Some of us are convinced that the attacks on Goodluck Jonathan have nothing to do with his style of governance or his achievements thus far. Some of us think it bears every hallmark of a man being victimized because of the region he is from. The thing about some of us is that we may well be wrong. It may well be that Mr. Jonathan hasn’t delivered on his electoral promises. It may well be that Mr. Jonathan has taken more from the national till than any other ex-head of state. It may well be that he is clueless and senseless. We are humans and we may not have seen these flaws that others have seen. So, as a show of faith to us who believe that it is his region that has been marked never to rule and that some regions were actually born to rule, it makes sense to make the presidential contest a contest between Goodluck Jonathan and another person or other persons from the same region who may have the requisite credentials sought by our patriotic online tigers. The APC has plenty credible men and women from the Niger delta who they can field and convince us it is all a patriotic match and not one orchestrated to return power to the north. Let me introduce a few; Adams Oshiomole led Nigerian Labour Congress in perhaps its most turbulent time in our history. He was able to fight and negotiate with government at all times. Adams Oshiomole went on to become the governor of Edo state. A state he met in utter disrepair. He has since transformed the state even up to interior villages. No corruption charge has thus far been leveled against him. He is both competent, educated, tested and I have to say trusted. He doesn’t need to be introduced to Nigerians, we already know him. Chibuike Amaechi. I fell in love with Amaechi solely because of the priority he placed on education in Rivers state that I didn’t see in his predecessors. He has given the city of Port Harcourt a big face lift and has also gone into the interiors. In the faceoff between Amaechi and the presidency, I took sides with Amaechi, not because I understood what their problem was, but I have always believed the federating units of Nigeria should always federate. The center should not bear down on the states. He led the Rivers state house of assembly for eight years and has also led the governor’s forum of Nigeria. He is tested, competent, educated, fore-sighted and trusted by some people at least. He doesn’t need introduction to Nigerians, we know him. Let me introduce Donald Duke of Cross River state. He may not be APC at the moment, but 90% of the people in APC were not there a year and half ago were they? So we can beg him to run under APC. He came to cross river state and turned it around. From meager resources, he grew tourism and left the cleanest patch of land in Nigeria, in Calabar. He is tested, trusted and no allegation of corruption has been leveled against him. These are just three. There are plenty more such men in the Niger delta. APC should present one of these men to contest against Jonathan as a show of faith to us that they are not indeed the problem with our polity boiling every day. They should show us that it is not about power going back to the north. They should show us that indeed the statement by general Buhari that there will be blood shed if he lost in 2011 was indeed a slip of the tongue and that he has no hand in the violence in the country. They should show us that the north is not indeed desperate to regain power. They should show us that all the abuses against GEJ is about performance and not where he is from. If they do not, we will have little choice but to believe what we already know; that the north is desperate to regain power as their birthright and all the calamities we have been having has their roots in this fact. If this be the case, we will still go with who we know!!!
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 14:53:53 +0000