PointB: When strange bedfellows gather to share Niger Delta Oil national treasury, you'll be amaze the kind of tools they produce at the sharing fair to cut their own piece of the pie.

Some go to the sharing ground with forks, some with knives or spoons. Yet still other emerge from the shadow with cutlass, hoes, spades and shovels, all in the spirit of loots sharing.

Anyway, I wish Awusa People's Congress er, em- A P C fair sharing. I pray they at least keep some for the next generation of looters, like the ones before them did. Above all, I hope they make me eat my words.

Share well!

tomakint: I can assure you the steam APC is trying hard to gather now, would become lukewarm before the next Presidential elections, they are all bunch of clowns - the same naa niii!!!

manosteel: I feel the same way. Greediness is what will tear them apart, there are lots of individuals interest in the merger. Okorocha from APGA, Buhari from CPC, then Tinubu and his boys from ACN, eyeing the sole socket, who will step down for the other, just hope they will prove all of us wrong.

Eko Atlantic#:





All iboz on this forum that doesn't agree with this are the minority iboz, they are less important

Rochas is the best governor in S/E and he his under a yoruba party.

If you like nack you head for wall, we've been ruling and we will forever rule

The North, Igbo, Jonathan and 2015

12 Feb 2013


Amidst the gathering campaign for a president of Igbo extraction in 2015, Emmanuel Onwe examines the factors that will facilitate or inhibit the realisation of the dream.

A Goodluck Jonathan presidency beyond 2015 will defer a potential Igbo presidency to 2027 or, more realistically, 2039. It’s blatantly clear that President Jonathan will not handover the presidential seal to an Igbo man either in 2015 or 2019. Anyone who entertains the notion that he is thus disposed is in a delusionary state.

Rational people who place stock by reality now accept that the upcoming presidential contest will be a straight battle between the Ijaw nation, superbly and preferentially led by President Jonathan, and the North, led by no one at the moment. The authentic power broker, sitting pretty in the middle, is the West, occasionally rancorous but strategically led by Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu. But who leads the East in this political coliseum?

President Jonathan will need to sustain the broad coalition that propelled him to victory in 2011 in order to retain the presidency in 2015. This means that he must count on the seven Northern states that he carried in 2011 plus five Western states, five Eastern states to add to his six South-South states to prevail again. The margin for error is razor-thin, given the constitutional requirements. The 19 northern states gave Jonathan over 8.3 million votes or 37.1% of the total votes allocated to him in 2011.

This reality, augmented by demography and a Boko Haram-altered realpolitik, exposes President Jonathan’s electoral indebtedness in degrees. The North is first in line for his reciprocal support - a gesture that, some might argue, carries greater credibility than the intellectually feeble and anti-democratic politics of “zoning” or arbitrary power-concession. The debt he owes to the North must be repaid. And it will take precedence over all others. The only question is: which presidential election cycle – 2015 or 2019?

Thereafter, both the East and the West will have a competing claim to the presidency. And no thoughtful Nigerian will bet on the East prevailing in that competition, given the customary chaos that often defines its politics. So, it could be a man or woman from the West in 2023 or 2027. It will, then, take a national wave of pity to deliver the presidency to the East in 2039 – in the unlikely event that there occurs a national awakening whereby an Igbo cause is recognised as worthy of national sympathy.

Consider a different scenario, decoupled from the PDP’s internal arrangements. If the proposed merger of the main opposition parties were to deliver the presidency to the North with a Vice President from the West in 2015, we might, to all intents and purposes, have a president from the West in 2023. This presents a genuinely viable prospect for 2015. CPC or its successor in title will simply need to repeat its solid performance in the twelve states it won during the 2011 presidential cycle.

A switch of support by ACN from PDP to CPC will give the alliance 20 states, excluding Edo State, which might most unlikely go against Jonathan, but including Ondo State, which will remain dependably progressive. Again, fortune will befall the West because its political leadership is smart and possesses a first class understanding of the dynamics of Nigerian politics. No sane and fair minded Nigerian will begrudge them.

The Igbo scenario is rather more complicated, abetted by the indifference of a fiercely self-reliant but disillusioned population which has grown to see all central governments as fundamentally anti-Igbo and its own leaders as merchants of self-interest. Unlike the West, where there exists a viable and confident opposition to the centre, the new conservative politics of the East is generally pro-Jonathan, with a residual sceptical and progressive elements operating at the fringes. To this extent, therefore, its path to the presidency is extremely circumscribed.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance could be the vehicle that contains the essential ingredients for a cross-Niger coalition. But APGA controls only two states and is currently under the ruinous grip of its own internal contradictions. Within the PDP itself, it’s inconceivable that any candidate who stands against President Jonathan in a contest for the Igbo delegates votes will fare any better than former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the 2011 presidential primaries - unless there is a radical shift in emphasis to Igbo-specific priorities.

