Regional Groupings: How Relevant Are They Going To Be

THE much-awaited 2015 general elections are here; and with it come the agitation associated with the power play and the contest of wits among politicians who want to control the power lever of the largest concentration of the black population in the world and the largest economy in the African continent.

  Of course with this high expectation comes the opportunity to redefine the concept of the Nigerian nation in line with the vagaries of modern democratic tenets and the larger anticipation of the population, which is either to continue with the status quo as it were in the Jonathan presidency and the administration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or to imbibe the change message of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the candidature of former military dictator General Muhammadu Buhari. 

  With this expectation, which has raised thirst for power to an all-time high frenzy, is the expansion of the space to include all the factors that could be brought to bear on the final decisions in a way that could sway the opinion of the voting population to contribute to the mind-bending process that the political class has embarked upon to sway the opinion of the average voter.

  The stakes are even higher in the present contest because this is perhaps the first time since the current democratic experiment that Nigeria will have a neck-to-neck competition between an incumbent party and the opposition movement.

  As it was in the military-supervised democracy of 1993, when the democratic space was reduced to a two-party affair, where you are either for or against, the current contest, especially by the adoptions by other political parties of either of the leading two candidates, has become a fierce two-horse race.

  Many sentiments, particularly in the areas that divide the Nigerian people are being exploited to the utmost advantage to reap maximum electoral benefit from a population that is generally at the mercy of the politicians who are experts in moulding the campaign to suit their selfish political ends.

  These areas include religion and ethnicity and despite the fact that the average Nigerian has expressed the wish to do away with these base sentiments and hold on to the national dream as shown in the June12, 1993 presidential elections, those who control the political consciousness of the people still find it convenient to appeal to these emotions to achieve their individual dreams.

  It is in the light of this that the adoptions by regional groupings of candidates in the current political experiment should be viewed as politicians, characteristic of them, are already influencing the decisions of these cultural groupings for maximum electoral advantage. 

  By the end of last week, the three regional organisations, Afenifere of the South-West, Ohaneze Ndigbo of the East and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) of the North, have pitched their tents with either of the two leading candidates, Jonathan of the PDP and Buhari (rtd) of the APC in the game of adoption that has come to characterise the campaigns.

 In the adoption that has further divided the country along the North/South lines, both the Ohaneze and Afenifere embraced the candidature of Jonathan, while the ACF accepted Buhari as their own with each group trying to justify their endorsements to achieve maximum electoral benefits for the beneficiaries.

  According to Chief Reuben Fasoranti, the octogenarian leader of Afenifere, the group decided to settle for Jonathan because he listened to their calls for the convocation of the national conference, which it said was the first step towards the much-needed restructuring of the Nigerian polity to reflect the dreams of the founding fathers.

  At a meeting held at the Akure home of Fasoranti attended by representatives of the group from across the Yoruba-speaking states of the Southwest, where the president was personally present, the endorsement was formalised with the extraction of commitment that the Federal Government would implement the recommendations of the confab within the next twelve months.

  A communiqué issued by the group’s spokesman, Yinka Odumakin before the final adoption was made stated that, “as far as Afenifere is concerned, the presidential election is to decide between two options, freedom or slavery. We have elected to choose freedom, freedom from bondage, internal enslavement and internal colonialism that holds most Nigerians down under the bastion of domination and we are convinced that the 2014 national conference report has laid the basis for the proper restructuring of the country.

 “That the most important change that Nigeria desire this time is structural change. The change that ignores the restructuring of Nigeria is not a change. Most of the issues that are confronting us, the issue of insecurity, corruption have their link with the faulty constitution that we have and to change the constitution is the most important change that we need.” 

  Justifying the Jonathan adoption, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo in a release signed by Chief Gary Enwo-Igariwey and Dr. Joe Nwaorgu, the President-General and Secretary-General of the group respectively, declared their support for the president on the grounds of “fairness, equity and justice” which they said “are the essential ingredients for peace and stability without which our country cannot advance or survive as a united entity.” 

