As condemnation continue to trail
the murder of innocent Nigerians in
the North especially NYSC members
who served as ad-hoc staff of
Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) in the just
concluded presidential election. Hon.
Agi Jerome Aduojo, former House
of Assembly aspirant on the
platform of the PDP in this interview
with Daily Sun condemned what he
called inability of some Northerners
to embrace change which according
to him manifested in the just
concluded presidential election.
The accountant turned politician
from Omala in Kogi State blamed
the Congress for Progressive
Change (CPC) presidential candidate
General Muhammadu Buhari for not
openly condemning the
unwarranted killing of non-indigenes
in some Northern states after
president Goodluck Jonathan
victory. He said the victory of
Jonathan did not come as a surprise
to him because Nigerians have
anticipated changes in our political
system and the opportunity came
and they made use of it.
Excerpts:
Rating of the elections
Let me congratulate Nigerians for
their collective decision to elect their
leaders after many years of
imposition of certain individuals
through selection. I thank God the
1993 credible election was replicated
in the last elections. Kudos to the
chairman of Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof.
Attahiru Jega for restoring the
confidence of Nigerians in the ballot
box. The election is applauded by
the international community, hence
once again the wish of the people
reflected in the results announced
by the Commission. You can see
defeated candidates congratulating
those that won unlike before when
the persons declared winner was
never the wish of the people.
However, I will not fail to commend
security agents for the manner they
conducted themselves before,
during and after the elections even
though I cannot say they performed
100% but to a large extent they lived
up to expectation.
The North and the presidency
Before the presidential election, the
political situation kept our hearts
beating with incessant bomb blast
here and there as pro-election
violence claimed thousands of lives.
Also going by late discovery by
INEC of multiple registration and
other irregularities during voters
registration exercise, it simply
showed that the election would
spring surprises, which was the
case. Lets starts by assessing those
who contested the presidential
election. Some of them merely
existed in the INEC released list of
presidential candidates.
Also the parties they flied their flags
existed in INEC register. Therefore I
called such candidates pretenders.
The North had already accepted
defeat before the presidential
elections because up till few weeks
to the election, we expected the
Northern leaders to indicate whom
the North should vote for among
Buhari, Shekarau and Ribadu. So the
North went into the presidential
election without a consensus
candidate while Jonathan was
consensus candidate of the South.
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan humbled the
North in Eagle Square at the PDP
presidential primary. I will say that
the presidential election was
contested, lost and won at the PDP
presidential primary. You don’t need
a soothsayer to tell you that
Jonathan was favoured to win after
defeating Atiku Abubakar, yet the
North had no backup, there and
then I concluded that the desired
changed in our political system is
here. Buhari worked hard but hadn’t
the overwhelming support of the
North especially the governors and
of course because the presidential
election came before governorship
election, the Northern governors
because, they wanted to return or
choose a successor were mandated
to deliver their state for Jonathan
plus power of incumbency, they
had no option but to make sure Mr.
President emerge victorious.
Another factor that worked against
the North from clinching the
presidency is because Northern
youths are angry with their leaders
especially because those who had
the opportunity to govern the
country were unable to provide
infrastructure even in the North
hence Jonathan got protest votes
from the North and Middle Belt. Yes,
Buhari is known for fighting
corruption which is the bane of the
nation and Nigerians wants a leader
that can fight corruption but had a
better candidate to contend with in
the person of Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan. Also, I expected Buhari to
come out and condemn the killings
of innocent people especially NYSC
members in some parts of the
North because he failed at the poll,
but he only said he did not send
anybody to kill. His utterances gave
him away.
Northern alliance
That was the last option I expected
from the Northern candidates to
reach a compromise and step down
for one person. Let me take them
one after the other. Ribadu should
have started his political career by
either going for Senate or Federal
House of Representatives but opted
for the presidency. I think the shoe
was too big for him to wear.
Though nothing was wrong for him
aspiring to rule Nigeria now.
What he did as Chairman EFCC is
not enough to become Nigeria
president because many saw him
as a hatchet man of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo to
hack down his perceived political
enemies and after the election, it
dawn on him that the Action
Congress of Nigeria(ACN) only used
and dumped him when it came to
the presidency as the South-West
voted massively for Jonathan.
Because of this, he left the party
immediately after the presidential
election. He did not look before he
leap knowing fully well that ACN is
more of South-West party yet he
chooses to pursue his political
ambition on the platform.
He should not expect anything less.
So to me that marriage is wrong.
On Governor Shekarau, he
overrated himself, already All Nigeria
People Party (ANPP) lost Kano State
and as the strongest opposition
party, most of the party’s strong
pillars dumped the party for CPC.
Yes, he made impact in Kano State
where he enjoyed the people’s
support for eight years but that was
not enough reason to believe that he
would be accepted nationwide and
to his greatest surprise that didn’t
happen and he lost Kano State to
PDP. That I will say is a costly
mistake.
Before election I stated it clear to
those close to me that Buhari is a
political asset and many believe he is
the type of leader Nigeria desire, this
is a man that has what it takes to
turn around Nigeria but
unfortunately his choice of running
mate is one of his greatest undoing.
No comments:
Post a Comment