The bolded part read in conjuction with the preceeding paragraphs get me wondering if acn is not going to be campaign arm of GEJ in 2015

Former Ogun State governor and a stalwart of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Osoba, has shed light on why the electorate in the south-west rejected presidential candidates of northern extraction, including the party’s own, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

He told THISDAY in an interview that their preference for President Goodluck Jonathan was to protest the activities of the Northern Political Leadership Forum, led by Mallam Adamu Ciroma.

The Ciroma group had opposed Jonathan’s bid for the presidency following the death of his principal, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, insisting that the north should produce the next presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in line with its policy to rotate the presidency between south and north.

In a bid to stop him, the group fielded former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, as the north’s consensus candidate, to jostle for the PDP ticket with Jonathan at the party’s presidential primary.

Jonathan, who completed the late Yar’Adua’s tenure by virtue of being his deputy, trounced Atiku at the primary to clinch the party’s ticket.

Osoba also cited several other factors as being responsible for the abysmal outing of northern candidates in the presidential election, and lent some insight into why the ACN supported Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal’s bid for the speakership of the House of Representatives.

He said: “President Jonathan won the election on issues that have nothing to do with PDP. First, our people were not happy with the way a very respected, responsible and decent person like Mallam Adamu Ciroma handled the issue of zoning. He made that mistake.

“He was seen as a detribalised Nigerian, married to a Yoruba woman, but was suddenly found to be a northern irredentist. That was shocking to a lot of voters. As such, voters decided that for once, they were going to vote against the north because of the attitude of the Ciroma led-committee.

“Secondly, subtle religious politics came in. Some people perceived Buhari as being a hardliner on Islamic affairs.

“Also, the day President Jonathan went to kneel down in front of the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, made a lot of fanatical Christians to become more fanatical about the president.”

Osoba also revealed that the coastal areas of the south-west are homes to the Ilajes, who are predominantly Ijaws. “They are descendants of the Ijaws and we have reasonable numbers of them who normally are all ACN but they took a tribal position during the election.

“In Lagos also, the population of the Igbos is enormous. The south-eastern people too also took a tribal line. A combination of all these factors were responsible for the way they voted during that presidential election and that’s why you found that the following week (when it was governorship election), they turned around to vote for ACN.

“They are educated people and can identify the symbols, so they can decide that today we are voting this way and tomorrow, it could change.” 

According to him, for the President to ponder re-election in 2015, “he must work very hard on power supply and security. If he gets those two alone, then he’ll get the same scenario. However, if he fails in those areas, it will be too bad for him.”

On the speakership issue that saw ACN members voting for Tambuwal to become speaker of the House of Representatives, Osoba said it was wrong for anyone to conclude that the ACN supported Tambuwal because it wanted to assume national prominence.

“We did not go in because we wanted to assume national prominence— to hell with national prominence. First, we are not PDP and we are not part of its zoning system.

“In politics, you canvass, you persuade and you lobby. We went round campaigning, lobbied them to vote for ACN and they did.

“In this case, PDP has only three or four members in the House of Representatives in the whole of the south-west zone. Does it not tell you a story about their training under their Baba (former President Olusegun Obasanjo) that everything has to be captured and all politics is garrison politics?”

Osoba said if the PDP did not deem it fit to talk to ACN in the south-west where it has over 60 members to PDP’s four from the zone, then the ruling party got its strategy wrong.“Common sense demands that they should talk to us but they did not talk to us,” he said.

According to him, ACN acted the way it did because it never believed in PDP’s zoning concept, adding: “The main thing is that we don’t believe in this silly zoning.

“We have been turned into zombies in Nigeria. PDP will just decide, we zone this to the north-east and everyone must grab it. We throw this to south-west and again, we must grab it. So we wanted to prove that we are not part of PDP, we are ACN and we are not going to follow it blindly because we are not going to be zombies.”

The former governor also argued that another principle that influenced ACN’s stance was the party’s belief that the three arms of government are meant to be independent of each other.

“But under the PDP government in eight years of Obasanjo, we had about six presidents of the senate— everyone has to be under the whims and caprices of the president of the nation. So we decided the trend must stop,” he stated.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/osoba-how-ciroma-contributed-to-buhari-s-defeat/93484/

If he governs well, I see no reason for him not to remain in office.

Btw, first time I've heard of this Ilaje-Ijaw connection. Is he sure about that. . . ?

very stupid man.

He has made some very strong and sentimental statements which i'm sure he does not have figures or history to back up. I really don't like it when some politicians make some incoherent statements without due facts.

He has shot himself in the foot in several areas. I would advise him to leave his nose stuck in Ogun politics!

^^

The way you and many others in your group think and talk is just amusing to say the least!

You keep talking as if someone gathered Yorubas, secretly in a lightly dimmed room, and the person gave strict instructions that they must vote one person and not the other!!!!

Put on your thinking cap, that's the least anyone can ask of you, you must realize the fact that people actually voted whom they wish to vote, individually and NOT as part of a group!!

^^^^When Ribadu was told to suspend his ambition to allow for another opposition candidate,what was ACN advice our man is going to win.This same people are in the SW region and can sense the voting pattern from peoples position.In my place i knew just how it was going to go and it did.Not by magic but ,peoples action and passions.ACN sold out period!!!! So did yorubas even on nairaland. Telling us different stories

If Jonathan thinks he can rule past 2015, then he will find himself isolated by not only the North, but the South-East. So who will support him?

^^^^ SW and SS





@Mod OAM4J
Sorry for going out of my way to be abusive to a section of the country.
I also hope that you extend such search light on all other post critical of the northerners and Muslims.
Sorry and noted!!!!

haka_nai:

^^^^ SW and SS

haka_nai:

^^^^ SW and SS

if jonathan is not going to rule 2015, then unless it is northern president, i would rather vote jonathan back in

EzeUche!:

i like that

haka_nai:

^^^^When Ribadu was told to suspend his ambition to allow for another opposition candidate,what was ACN advice our man is going to win.This same people are in the SW region and can sense the voting pattern from peoples position.In my place i knew just how it was going to go and it did.Not by magic but ,peoples action and passions.ACN sold out period!!!! So did yorubas even on nairaland. Telling us different stories

Again, you are just being melodramatic without necessary substance to back up your drama.

Explain just how individuals sold out simple!. . .Explain it from an individual's point of view.

Are you saying Mr A who has been supporting Ribadu from the onset, changed his mind and supported another candidate simply because he received a text message from ACN instructing him to do

How exactly did people sell out? Did they meet somewhere and decided to change their minds collectively? In addition, what exactly gave you the mindset that the majority from the southwest were always going to vote Ribadu in the first place?

Hopefully you would answer this question, just so i realize what exactly I have been missing and what makes several NLs think this way.

Ermmmm
This is the man's second term
And he has said himself that he cannot contest come 2015
:S

MShittu:

Ermmmm
This is the man's second term
And he has said himself that he cannot contest come 2015
:S

Nope, it doesn't count as his second term constitutionally. He can run again.

He may have said himself that he cannot contest again. . . but do you really believe that? 

If he performs well and there is light in Nigeria in 2015, what sane person would want him to go?

My contention is that even if GEJ governs well till 2015, it is not the duty of acn to project that the opposing camp will win an election. The opposition should concern itself with projecting its image as a better alternative otherwise it should just diffuse into the mainstream

I cant even wait for GEJ to be kicked out.The man s**ks