I just stumbled across an old article and want to ask, Can we say this was the beginning of violence led by Boko Haram? ...when President Goodluck Jonathan confirmed that he would contest the 2011 presidential election, great opposition rose against him in the North. The first bombshell came from Shehu Sani, a Kaduna based civil rights activist who said, “President Goodluck Jonathan should not contemplate contesting the 2011 presidential election. Any attempt by him to contest amounts to incitement and a recipe for political instability. Even though rotational presidency is unconstitutional, it has been able to address problems of regional, ethnic, sectional domination and marginalization”. The warning precluding President Jonathan from contesting the 2011 presidential election did not stop with Shehu Sani as Alhaji Lawal Kaita, a close associate of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar added his voice to the agitation when he said, “The North is determined, if it happens, to make the country ungovernable for President Jonathan or any other Southerner who finds his way to the seat of power on the platform of the PDP against the principle of the party’s zoning policy. Anything short of a Northerner president is tantamount to stealing our presidency. Jonathan has to go and he will go. Even if he uses incumbency power to get his nomination on the platform of the PDP, he would be frustrated out”. With these words, the battle line between President Jonathan and his opponents was drawn. General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) did not hide his feelings toward President Jonathan’s presidential ambition as he said, “There may be no Nigeria. I draw parallel with Somalia so many times (Somalisation of Nigeria). I am scared about that. Somalia, they are one ethnic group, one religion, Islam, but for 18 years, Somalia became so selfish, so corrupt, so undisciplined and they have wrecked the country”. The tension in the country became very high as some politicians from the North were making inciting statements. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was not spared from this bandwagon when he said, “Those who make peaceful change impossible will make violent change inevitable”. The various inciting statements were not made in vain as they were matched with actions. The threat by the Northern politicians to make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan was fulfilled with the post election violence that erupted in some parts of the North which led to the death of some members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Bauchi State. Zonkwa area of Kaduna State was worst hit as more than 300 people were killed during the riot... Via- Theresa Ugwuanyi
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 05:02:43 +0000