When Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo picked on Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as his successor in Aso Rock, he had a lot of ideas in mind and a clear vision as well, of what he wanted the little known and ailing Governor of provincial Katsina to achieve as President. Allowing a more qualified and competent personality from other geographical zone to succeed him in the Presidency in breach of tacit gentleman’s agreement would be risking the unity of the country. The Sharia drive had once shown how far northerners would go to make their impact felt when they feel slighted and marginalized for once in the history of Nigeria.

Olusegun Obasanjo knew quite well that he was not only fulfilling a pledge of shifting geographical positions, he was keen on protecting Nigeria’s hard-earned treasury resources from willful plunderers counting on the purity of a man with the reputation of religious devotion and honesty. Above all else, President Obasanjo sought protection against a mob-gone-wild that haunted him from the press, the judiciary and the legislature. This latter motivation it was that superseded all other considerations in such a way that the election of the Ex-President’s man was a do-or-die affair. Events unfolding today have truly justified this sentiment as the chameleonic attitude of strategic glorification has now seen erstwhile friends of the Ex-President teaming up with his foes and launching futile wars against the President’s image.

The extremely charged, poisonously hostile and volatile political atmosphere that characterized the dying days of the last administration was single-handedly responsible for the reality that no President in his right senses would have allowed for the free and fair election of his own successor. Political suicide I guess, was not on Olusegun Obasanjo’s agenda.

If anything was lost on or underrated by President Obasanjo, it is definitely the extent of the bond of brotherhood shared by northern political stalwarts. While northerners by design continue to teach the Southerners day-by-day how not to go about the game of sectional bickering, southerners are loudest when it comes to summoning the guillotine to the national stadium to hack off the head of their few elites that were permitted by the Grace of “Allah” to mount the saddle of leadership. When northerners of substance disagree, it is done behind closed doors. The megaphone voices of discontent amongst northerners are most often, politically irrelevant in mapping out geographical strategies by consensus. Who speaks today of the renegade Muhammadu Buhari or Abubakar Rimi (notable megaphone dissenters) as northern powerbrokers?

The last administration left a vibrant economy with growth rates of continental envy thanks to export revenue. Foreign reserves were figured at unparalleled amounts. Projects were commenced and launched requiring follow-up efforts in continuative moves of managerial and constructive complementation.

Unfortunately however, the succeeding President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s most remarkable achievement till today, has been shielding his predecessor from the mob’s guillotine often using precisely this same predecessor to play his strategic game of populist appeal in a two-steps-forward, one-step-backward ploy.

Today, Nigerians know that the war against corruption has drawn to a standstill because a northern rascal named Nuhu Ribadu dared to join forces with a declared enemy of the north who betrayed the trust of northern powerbrokers. It didn’t matter if his cause was noble. He was sacrificed to the applause of narrow-minded and truly intellectually blinded mob of the present century. Occasionally, a power-drunk Minister of Justice would face the press and cough out a stench of ignorant vituperations often as a prelude to Presidential actions. When the dust settles down however, President Yar’Ado nothing will emerge from nowhere and declare: “Obasanjo is my leader” and withdraw for a while leaving the stage for rats to dance and wine!

The last administration tried its best to display a Federal character in the constitution of its leadership team. A Yoruba President was not surrounded by Yorubas. The closest personal confidant – even though, a controversial suspect of fraud – was an Easterner. Major players in key positions were geographically evenly distributed such that even indigenes of Edo state (Anenih, Obaseki) were allowed to feature prominently. Today, a President in the grip of northern interest is obsessed with the filling of strategic positions with northerners and northerners alone.

The last prominent politician that was judiciously brought to book to give account of criminal stewardship was Lucky Igbinedion of Edo State. Ever since, a lot has quickly died down on the corruption front. Wielding the enigmatic mantra of the rule of law, some hobby writers who may be forgiven for ignorance in the art of writing, come forward to advance the unfortunate thought-crime of the rule of law being more important than fighting unconventional causes with unconventional means.

