By Femi Aribisala

NO doubt about it, the North betrayed Goodluck Jonathan in the last election. The greatest ally of the North in Nigerian politics has been the South-South. Therefore, it was not asking too much for Jonathan to expect the North to return the favour under his administration; when he is clearly carrying the mantle of the South-South.

Jonathan did not take Northern support for granted. In his six years in office, he spent the overwhelming proportion of resources at his disposal on the North. The $1 billion Kashimbila Dam, one of the biggest projects handled by his administration, is in Taraba in the North. Jonathan built over 150 Almajiri schools in the North. He revived Nigerian agriculture, to the primary benefit of Northern farmers.

Most of Jonathan’s political appointees were Northern. He entrusted a Northerner, Attahiru Jega, with INEC, bucking the tradition whereby INEC chairmen tend to come from the South-East. When the North complained about the Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika, Jonathan replaced him. When the North complained about Festus Odimegwu at the National Population Commission, Jonathan fired him. Nevertheless, when the election time came, the North betrayed Jonathan and the South-South.

Northern PDP governors secretly worked for Buhari’s victory. In Jigawa, Sule Lamido only paid lip-service to Jonathan’s campaign. In Bauchi, Isa Yuguda watched as Jonathan’s campaign train was stoned. In Niger, Babangida Aliyu did not care that no Jonathan poster was placed anywhere in the state throughout the campaign. The blunder of these recalcitrant governors was in thinking they could be lackadaisical about the PDP at the federal level, but passionate about the PDP at the state level. They all ended up losing their states to the APC.

Retracting on promises

In order not to scare off dodgy members of his party with his anti-corruption rhetoric, Buhari promised to let corrupt sleeping dogs lie if elected. APC party chairman, John Oyegun, declared that Buhari would not waste time going after embezzlers of public funds before 29th May, 2015. He said: “The future of the people of this country is too important for us to spend valuable time trying to dig into the past.”

But now that the election has been won, Buhari no longer feels any obligation to keep his word. Instead, he said on TV Continental that, unlike the Quran and the Bible, the APC position during the election is subject to change. The signs indicate that the APC is now inclined to engage in a vicious propaganda campaign of maligning the Jonathan administration and the South-South through mud-slinging probes.

Buhari now says he will revisit the issue of the allegedly missing $20 billion from NNPC accounts. He said in Hausa to his Northern constituency: “Imagine a situation where the former CBN governor, who by God‘s grace, is now the Emir of Kano, raised an issue of missing billions of money, not in naira but in dollars, $20 billion. What happened, instead of investigating whether it was true, they simply found a reason to remove him.”

In short, in spite of the forensic audit of NNPC accounts by the prestigious PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which concluded no money was missing, Buhari has already declared Diezani and the NNPC guilty and Lamido Sanusi innocent. He claims the matter was not investigated, which means PriceWaterhouseCoopers is not good enough for him. Who is he now going to ask to conduct a new probe when we already know the answer he wants?

Witch- hunting

What we have here is the beginning of a witch-hunt. One of the first questions of interest is where Buhari’s oil minister is going to come from. Within the context of the cynical view that the insistence of a cabal that power must return to the North is not unconnected to pending oil bloc allocations, the question remains whether our new oil minister must also be from the North.

In Nigeria, the FCT Minister is always from the North. However, the oil minister is not always from the South. The North has no oil, but it longs to control the lucrative oil industry. Under Jonathan, oil minister Diezani Allison-Madueke has come under prolonged attacks and harassment, not only because she is a woman, but also because she is from the South-South.

Under Yar’Adua, the Petroleum Minister, Dr Rilwanu Lukman was from Kaduna. The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Sanusi Barkindo, was from Adamawa. The Director-General of the National Petroleum Directorate, Alhaji Bello Gusau, was from Zamfara. The Executive-Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, Mustapha Rabe Darma, was from Katsina. Are we in for a Northernisation of the oil industry again under Buhari?

