I read last week an irresponsible statement credited to some prominent politicians from the North, saying that a vote for President Goodluck Jonathan would be deemed as a vote against the North.
Such provocative statement cannot in anyway help Buhari’s cause because nobody has ever won the presidency of Nigeria solely on the strength of support from his geo-political base.
In any case, Buhari’s previous futile attempts prove rather conclusively that the North alone cannot make him, or anyone for that matter, the president of Nigeria.
Therefore, to project Buhari as a regional candidate would not only be counter-productive, it could even be interpreted as a reaffirmation of the thesis of those who have always seen the former military leader as a parochial person who cannot be trusted by all Nigerians.
The ethnic champions should therefore know that they are not in any way helping Buhari by their reckless rhetoric.
While this may go down as perhaps the most competitive election in our history, it could also turn out to be anti-climax, because given the nature of African politics, the odds are usually in favour of the incumbent.
So to that extent, Buhari still has his job cut out for him if he intends to send President Jonathan back to Otuoke.
To do that, he will need to rein in people like Ango Abdullahi and confederates who would like to play Edwin Clarke and Asari Dokubo without even allowing Buhari to get to Aso Rock first.
No comments:
Post a Comment