Bowling for Idealism and Democracy
This brings me to a personal declaration: I am entitled to speak on this matter not just because I am a bona fide citizen and a progressive Igbo man, but because I have paid my dues and earned the right to take a stand.

The PDP presidential primaries dawned only 6 months after I took oath of office as a senator representing Ebonyi Central Senatorial District, having spent the previous three and a half years in court battles to claim my mandate – a story for another occasion. I witnessed, from the front-row, how the weeks prior to the primary election exposed the disarray and total absence of a centre of gravity in Igbo politics. To quote the late Bashoroun MKO Abiola, “We are damaged!”

I have, since June 2010, been constant and consistent in defending President Jonathan’s right to contest the presidential election. Not only has our constitution conferred on him that fundamental right, but the personal sacrifice which he was called upon to make was grossly unfair and unjustified.

With what explanation would he return to the Ijaw people? With what logic would he make them see the wisdom in walking away from the presidency - an office to which they may never have another opportunity to lay a claim for at least a generation? And the only lesson he could glean from history was a sobering and dissuasive one: the last man to voluntarily relinquish the top office in Nigeria ended up flirting with poverty and ultimately wound up in jail.

I was therefore resistant to the entrenched PDP tyranny of corralling everyone to play a minor role in the coronation of a candidate. This was not naive. Rather, I took my one step where a million steps needed to be taken. Those who failed, those who were truly naive, were those who, when called to a duty greater than service to self, failed to take their one step. Igbos must recognise that only those who dare to lose greatly can achieve greatly and that power concedes absolutely nothing without a demand.

Planning for Oblivion

[b]The prevailing attraction to readymade power testifies to a growing political culture of self-sabotage, individual greed and the absence of foresight among many in the Igbo community. It’s a clear path to political oblivion.

The West presents a sharp contrast to this attitude. When a Yoruba man had presidential power thrust on him in 1999, Yoruba people, rightly suspicious of the machinations that brought about that state of affairs, contemptuously delivered a crushing defeat to the PDP in the West, coalesced around the Action for Democracy as a deliberate measure in asserting their regional autonomy and projecting a unique vision of their proud place in Nigeria. When they were duped and almost crippled in 2003, they took the hard knock with exemplary courage, returned to the drawing board and rebounded in a most spectacular fashion in 2011.

Thus, Senator Tinubu, the national leader of ACN, emerged as the most significant power broker in this nation since the era of military hegemony. But in order to lead this renaissance, Lagos State paid a particularly heavy political price. The leadership of the West remained resolute, understood the task at hand, and had a winning strategy and foresight. If the West continues in this manner, it will ultimately become the dominant force in Nigerian democratic power play for a generation to come.[/b]

A Fractured North
No northern Muslim presidential candidate of any major political party can ever again count on the 19 northern states as a monolithic electoral route to power. Those days are gone. It’s now clear, thanks in equal measure to a massive shift in generational consciousness and the Boko Haram insurgency that peripheral northern states such as Plateau, Taraba and Benue would almost always consider their positions very carefully. In between these three, Kogi and Kwara states present a required further study and the next presidential election cycle will furnish additional information to reach a more considered conclusion.

Regardless of whatever variables you may wish to take into consideration (including, undoubtedly, rigging, electoral corruption and a disgraceful INEC), the new science of the politics of the North is evolving, and its implications for Nigerian politics are seismic.

Triumph of the Ijaw Nation
Since the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa on 10 November, 1995, the people of the Niger Delta generally, and the Ijaw nation particularly, have upped their game and have played an absolute blinder in the crucible of Nigerian politics. More than any other minority group in historical and contemporary Nigerian politics, they articulated a coherent case of injustice and exploitation that was as persuasive as it was compelling. Consequently, they have, unequivocally, emerged as the supreme advocates for minority rights.

Admittedly, bullets and bombs might have aided the cause but those were, arguably, the desperate measures that arose from desperate circumstances.

Their demands, be it in connection with resource control or control of the prime political office in the land, have always appeared legitimate and just. Whether their tone was strident or measured, they have had a consistent and unified message. Their plights and their aspirations were heard in foreign capitals across the globe. Occasionally, their causes were even adjudicated at the highest levels of the United States’ judicature, with unprecedented success. Their political operation was so smooth it almost legitimised the violent militant component.