If Buhari is now determined to probe the oil ministry under South-South stewardship, contrary to his campaign promise; he must also probe it under South-West stewardship. President Obasanjo doubled as his own oil minister for eight years. If Buhari is now going to probe Diezani, then he must probe his new ally, Obasanjo, as well? Otherwise, if care is not taken, Buhari’s war against corruption will quickly divide Nigeria along ethnic fault-lines.

Once you decide to probe the Jonathan administration, the Niger-Delta is going to insist on a probe of the Obasanjo administration. Once you probe the PDP, which represents Southern rule, there is going to be insistence that you probe Northern rule. Should Buhari decide to probe NNPC, the issue of his own tenure as petroleum minister and the 2.8 billion saga will also be brought up. He cannot apply today the discriminatory standard he used yesterday, whereby vice-president Ekwueme languished in jail while president Shagari relaxed under house arrest.

If our president-elect wants to stay true to his election campaign promise, he should stick to the issue of passing the Petroleum Industry Bill expeditiously, instead of opening the Pandora’s Box of NNPC probes. He should also look into the whole process of dismantling the NNPC itself, and selling it off. Hankering after the past suggests the APC is bereft of innovative policy ideas. Witch-hunting Diezani is no substitute for lack of policy.

Press censorship

The first thing General Buhari did on seizing power in 1984 was to declare in a television interview his determination to “tamper with the press.” The first thing he has done this time around, even before being sworn in as president, was to seek to impose a ban on the AIT. AIT is one of the press houses that did not support him during the election campaign. Moreover, it is owned by Raymond Dokpesi, a South-South man.

History, they say, has a tendency to repeat itself. Those of us who were adults during the first coming of General Buhari took great pains to warn Nigerians of his antecedents. Those too young to know about him were convinced we were making up stories. Others denied the relevance of Buhari’s pedigree. One man tweeted: “Even if PDP shows a video of Tinubu and Buhari on AIT robbing the Central Bank of Nigeria, it won’t change our minds.”

A cease-and-desist order on Buhari’s censorship of AIT came thankfully from APC Central. Sane minds prevailed from the party’s headquarters, mindful that any attempt to curb the press this time around is likely to end Buhari’s honeymoon with the media immediately. Suffice to say the press operates everywhere as a tight union. Attack on one is deemed an attack on all.

APC-friendly press houses had a field day maligning Jonathan for over five years. No one tried to muzzle them. APC itself came up with all sorts of lies. APC publicity secretary for Lagos State, Joe Igbokwe, wrote a libelous and defamatory article against me entitled: “Behold the Wind Chaser called Femi Aribisala.” Igbokwe claimed I am a registered member of the PDP, which is false. Among other lies, he said: “In Osun Femi and his robbery gang came with helicopters, guns, bombs, jackboots, tanks etc. but ordinary people with bare hands stopped their open robbery.”

I was not in Osun during the 2014 gubernatorial election. I have no robbery gang. I have no helicopters, guns, jackboots, or tanks. I could have sued Igbokwe for all he has got. But I decided to let it pass. However, until called to order, our president-elect seems inclined to use the apparatus of the state to settle personal scores. This is a bad omen about his incoming administration.

Election offenders

The same discrimination is already evident in the president-elect’s stated position vis-à-vis election offenders. President Jonathan was magnanimous enough to concede defeat in a flawed election. But APC is not prepared to let sleeping dogs lie. Despite now holding sway in 22 states to PDP’s 13, the APC continues to cause trouble everywhere. Once it is not declared the winner, the election must have been rigged.

The president-elect has joined the fray. He proclaimed his determination to prosecute election offenders. But he only enunciated this policy with reference states where APC is currently disputing the results. Accordingly, he instructed the governors of Edo, Imo and Rivers to document all offences alleged to have been committed.

These states happen to be those with APC governors; and in the South-South and South-East where the APC was routed. Are we going to get corresponding prosecutions in cases in the North, including the president’s home state of Katsina where, surprise surprise, more ghost-voters came out of the woodwork to vote in the lackluster governorship election than in the high-profile presidential election?

