections, including the presidency, were conducted in a free and fair atmosphere. Instead it allowed vandals, thieves, hired thugs, crooks and the 419s in the PDP, not only to intimidate numerous voters and scare them away from the polls, but actually turned its eyes the other way as the ruling party in collaboration with the so called government’s security agents including the army and the police masterminded numerous acts of brigandage. Such malpractices included the seizure of ballot boxes, closure of voting stations, beating up rival voters, detaining other party officials and so forth only to turn around at the end of the day to declare the PDP candidates, including Aremu Olasegun Obasanjo as winners of the botched up ‘elections’. Does it surprise anyone that ‘leaders’ that did not win any elections are today ruling Nigeria as a ‘democracy’? Does it surprise anyone that such politicians like Wabara, Mantu, Jibril and a host of them that did not win elections in their constituencies but were declared ‘winners’ by the ‘Independent National Election Commission’ would only do the biddings of the president and his PDP stakeholders? Does it surprise anyone that the National Assembly and most of its members from the PDP that constitute the majority are nothing but rubberstamp of the president?

What does the consensus presidential candidate mean to the North? From different interests one is bound to hear a number of definitions. For some of our governors a consensus candidate means for one of them to vie for the presidential ticket and rumor abounds already that three of the 19 governors from the Northern States have their eyes on the presidency. Incredible! There is nothing wrong to dream but what has a governor to offer to the nation when he has even failed miserably to run his state and uplift the very people he has controlled for the past five years? When a state governor who as chief executive has so miserably failed to provide food and job, peace and love, security and needed infrastructures, water and education to his constituency, why is this person even thinking about taking a greater responsibility and challenge at the national level? I happen to be one of the many Northerners that have already written off most of these governors as failures and like OBJ I doubt if they are likely to leave any legacy except shame behind them. That is also why I am worried any time they meet to discuss the presidential ticket for the North come 2007. It is commendable though as governors they should make their voice heard regarding the democratic right of the North to vie for the presidency, especially when every tribe in the South has been shouting foul against the North, the North that they claim has ruled the country for forty years. Someone needs to tell those mischief-makers, those with narrow minds, that their assertions are not only false and misleading, they are self-serving. Such distortions are intended to blackmail the North into submission. Remember the June 12 saga? Well the idea that brought about the so called ‘power shift’ has now been hopefully laid to rest, thanks to the indictment of miserable failure of their son, but the story of forty years of the so called northern domination of the presidency will undoubtedly be gaining more strength as the year 2007 approaches. We also hear the useless argument of the ‘power shift’ agreement between the North and South to mean a zonal, rather than northern-southern shift and that means the presidency should be moved next to the South-south or Southeast. In their minds they perceive the North has lost the right, even in a democracy, to contest any election, especially the presidency because according to them the North ‘elected’ northern, not Nigerian soldiers to stage the first and subsequent military interventions that toppled the Balewa-Shagari governments and other juntas in the course of that unfortunate military adventurism. For me the whole idea of zoning an elective office like the presidency on selfish, parochial, and ethnic ground, not constitutionality, is ludicrous and repugnant because it is untenable under our own constitution and under any real democracy. It is in this context I trust the A.C.F. has vital role to play and to defend the political rights of the North no matter what any tribal cabals, warlords and ideologues may be saying from now on to 2007 elections. Indeed the Peoples Democratic Party or any party may zone all they want and to whomever, but they will not be allowed to stand in the way of any Nigerian, including the Northerners, from contesting the presidency in the year of 2007.

One way to analyze a consensus candidate is to look at the candidate’s exposure and electability nationwide. While a leader’s past performance in governing is important a candidate must be regarded a nation builder and not a destroyer. I believe there is a general consensus in the North that the country called Nigeria did not just come about because of the mistakes of our forefathers or even that of the colonialists. Nigeria it seems has a mission on this earth and it behooves us to have someone that can be trusted to help in fulfilling such earthly obligations to the satisfaction of all Nigerians. You might say this sounds philosophical if not stupid and you may be right only because most of the current leaders we have lack both vision and mission to make Nigeria the greatest country it can be on the face of the earth. What good is a leader that moves around in his little enclave preaching the gospel of hatred, ethnic bravado, sectarianism, and downright falsehood? What good is a leader that has become a pathological liar, a non-performer, and an outright bigot and nitwit? What good is a leader that appeals only to his own people and who tells them other Nigerians do not count in the scheme of politics that is about bringing dividends of democracy to all and sundry because everyone is a stakeholder? What good is a leader that takes pride of knowing everything and he does not want to hear and learn from the very people that have put him in position of responsibility so that when they are hurting he too is bleeding? What good is a leader that is bereft of the fear of God and is not ready to sacrifice everything he has, including his life and wealth in order to uplift the downtrodden masses in Nigeria today, the teeming masses that have almost given up on life? Regrettably, these are the types of ‘leaders’ we have today in Asorock, in the Assemblies, and in government mansions across the country. I make bold to say that Nigeria today, more than ever before needs a leaders, especially a president that is a fighter against all the above shortcomings and to whom leadership means total sacrifice, not glory. I trust we too in the North are desperately looking for such leader and we must find one by consensus.

