South-south, southeast, middle-belt should find a political platform now

For those who have political eyes, the Amaechi drama is a gong. Thousands of southerners and middle-beltans have been murdered in the north, but at no time did the governors see the necessity to pay solidarity visits to their compatriots for their dead. That would have been soothing, provide a signal to the murderers that they’re alone and Nigeria against them. Juxtapose this with the swiftness with which they dashed to Port-Harcourt to tell Amaechi, ‘we’re with you’. Far from the solidarity display, the substantive message is: ‘Amaechi, you’re our man in the south’. As though that wasn’t enough, the western governors followed suit. Theirs was more clever. They made it look like an advisory note: ‘Amaechi, go, visit Jonathan’. Why not? They know Nigerians are asking to know the camp of the head-breaking lawmaker; they know that the scenario of Amaechi being in the PDP but playing their card is a sweet-bitter one that is palatable now they’re the beneficiaries but distasteful when in future the same scenario plays against them. The total picture is: from the north, from the west, PDP is under attack and by implication the political space of Jonathan gradually shrinking. Not done, they’ve begun telling their supporters to quit the PDP en masse and join the ANPP en route the APC. What this translates to is, there should be a support party with geographical root, unlike the PDP which is everywhere but without pivot. The ACN is west, the CPC and ANPP are north; they have defined interests which they’re carrying to the common trough, APC; when the time comes to negotiate the coming Nigeria, they’ll flow out from their concrete bases, not fantasies. Their strategy now is: pursue a national look by knocking on doors, whoever opens, enter. Amaechi has opened and they want to enter. Invariably then, that solidarity visit in flesh is precisely a political conquest visit in bone.

Those who pelted the governors with stones straightaway qualify as the politically disabled. A silly action that depicts helplessness. Reason: they have no platform and not thinking beyond the PDP. Besides, their own person is the gateman on the political harmsway.

If they truly want Jonathan, this is the time to go beyond the frontier. South-south/Southeast governors have met, their traditional institutions/wives have met, but all these mean nothing without a platform to give their desire teeth. The Middle-belt is used by the north as political pawns and they’ve said, ‘never again’, but where’s their platform? None. Naturally then, the south, the east and middle-belt have begun experiencing an emerging political bond. The next natural step is to establish it. Still holding on solely to the PDP is to make themselves vulnerable and a political grab-area which, like the Niger-Delta, exploiters take the grain and leave the chaff to the indigenes. They’ll be used to complete numbers, make exploitation have a democratic face and their interest thrown out at countdown.

What’s their gain having a common platform? The disgruntled elements in the PDP and others will have a new shelter closer to their identity. They can package their interest without waiting for approval from anybody. They have a negotiating platform in case the future Nigeria comes to that. The extent to which renegades can distort the collective interest will be reduced because of increased conformity; this would drastically emasculate political whoredom as it presently is. Jonathan would have a formidable fallback in addition to the provision of the PDP. There would be national political balance: the north have their platform; the west too; the south-south, southeast and middle-belt also. Christians in the north will have a political bench which they currently lack and which makes them look like orphans. The heterogeneity of the block would produce fairness and the tripod structure of Nigeria would still remain but redefined.

They can go about it through registering a brand new party. But there are always unseemly controversies associated with that; besides, the time isn’t quite there. To avoid this, they can review the registered political parties to see which is the most appropriate to adopt after a fair negotiation. There is this newly registered party called the United People’s Party (UPP) which is, as it were, still virgin. Such platforms could present amicable negotiating terms conducted fairly and not spiting the founders – an old, bad practice that never pays. Its high net worth is guaranteed and can translate into a robust take-off.

Now that Northern Elders have bluntly made the presidency the north’s prerogative, saying power won’t return to the south again: they give it when they want and take it when they want; it’s also time to demonstrate that hard-nosed arrogance is a dead-end. Such powers are the exclusive preserve of the DIVINE, not Northern Elders’. Need I say more? 

Onyegbule, PhD, is the Consultant-in-Chief of Conflict Out- Peace In Consult.)

buchionye@yahoo.co.uk

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