Mr. President-elect should be reminded that he is going to be president of all Nigerians; including especially those who did not vote for him. He should be very careful how he treats the South-South. Without a doubt, nerves are much frayed now in that geopolitical zone; which also happens to be the economic jugular of Nigeria.

My advice to him, for what it is worth, is that he should leave the sons and daughters of the South-South alone. Thanks to President Jonathan, we have just missed the bullet of the much anticipated post-election turmoil. This is no time to start stepping injudiciously on South-South toes in the name of anti-corruption. Upheaval in the South-South will be far more economically devastating for Nigeria, and for his vaunted presidential agenda, than what we have experienced under the onslaught of Boko Haram.

Source: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/NIgerianWorldForum/conversations/messages/487912

Buhari should bring it on already. We are waiting.

Many people here are often so quick to dismiss Aribisala's usually spot on articles as incoherent messages of division and hate, when it's obvious he's talking with facts and figures.

We are no longer ignorant of the schemes and strategies deployed by the North to demonise any vibrant South/South leader who's not ready to do their bidding. Examples abound.

Any attempt to demonise and embarrass any further the person of President GEJ and his wife with GMB's selective act of fighting corruption will be met with stiff opposition from the SS people. We all desire a clean and effective system, but that cleansing must be total, thorough and should involve all the past and present. That's fairness!

The slavery and internal colonisation crumbles gradually.

QuotaSystem:
So what would constitute a non-witchhunt would be to ignore the rot in the petroleum ministry and rely on the lame PWC report? You can play victim from here to Pluto, nothing will save you corrupt lot from prosecution under competent courts.

Bro, let's watch and see! This house is gradually falling apart!

One thing I detest about the SS/SE is that you guys call convicting of your corrupt politicians witch hunting. That froggy eyes thief, Alison Madueke, is being praised by Igbos. The toutish simpleton, Dokubo, is being praised by both Igbos and Ijaws. What is wrong with you people?


Do you see Yorubas complaining about conviction of FFK, Iyabo Obasanjo, Gbenga etc?

Ilekeh:
One thing I detest about the SS/SE is that you guys call convicting of your corrupt politicians witch hunting. That froggy eyes thief, Alison Madueke, is being praised by Igbos. The toutish simpleton, Dokubo, is being praised by both Igbos and Ijaws. What is wrong with you people?


Do you see Yorubas complaining about conviction of FFK, Iyabo Obasanjo, Gbenga etc?

Has any of those your Yoruba political folks being convicted? Tell me!

Mr man,all this ur rantings will not intimidate Our president Elect. Wat has to be done will be done. Impunity, electoral fraud,and corruption must stop this country.

QuotaSystem:


Only in your fantasies, you surely don't realise that the militants pledge to support Buhari on the condition of the non-stoppage of their amnesty stipends has belittled and revealed them as hungry fighters that can easily be controlled with the carrot and stick approach? Your elders are lining up daily behind GMB begging for crumbs and your fighters are waving their begging bowls...

So what you on about son?

Trash. Trash!

Tapsorrow:
Mr man,all this ur rantings will not intimidate Our president Elect. Wat has to be done will be done. Impunity, electoral fraud,and corruption must stop this country.

I'm sure you didn't read the article! I'm sure of that!

Thank You. For Buhari to probe the phantom $20b and the Petroleum Industry means he has to probe the FRCN indictment on Emir Sanusi. He has to probe the NNPC of 1977-1979, he has to audit NNPC account from 1999 to 2015, he has to probe PTF, he has to probe the $12b Oil Windfall of IBB, he has to probe the Abacha family, he has to probe Obasanjo spending of N1.3trn for electricity alone with nothing to show. He has to probe the PTDF allegation and indictment against obasanjo and Atiku. He has to probe the indictment against El Rufai while he hled sway as BPE boss and FCT Minister...There are lots of probes to be done. Baba we are waiting

