2007 – Is The North Ready?

By

Babayola Toungo

babayolatoungo@yahoo.co.uk

 

 

The political atmosphere in the country has been polluted with the noise of pro and anti-third term campaigns to the detriment of all other issues bothering the people.  Part of the strategy to deflect people’s attention from the treason of the third term campaigners is pitching different segments of the country against one another – the north against the south, Christians against Muslims.  Going by the much talked about gentleman’s agreement within the ruling PDP members in 1999 for power to shift to the north come 2007, the PDP is to present a candidate from the northern part of the country in 2007.  As a matter of fact, the two presidential candidates that contested in 1999 under different parties in 1999 were both from one corner of the country.  This was done with the active co-operation of the rest of the political class from across the nation.  Now when it is payback time from the principal beneficiary of the arrangement, the buffoon is singing another tune.

 

But Obasanjo apart, is the north ready to take on the mantle of leadership once the region manages to wrestle it from the demonic grip of Obasanjo?  The north has thrown up a number of presidential contenders, but so far those that declared apart from Atiku Abubakar, are more or less pretenders and not contenders.  The Zamfara state governor have for long been clowning about as a serious presidential material but is yet to convince the generality of the people even in the north of his bonafides.  He is considered by many to be a joker.  The other contestant to come out and declare is Muhammed Buba Marwa.  He is considered by many to be Obasanjo’s Trojan horse.  He laid low after his skirmish with the EFCC dampened his initial enthusiasm and high flying campaign of the past two years.  It was after Atiku declared his interest in contesting that the man found his voice to declare also.  Others like Colonel Andrawus Sawa (who?) lack the name recognition to be counted as serious and may not have the structure to campaign for such office, though he may win the election given the chance and the right ingredients.

 

Three people that stand out today are Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and Ibrahim Babangida.  General Muhammadu Buhari, the most serious of the three contenders was the presidential candidate of the ANPP in the not so credible 2003 elections.  This is a man that the political class rejected simply because of his perpendicularity.  He is the only candidate so far that Obasanjo may not have anything to use to intimidate, blackmail or even bribe him with.  He it is that has traversed almost all the sectors of the country’s political and economic sectors and came out clean like a whistle.  Atiku Abubakar has been part of the Obasanjo mess from inception and is now fighting for his very survival from his fellow conspirator in the destruction of the country.  To survive, he has chosen to be on the part of Nigerians for the first time since 1999.  Ibrahim Babangida’s case is different.  I don’t think anyone has offended Nigerians more than IBB.  After mismanaging Nigeria’s economy during his eight year tenure as military president and annulling the 1993 elections that nearly plunged the country into another needless civil strive, he again foisted Obasanjo on us.  I wonder which of his crimes is weightier – the bungling of his own transition programme, the mismanagement of the economy or his making Obasanjo president.  But I believe foisting Obasanjo on Nigerians is the worst and now he wants to succeed Obasanjo to continue with the “good works” the President has been doing – which is no better, or rather a continuation of Babangida’s policies of the 80s and early 90s.

 

Atiku’s association with the Obasanjo government has tarnished his political image.  But be that as it may, he was also the architect of his problems.  The first thing he did on ascension to power was to dismantle the political structure built by ‘Yar Adua over the years and burn the bridges built across the nation to fight the military political establishment.  He also engaged his immediate constituency in a proxy war that was orchestrated by Obasanjo himself while OBJ was busy mending fences with his people – the very people that rejected him completely in 1999.  At every given forum or opportunity, Atiku lampooned northerners to his heart’s desire.  This is what is haunting him now.  Equally as well Atiku failed his constituents in terms of development projects or economic empowerment in his seven years as the Vice President.  Today almost all the industries and manufacturing concerns in the north are no more, due largely in part to the lack of adequate electricity supply, the huge amount of money expended on the power sector notwithstanding.  Of the twelve or so power generation plants built or under construction by the federal government, none is situated in the north.  The Mambilla hydroelectric Power Project with a price tag of N4.5 billion is yet to see the light of the day; over three quarters of the roads in the north are in a sorry state, those that are motorable are state owned despite the billions spent by the Federal Ministry of Works especially under Anenih. 

 

All those that have already thrown their hats in the presidential contest ring from the north so far, have one problem or the other.  Babangida may be the one least qualified to contest among them all.  As for Atiku, he was so consumed by the passion of making money more than any living Nigerian to attend to the needs of his constituents beyond the usual doling out of “alms” occasionally.  As a matter of fact, he spent his first year of his first tenure in office fighting the north and the next three years presiding over the systematic robbery ever seen in the annals of the country’s socio-economic development.  Today the circle has gone round with the Turaki at the receiving end.  Marwa and Ahmed Yerima are more of spoilers than any serious contenders.

 

I may be accused of promoting General Buhari as the only candidate with the moral justification to seek for the presidency of the north, but if truth be told, who among the lot is better placed than him to lead the country?  I am yet to see an articulated position by any of the other candidates beyond the lust for power for the sake of it; I am yet to come across any of their manifestoes or programmes for the upliftment of the country from the valley that we found ourselves.  If the overriding reason for seeking for power is just for the heck of it, then we would rather support Orji Kalu or any of the other contenders from outside this region who are articulate and serious about governance.

 

The north was the largest single stakeholder in enthroning democracy after a decade and a half of military dictatorship in 1999, but because the power brokers in the region weren’t prepared with any position and lacked the mental capacity to take on the Obasanjo destructive train, they were shunted aside and the masses of the region bore the brunt.  Today, with the realisation that the elites in the north have lost out all relevance, they are now awake to the dangers that Obasanjo posed to us poor souls.

 

Whether the Northern elites have learnt their lesson and are poised to be useful remains to be seen.  I can only hope that they realise that we have now reached the end of the tithe.  Where they pitch their political tent will have far reaching consequences on successive generations of people of the north for years to come.  Remember the adage that says “once bitten, twice shy”.  A word is enough for the wise.