Nigeria's Political Clock: Will It Be An Ever-ending Cycle?
You see Northern elites and politicians, they are astute political strategists, I give it to them. There's no sentiment to it. My only major concern is that they are not really moved about the general welfare of the average northerner.
This has made them lack the will to confront the many ills plaguing the northern region; from lack of education of the masses, insecurity, basic welfare e.t.c.
It almost looks like it is deliberate so that the majority of the people will remain uneducated and definitely under their political bondage.
But then, Southern Politicians are pitiable political strategists. And they are also copying the 'terrible government officials' strategy. I cannot exhaust this statement on this brief write up. So I'll move on.
During the build up to the Party Primaries for Presidential candidates, on the part of the APC, the north ignored young and vibrant contestants from the South, and chose Tinubu, a man that has come of great age, did fairly good as a governor but with very questionable pasts. And they placed behind him, Shettima who has very questionable antecedents when it comes to relationship with bokoharam Terrorists. The north needs excuses for Tinubu to fail.
It was not a mistake that they choose a Muslim from the north, because they didn't want anything that looked 'South' behind their aged forerunner.
In recent times, the belief that Christianity is for the South, and Islam is for the north has grown so huge in the north, and this has seen the upsurge in attacks on Christian communities in the north.
It looks like there is permanent but gradual ploy to phase away Christians occupying political positions over there.
Let me tell you one secret, if you ever find 2 northern politicians fighting on social media, ignore them because those 2 people are having face to face meetings somewhere on how to keep having an edge over the south politically.
A former Tinubu campaigner, Naja'atu Bala Muhammad came out to say that the north wants to replace Tinubu with Shettima if they win. How do they want to do this? I don't know but if you don't believe her, then stop reading this post. Because not believing her will be the height of political naivety.
What that Lady said was a coven discussion and agreement amongst the northern elites.
If you care to know, the north's preferred candidate for this elections is Atiku, they all want Atiku to win both the silent ones and the vocal ones.
Someone like Elrufai who openly supports Tinubu is doing it because he is guaranteed of a place in his government (most likely Minister Of defense, a position that will be in error if he clinches it). If Tinubu fails, Elrufai's political journey ends, at least for the foreseeable future.
Over to the South, The PDP governors agreed that the Presidential candidate should be from the South, since the sitting President is from the north.
But on the day of the primaries, all the governors from the north abandoned that Agreement. Even a contender who happened to be ally of Wike, openly stepped down and declared support for Atiku. Anyways, Atiku a northerner won the ticket, and this has been a major rift in PDP till date.
On the coming elections, as much as I feel anxious to admit, the chances of Obi winning in the north is slim, but I can bet you, Tinubu has almost same slim or even slimmer chance then Obi. Obi will most likely poll better than Tinubu in the north but Atiku will win the north with a huge margin.
But then, another northerner winning the Presidential elections will not be a very good precedent for the country, but guess what? The north doesn't care, well, you can't blame them. They seem to play their political games well, even though some of the outcomes are not good for their region let alone, the entire nation.
They are having a time of their lives because of the lapses of Southern politicians who seem to be more concerned about themselves, their pockets and their families, rather than the general interest of the South.
Should I say God help Nigeria? No, Nigerians help yourselves.
ES