  The release stated further that, “President Goodluck Jonathan hails from a minority group in the South-South of Nigeria. It is a known fact that in Nigerian history that this is the first time that a citizen from a minority ethnic or tribal section of the country has ever risen to the rarified position of the presidency through a democratic process.

 “It is also noteworthy that the South-South has sustained the economic development of this country through its natural endowments and has, consequently, paid a terrible price through serious environmental degradation. This degradation and the neglect of the composite infrastructural development of the area led to militant insurgency and serious disruption of the nation’s major revenue source. The emergence of Jonathan as the president has dramatically calmed tension and offered a sense of belonging to our fellow citizens from the South-South.”

  If Afenifere and Ohanaeze were trying to rationalize their endorsements of Jonathan by alluding to some agreements or the need to strengthen the unity of the country, the ACF made no pretence about their support for Buhari, which they simply put at ethnic and regional consideration.

   According to a communiqué signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, the group stated without mincing words that it was adopting Buhari because it is part of its policy “to support any northerner in any presidential election conducted in this country.” 

  Although it stated that the north had suffered series of attacks during the Jonathan presidency, particularly in the North-East axis that had been bearing the yoke of Boko Haram insurgency and the attendant stagnation of the regional economy for years, the ACF was clear in its position that the Buhari adoption was simply because the APC candidate is of northern extraction.

   The regional endorsements have however stirred the hornets’ nest within these organizations with some internal wrangling that have exposed the hidden agenda of the promoters, the under-the-table maneuverings of the beneficiaries and the vulnerability of the groups to really carry the weight of the burden of responsibility that they bestowed on themselves.

   Minutes after the Jonathan adoption, the Afenifere came under a barrage of criticisms that exposed the fact that the leadership was just dressing itself in borrowed garb as the conscience of the Yoruba nation within a political space where the group can hardly command electoral following.

   The APC, which is the most formidable political party in the Southwest described the adoption as “inconsequential and of no effect” while the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) a splinter group also said the beneficiary of the endorsement will have no political advantage because the old group has lost its steam.

   As if that is not enough, members of the group in Ekiti State also dissociated themselves from the Akure endorsements on the ground that Jonathan does not, in any manner, deserve to be endorsed by the group for a second term tenure.

   Also exposing the cracks in the wall of Ohanaeze’s endorsement of Jonathan, an affiliate group, the Ohanaeze Elders Council said on Thursday in Enugu that it was not in support of any particular candidate for the Saturday elections.

   The elders, rather than zeroing on a candidate, urged the people of the East to individually vote for “candidates of their choice” saying “since there has been no concrete agreement with any of the presidential candidates on the four cardinal issues of security of life and property of Ndigbo, infrastructural development in Igboland and reparations for atrocities and war crimes against Ndigbo.”

   The same discordant tune is coming from the ACF, where a member of its National Executive Council (NEC) and Publicity Secretary of Kaduna State Chapter, Salisu Garba, said the group is “a non-political umpire of northern socio-cultural association, which speaks for the socio-economic wellbeing of the North and its peoples, irrespective of political affiliations, religion or creed.”

  Garba said the group should not endorse a particular candidate from the north because there are others too from the region who are equally vying for the presidency from other political parties, citing as an example “Alhaji Shettima Yerima, who picked the presidential ticket of the Youth Democratic Party (YDP). By endorsing General Buhari as published, ACF is literally denying Alhaji Yerima as the son of the North, a position that is tantamount to injustice, disregard for equity and fair play, which ACF is opposed to.”

  The arguments of most of those who are opposed to these “arrangee” endorsements even when it was obvious that the groups have no political base from where to mobilise the electorate to follow their directions, centred mostly on the fact that they should indeed play fatherly roles by addressing issues rather than appealing to regional sentiments or using their platform for political vendetta against perceived enemies.

  But then, this is the season of politics and politicians are at liberty to employ whatever method they think can get them the extra votes even if doing so would further drift the country apart along the lines of ethnic and regional differences.