Support for the government of
President Goodluck Jonathan
appears to be shrinking in the
South-South, following
complaints from the area
regarding neglect by the president, writes Idowu
Samuel. PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan
may be in for boisterous
moments ahead of the 2015
presidential election,
considering the groundswell
of opposition that has consistently been growing
against his perceived ambition
to re-contest. The birds seem
to be returning to the roosting
points for that speculated
ambition, at least for now. First, it is beyond doubt that
the Northern part of Nigeria is
poised for a battle with
Jonathan. Aside the incubus of
terrorism that has for months
been raging to give the Jonathan administration some
sleepless nights, the elite of
the region seem to be keeping
strong malice against his
government. That is rooted in
the heckling of the zoning arrangement which the
presidency of Jonathan
allegedly violated against the
northern interest. The
governor of Niger State, Aliyu
Babangida, echoed such malice early in the week when he
averred that the patience of
the North had run out on
Jonathan. By that, Babangida
was of the view that the North
would not allow the president the chance of a second term on
the basis of a pact on a single
term he earlier signed with the
northern leaders. The South-West zone has been
a considerate ally of President
Jonathan. The zone embraced
him fully before the 2011
election and took steps to
demonstrate support for him with overwhelming votes that
boosted his all round victory at
the poll. Yet, the zone believes
it is being made to sulk
ruefully for the act of
magnanimity it showed the president during his moment
of distress. Today, the South-
West is convinced that
Jonathan is never ready to
show gratitude with expected
fair patronage meant to make it feel good for being an ally. It
remains to be seen whether
Jonathan would respond to the
strident protest of
marginalisation by the South-
West. The South-East, which had a
thawing relationship with
Jonathan before and after
2011, appears to be having a
rethink on its support for the
president. The youths of the zone held a conference lately
in Enugu and ended with
aspersions on the present
administration, which they
accused of precipitating the
degeneration of Nigeria into a failed state. The conclusion by
the youths sounded like a vote
of no confidence in the regime
of a man they had always
risen to defend. The South-East
is already joining hands with other zones of the federation
to ensure that Nigeria holds a
dialogue before 2015 to
determine the direction to
take the country, contending
that an alternative to the National Conference being
clamoured was chaos. When stress begins to build up
for the president on his
ambition to stay on in power,
the next zone to lean on for
support is his home base, the
South-South. Even at that, the zone appears not to be totally
convinced that Jonathan is a
man to take a second bet on.
Of late, there has been a
protests from all parts of the
zone against the Jonathan government, a signal that the
president has not impressed
his people to a great extent. From the South-South zone
today, unions of ethnic groups
have been mushrooming,
telling the world that he had
neglected his home base too.
The grouse of the ethnic unions was that the president
had been pandering only to
interest of the Ijaw nation
where he hailed from at the
expense of other ethnic groups
from the zone. The Urhobo and the Itshekiri which both have
strong unions in the South-
South, are the most outspoken
on the alleged marginalisation
of other ethnic groups in the
zone. The Urhobo Progressive Union (UPU), led by General
Patrick Newton Aziza, was
reported to have held a
meeting recently to review the
support of the ethnic group for
President Jonathan. The group has consistently complained of
neglect by the Federal
Government, threatening to
withdraw support for the
president if the supposed
marginalisation of the Urhobo in government did not stop. A member of the group, Dr
Ezikiel Ned Onwumi, who
spoke with newsmen after the
meeting, said: “We are not
pleased with the Jonathan
administration because we have since discovered that the
president has given virtually
everything due to the South-
South to only his Ijaw people,
leaving out the interest of
other ethnic groups in the region unprotected.” The
aggregate view among
members of the union was
that the ‘marginalised’ ethnic
groups in the South-South
should start seeking cooperation with other parts
of the country ahead of 2015. Not too long ago, the Minister
of Niger Delta, Godsday
Obubebe, engaged in a verbal
warfare with the Rivers State
governor, Rotimi Amaechi, on
the interest of President Jonathan in the zone. The fight
between the two had,
however, thrown up the
familiar issue of neglect of the
zone by the present
government headed by one of its own. Amaechi had
challenged Orubebe to name
one project ever
commissioned by the Jonathan
administration in the South-
South. The failure of the East- West road project appeared to
be the heart of grievances by
the people against Jonathan
A senator from Rivers State
recently issued a statement to
counsel President Jonathan on the steps to take to win back
the support of the people from
his zone. He said, “The
president must now turn to
the South- South to ‘stabilise’
the zone by neutralising the Amaechi threat. This project
will take precedence in time
and resources and divert the
president’s attention from
pressing national issues.
“Jonathan is the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The peace, prosperity and
progress of Nigeria is the real
challenge facing the president.
What he needs is the
‘friendship and goodwill” of all Nigerians. He should find
lieutenants who can turn even
potential adversaries to
friends and supporters by their
performance.” модули joomla 2.5 Read 1033

For sure no urhobo man should vote for that man cause there is no single federal project in hole urhobo land

ibide: For sure no urhobo man should vote for that man cause there is no single federal project in hole urhobo land

PDP must be voted out of Delta State first, but your Elders are too greedy. They'll receive bottles of Schnapp and Kolanuts from Uduaghan and then they'll sell you out to the PDP again.