Thank goodness, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) adopted the unconventional method of shooting known criminals and cultists at sight in Benin City to calm down the infamous crime wave that had been rocking that city in recent years. So much for the rule of law in a lawless society!

A President that is weird in all ramifications chooses to send an active public servant out of public view because he was pursuing a noble cause without close consultation with the President. Now the cause has been killed to pursue window-dressing projects like prosecuting Iyabo Obasanjo. A cause that goes down far better with the brainless mob of Causcescu’s fame. With Ribadu not formally relieved of his position as Gani Fawehinmi has rightly pointed out, the President has appointed a replacement almost in circumvention of his megaphone ‘due process’ policy until the senate blew the whistle on him.

But “for every bad move that this Johanna makes, they’ve got a good explanation” Eddy Grant once said in an Apartheid-related parody. They say it is a sinister ploy against the appointment of Waziri that the due process of removal (and not study leave for one year) of Nuhu Ribadu is demanded by Gani Fawehinmi before the appointment of Waziri can be pursued. The Spinmeisters are everywhere selling the blockbuster President as the best thing to ever happen to Nigeria. They not only foolishly, maliciously and dishonestly point out that Umaru Musa Yar’Adua inherited a rotten Nigeria from his predecessor, they conveniently ignore the state of Nigeria inherited by Olusegun Obasanjo, who left the same nation in a different state 20 years before.

Also willfully ignoring the state of the buoyant economy handed over to the present administration, they put a neophyte spin on facts to ignore the burgeoning volume of our balance of trade and balance of overall budget left behind by the past administration. The least uncontested contention is the state of power stations begging for follow-up investments and installation-hardware wasting away in our ports. Yet the Spinmeisters say one year is not enough to get a grasp of situation and define an independent course.

The next man on the line will definitely be Governor Soludo of the Central Bank. A brilliant technocrat, who together with Okonjo-Iweala authored Nigeria’s economic success of the past eight years, Governor Soludo is obviously too independent-minded for a President, who will do nothing tangible but have his two hands on deck in every nook and corner.

One foolish hobby author with his brains at the peripheral end of his physique wonderfully opined that launching infrastructural projects by awarding the relevant contracts after twelve months of leadership was not the crust of the matter. Today, the nation is virtually in darkness with sections that have not seen electricity for the past one month. While the self-styled intellects are able to afford generators and diesel to match, contract award will not matter much as long as political power is kept with the north and the north alone.

Historical facts were revisited recently and colonial agenda uncovered, bordering on the fear of a more intellectual and enlightened south embracing communism as opposed to a more conservative, religious and less educated northern population. This notion and this notion alone it was that saw the British colonialists opting to manipulate processes in favor of empowering northerners into the political leadership of Nigeria, which the north now erroneously seem to perceive as a natural right of fortune.

Unfortunately however, the world has come a long way. Awareness and the means of spreading them are growing by the day. The volatility of public order engineered by discontent and elitist indifference has laid a fertile groundwork for an ultimate revolution of the downtrodden.

The hope for a public uprising died woefully in the aftermath of the flawed elections of April 2007 because the public did not wish to fight any war of attrition as surrogates of some selfish politicians. With an intellectually comprehensive social stratum making up a negligibly small fraction of overall popular strength, media hostility was not enough to steer public sentiment in one direction and unjustly against a single target.

With jobless surrogates of political criminals up in arms at the Niger Delta openly threatening the unity of Nigeria, and a misguided and disgruntled Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra brandishing weapons and the Biafran flag in broad daylight, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is still not able to see the writing on the wall and work towards national unity.

He is busy filling strategic positions with loyalists to the northern agenda. Infrastructure is declared a subordinate project in this agenda of priority and regional segregation is uplifted to the realms of urgency. With two regions however, accustomed to the routine use of weapons, in political dealings and the level of intellectual awareness growing by the day, Nigeria is sitting on a powder keg waiting to be blown.

