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PDP Primaries, Manipulations and Disenfranchisement of the South South By Usman Yerima
I've said time and time again that Obasanjo and his PDP machinery represent the most catastrophic omen that ever befell Nigeria. Since its inception and rise to power, nothing good has come out of this useless establishment. Under PDP (Poverty Disribution Party), the nation has sunk deeper into despair, more lives have been lost, quality of life has declined several hundred fold, internal security is a total mess, corruption has risen to new proportions, political killings has risen sharply without concern, conflicts are created all over to disstabilize the peace in many states, and the list just goes on. Right now, Nigeria is 100 times worse off than prior to when Obasanjo took office as President.
The PDP primaries of the past weekend
details another chapter in the political manipulations of this
President. There was nothing democratic about the party's recent
Presidential primaries because Obasanjo strong armed all candidates from
the South South and forced them into dropping their presidential
aspirations. He then forced party loyalists, majority of whom owe their
political positions to his generosity, to adopt a relatively unknown
stooge as the party's flag bearer.
So what about the South South that
clamoured all along for an apportunity to make a strong case for the
Presidency? Not only did Obasanjo deny them a fair chance to campaign
till the end and take their chances at the polls, but he cut them short
and ended their run just before the delegates commenced voting. Now what
sort of an election is that? Where is the democratic principles that the
notorious vagabond from otta preaches always? How democratic was that
process? Obasanjo simply decided what everyone had to do, then overruled
fair play and everyone followed his orders like cows being led to a
slaughter house. What beats me is how a man who has never made one sound
decision in his entire Presidency, continue getting people to follow his
directives. This is astonishingly insane.
It is reported that EFCC operatives were
present at the PDP primaries, and were effectively used to threaten and
blackmail presidential hopefuls into withdrawal. If Obasanjo had this
entire plan thought out from the beginning as I suspect he did, he
should have saved the nation the spectacle of the disgrace we just
withnessed. He could have made his intention clear that he planned
on handpicking a candidate of his liking and then proceed to inform all
other state governors in the race not to bother spending tax payer
money. Now however, the governors have spent millions of Naira
campaigning, they've invested their time, and the time of their
supporters, only to be abruptly shut down. How fair is that? There are
laid down rules that were not followed. A major part of the problem
with Nigerian is that rather than give the system and the process a
chance to work so that over time it reforms itself and gets better, the
likes of Obasanjo and his cohorts, would surplant that in-place system
and twist is around in order to achieve a desired outcome, thereby
making a mockery of everything and setting any reformation effort back
to square one.
I feel bad for Govs Attah, Duke, and Odili
for this betrayal and ridicule. These men are known to be butt kissers
of Obasanjo. They've never had their own independent mindset but
routinely speak about wanting to continue the reforms of Obasanjo. What
reforms? I understand that's all political talk in order to win favor,
but they should have known from several cases that Obasanjo wasn't a man
that could be relied upon. It was Obasanjo that launched an attack on
his Deputy and made it all so public. The same Obasanjo removed
Ngozi-Iweala as Finance Minister after doing a superb job. The minute
his own appointees begin fixing issues as they rightly should, he
intefares and ultimately forces them to quit. So why would Duke, Attah,
and Odili trust such a characterless creep?
My heart really goes out to the South
South because this region deserves to produce the next President of
Nigeria, if not them, then the south east. As it is right now, there is
no balance in the scheme of things. Power has simply switched back and
forth between the far north (of Fulani stock) and the Yorubas. These are
the two groups that have dictated the direction of our country since
independence and their record is ATROCIOUS. This is why South South
governors should have expended their resources meaningfully and with
cautious accountability, then distanced themselves from the politics of
Aso Rock so as not to be dirty and blackmailed by Obasanjo's storm
troopers (EFCC) into submission. Leaders of the South South should have
planned for the possibility of this backstabing occuring and therefore
have a plan B and C in place. What is the next step now for the South
South?
So far, I have read of sparce protests
here and there by Ijaw youths over the outcome of the primaries. If the
South South has any balls, they should team up with the Ijaws and entire
Niger-Delta and make the country impossible to govern until this useless
government of Obasanjo is forced to quit. Hezbollah is doing just that
in Lebanon, and their stance is breaking the will of the Pro-Western
lebanese government.
What obasanjo has done is quite frankly
not much different from IBB's annulment of June 12th election which Late
Moshood Abiola won. The similarities are way too real. The fallout of
that annulment prompted the north to eventually seek out from the
dungeon, this disaster of a man, and foist him on Nigeria as the
President so as to pacify the west for the blunder of June 12th
annulment. My question is, where is the sense behind all these primitive
political manipulations and so called strategy?
What benefit has it been to the country?
Why not just do the right thing and allow events to run their natural
course? If Late Chief Abiola won the damn election as he rightfully did,
why not allow the man serve his term as President? This way, nobody
would be wronged, nobody would be owed a debt, and there will be no need
to make concessions in order to appease any one person or group of
people. Why not just do the right thing and allow the system work? It
is better that way, it is cheaper, it save headches, and eliminates
future conflicts.
Here we are again, after the charade of
this past weeked, Alhaji Yar-Adua on the advice of his benefactors, has
picked Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as his running mate. Why? Here goes; to
appease the South South that was denied the Presidency. The logic is
insane. How does this appease the South South? The South South all along
had prepared to run for the Presidency and nothing else. Now, they get
disenfranchised and some nobody gets offered the VP slot, and that is
supposed to appease the region? I fail to see the logic. Obasanjo and
the fools that make up his crew, keeps making the same bad decisions
over and over again. This is why I am totally convinced that Obasanjo is
not with his faculties intact. This man needs to be examined by a
pychiatrist before he runs the country into total abyss.
The PDP primaries outcome is bad for
Nigeria. The country does not belong solely to the Fulani occupiers in
Hausa land of northern Nigeria. All Nigeria's geo-political zone should
have an equal opportunity to produce leaders. Afterall, in the 37 years
or so that they've sat drunk in the corridors of power, what the hell
has been accomplished? The fulani overlords had no business insisting on
returning power to the north, and that Lunatic Obasanjo had no right to
circumvent the system in order to grant them that wish.
The presidency is not one ethnic group's
birth right. The wealth of our nation resides in the Niger-Delta/South
South, yet this region has been disrespected, disenfranchised and
trampled all over by low level underachievers from all other regions of
the country. They have a right to produce Presidents for the
country which I believe would do far better than the usual nonsense
we've been accustomed to for decades. Why Umaru Musa Yar Adua? This is a
man that has been around national privilage all his life. His old man
was an influential member of the Northern Nigerian elite political class
that was picked out and groomed by the satanic and destructive British
colonialists before the 1914 amalgamation. Yar Adua's father also served
as a first republic mininster. His older brother General Shehu Musa Yar
Adua was Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters during the Obasanjo
military regime (1976 – 1979). Now, he's governor of Katsina state, and
very likely will be the next President
Duke, Attah, and Odili are from humble
origins, and worked their way up. Nothing was handed to these gentlemen,
so why take away an opportunity from them where everyone one would have
had a fair shot and accepted the outcome of the election? Why push these
men out of a race for no sensible reason?
I said it before and I am saying it again,
NIGERIA IS A FAILED STATE AND AND ITS LEADERSHIP IS A COLOSSAL DISGRACE.
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