Hidden Factors That Show North’s Interestingly Introspective Thinking That Can Sell An Obi Candidacy
The Oasis Reporters
May 4, 2022
By Greg Abolo
With the primary elections to choose political party candidates fast approaching, intense horse trading is currently going on underground and out of sight. But there is something in the public glare and any discerning mind can so easily uncover that some previously well known media influencers are seemingly being purchased to toe certain lines that are designed to program minds as a way of achieving selfishly set objectives.
One thing that is obvious is the soaring popularity of former Anambra State governor, who also ran as Vice presidential candidate to Atiku Abubakar in 2019, when the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) zoned it’s ticket to the north. No southern politician threw his hat into the ring then, out of respect for the PDP constitution that had the foresight to enshrine zoning between the north and the south for the sake of equity.
Fast forward to 2022, in fairness, the ticket should go to the south, but obviously, some northern power brokers have risen against it, under the ruse that statistical data show that only northern politicians can win presidential elections in Nigeria.
If you have conscience ask your inner sef if you are really doing the right thing , for any of your Northerner coming out after 8 years of buhari is not fair and lack sincerity, I will advice you to support the right zone the south east Your fellow good man Peter Obi
— babadoc 🇨🇲🇱🇷🇳🇬 (@babashonk) April 23, 2022
This is obviously a lie, a major farce, because MKO Abiola ran against that headwind and actually won hands down in 1993. It was the shocked northern power merchants both in military uniform and civilian robes that teamed up and scuttled that election.
This time around, their sophisticated media influencers are stressing themselves to convince minds that only northerners can win.
They say that Atiku Abubakar has 11 million votes waiting already, to be harvested. Did he not run with Peter Obi four years ago?
Or did Peter Obi add zero votes to the equation?
Looking at the soaring popularity of Peter Obi, can it not be discerned that several millions voted for the PDP in 2019 because he was on the ballot ?
Why is this being glossed over ?
In any case, 11 million voters of 2019 have not remained static. Many Nigerians have been voting with their feet, including those that voted for Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
New voters are being added daily, for youths who have come of age.
In the north, there are the professional leaders and perpetual candidates on the one hand and on the other, there is also the teeming but silent majority who many power merchants always take for granted. They are called the ‘talakas’ (the masses). Make no mistake about this. They talk. But the leaders hardly ever get their feedback.
Permit me to narrate what I observed in the early 90s in Kano.
When then General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida decreed two political parties into being, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was very much fancied by the ordinary people on the streets, believing it to be socially inclined, in keeping with the legacy of Mallam Aminu Kano. Intense desperation ruled the camp of the power mongers and professional candidates. They did everything within their powers to get the SDP gubernatorial election ticket.
Open thuggery became the order of the day. Magaji Abdullahi was favoured to win the primaries. But he had a powerful
Ahmad Rufai and Aminu Inuwa to contend with. The primaries were cancelled about two times, for each time Magaji Abdullahi won, rigging and horse trading would permeate the atmosphere, and the winner would become the loser.
Anger set in, and on one occasion, the home of one of those contesting on Tukur road, Nassarawa GRA was set on fire.
Finally, Magaji Abdullahi got the ticket, a few weeks before the election.
Meanwhile, the less fancied National Republican Convention had little or no crisis. Kabiru Gaya, an architect, easily became the gubernatorial candidate.
I was walking down the street one day when a noisy campaign vehicle of the SDP drove past. I was surprised when a talaka ( an ordinary Hausa man drew my attention and said, “wallai ba za mu zakpe su ba” (I swear, we will not vote for them), in reference to the previous bickering during the primaries.
Ordinary masses trooped en masse to vote for Kabiru Gaya who previously had virtually no hope of winning. He thus became the governor for nearly two years.
That was as a result of the action of the ordinary people on the streets.
This may be a warning to the PDP that any act of injustice would receive a response from the ordinary people on the street. Those 11 million votes of commoners does not make them anyone’s lackey.
Another example that showed me that the ordinary people on the streets are sharp and perceptive, occurred during the June12, 1993 presidential election between a northerner, Bashir Tofa of the NRC and a southerner, MKO Abiola of the SDP.
The news in the media then was that a northerner would always beat a Southerner in any Nigerian election, hands down.
But on voting day in Kano, I was also up and about on the streets after the vote. I was amazed that ordinary people (mostly Hausa) were eagerly walking up to me with smiles knowing me to be a Southerner (therefore an Abiola brother) and one of them said to me, “jamma aan nuna, ann geji” which literally translates thus ( the masses have expressed their minds. We are fed up with the status quo. We want change). They thus braved all the negative propaganda the ordinary people are daily fed with about southerners, to vote against their fellow northerner and choose a southerner overwhelmingly in Kano instead, where Tofa was born and raised.
Therefore it is a lie to say that a Southerner cannot win elections in the north that has a mythical 11 million votes.
The stakes are high. Even in the north, the masses are sick and tired of the deception and oppression by their ruling class. Present a Peter Obi to them, and they already know about his superlative works in Anambra State. And he would win with a landslide.
The fear driven ruling class have already tried to exhume the propaganda of 2019 against the PDP and Peter Obi to use against him once more in 2023. They are saying that Peter Obi was the person who instructed Chukwuma Nzeogwu on how to go about his coup business.
Even those that believed that lie in 2019 are angry in 2022 that they were given sophisticated lies to swallow back then.
Now they know that it is absolutely impossible for a five year old to instruct Nzeogwu who was almost thirty on how to do dastardly business. The result is that now, they distrust whatever their ruling class tells them. They will believe the opposite.
So I say to Peter Obi, don’t fall for cheap propaganda and lies to make you trade your rescue mission under the voluminous robes of any godfather that wants you as a Vice presidential candidate only. You have the inalienable right to be president for the good of the Nigerian economy, security, peace and progress. Go, Peter Obi, go !
One more thing, Peter: In your next Sallah message, wear a flowing gown with a northern hula (cap) to match. Jonathan used to do it. Obaseki does it. You as a governor back then in Anambra worked seamlessly with exclusively northern Muslim Police Commissioners throughout your two terms of eight years cumulatively and Anambra was peaceful and also became a haven for investment