This Man Femi Aribisila it seems he doesn't get tired of distorting the truth

barcanista:
Thank You. For Buhari to probe the phantom $20b and the Petroleum Industry means he has to probe the FRCN indictment on Emir Sanusi. He has to probe the NNPC of 1977-1979, he had to audit NNPC account from 1999 to 2015, he has to probe PTF, he has to probe the $12b Oil Windfall of IBB, he has to probe the Abacha family, he has to probe Obasanjo spending of N1.3trn for electricity alone with nothing to show. He has to probe the PTDF allegation and indictment against obasanjo and Atiku. He has to probe the indictment against El Rufai while he hled sway as BPE boss and FCT Minister...There are lots of probes to be done. Baba we are waiting

And then I should seat back and watch as our leaders from the SS are selectively embarrassed with phony prosecution? Not anymore!

dearpreye:


And then I should seat back and watch as our leaders from the SS are selectively embarrassed with phony prosecution? Not anymore!

#Never Again

barcanista:
#Never Again

Never again! Never again! The scales have fallen off our eyes. We shall never be willing tools in the hands of the oppressor!

barcanista:
#Never Again

What the diffrace between dearpreye and barcanista Mr Tonye

Any excuse to protect criminals I guess from the usual lot. I urge Buhari to not be swayed or distracted by these shouts of "witch hunt", they should not put him off from focusing on the task at hand which is sorting out the rot in the system. Whoever needs to be investigated should be investigated. Don't fall into the trap and become a special interest president that turns the other way on corruption like Jonathan, the PEOPLE are who got you into power and they got you into power to sort out the mess and do the job. I would rather like some development and progress and more accountable leaders so please feel free to with hunt in my state if you want.

This is how they shouted "with hunt" when Obasanjo went after the crook Peter Odilli. Today Peter Odilli is walking the streets free after looting his people dry and those people are not ashamed. Bunch of hopeless entitlement seeking backwards people. What a joke. If it is going to be called "witch hunt" then so be it, you would not be scared of witch hunting if your hands are clean. The people are behind Buhari.

Most Nigerians are crazy, very tribalistic and myopic with there thinking.

If the rot in NNPC only is corrected by Buhari
I bet the very hungry Nigerian from Bonny to oloibiri to potiskum to efe to aba to Sawo to owerri to effurun to ughelli to abhor to sapele to damaturu to mokwa to igando to abaranje will feel the impact positively.

If you must know Dezani corrupt reign in NNPC is close to 1 trillion dollars. If you must know she took the blue print of the petroleum industry bill to Shell headquarters in the Netherlands. She completely destroyed the industry. If you must know dezani time in Shell was in services and corporate affairs. She knows nothing about fiscal terms, development,E&P business through all her time in Shell. The very day I heard she was appointed minister of petroleum, I knew Nigeria was in a deep shit.

Any leading journalist should seek for interview and ask her what she did in Shell.
She became a director by kissing the ass of Ann Pickard and arm twisting Chris flinason.

Ask what was relationship with the very talented Adeyemi Bero, Business Director of Shell, who resigned angrily to head British Gas.

I will drop my pen here.

I pity the very idiots South South folks, go to
Bonny island, you see the LNG camp with all amenities, just outside Finima you see people living in shanties, the same for mission road opposite BOGT.

Go to forcados in Warri as well.

You can only liberate yourself with wise and creative thinking and not stupid " Na we Oile".
Do you know what it takes to explore the oil and Gas? Reservoir management, Sales agreement, e.t.c

They were tried and found not guilty!

Would you even allow yours to answer to charges, let alone be tried?

Your tribe is just too primitive and backward for this day and age, and Nigeria will never move forward with you in it!

dearpreye:


Has any of those your Yoruba folks being convicted? Tell me!

Brilliant write - up from the famous Aribisila.

The SS/SE have learnt their lessons. They are waiting for Buhari

The only way Buhari can get to the bottom of what happened to the $$$Trillion missing from NNPC is to appoint someone from either SW or North as the oil minister, appointee from other region will cover up the rot.

Another thing Buhari needs to do for his own peace of mind is to never attempt to please these noise makers, because they can never be pleased even if the new president gives them the last cloth on his back. The hate in these people can boil water, and the more you give them the more they want everything like STRAY CATS until you have nothing left to give and start looking stupid while they are still looking to ask for a piece of your bare skin.

dearpreye:


Has any of those your Yoruba folks being convicted? Tell me!