When it finally blows however, there will be millions who have nothing to lose. Soldiers will be out shooting. Hundreds will die. Hundreds more will move ahead until soldiers are out of weapon, overwhelmed or wisely choose to turn on Aso Rock.

When this dreadful scenario becomes reality though, the north and the north alone shall bear the blame for focusing too much on solitary hegemony without the will to share for real. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua will have questions to answer for deliberate weakness and the propagation of an elusive mirage and erection of phantom castles. 

Robot  Villager

# 1 Today, Nigerians know that the war against corruption has drawn to a standstill because a norther...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 06.06.2008 15:15

Dr. S Adetunji  Villager

# 2 While the North is scheeming an agenda, its people are dipping further and further in poverty, and now, they must walk fast The North must walk fast By Kole Ahmed Shettima COUNTDOWN to Reducing Maternal, Newborn and Child Deaths: A Collective and Integrated Responsibility’ is the theme for this years’ Safe Motherhood Day celebrated on May 22. In Nigeria and indeed the whole world, the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) depends on progress in northern Nigeria. About 500,000 women die due to complications of pregnancy worldwide; 54,000 of the death or 10 per cent occurs in Nigeria although we are only 1.7 %. In other words, a Nigerian woman dies every 10 minutes from the complications of pregnancy. Before you finish reading this article, a woman would have died due to childbirth. Northern Nigeria has double responsibilities on the achievement of the MDGs. If the global indicators and especially MDG 4 (reduce child mortality) and MDG 5 (improve maternal health), are to be achieved, significant progress must be recorded in Nigeria; and for Nigeria to make remarkable progress, the indicators in northern Nigeria must change. Hence our strategy on the MDGs should focus on the part of the world, which carries the highest disease burden, northern Nigeria. All available data on maternal and infant health show the dire situation in northern Nigeria. A facility-based maternal mortality survey conducted by the Society of Gynecology and Obstetricians of Nigeria (SOGON) reveals the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 births in Lagos (3380), Kano (7523), Maiduguri (727), Jos (846), Calabar (2972) and Enugu (783). A survey by the Federal Office of Statistics and UNICEF confirmed that maternal mortality is more serious in the northern part of the country: 165 in the Southwest, 286 in the Southeast, 1025 in the Northwest and 1549 in the Northeast. Infant mortality and under-five mortality follow the same pattern as maternal mortality. For example, infant mortality is 125 per 1000 live births in the Northeast as against 66 in the Southeast, and under-five morality is 269 live births in the Northwest as against 113 in the Southeast. Medical and sociological causes of maternal mortality are known and so are the interventions. The medical causes are bleeding (23%), hypertension (11%), infection (17%), insufficient blood levels (11%), unsafe abortion (11%), malaria (11%), obstructed labor (11%) and HIV/AIDS and others (5%). Infant mortality is largely due to neonatal (26%) and malaria (24%). Poverty, gender inequality and other forms of cultural and social discriminations are at the root of maternal and infant mortality. Two of the underlying causes of maternal and infant mortality are also part of the MDGs. These are poverty (MDG 1) and gender inequality (MDG 3). As expected the prevalence of poverty and gender inequality are also worst in the northern part of the country. For instance, the incidence of poverty as measured by Food-Energy household consumption is as follows: Northeast (70.3%), North-central (66.5%), Northwest (65.4%), South-south (55.8%), Southwest (46.1%) and Southeast (39.8%). Jigawa State has the highest incidence of poverty of 90.9%. What is equally disturbing is that inequality within the north is greater than within the south. The gender disparities in education illustrate the level of gender inequality in northern Nigeria. Whereas 75% of women have no education in the northwest, in the southeast the figure is 8%. Of the 13 states with gender disparity in primary and secondary education, 11 of these states are in the north. A survey in 2006 in the Northwest and the Northeast recorded enrolment rates for girls in Junior Secondary School lower than Sub-Saharan Africa average of 26%. Fortunately, low cost and simple medical and social interventions to prevent and reduce maternal mortality and infant mortality have been documented. Bleeding can be effectively managed with a simple device called the Anti-shock garment. This device can keep a bleeding woman a live for up to 48 hours until she can be given blood transfusion. Magnesium Sulfate is a well-researched medication for hypertension, and it costs about N1200 to treat a patient. Medical doctors in Murtala Specialist Hospital, Minjibir Hospital and Wudil Hospital have referred to Magnesium Sulfate as “wonder drug” and “miracle drug”. I recently had a pleasant visit to these facilities to see the use of the Anti-Shock Garment and Magnesium Sulfate to save the lives of women. At the MacArthur Foundation, these two medical interventions, that can be used to respond to about 33 percent of maternal deaths in Nigeria, form part of our strategy to accelerate the achievement of MDGs in Nigeria and around the world. In deed, the SOGON facility survey revealed that bleeding and hypertension accounted for more than 70% of maternal deaths in most facilities. Two forums convened by Northern Governors in November 2007 and March 2008 on health and education respectively have also outlined policy changes that could accelerate the achievement of the MDGs. These include free pre-natal, delivery and post delivery services; free child and under-five medical services; and free and compulsory girl-child education up to senior secondary school. Certainly financial resources are not a constraint. The total Federation Account allocation to the 19 northern states from 1999 to 2007 is N2.4 trillion. What is lacking is the political will. If the Governors muster the political will there is hope that the world will witness appreciable progress on the attainment of the MDGs. Nigeria could be in the forefront of the renewed attention to the MDGs. Northern Nigerians nay Nigerians can walk with their shoulders high. Dr. Shettima is the Director, John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, Abuja. Posted by Dr. S Adetunji| 06.06.2008 15:57

