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CAN’T FAULT HAUSA/FULANI OLIGARCHY FOR ELECTION 2007 By Farouk Martins, Omo Aresa
It is amusing watching Obasanjo and Iwu absorbing the blows for this contentious 2007 Election. Better them than us. By the third round of the election, Nigerians were turned off out of indifference. Iwu lost the opportunity to redeem INEC and allow multiparty in government. They will soon get multi-personalities in PDP. The division is not along ethnic lines and that is a plus. Baba Iyabo reaped what he sowed. He had said Abiola, after the freest and fairest election in Nigeria, was not the Messiah we were waiting for.
But there is this ambivalent feeling watching dictators, coup plotters, rogues, lions and other hypocrites hide under the umbrella of sheep, democracy, and decency protesting the game they would encore if given the opportunity. In their old age, some still crave for power asking young innocent souls, not their children, to give up their life so that they can rule repeatedly. We may have some problems but this is not Lebanon or Iraq where brothers and sisters waste one another, this is Nigeria. There is a difference between a stone and a soul; that is why the typical Nigerian, is not suicidal and would rather put a stone on the accelerator of that petrol tanker, that could have blown many of us up.
Buried under the rumble of Election 2007, a quiet evolution just happened unnoticed in Nigeria. Whether by rigged or fair election, coup de tat, revolution or colonization Aminu Kanu in his grave had prepared the shock waves through the spine of our aristocrats, the same way he did in the face of the British when he got Talikawa to sweep fair election in the North before they were displaced by the Northern People Congress coalition.
Too much credit has gone to Obasanjo for Umaru Yar’Adua pick as presidential material, he was the product of consensus among honest Nigerians from the North to the South and the children of Hausa/Fulani oligarchy held in awe, that Aminu Kano had tried displaced. Obasanjo again, was just an opportunist that happens to be at the right place at the right time. These children are better informed and educated than their fathers. They are not the religious politicians, so they understand the secular state better. Even more important, out of confidence, they are also willing to share power with the South on few preconditions.
The problem with the Northern Oligarchy was that their involvement in politics never benefited the people they led as they remained the poorest in Nigeria while they valued the rankadede in return. Even local champion, Umaro Diko, never won an election. In order to avoid some revolution, their informed and educated children chose a different path that unites both most of the South and most of the North in choosing Umaru Yar’Adua as the presidential candidate. The buck still stops with Obasanjo who approved him instead of Duke, Attah or Odili with giant skeletons in their cupboards. As for those playing games with Pat Utomi, he could not have got more votes than any of those three. Some of us wonder if it was necessary to rig the election, do or die, in other to produce a candidate that could have been elected anyway.
Most Nigerians have nothing against Yar’Adua, but a great deal against Obasanjo who is associated with him. Indeed, there is a lot to be grateful for in this election as his bid for Third Term failed, his Vice Atiku NPDF that we know blow by blow failed, Babangida who murdered free and fair election failed, Buhari the biased disciplinarian and dictator failed. Ahba If nobody praises Nigeria coming so far, let us as Nigerians praise ourselves.
Rev. Kukah predicted that those who rejected appearance at Oputa Panel with impunity, and got court order backing would also be rejected when they seek to lead Nigeria again. Believe it or not these people came back looking for opportunity to be President again. Can these discredited dictators beat Yar’Adua in a free and fair election?
Times have changed, as the Southern children and politicians become more informed and educated about Eastern studies, our Northern brothers and sisters have embraced the Western education, both meeting at a point of equilibrium that will produce the finest leaders second to none in the world. Very soon we will be more interested in the ideas of a leader than her State of origin. No rational leader worth any sense of history wants to rule by status of birth or force anymore because it will not last. Tipatipa ni, na by force?
The disintegration of rule by status of birth happened worldwide and in the Southern Nigeria before it was accepted in the Northern part of our Country with the first shot fired by Aminu Kanu. As Nnamdi Azikiwe teamed up with Aminu Kano, Obafemi Awolowo did the same with Joseph Tarka. For the first time in 1959, Ahmadu Bello was forced to go out and canvass for votes when he saw the effect of Awo’s helicopter in the sky. Sir Ahmadu Bello, indeed, was a more tolerant Sultan; otherwise he could have had Sharia then. It was a matter of time before North and South embraced along ideological line.
As much as the North and the South have always tried to come together, not even the Kaduna Mafia could break the strong hold of the oligarchy that feared the union. The impeached Governor of Kano State, Balarabe Musa and his colleagues like Rimi followed Aminu Kano footsteps and got elected, but their dislocation also produced Wada Nas who somehow made it into Abacha regime and defended him to the last.
Ironically, it was the Defense Minister in Tafawa Balewa Government, Ribadu, who brought in some young Northern boys to become officers in the Nigerian Army; only to become our dictators later. The dictators gave us silver linings, one of which demystified the Northern oligarchy. Who else would dare touch the Sultan of Sokoto, but Abacha? During the time of Buhari, as we later learned, the Sultan of Sokoto could have been disciplined for his wayward dealings by the Army but for double standard played by the order of Buhari. Could anyone have approached Idiagbon for mercy?
When Abiola, whatever my reservation about him, won a free and fair election, uniting North and South, Babangida claimed the power that was did not want him to hand over. Most people, of course blamed those who always decided our leader, the Northern Oligarchy. However, a trusted Southerner, more comfortable with the North, was pointed to as the one who said Abiola was not the Messiah we were waiting for. The impression was that if it was not decided in the North, nobody can be a leader in Nigeria. |
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