Northern governors and their intended new party, any flow?
We hear Northern governors want to form a new political party for the purpose of capturing power in 2015. In their wisdom, they reviewed three options: remain in the PDP and submit to Jonathan, join the APC to defeat Jonathan, or float a new party. They’re considering the last faithfully, but let’s use the lens.
They don’t want to remain in the PDP because, according to them, Jonathan would certainly impose himself on the party. But is it not to their advantage? There’s an element of political insensitivity driving hard to recapture power. If there’s a streak of fairness in their calculation; if there’s some thought of Nigeria surviving equitably; if there’s regard for gratitude, the North should be seen to be slow at power quest for now considering their unequivocal dominance in the game and the unflinching cooperation of the other components. The rest of Nigeria is telling the North, ‘it’s time to pay back’. By insisting on getting back power, they’re saying, ‘fosa is sweet, let’s keep buying on credit’. But the room for that is exhausted. The PDP is the platform that threw many of them up and if they understand the pay-back principle, it still offers the best platform to say. ‘we’re grateful’; to do otherwise is to promote recalcitrance: they can’t be under anybody and everybody has to be under them, and that’s a bad game-plan.
Joining the APC to defeat Jonathan is straightly bad spirit. Pulling the rug that you stood on is disloyalty and it doesn’t stop at one end; it goes round. At some point, yours will be pulled. They already have an idea of what could happen. They said the ACN willfully set up Ribadu in the last election, called him a presidential candidate in the open but a chip behind. He was used to bargain for power. The ACN hasn’t changed. The players are still very much there and it’ll happen again.
The third option is form a brand new party. But there are problems. They should have left out the word ‘governors’. Reason is, they haven’t done well. The North, we gather, is higher on poverty and illiteracy variants, but most times the FG is blamed for local failures. The initiatives they should have taken to lift the people are missed and to stay free, they point fingers; such cannot be trusted to steer a political party. Insurgency has thrived in their tenure; at some point they identified with it thinking it’s a political catalyst; at some point they flimsily condemned it having discovered it’s a no-way. Such equivocation isn’t a sign of forthright leadership; so how credible could such a group be if not to serve personal ends? Again, the question is, which North? How do you call North when innocent communities are continually invaded and slaughtered by the same people who should be their neighbours’ keepers? Do you kill and turn around to say we are one? Have we ever heard them jointly and decisively act against this man’s inhumanity against man? What happens is, when it’s time to grab power, we’re one becomes the tag; when the invaders invade, it becomes we’re Muslims, they’re Christians, we’re Fulanis, they’re Biroms. But you can’t practice manipulative leadership and expect committed followership.
Other problems: Who’ll head the party? They considered Danjuma. But he’s a wise man and won’t delve into something he won’t excel in. He has made his fortune and is comfortable being a covert influence. To bring him up is to throw him up for ridicule. He’ll be asked questions he can’t answer enough and capable of rekindling old animosities. He knows. They mentioned Governor Babangida Aliyu. If North’s political direction is aimless, Aliyu is one of those to be asked. His ambition takes him beyond the Rubicon. You don’t drive ambition without the input of balance. His candidature will give the drive unease. Sule Lamido is also mentioned. The difficulty there is contending with what he could have diligently avoided. It was rumoured that OBJ anointed him to become president and Amaechi his vice. While still at the formative phase, the news went public. Today, they’re not president and not vice but trouble everywhere. You can trust OBJ on that. Tambuwal is also in consideration. They keep calling him Baby-Royal and he likes it. Ribadu felt so too. But there’s a B-side. Then there’s the CPC factor. Do you absorb Buhari and his inflexible structure or go without him?
In sum, there’s no convincing leader yet. If I were the North, I’d take a wise counsel: give others their turn fully, have more time to put my home-front in order, build bridges and then launch out. To do otherwise is to have a lip-kiss with disarray.
Onyegbule, PhD, is the Consultant-in-Chief of Conflict Out- Peace In Consult.)
buchionye@yahoo.co.uk
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