₦airaland Forum

This election was won for GEJ by the Yoruba intelligentsia


Up Yoruba intelligentsia!

aletheia:
^I understand your concerns but it is entirely within the bounds of possibility for those results to turn up in the SE/SS. Remember on the other thread about models projecting the outcome of this election; there was a discussion of how history gives a pointer to voting intentions. No body on this thread has answered Beaf's question: what was the percentage vote by which the South Sudanese voted for independence?
1) A lot of non-Igbos underestimate the extent of pain and suffering of the Nigerian civil war and how it has permanently scarred the Igbo. They will never vote for Buhari who by his actions in PTF showed his disdain for them. He could have atoned partly for it by making Mike Ahamba (who stood by him through his struggles) CPC party chairman or choosing an Igbo running mate. He did none of these and did not even bother to campaign properly in the SE/SS. PDP on the other hand embarked on an intense grassroots campaign in the far North.
2) A lot of non-South-south do not know the extent of environmental degradation and impoverishment of this region that produces Nigeria's wealth. They do not know the resentment of the Northern oligarcy that has fed fat on Nigeria's oil wealth (while impoverishing the whole country). If Jonathan had lost this election; what do think would have happened? MEND II
3) A lot of people have forgotten how angry, the SS was at Jonathan's humiliating treatment at the hands of Northern hawks during Yar'Adua's terminal illness.
4) A lot of people actually think that CPC is a national party. It is not. It is a party conceived as a personal vehicle for Buhari's ambition and quite circumscribed in it's support. For example if we consider that ACN scored just 0.72% of the votes in Plateau and 0.17% of the votes in Nasarawa despite it's phenomenal presence in the SW, and CPC scored just 1.03% of the votes in Ekiti (yet no one is complaining about the CPC votes in Ekiti); CPC's share of 0.14% of Bayelsa's votes is quite in keeping with the picture that both CPC and ACN are region parties that performed extremely poorly outside their strongholds.
5) By virtually ceding the SS/SE to PDP; why are people surprised that CPC performed so poorly there.  
6) What a lot of people overlook is that while the rest of the country might have seen this as just an election; to the people of the SE, SS and Middle-Belt, this was like a referendum to post the message loud and clear; we reject Hausa-Fulani hegemony and intolerance of other Nigerians. I know people that swore that they would never vote a Hausa-Fulani for president following how GEJ was treated earlier last year. Their resolve was further strengthened by the rantings of Ciroma's group.^The votes from the SE/SS are a cry about the sense of alienation they feel from the Nigerian state. No surprises for me there.

Well said.

I dont think the numbers were cooked up.

In 1993, Abiola had 85% + in all SW states, and 90% in Ogun.

It is not inconceivable that he had 99.999% in Bayelsa. As a matter of fact, any thing short of 90%+ in SS/SE would have been heresy