When our erstwhile President Muhammadu Buhari was in the trenches fighting tooth and nail and looking for ways and means to ascend the presidency of our dear nation, succinctly put in the words of @officialAbat during the period he lulled’ three times and cried on National Television, in his desperation, he was ready to embrace any form of negotiation that would result in him occupying the seat of power at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.
Initially, he relied on his Northern popularity to pull off the stunt that would see him through, but he later realized that national politics requires much more than regional acceptability.
His strategies included using political heavyweights from the southeast of the country, but it backfired as the region is politically astute and savvy. Once they face a direction, it becomes difficult to turn around. Chuba Okadigbo( the Oyi of Oyi) and Edwin Ume Ezioke are no doubt the region’s heavyweight politicians who were in the wrong political party, not favored and unacceptable to the region, and could therefore not sway the southeast to ‘jollificate’ with the All Nigeria People Party (ANPP).
His subsequent natural deft move was to move to the southwest, where he sought to use religious leaders as bait to exculpate himself of the religious halo hanging over his neck and as a ‘persuasive move to curry southern votes. Perhaps his failure at his first attempt was engaging a pastor with only one church in the latter-day ministry, which lacked the necessary reach and spread.
The last straw that broke the camel’s back was an agreement for reciprocity, which he reached with @officialabat and Rotimi Amaechi, coupled with the nomination of a pastor as a running mate, being a condition precedent for Southern support. He gladly accepted it and worked toward its actualization.
However, as time went by, he had second thoughts and was gradually gravitating towards neutrality. It took the @officialabat Emilokan Abeokuta to give a speech to jolt him back to his senses and fall in line. The pressure from other political interests spearheaded by Nasir El-Rufa’i was only the icing on the cake.
He gave in to the onslaught of pressure that @officialabat and others were applying to him, and he left Nigeria to fulfill a political commitment. By this singular act, therefore, the national interest, which is sacrosanct, is sacrificed and jettisoned at the altar of political consideration.
By Umar Sani
@UmarSanithecat