Right at this time, even before the real match, we are being told by the southern press that the arena for the presidential contest from the North is already bloated and so as usual those papers are beginning to play the game they are so good at. At one moment they tell us it is the so called ‘Yar Aduwa’s PDM political machine inherited by Atiku Abubakar is fighting political battle for the presidency with General Babangida’s group; or the novice Brigadier Marwa is staging a battle royal with both General Babangida and Atiku Abubakar, and still according to them General Muhammadu Buhari’s massive grass-root support is waning. Then we are told now comes the gentleman Umaru Shinkafi into the field with the royal blessings of the Caliphate, and on and on. Luckily for these gentlemen, only Buba Marwa seems to be falling into the infamous media trap of the South by picking a quarrel and unguardedly insinuating people who are far more seasoned and politically more mature than him. One hopes sooner that the Brigadier will come to realize the kinds of remarks he is making directly or indirectly against others, and by extension against him are unwise. The North must not be fooled to allow the press, the southern press, not only to create confusion in our ranks through its deceptive labels, but also to decide for us the consensus candidate for the presidency. And so is the idea of a Northeastern governor’s meeting to force Abubakar Atiku on the North silly indeed, especially when he too has not announced his interest. The issue of the Caliphate’s choice for harped by the southern papers is equally nonsensical because the Caliphate is not known to be going public in such political matters, as it is also the practice of our traditional rulers to treat all interest groups on even keel. After all one wonders why Umaru Shinkafi who is a national figure will need to be specially chosen by the Caliphate even before he has announced his interest. These and more assertions coming from the southern press must be watched and rejected because they are aimed at dividing the people of the North even as the court proceedings over the 2003 elections are pending and when we are expect more people to join the presidential contest. I mentioned in passing those media gossips and innuendos to suggest that neither our political aspirants nor their followers should read too much in them. It is too early to divert the attention of the North from real issues of concern to something imaginary especially because our unity is what brings victory, rather than the division the southern media is working hard to create and exploit later on.

The best thing to do at this time is to warn all parties big and small that this time around the Northern people will not be shortchanged when it comes to choosing and finally electing the president in 2007, assuming the High Court in Abuja authenticates the 2003 presidential election and allows OBJ and PDP the so called ‘victory’ they have claimed. In other-words political parties contesting the presidency in 2007 will be expected to give slots to their northern candidates to run in the primary elections so that they can be nominated and eventually run for the presidential election in 2007. This is not to suggest there will be no contestants from other parts of the country during the primaries but we expect Northerners from these parties to win the primaries. Such winners will then go through the process of selection and elimination by general consensus of the people. This can be done through a modality acceptable to all the stakeholders. It is therefore important to make some of these so-called dominant parties like the PDP, ANPP and others aware that this time around the people of the North will not stop at anything to get its candidates nominated for the presidency so the idea of a party executive, party chairman, or the president selecting someone to ‘succeed him’ [according to Anthony Aneni’s latest imprudent outburst] from the South-south, South-east or even South-west without going through the primaries will be totally unacceptable even as such candidate is certain to face his waterloo in the hands of the determined electorate in the North.

I think the North’s idea of a consensus candidate for the presidential election is a candidate that has a great, workable and visionary plan to help turn the fortunes of this country around for good. He must be one that is reckoned to be self-disciplined, diligent, an organizer with great ideas and programs that work because he has achieved numerous past successes of implementing such social, economic, technological and industrial schemes that make life and living a pleasure and not hell. Our consensus candidate should be a reviver; he would be able to bring those things of life we once had: good agriculture and self-sufficiency in food; abundant water resources and dams for all kinds of needs- power, irrigation, cottage industries; plentiful cocoa, palm kernel, rubber, cotton, peanuts, rice, yam, cassava, grains and plantain; he revives industries and helps to mine minerals unlimited; he revives the infrastructures, the railway lines, road networks, water transport and all forms communications so that we can move and fly at will and with guaranteed security. He is a reviver of textiles, tannery, hides and skins, forestry, dairy and paltry farming, pottery, iron sheets and rolling mills. These and more once revived will also help our domestic and foreign earnings, while jobs and happiness should mean real survival. Our idea of a consensus candidate is a leader that is liked not because of his personal charm but because he means well to all irrespective of color and creed and by exemplary character he is able to inspire the nation and those he leads to dream and to achieve. He is a good listener as much as he is a doer: a man of action, principled, honest, incorruptible, and one that fears God, Almighty. He is easy going but tough; he is intelligent and knows what the country needs and how to get it; he is patient and can work with others in order to achieve common goals. Our consensus candidate will be one that respects law and order at all time; he cherishes freedom of thought, work, and religion and ideas; he deeply respects rights of all people and is not afraid to tell them when he is wrong or does not know. Our consensus candidate must be one that is unquestionably patriotic and deeply cares to make sacrifice in his leadership at all time; he is one never to sell out this country, its people, its heritage, and its possessions under any amount of pressure or interests be it foreign or domestic. Finally our consensus candidate believes in the right to education of all citizens and works to provide them with sustainable learning environment, training, and skills so that they can play significant roles in nation building and achieve personal growth. He works at all times to ensure workers are trained: teachers, doctors, artisans, engineers, mechanics, farmers, technologists, care givers as he too cares for health of the nation and provides it free medical care. Is all this too much to ask of a consensus candidate? Frankly as a leader he should be concerned with more, but we can do with these for now. And so the ACF, our revered Emirs and Chiefs, Governors, Political Parties, and all other stakeholders are hereby humbly put on notice.

Dr. Abubakar A. Muhammad writes from the State of Pennsylvania , United States of America .