Mikky jaga  Villager

# 3 At least, Frisky admitted some important points: 1. Obasanjo appointed Umaru Yar'Adua as his successor. 2. For reasons best known to him, he made the 'election' of Umaru Yar'Adua a do or die affair. 3. There were better qualified candidates that Nigerians could have chosen from if Obasanjo in his imperial wisdom did not impose UMYA on Nigerians. With the above, I just wonder how the performance of Yar'Adua can be dissociated from the man that appointed him. If UMYA had been performing well, would OBJ not ask us all to be grateful to him for seeing what we all did not see in the man? Obasanjo should either swim or sink with his man. He imposed UMYA on PDP then on Nigerians through do or die elections, it is too late in the day for revisionists to try and separate Yar'Adua from his leader. Posted by Mikky jaga| 06.06.2008 16:35

Bode Eluyera  In Purgatory

# 4 Alhaji Frissky Lar, Remember that I said that "NO NORTHERNER HAS THE BRAINS TO LEAD NIGGERIA 'SUCCESSFULLY.' Yaradua has proved me right again. The hens have come home to roast, at last. And it's really frightening when you think about the fact that Yaradua was not only a governor for 8 good(?) years but, he is THE BEST or ONE OF THE BEST that the north can boast of. WE ARE DOOMED!!! Posted by Bode Eluyera| 06.06.2008 18:13

bob  Villager

# 5 :D:D:D:D:D:D i burst my sides with laughter. sorry ooo. take heart shaa. Posted by bob| 06.06.2008 18:45

Triple Palaver  Villager

# 6 =Bode Eluyera;4295052078>Alhaji Frissky Lar, Remember that I said that "NO NORTHERNER HAS THE BRAINS TO LEAD NIGGERIA 'SUCCESSFULLY.' Yaradua has proved me right again. The hens have come home to roast, at last. And it's really frightening when you think about the fact that Yaradua was not only a governor for 8 good(?) years but, he is THE BEST or ONE OF THE BEST that the north can boast of. WE ARE DOOMED!!! You are a vile bigot. You are no different from the likes of Denker, Tony etc. NVS should ban mugus like you Posted by Triple Palaver| 06.06.2008 19:31

