Goodluck Jonathan, the coward that led Igbo to the slaughter

Goodluck Jonathan, the coward that led Igbo to the slaughter

Three weeks before the March 28 Presidential election, I asked an Anambra grassroots politician that also have strong northern political contacts two questions: firstly, who he will vote for on March 28, and, secondly, who he thinks will win.

The man without hesitation said that he will vote for Goodluck Jonathan but that the APC northern candidate, Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari will win the presidential election.

I was puzzled and probed further.

“I like Buhari to win”, he said and continued; ‘Jonathan is a failure, he did nothing for the Igbos, but as an Igbo, and one of the coordinators of President Goodluck Jonathan campaign in the state, I and others will vote for our brother, but mark my words; even if this election is postponed a hundred times, Buhari will still win, and I will like him to win….Sai Buhari!”

I stayed in Nigeria for three weeks up to the election, and the constant refrain I gathered in Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Abia states is “we will vote for our brother”, even when the general consensus even among state government officials was that ‘Jonathan did nothing for the Igbos’.

In fact, in an interview granted elombah.com three days before the election, Professor Anya O. Anya, an Ohanaeze chieftain and one of the leaders of Igbo members at the recent constitutional conference stated that the strategic alliance built between the South East and South South since 2011 if sustained will more than make up for any losses sustained by Ndigbo at the federal level because of the outcome of this election.

What all the above sums up to is that Igbo elites are aware of the possibility of Jonathan’s loss of the election, though he is the incumbent president, but they considered it a price worth paying if the continued cooperation with their southern neighbours is achieved.

The question now burning in the heart of discerning Nigerians is: we have moved from one party state under PDP to another one parry state under APC. So, what has changed?

The answer is that sadly, whereas the PDP one party state was a national consensus government until the emergence of the APC, but under the incoming APC one party state, a vital section of the country has been excised and demonised; some people are already being victimised because they voted for PDP, and we call that democracy.

The southeast is being seen as saboteurs because they stood with Jonathan. No problem, soon, we will come to appreciate our new one party state. Someday, the full story of this election will be told and most of us will look like fools.

Let Nigerians get this fact; there were no elections in Nigeria on March 28 and April 11. What we had was a decision that Jonathan must be replaced by a Muslim northerner at all cost. That decision was cleverly executed with all manner of 'systematic voting' and passed off as election. Jonathan cowardly accepted it. But go back and read between the lines what TY Danjuma told Jonathan last week.

The Problem here is that Jonathan allowed this to happen through a series of actions and inactions. The SS and SE that loyally stood by him now appear to be foolish losers. The Igbo "brother" simply bottled it, let’s be honest to ourselves.

A lot of Igbos are so angry at Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for allowing power to slip back to their 'northern oppressors' through his foolish naivety.

Everyone knew Jonathan lost this election 6 months ago. More on this later.

He lost because of widespread rigging in large sections of northern Nigeria, yes, but what stopped him from rigging? For a ruling party to complain of rigging is ridiculous!

A sister who is the PDP woman leader in katsina state told me that she was not even allowed to vote for her party in Katsina. That all polling booths were manned by APC sympathizers and voters were accompanied to vote and it had to be APC or your ballot paper would be torn to pieces!

She also said PDP won three LGs in Katsina. She also told me that PDP won neighbouring Jigawa state. But the results were written for APC. PDP were down-marked in Kano and Bauchi States.

We have also seen documentary evidence and videos of how this election was rigged. Whereas the PDP were intimidated into not rigging by the over-hyped accreditation electronic card reader; so much that that the South East that returned more than 4 million votes for Jonathan in 2011 could only return half that number this year. Interestingly, the missing figure from the South East is the figure that Buhari used to defeat Jonathan.

Related Stories:

• Jonathan vs Ironsi who was more simple?
• The Northernisation of Nigeria: APC Finally Unveils their Northern Agenda
• How Sarduana infiltrated the Eastern Region with Umaru Altine - The first Mayor of Enugu (Part 1)

Friends of the president argue that PDP did not rig because of the body language of the president. He did not want it rigged because he believed he would win against Buhari and that was why all their governors said No to rigging. The effect was what you saw on March 28 and April 11.

