First published in 2019
By Francis Ogbuagu
I read with utter disbelief the interview by Alhaji Junaid Mohammed(a Second Republic Member of the House of Representatives)Published in the Sun Newspapers of Saturday April 6, 2019 .The said publication speaks volumes of the mind-set of an average northern politician, with the idea that some ethnic stock are born to rule others.The emphasis on who takes what in 2023,while the 2019 tenure is yet to kick off gives a clear indication that our Politicians are just concerned about grabbing power to enrich themselves than governance .It seems what occupy their minds are simply to play politics,grab power,steal public funds, then stash it in banks overseas and Leave the rest people Alimajiris
The 2019 general elections had just been concluded, while the winner is yet to inaugurate his cabinet as the 2015-2019 tenure will end on May 29,2019.What should be paramount to any sane mind should be how to improve on the socioeconomic conditions of the Nigerian people.In a land where 80% of the population live in abject poverty; In a land reputed to be poverty capital of the world;In country where over 80% of the labour force are unemployed ; In a supposedly giant of Africa that is crippled.In a country where citizens move out in droves, even when they don’t know their destinations;in a land where human trafficking, slavery , organs harvesting and depletion in standard of living have become our identity in international community;People think of grabbing power without using it to improve on the socioeconomic condition of their people? Habaa !!! Mr Mohammed.
I don’t know if Alhaji Junaid Mohammed ever thinks of how to better the lot of the poverty stricken , largely illiterate and tradition emasculated masses of the north.Does he think of how to end the reign of the dreaded Boko Haram insurgency that is fast spreading to the other zones of the north aside the conquered north east? Mr Mohammed should tell us what the power hungry northern political Class had done with power in the last five decades .Have they reduced the choking twin demons of poverty and illiteracy in the north?
In the said interview,Mr Mohammed was quoted to have said he was not “satisfied with the 2019 general elections.”I think with all due respect ,he should be concerned about how the Nigerian electoral system should work better, improve on what the immediate past President, (Goodluck Jonathan)left behind ,that had been destroyed by Mohammadu Buhari in the last four years. Mr Mohammed should be concerned about the “militarisation” of our electoral process.The number of people killed, just for us to conduct an ordinary election, that is never a big deal in other climes. The rigging and over voting even in Boko Haram occupied north eastern states of Yobe and Borno.
This is what plays in the mind of a people who believe they are “born to rule”.Born to rule what?Cows? Goats? Dogs ? May be.The unfortunate thing about this type of mind set is that historical events that should serve as acompass to the society is completely ignored and thrown overboard.Those who ingnore history repeat it albeit negatively.
Among the accusation against the Southeast by Junaid Mohammed was that the Igbo destroyed zoning by giving bulk vote to Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, the PDP presidential candidate at the 2019 presidential election.
” Idon’t want to hear about this equity and Justice , that is shere nonsense.The people that abused this equity and Justice are people from the Southeast, because whatever we’ re talking about in democracy,you cannot circumvent voting figures.You can say it’s my turn and nobody will vote for you and let see what happens. I said it in one of my statement,look at the way people of the Southeast voted during the last election.They gave a bulk vote to Atiku.”
One is tempted to ask if Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is now from the Southeast? Is Atiku not a Fulani man? Does the controversial tribalist mean Buhari to the be the candidate of the north? From all indications, among the Igbo stock, were better candidates in the persons of Prof. Kingsley Moghalu of YYP party and Prof Oby Ezekwesili. Yet the Igbo jilted their owns, gave their bulk votes to Atiku,a Fulani man.Had the Igbo voted their own,Mr Mohammed would have had a ground to talk.
Mr Mohammed also said he wants to come back to active Politics to make sure the southeast does not produce the President in 2023
One is also tempted to ask if Mr Mohammed is the one to decide who rules in 2023 ? Is he now in the person of God? Please somebody should remind this man our experience with the late Nigerian dictator,Gen Sani Abacha, who thought himself to be God, but was disgraced by God.
Junaid Mohammed should be reminded that the southeast voted for a real change;they voted for restructuring,which everybody advocates except the parasitic northern political Class, who own the oil wells in the tick forests of the Niger Delta, who gang rape the land, while the owners of the land live and die like fishes in polluted water.The Southeast voted for equality, fairness and I doubt if they ever regretted casting their votes for Atiku.Their votes were made for a man that will at least treat them like every other Nigerian.
In the last four years,we have heard tales like, “I cannot not leave those who gave me 95% votes and appoint people that gave 5%”, “My appointments were based on merit”. ” I gave appointments to people I can trust”. The Federal Character principle were never followed in Buhari’s appointments,nor were the Igbo considered in infrastructural development since the inception of this administration.The ruling All Progressives Congress seems to have zoned every available positions in the National Assembly to the North and Southwest. People who say they don’t want to hear anything about Justice and equity will wake up one day to find there is nobody to oppress.