Agidimolaja  Villager

# 7 Tripple Palaver,Sir, Based upon the short lines you just submitted,it is crystal clear that Bode Eluyera is not a "mugun" as you proclaimed him to be because he merely expressed his opinions as he has been doing for quite a while now. Guess what?Bode has the right to his opinions just like anyone else. Do you say NAY? I'm sure that readers should look nowhere else for a "mugun" for we have just discovered one. His name is Tripple Palaver! It is he who has no opinion of his own and never expressed one. It is he that would always attack people instead of attacking issues or topics. It is he whose talks lacked substance everytime he talked,yet, he failed to see it so but would be too quick to jump on persons and not the topic that is on the ground. If those basic characteristics of Tripple Palaver does not tally with a "mugun",then readers,tell me what is a "mugun". Bode spoke bitter truths. Anyone with good knowledge of Nigeria's history knows very well that evrything that Bode have said abouth the North is the truth,the whole truth and nothing but the truth.Even,sincere Northerners agreed with him. When murderer T Y Danjuma was offered the position of the next ACF chairman;he quickly rejected the offer.Danjuma in his own words said it that "I have nothing else to offer the North because my generation have disappointed the North". Yes,he is right.His generation gave nothing to the North.His generation did nothing for the North hence the North is still the most backward segment of Nigeria.The North is ravaged by sicknes of every type. The North has the largest number of uneducated people. Almanjiris are ever countless etc. Yet Notherners ruled for the greatest part since Independence. Therefore lets answer Bode;can the North rule? NO,they cannot. Issues like those are what Bode is trying to draw peoples' attention to.How then does his candid effort amounted to being a "mugun"? Somebody is really sick here! Posted by Agidimolaja| 07.06.2008 00:33

