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When a group of people think they can do the same things the same way all the time and expect different results, the English dictionary describes such mindset as functional insanity.  How else can anybody describe the reported pressure being mounted on Atiku Abubakar and Gen Muhamadu Buhari, presidential candidates of the Action Congress (AC) and All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) respectively by self-acclaimed northern leaders if not to say that it is a  transparent deceit.

The story: Some northern leaders, who had been putting pressure on Atiku to withdraw his petition, have started to prepare for his home-coming by assembling people, who he cannot look in the face and say, no, to be ready to meet him at home. The only case these so called northern leaders have to impress on Atiku would be that: since the person currently occupying the seat is one of them (a northerner), Atiku and Buhari should forget all that happened before and at the election proper so that they don’t jeopardize the chance of the north to produce a president. At best this group could be rightly described as less useful saints than unquiet disruptive ghosts. It is very difficult to remember when last our collective national interests and theirs converged on issues that borders on national unity and development of the entire country right from the military era to the present democratic dispensation.

Questions for these so called northern leaders: where were all of them when the former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo swore that undoing Atiku was a do or die affair? Where were these emerging leaders when Obasanjo tried everything possible to extinguish Atiku’s life not only politically but even from the face of the earth? Where were they when Obasanjo cooked-up all kinds of false and baseless allegations of fraud and corruption against Atiku just to ensure he doesn’t contest the April presidential poll?

If the person occupying the number one seat were not to be a northerner, would these so-called leaders embarked on similar mission to cajole all the northern contestants to drop their genuine cases against the process that installed such candidate? And why are they more interested in pressurizing the AC and ANPP candidates to drop their cases rather than encouraging the development of the culture of the rule of law and due process by allowing the Judiciary carry out its duties without bias?

Thank God that both contestants who had succeeded in establishing genuine cases against the last April sham called election are not just merely from the north, but could be truly described as genuine northern leaders. Otherwise, the insinuations of the self-acclaimed northern leaders would have instigated an anti-north protest from contestants from other parts of the country as it is very clear that whosoever these northern leaders are, they are not at all interested in the ‘one nation, one people’ binding force that has loosely held all of us together since the uninformed amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorate in 1914.

This same mindset of some of these northern businessmen robbed the South-South it’s deserved chance of producing the president by the last April polls. The annoying aspect of the entire self deceit by these so-called northern leaders without followers was that all of the people involved in the current self adventure, benefited by receiving expensive gifts including choicest jeeps and  huge amounts of raw cash from the PDP contenders from the South –South particularly Peter Odili and Donald Duke. The records are alive and from the public conducts of these people can be published for all Nigerians to know that these leaders without followers are mere survivalist who eat with ‘both hands’.

This same group of northern ‘failed elder statesmen’ was heavily behind or rather were ‘greased’ by Obasanjo’s third term lobbying largesse and if the likes of Atiku had not stood their grounds, which of them would have been talking of a northerner being the president or not.

The question the entire country should ask this self-serving gang of gladiators is: Why are they not interested in allowing due process of the rule of law run its course in the election tribunals? Because Atiku and Buhari decided to press on with their cases does not mean the tribunal would just award the cases in their favour but when the northern gang who should know better begin to mount an ‘all we are saying’ pressure for these two aggrieved northerners to drop their challenge, then there is more to the entire matter than is visible to the ordinary Nigerian.

The activities of this same group of ‘northern leaders’ are fast becoming not only unpatriotic but divisive against the ‘One Nigeria, One people’ deceit which the same group had used to rob the people of the south.

It was this same group that called for the head of the National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Most Reverend John Onaiyekan, when the man of God as a damage limitation measure, called for the outright cancellation of the April general elections that brought into power President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and his deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan on the grounds that it was massively rigged. They faked all kinds of northern interest groups to attack the man Reverend in the media though informed Nigerians knew those behind all the publications.

Rev. Onaiyekan had opined that the heavens will not fall if the entire elections were cancelled and a fresh one conducted for Nigerians to vote for the candidates of their own choice. This same group of ‘patriotic northerners’ almost turned the Catholic Bishop’s personal view into inter- religious confrontation. Thank God Nigerians now know better who those real enemies of the people that masquerades with religion.

It is insulting to the real Nigerians when a group of cabals thinks that they have more rights in this country than every other person. The Catholic Bishop having critically watched the unfolding events since the last April sham called election suggested, as a Nigeria who has all the privileges the self- serving northern leader have, that “Since the tribunals are overburdened and largely incapable of dealing with the situation, it is not impossible to imagine a situation where we all agree to go back and do a proper election. That will entail reconstituting a truly Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Such a new body would call Nigerians out to vote for the candidates of their own choice. The heavens will not fall if this happens. This can be done within a year.
Those who presently consider themselves elected should have no fear of going back to their people to renew their mandate. That way, the country can start off with a greater hope for now and the future. That would also give us a good opportunity to redeem our badly dented democratic image with the international community.”

What was wrong in the above suggestion which was just the Bishop’s opinion on how to solve the evolving political crisis and help advance our experiential democracy? To the self-serving northern leaders, the only thing wrong was that it came from a southerner and a Christian also (as deduced from the tone of the fleet of reactions from non-existent northern groups). If we are one in one Nigeria, we must learn to regard and respect each others’ opinions as equal co-stakeholders in the Nigerian project.

Atiku had shunned a section of his party - the Action Congress (AC) - which wanted him to drop the petition and join the Government of National Unity (GNU) proposed by Yar’Adua to assuage bruised feelings arising from the disputed elections.

Also, former Head of State and presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Gen. Buhari, had also jettisoned his party to maintain his petition against the credibility of the process that selected Yar’Adua as winner of the last April presidential poll.

So if these two respected northerners could go that extra length it is obvious that both men are convinced on something strong enough to propel such desire to seek justice using the due process of the law. From all that had transpired since events leading to the election proper, the decision by both Atiku and Buhari may not even be based on selfish intention of being the president of the country but on advancing the democratic process especially electioneering in the country and such mindset need to be encouraged after-all none of them had ever breached either the law or peace in any part of the country. All they are saying is, let the Judiciary decide if what we had last April in the country can be called an election or fraud. If the judiciary says it was a credible election, good and well, otherwise, heaven would not fall if we decide to cancel the sham and use a credible and transparent process to select a president. It can still be Yar’Adua; it does not matter but let whosever that finally comes pass through the door not a hole drilled in the wall.

It is not impossible to imagine a situation where we all agree to go back and do a proper election if the tribunals say so and actually heaven would not fall if we do so.