The Ijaw people are unrelenting. Their current sleek, forceful and cacophonous “operation 2015” has driven some senior northern politicians to distraction, some to secret endorsement of the President’s 2015 ambition from far away foreign capitals, and the Igbos to acquiescent silence. Many Nigerians have been utterly astonished by some of the public utterances coming from respected figures from northern Nigeria.

Friendship Forged in Blood
No tribe in Nigeria has a better, albeit incomplete, knowledge of the people of northern Nigeria than do the Igbo tribe. I have travelled extensively and lived nomadically in northern Nigeria and, to my amazement, found Igbo people in their droves in the most unlikely nooks and remotest crannies of the region. Many had become acculturated, even while retaining their fundamental Christian indoctrination. Among the Kanuris of Borno State, I found the most honourable, decent, generous, spiritually devoted and patriotic Nigerians. And this is precisely why the Boko Haram phenomenon, with its roots in this noble warrior land of the Kanem, is utterly bewildering.

The Igbos must not only raise their collective voices but must be at the forefront in condemning the atrocities of Boko Haram; but we must do so without holding the generality of northern Muslims liable for the excesses of a small criminal bunch. Igbos have predictably, suffered immense losses. But, as the violence soars, as the casket counts escalate and a repetition of the ugly history of abandoned property looms, let us remain constant in our covenant with the Lord. This moment calls for the strength of our example. Let us respond by channeling the flow of our kin’s blood to a purpose greater than ourselves, greater than retribution and, certainly, greater than the warped aspirations of those who seek to murder us.

In the broad sweep of history, 2015 would be seen as the year that defined the politics of modern Nigeria and its democracy for the next half century. Those who caution that this is not the appropriate time to discuss the politics of 2015 are being disingenuous. Yes, it is, perhaps, not the time to launch candidacies or open campaign offices, but it sure as hell is the time to engage on the potential dynamics of 2015 – not the apocalyptic year of disintegration but the year for the realisation or strengthening of democratic solidarities and the reciprocity principle.

Let us engage- East and North. If we struggled and failed, history’s verdict would be less than harsh. After all, if President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had lived, he would right now be in the second year of the second tenure of his presidency which would probably have given way to a James Ibori presidency in 2015. That in turn would have terminated in 2023, leading to another northern presidency all the way to 2031. But the Igbo marginalisation is not, apparently, ordained by God. The fault, Ndigbo, is not in our stars.
*Onwe is the Director of Operations, National and Diaspora, Njiko Igbo

Victor M: ACP has no ideaology just like PDP and any other party we have seen in this country presently.
The only language they know is SHARE.

davesndy:
Open your eyes Nigeria! These people aren't any different from Pdp they are ttrying to remove from office. For God sake see their profiles. Just power hungry fellows. No talks on how to make the nation work, just how to get to power

Fisherman.com:
Awusa people congress+Yoruba tribalism=APC

franchizy:

You that have idealogy or ur father, what ve u people contributed to move d country forward. Four parties merged and offcourse shud share the National leadership position to be at equalibrumto avoid any of d party been cheated. They are also expected to come up wit there manifisto and constitution /agreement which wil make d merger a success. You just rant rubbish as if u and ur father can make a difference if given d opportunity. Mtcheeeeeeew

davesndy:
Open your eyes Nigeria! These people aren't any different from Pdp they are ttrying to remove from office. For God sake see their profiles. Just power hungry fellows. No talks on how to make the nation work, just how to get to power

APC promises free education, social democracy as it rolls out strategy committees
Premium Times
Published: February 12,2013


The newly formed All Progressives Congress, APC, has said it will provide free education if elected at the federal level.
The party stated this on Tuesday at the end of the meeting of its 10 governors in Abuja.
The 10 governors, drawn from members of the four parties that merged to form the APC, are Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Tanko Almakura (Nassarawa), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe) and Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara).
Adressing journalists after the meeting, Mr. Almakura said the priorities of the new party would be agricultural development, job creation, free education, affordable healthcare, infrastructural development, adequate power supply, eradication of poverty, war against corruption, rapid technological advancement and industrialisation.
“We shall pride ourselves as social democrats that are committed to organising our society based on the values of justice for all and individual freedom where everyone’s basic needs are fulfilled,” he said.

davesndy:
Open your eyes Nigeria! These people aren't any different from Pdp they are ttrying to remove from office. For God sake see their profiles. Just power hungry fellows. No talks on how to make the nation work, just how to get to power

kettykings: The Title should have read Muslim Brotherhood meets tomorrow to Determine how they will share Niger Delta Oil Wealth

bashy_demy: Why did you just jump into conclusion on a party that is less than a week old. Some people are just so stewpid to just try to tarnish the image of others all for the sage of tribe or little peanut they receive from PDP

Victor M:

I don't know when Nigerians will learn.., as far as im concerned they just want power. No good intentions. No blue print on how to move this country forward. God help us!!!

