TOWARDS A TRUE RECONCILIATION OF THE NIGERIAN POLITY:WHAT THE PRESIDENT MUST DO: It is no longer in doubt that President Goodluck Ebele (Azikiwe?) Jonathan made a promise not to seek reelection in 2010. It is equally not in doubt that his party,the Peoples Democratic Party had a working arrangement that allowed for rotation of power between the North and South in the partys constitution. It would be recalled that Dalhatu Tafida, the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, was the first to inform the world of this promise. At a press conference in Abuja in late 2010, a day before President Goodluck Jonathan’s formal declaration to run in the 2011 presidential election, Mr. Tafida, then Director General of the Jonathan/Sambo campaign organisation, said the president won’t seek another term in 2015. The president, he said, would be available for only a single term if elected. In his words:“The President wants to run for one term…Let us give him the four years and see how he performs,” In the same vein, while addressing Nigerians in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he attended an African Union Summit, the president regretted they would not vote on April 9, 2011, in a poll that was to return him for a fresh term. “I would have loved that Nigerians in the Diaspora vote this year. But to be frank with you that is going to be difficult now,” he said on January 31, 2011,before striking home his point. “Nigerians in the Diaspora will not vote, but I will work towards it by 2015, even though I will not be running for election.” Any student of English would know that the president was very clear on what he meant. Things have since changed and president Jonathan is seeking for another term of four years from 2015. Did Jonathan break a gentle mans agreement?Yes he did. Let us not deceive ourselves.Nigeria is at war with herself and the war is being waged by both those opposed to his ambition and those in support of the ambition.Those in opposition are playing into the hands of Nigerians who ordinarily would have supported their clamor for power to change hands by waging war against the country.The war has gone on for too long that they are beginning to ask why power must return to the North after all the years of wastage from the same North. Those in support of Jonathans ambition are also benefiting from the war because they see it as an opportunity for their man to remain in power.Those being killed are not their relations.If anything,they are bloody Northerners.But in truth,the death of one Nigerian is a death to all Nigerians. There is no doubt that our country is at the verge of a major catastrophe,the end of which no one is sure.The clamor for self determination by the different entities that make up this wonderful country has never been as strong as they present themselves now.Agreed that crises would erupt as they have always done in the past and the country would come out of it limping as it has done for the past 54 years. All that can change if there is a genuine attempt at proper reconciliation.Let us not deceive ourselves.President Jonathan is not different from those fighting him.His saving grace is his ability to have behind him great minds that have managed to move this country forward even in the face of so much onslaught against her economy and people. President Jonathan must go on all fours to ask for forgiveness from those he has offended.He has done it before mere mortals under the guise of worshiping God.He can do it standing on his legs and acting genuine. There should be a resolve among all Nigerians to allow power return to the North after Jonathans second term in office.This should be in completion of Late President Umaru YarAduas tenure. We all know even though unofficially,that Lagos and Abuja are federal territories.It does not mean that both States are not owned by people.They are.But both States have benefited immensely from their status as Federal Government Capitals.A State in the South East must be chosen for special Federal attention and given the status of Lagos and Abuja in Federal presence.It is in the interest of all Nigerians that genuine reconstruction of the South East,something that ought to have been done after the civil war is started.The rest of the country stand disadvantaged if their territories are allowed to be owned by others while hey are not given the opportunity to do same in other places. The North must own up to her failure to other Nigerians and indeed to her people for the mess that her territory has become.Education of the commoner must be what every Governor from the region pursues.There must be a plan to get the North educated.It cannot be done in ten years but the process has to start from somewhere.An uneducated North is a burden to the whole Country.Dealing with an average Northerner in the South reveals the smartness in them if given the opportunity. This country can still work if we are all resolved to make it work.A genuine attempt at reconciliation is all that is needed.Not the type fostered on us by OBJ.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 04:34:48 +0000
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