2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS: The Fear and Yearning of the Southern Nigerians
Following the invasion of southern Nigeria by the Fulani terrorists and the complicity of security agencies in terrorism sweeping through the country. The yearning of the southern people of Nigeria for presidency can be well understood. It must be noted that the South was not really crazy about who presides over the affairs of the nation but equal delivery of the dividends of democracy equitably and justly. Unfortunately, religion and ethnicity have made this impossible most especially under present administration. This is the trigger for southern yearning for power like never before.
In the minds of most southern people of Nigeria, considering the wide consultations and interactions, one thing is clear. The subject of security of life and property which is the core duty of any government is considered by many in the South to have been deliberately neglected in the name of “alleged fulanisation agenda of domination” by a minority ethnic group, the Fulanis. Not even the southern political elites can erase the belief on this allegation.
The Buhari’s presidency widening the breath and length of division along ethnic line in the country and is lip service approach coupled with pampering of his kinsmen terrorising the South and other parts of the country justify the alleged claim of fulanisation agenda of domination through the act of terror that has claimed thousand lives and still counting.
The saddest nightmare in the sight of the southerners is Buhari’s policies that made the South poorer than ever in history and life more difficult for them to live, making their hope the faraway white-man land they can only turn. The southern sorry state of nightmares does not end there. It goes on as they watch on the news and read on national and local dailies as terrorists and bandits are being paid and sponsored for a better life with their tax
money after these terrorists have raped and decapitated them at nights, on the farmland and in places of worship.
The rhetorical questions rings a bell. Is Buhari schooling us that terrorism is a lucrative business that the South has to embrace to have a share of the dividends of democracy and the national cake?
The demand by the southerners for power rotation to the South without specifying a particular region in the South could have further marred the yearning of the South for power.
In the People Democratic Party, PDP where a northern Fulani man won the presidential ticket, made many southerners raise an eyebrow. The North seemed to see that fact clearly and freely allowed a southerner to emerge as winner in the ruling APC party.
South southerners argues that there are questions to be asked here. Will the North turn against their own son running on PDP’s platform in the next presidential election in favour of a southerner running on APC’s platform? Will the North be really sincere at the next presidential election as it was during the APC’s primary election giving their votes to southerner?
The South has two things to fear but apparently they only see one thing to worry about. The only one thing they see is voting a southerner to thwart the Fulanis’ act of terror under the watch of the president and security agencies across the country. But the question the southerners should be asked is, if the North fails to win again the next presidential election, will that prevent the Fulanis from being the president after two terms of a southern person as president?
In all this, the next general elections could be wholly based on ethnic and religion, worst than ever before. Nigeria could be at the junction of critical decision that if not well strategised, only goodness knows the future ahead.
