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Consensus, Nonsensus, Disensus? How About Equity By Babayola M. Toungo
Mallam Adamu Ciroma was once, not long ago, hailed as a nationalist par excellence by the same politicians, journalists and public affairs commentators who are falling over each other in castigating him as an ethnic bigot and an irredentist today. He was the toast of our commentators when he directed the re-election campaign of Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003. At that time Mallam Adamu was hailed as a politician with foresight for insisting that the likes of the late Abubakar Rimi and Barnabas Gemade were not allowed to contest because of an existing agreement signed in 2002 for power rotation between the north and the south. That each region should be allowed to lead the country (whether we like it or not) for eight continuous years. Today Mallam Adamu is vilified for insisting on the implementation of the same agreement, freely signed by all present – the difference this time is that the shoe is on the other foot and those who believe Nigeria belongs to them are of the opinion that others shouldn’t be allowed to come near political power in the next hundred years.
I have had numerous arguments with friends and colleagues on the propriety or otherwise of the zoning principle enshrined in the constitution of the PDP as a mechanism for ensuring that all sections of the country at one time or the other attained the presidency of the country and as an instrument for satisfying the diverse ethnic and religious groups of the country. I have never being comfortable with the arrangement, though if this be the best instrument that is devised for those who believe Nigeria must remain one, no matter what, I said so be it. Besides, being not a member of the PDP, I feel I do not have the moral justification to question how the party choose to govern its internal affairs, though in the long run, it will affect me one way or the other. And then ‘Yar Adu’a died. Zoning took on an entirely different meaning because the advocates of the policy believe they can hoodwink the rest of us into believing their own interpretation of zoning, contrary to all known English or legal language. Some even went to the ridiculous level of saying though the north is supposed to “enjoy” the arrangement for eight uninterrupted years, with the demise of ‘Yar Adu’a, Jonathan is now in pole position to complete the north’s turn. The zoning antagonists polarised the country by their actions and utterances – blackmail, harassment by security officials, bribe, insults, etc.
While the brick-a-brats were going on, the Adamu Ciroma Committee emerged with a view to pruning the number of northern aspirants seeking to contest for the presidency on the platform of the PDP. This was the first quiver fired from the arrow of the zoning protagonists that sent shock waves down the spine of Goodluck’s patrons and cronies. Goodluck’s handlers targeted Babangida, one of the quartets under consideration by the Ciroma Committee, thinking he will be the one to be selected as the consensus candidate of the northern branch (?) of the PDP. The attacks were so reckless that his campaign director general was hauled-in on charges bordering on treason and wilful murder in the aftermath of the Abuja bombings. Skeletons were rattled in Babandida’s closet and dead issues were exhumed. Already some gullible voters were beginning to believe that Babangida was the worst thing to happen to the country - a twentieth century reincarnation of Dracula. Suddenly the issues of Dele Giwa murder, the Ejigbo airforce plane disaster and other unsavoury policies of Babangida became topical issues. The whole Goodluck train passengers’ minds were conditioned to the fact that Babangida will be selected by the Ciroma Committee. When the Committee’s selection was announced, they were all dumbfounded as their reactions revealed. It means going back to the drawing board for them.
The reactions that trailed the announcement are my concern and not the announcement itself. Two groups continue to baffle me – the Goodluck and the Babangida groups. While Babangida overtly congratulated Atiku for emerging as the consensus candidate, his coterie of “die-hards” keep lampooning Mallam Adamu Ciroma and his Committee members. Many will now tell you with a straight face that the Committee was populated with Atiku supporters that why why he emerged as the Committee’s consensus candidate. Some even said the Committee was bribed by Atiku. I have never liked Atiku or Babangida’s politics, but I feel it will be wrong for Babangida’s supporters to start such a campaign only after their candidate failed to make the grade. The right thing to do was to have pointed out the lopsided nature of the Committee’s composition well before the announcement and not after. And if truly the quartet were trying to worst Goodluck politically for flouting his party’s written agreement (which he was a signatory) then the most honourable thing for Babangida to do is to keep mum because they will also be guilty of what they are accusing Goodluck of – flouting a written agreement. The Committee had the presence of mind to make all the aspirants sign an agreement to abide by the outcome of the Committee’s work.
The reactions from the Goodluck group are, to say the least, nauseating. A representative of their reaction is where someone called the Committee’s work “...nothing but a display of primordial sentiments”. I cannot fathom what the man means because I thought the whole thing began from Goodluck’s corner when tribal organisations, herded by ethnic potentates, endorsed him as their candidate in 2011 in flagrant disobedience of Section 7.2(c) of the PDP’s constitution. The south west governors endorsed him, South-South Peoples Assembly and their governors “anointed” him, Oha Naeze and the south east governors crowned him. There is nothing primordial in all these. But if some northern PDP members decide that the right thing must be done, it is “sectional” and retrogressive. For daring to insist that the authors of the agreement respect their work of fiction, the Ciroma Committee members are labelled “primordial sentimentalist”, while the authors of the agreement. who are the primary beneficiaries of the contraption, are “pan Nigerians”. For Obasanjo, Clarke and Ralph Uwechue to “anoint and endorse” Goodluck in flagrant disregard of a subsisting agreement, they are forward looking, not minding the dangerous precedent they will be setting, even if the corporate existence of the country is threatened.
It is perfectly alright for this group to dredge up the murder of Dele Giwa (which was taken to the Supreme Court) and the Ejigbo air disaster and try obliquely to hang these on Babangida’s neck and sweep under the rug the recent brutal and unsolved murders of Marshal Harry, Bola Ige and all those killed during Obasanjo’s tenure including complete obliteration of Zaki Biyam and Odi. What sort of a country are we trying to build? The Ciroma Committee was among other things accused by this group as essentially set-up to subvert Goodluck because he is a southerner yet they conveniently forgot to tell Nigerians that subverting a subsisting agreement put in place in the first instance to allow all components of the country a sense of belonging is not just subverting the political interest of the north, but the corporate existence of the country.
To me, Babangida, Atiku and Goodluck are all the same and none will get my vote. I do not have an iota of political sympathy for the trio and never will. My sincere advice to Babangida’s supporters who feel robbed by the outcome of the Ciroma Committee’s work and strongly believed a northerner must be voted as the president of Nigeria come 2011, they have a choice from among the plethora of candidates in the other parties. For Babangida to question the selection of Atiku by the Committee is tantamount to coming to equity with not only soiled hands, but soiled underpants. |