docokwy  Villager

# 8 =Dr. S Adetunji;4295052040>While the North is scheeming an agenda, its people are dipping further and further in poverty, and now, they must walk fast The North must walk fast By Kole Ahmed Shettima COUNTDOWN to Reducing Maternal, Newborn and Child Deaths: A Collective and Integrated Responsibility’ is the theme for this years’ Safe Motherhood Day celebrated on May 22. In Nigeria and indeed the whole world, the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) depends on progress in northern Nigeria. About 500,000 women die due to complications of pregnancy worldwide; 54,000 of the death or 10 per cent occurs in Nigeria although we are only 1.7 %. In other words, a Nigerian woman dies every 10 minutes from the complications of pregnancy. Before you finish reading this article, a woman would have died due to childbirth. Northern Nigeria has double responsibilities on the achievement of the MDGs. If the global indicators and especially MDG 4 (reduce child mortality) and MDG 5 (improve maternal health), are to be achieved, significant progress must be recorded in Nigeria; and for Nigeria to make remarkable progress, the indicators in northern Nigeria must change. Hence our strategy on the MDGs should focus on the part of the world, which carries the highest disease burden, northern Nigeria. All available data on maternal and infant health show the dire situation in northern Nigeria. A facility-based maternal mortality survey conducted by the Society of Gynecology and Obstetricians of Nigeria (SOGON) reveals the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 births in Lagos (3380), Kano (7523), Maiduguri (727), Jos (846), Calabar (2972) and Enugu (783). A survey by the Federal Office of Statistics and UNICEF confirmed that maternal mortality is more serious in the northern part of the country: 165 in the Southwest, 286 in the Southeast, 1025 in the Northwest and 1549 in the Northeast. Infant mortality and under-five mortality follow the same pattern as maternal mortality. For example, infant mortality is 125 per 1000 live births in the Northeast as against 66 in the Southeast, and under-five morality is 269 live births in the Northwest as against 113 in the Southeast. Medical and sociological causes of maternal mortality are known and so are the interventions. The medical causes are bleeding (23%), hypertension (11%), infection (17%), insufficient blood levels (11%), unsafe abortion (11%), malaria (11%), obstructed labor (11%) and HIV/AIDS and others (5%). Infant mortality is largely due to neonatal (26%) and malaria (24%). Poverty, gender inequality and other forms of cultural and social discriminations are at the root of maternal and infant mortality. Two of the underlying causes of maternal and infant mortality are also part of the MDGs. These are poverty (MDG 1) and gender inequality (MDG 3). As expected the prevalence of poverty and gender inequality are also worst in the northern part of the country. For instance, the incidence of poverty as measured by Food-Energy household consumption is as follows: Northeast (70.3%), North-central (66.5%), Northwest (65.4%), South-south (55.8%), Southwest (46.1%) and Southeast (39.8%). Jigawa State has the highest incidence of poverty of 90.9%. What is equally disturbing is that inequality within the north is greater than within the south. The gender disparities in education illustrate the level of gender inequality in northern Nigeria. Whereas 75% of women have no education in the northwest, in the southeast the figure is 8%. Of the 13 states with gender disparity in primary and secondary education, 11 of these states are in the north. A survey in 2006 in the Northwest and the Northeast recorded enrolment rates for girls in Junior Secondary School lower than Sub-Saharan Africa average of 26%. Fortunately, low cost and simple medical and social interventions to prevent and reduce maternal mortality and infant mortality have been documented. Bleeding can be effectively managed with a simple device called the Anti-shock garment. This device can keep a bleeding woman a live for up to 48 hours until she can be given blood transfusion. Magnesium Sulfate is a well-researched medication for hypertension, and it costs about N1200 to treat a patient. Medical doctors in Murtala Specialist Hospital, Minjibir Hospital and Wudil Hospital have referred to Magnesium Sulfate as “wonder drug” and “miracle drug”. I recently had a pleasant visit to these facilities to see the use of the Anti-Shock Garment and Magnesium Sulfate to save the lives of women. At the MacArthur Foundation, these two medical interventions, that can be used to respond to about 33 percent of maternal deaths in Nigeria, form part of our strategy to accelerate the achievement of MDGs in Nigeria and around the world. In deed, the SOGON facility survey revealed that bleeding and hypertension accounted for more than 70% of maternal deaths in most facilities. Two forums convened by Northern Governors in November 2007 and March 2008 on health and education respectively have also outlined policy changes that could accelerate the achievement of the MDGs. These include free pre-natal, delivery and post delivery services; free child and under-five medical services; and free and compulsory girl-child education up to senior secondary school. Certainly financial resources are not a constraint. The total Federation Account allocation to the 19 northern states from 1999 to 2007 is N2.4 trillion. What is lacking is the political will. If the Governors muster the political will there is hope that the world will witness appreciable progress on the attainment of the MDGs. Nigeria could be in the forefront of the renewed attention to the MDGs. Northern Nigerians nay Nigerians can walk with their shoulders high. Dr. Shettima is the Director, John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, Abuja. Thank you Dr. Shettima for this data. I have always known this, but for ignoramuses, I guess it is getting clearer and clearer that in spite of Biafra, 20 pounds (Awolowo), no Igbo presidency, etc, etc, the Igbos are better off than other groups in almost all conceivable human development indices. Thank you, thank you, thank you.:lol::lol::lol: Posted by docokwy| 07.06.2008 01:11

akar ninzo  Villager

# 9 To arrogate yourself as "the best material" to govern the state because you come from the North, West, East or from the Moon only depicts how shallow such an individual is. Obama was given the chance to prove himself irrespective of race, background or any other indices apart from the fact that, can he bring about change? Until we seek out the best that Nigeria can offer, then we will continue to end up with what we currently have whether the person is from the North, West, East or from the Moon. Enough of this shallow reasoning by some of the previous commentators . Lets make progress please. Posted by akar ninzo| 07.06.2008 03:12

docokwy  Villager

# 10 Akar Ninzo, Nigeria is not an ideal society. Hence the sectional clamours Posted by docokwy| 07.06.2008 03:28

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