Northern Governors Forum: For Northern Unity, For Nigeria Disunity

By Odimegwu Onwumere

Like many Nigerians, I am one of those who love Alhaji Yar’Adua, not because he is a president, but because a lot of his newspapers biographers have not written anything on him without saying that Yar’Adua is a good man. But as a president, he now wears the garb of bad and good.

His bad aspect was as a result of the means through which he came to the presidency. These people do not see him, being a president, as a saint, because the election that made him is characterized by fraud and irregularities. Such people who have not hidden their faces and are not gasping for breathe in this allegation are the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the former Dictator, General Muhammadu Buhari of Action Congress (AC), and All Nigerians Peoples party (ANPP) respectively. These two moguls took the matter of the April 21 2007 presidential elections to the court, but were later upheld by the Ogebe-led panel of justices in the favour of Yar’Adua.

Just after the apex court quashed the petition of Atiku and Buhari that there was a burden of proof on the petitioner by virtue of Section 146 (1) of Electoral Act 2006 to prove that the established non compliance affected the result of the election when there is no such provision in the said Section, Atiku and Buhari headed for the Supreme Court to seek for justice. And I believe that their going to the Supreme Court was not for the interest of anybody, not even for themselves, but for our democracy. I would be forced to accede that paraventure these fighters for justice win their case at the Supreme Court and election was to be re-run that they are going to win. Even Yar’Adua might not win, except where PDP comes with its archstyle of do-or-die politics. And this opaque style of politicking does not help any democracies, especially our own democracy that is looking for direction.

It smacks my intelligence to note that the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) is worried by the legal tussle for the presidency among these three prominent citizens of Nigeria who happens to be indigenes of the north. The NGF is especially worried about Atiku and Buhari on their sojourn to the Supreme Court to challenge the legality of Yar’Adua presidency, for what NGF called “for northern unity.”

Reportedly, the Niger State governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, who is the NGF chairman agreed in an interview in Kaduna that Atiku and Buhari should accept the tribunal’s verdict in good faith. That statement was at the concluded International Trade fair in Kaduna.

Hear Aliyu: “There is no point for them to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court at a time attention should be focused on serious development issues in the country.” Further, he said, “Buhari and Atiku should in all humility withdraw their suits against President Yar’Adua considering the implications of the action on northern unity.” Northern unity? Haba!

Dr. Aliyu in his myopic stance believes that the north, (not Nigeria?) needs significant attention on developmental issues and all hands must be on the desk in support of the present administration to enable it focus its attention on them, because the pilot is a northerner?

Considering Dr. Aliyu’s Shylockic viewpoint, one can easily see what patriotism means in the Nigerian parlance. Patriotism here is dichotomized. What Dr. Aliyu means is that if Yar’Adua was not a northern, and then Atiku and Buhari can go ahead and blow Nigeria up? And Dr. Aliyu might be happy with gusto watching Nigeria disunity if that was the case.

As if what Dr. Aliyu said was not enough, he reiterrated that the continuous prosecution of the case at the Supreme Court would distract attention. And one wonders which attention that ‘justice’ will distract. It’s only ‘injustice’ that distracts attention, except, as we are Nigerians.

I am neither Atiku’s nor Buhari’s gardener or gateman, but I must say here that name-calling the duo of Atiku and Buhari to restrain from seeking for justice in the court would be the worst thing that can ever happen to this nation. They took the right direction. Because, in a country where everybody thinks alike, it then means that no one is thinking.

Onwumere, Poet and Author and Founder,
Poet Against Child Abuse.
Rivers State. +2348032552855    
between 0000-00-00 and 9999-99-99  

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