Do we throw tantrums when they take them to court?

When Tinubu was taken to the tribunal do you have Yorubas posting crap like thread?

royalcatier:
They were tried and found not guilty!

Would you even allow yours to answer to charges, let alone be tried?

Your tribe is just too primitive and backward for this day and age, and Nigeria will never move forward with you in it!

On a serious note, you guys are amongst the reasons Nigeria will not move forward. ...

You want me to believe all the criminals from your place we're duly prosecuted and found wanting, while ours were guilty? Isn't it? You see your life? Have your ever seen me making tribal comments? You think I don't know what I'm saying, and what the mofos up North are planning?

All we ask is equity. Fairness. Justice. Is that too much to ask?

And please spare me that YOUR TRIBE IS TOO PRIMITIVE TALK! The arrogant and educated illiterates from your all knowing tribe just made an inciting and senile statement about a group of people yesterday! Your primitive and myopic local Oba weeks ago equally threatened the same people with a lagoon treatment. Isn't that the extent of your education? Isn't that it? Your so-called education has hardly bettered your lot; we're all still holed up in a Third World.

Ijaws are not asslickers; we don't serve the mofos up North. They seem to be your masters, not ours.

nwafuluozoh:
Buhari should bring it on already. We are waiting.

Yes, we are!

Splashme:
Brilliant write - up from the famous Aribisila.

The SS/SE have learnt their lessons. They are waiting for Buhari

Trust me; we have learned our lessons.

Only animals will deny the verity in the words of Femi Aribisala!

You are just too dumb to realize that no one can be convicted without having their day in court!

Got to be charged first and then tried before we know if they are guilty or not!
You are afraid of charges cos you know they will be found guilty!

I don't know how many handles you have here and I don't care!

You have now found your voice, the one Yoruba gave you! Thanks to Obasanjo! This is what happens when a slave is made king! Never again!!!

.

dearpreye:


On a serious note, you guys are amongst the reasons Nigeria will not move forward. ...

You want me to believe all the criminals from your place we're duly prosecuted and found wanting, while ours were guilty? Isn't it? You see your life? Have your ever seen me making tribal comments? You think I don't know what I'm saying, and what the mofos up North are planning?

All we ask is equity. Fairness. Justice. Is that too much to ask?

And please spare me that YOUR TRIBE IS TOO PRIMITIVE TALK! The arrogant and educated illiterates from your all knowing tribe just made an inciting and senile statement about a group of people yesterday! Your primitive and myopic local Oba weeks ago equally threatened the same people with a lagoon treatment. Isn't that e extent of your education? Isn't that it? Your so-called education has hardly bettered your lot; we're all still holed up in a Third World.

Ijaws are not asslickers; we don't serve the mofos up North. They seem to be your masters, not ours.

BABAONECHANCE already knew where his gragra politics ends.


All these ones you people are talking about won't hold any water when the chips are down.

royalcatier:
You are just too dumb to realize that no one can be convicted without having their day in court!

Got to be charged first and then tried before we know if they are guilty or not!
You are afraid of charges co you know they will be found guilty!

I don't know how many handles you have here ad I don't care!

.

It's obvious you're giving DUMB a new meaning! I can stand a lot of things; I can hardly stand hypocrisy- it nauseates me to no end!

Truckpusher:
BABAONECHANCE already knew where his gragra politics ends.


All these ones you people are talking about won't hold any water when the chips are down.

Bro, we just keep quiet, and allow these folks dey mess up our people.

You are talking trash and jumping all over the place!

Go back and read on what the argument was.

I just don't get why you people are so slippery. You can't stand on a point, shame!

Check on the meaning of 'hypocrisy' and tell me how it applies to our convo, stop throwing words around!

dearpreye:


It's obvious you're giving DUMB a new meaning! I can stand a lot of things; I can hardly stand hypocrisy- it nauseates me to no end!