Gbawe:

Is that the real truth or just your own myopically unfair and dismissive judgement? They have only being a Party for some days yet we hear of free education and other things. Why not give them a chance to harmonise and announce their policies before writing them off pessimistically and lying to validate your negative stance? How sensible is it to conclude that the APC, consisting of so many innately brilliant individuals like Utomi and Fayemi, will not "talk on how to make the Nation work"?

Also,why is it that some of you make the merger about the negative names but you have nothing to say about how , perhaps more so than at any other time in our history, there are far more undisputed Nigerian good guys on the side of the APC than bad? You all say you want merit to drive Nigeria. Now that the best achievers, technocrats, proven public officials and political thinkers are part of this merger you are still muttering the inane "they are no different to the PDP". Will sensible folks pessimistically make this about the few decampees from the PDP or get excited that so many good guys and talented Nigerians have finally united under one platform to challenge a Party that has regressed Nigeria for 14 years?

What do you people really want?

To me, talks here just reveals what many Nigerians have become i.e a people who make everything about the negatives and see everything as destined to fail. We are even prepared to lie to ourselves in the process and deliberately blind ourselves to what is glaringly obvious. It is only bad-belle, clannish and insecere folks, never on the side of the merger to begin with, who will make the APC about the relatively small number of past PDP members rather than the many, many valiant and brilliant Nigerians involved with the APC.

I have to ask, are Nigerians blind? For the one Ikimi there is Ribadu, Utomi, Fayemi, Fashola, Okorocha, Oshiomhole, Fola Adeola, Balarabe Musa etc,etc, etc, etc. Yet you people insist on saying the small number of Ikimis present will define the Party How do Nigerians think? Na curse?

Overall, if you are genuinely objective, Why not strengthen our democracy by waiting for the new Party to be up to speed and then asking them the questions relating to what their plans are instead of ridiculously claiming they are not talking about how to move the nation forward? Some of you should just have the uprightness of character to openly pitch your tent with the PDP instead of uttering cynical statements that makes no sense at all when put to the test of simple logic.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/the-north-igbo-jonathan-and-2015/139276/

God bess you!!!

kettykings:

you that has read the story should have come up with your own personal comment besides commenting on the comment of another person who did or did not read the story.

badesco: They are birds of strange fellows which can never agree. so i do not expect useful outing.

SlyIg: They will never smell that seat!
Infact, they should be meeting to plan how they will pay up the debt after the election expenses. Nonesenze...
Before the money go reach my poor remote village, na apology!

teskyg: So it is all about sharing formular.No clear manifesto.Buhari,let it be know to you that the day you choose to romance with Tinubu,that was the day you tarnish what was left of your hard earn intergrity.You have lost it.

tomakint: Very funny........ if dem like make dem do pass meeting, sharing, slapping, chair-throwing and the likes my JONATHAN will still flog this VOLTRON! O ti sure ju! By the way, make I go play with my dog; a-one, a-two.....

tolsaac:
Now I believe u guys brains lives btw ur two legs. With all pdp has done to dis nation for d past 14yrs do u still need any1 to preach to u 2 give change a chance??

valicious1:
The fact is that people like you always
keeps on underestimating the power of
PDP. Their is absolutely no way you can
compare PDP with a.p.c. PDP is a giant,
its just like comparing …
commercial banks with the central
bank,
The president with state governors
Nollywood with hollywood
Ecowas with united nations
Madonna university with cambridge
Keke napep with phantom rolls royce
Chief of your village with queen
Elizabeth ii
Osuofia with denzel washington
Ghana with Nigeria
Taye taiwo with donald duke
Nokia 3310 with BB porche
Terry G with rick ross
You with me

Victor M:

Don't know why people cant talk in Nairaland without abuse.., its like this place is for rascals and thugs. Anyway, giving a dog another name does not make it a lion.(ACP). Is it Buhari and Tinubu that are going to bring the change? Hell no!! There have not been any manifesto or blueprint on how their are going to tackle corruption cause all are corrupt just like PDP. So at this point the devil you know is better than the angle you do do not know...

Elueme: Meeting to devise a means to share our common wealth. I shake my head for these hawks.

instaforex ngr: why is the Labour Party not among this merger?