They also argue that Northern politicians will tell you even today that 'they like Jonathan because he did a lot of projects in their zone but they dislike his wife and the oil minister and Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla because Diezani Madueke and Okonjo Iweala blocked them from the free monies that flows from the Federal Government and then Patience Jonathan abused them thoroughly.' 

His friends also told me in the course of writing this piece: "The man promised free and fair elections...he also promised to handover to whomever was declared winner. Should he have become a hero by eating those words?", I was asked.

" Or would he have been better off rejecting the result and allowing the country to be plunged into another civil war which the north actually planned?"

"The fact is that the north was determined to go to war just to install a Muslim as president. It was not about performance or not. It was about not wanting a Christian president in preference for a Muslim."

"Sheik Gumi said that almost 100 youths died celebrating Buhari's 'victory' was an insight into what would have happened had Jonathan won!"

I heard all the above arguments. The point however is that Jonathan must have been aware that this might happen, and so If the president and commander-in-chief knew he is not equal to the task, why did heraputa anyi okpa mbara? [led the Igbo to the slaughter/led them out to battle and abandoned them mid-way]

We all knew this would be the scenario. Jonathan must therefore must also known this would happen: What did he do to counter-balance the threat? 

Secondly, if he knew that he could do nothing about it, why did he go ahead and contest the election? Why didn’t simply announce a year ago that he is not seeking for a second term...that he is more interested in conducting a free and fair election and making a name for himself as an international god fearing statesman and a hero?

Jonathan was naïve in thinking that he had the support of northern governors and some northern leaders. We warned him then that those PDP northern governors and his ministers were deceiving him. We warned him to take a lesson from General Aguiyi Ironsi. Jonathan should have known was that these northerners were more aligned to their religion than to politics.

And now, the Igbos are being made the scapegoat.

Today's newspaper reports on the zoning of Political Offices by the APC National Caucus has demonstrated that unlike the cowardly Goodluck Jonathan, northern politicians understand political power; the ruthless acquisition, manipulation and execution of power!

This in your face: 'if you don't like it, jump into the nearest lake' attitude...no apologies!

Jonathan and Ironsi were apologetic with power and that ruined their political careers.

The South East and South South voted for Jonathan, but rather than compensating the region with powerful positions to guarantee their loyalty, the PDP government under Jonathan gave all the powerful positions to the north and executed numerous projects for the north – the sort of politics of appeasement that destroyed Aguiiyi Ironsi.

The South East enjoyed no political privileges under Jonathan except 'Deputy this and Deputy that', while his brothers in the South South nothing. Apology!

I learnt that when President Jonathan went to campaign in Port harcourt, and after he had listened to the peoples complaint the area got no federal projects. Jonathan told them that he awarded no contracts to the region so that other Nigerians would not accuse of favouring his own people. He then promised to make amends during his second term.

It was the same story when Jonathan came to campaign in Aba, I was there in person.

Now that the North has power, Buhari's APC has zoned all the powerful positions to the north...if you don't like it, go and die!

1. President- North West

2. Vice President- South West

3. Senate President- North Central

4. Speaker, HoR- North East

5. Deputy Senate President- South West

6. Deputy Speaker, HoR- South South

What this means is that the three arms of Government Executive, Legislative and Judiciary are now under the control of the north and nothing for the the other tripod on which Nigeria stands - Ndigbo.

Note: South South and South East produces 3 HoR members-elect each under APC.

But note the scenario Under President Goodluck Jonathan:

1. President - SS

2. Chief Justice - north

3. Senate President - North 

4. Vice president - North

5. speaker North

Given that Gov. Ogbonnaya Onu, Gov Rochas Okorocha, Senators Chris Ngige, Osita Izunaso, Chief George Moghalu, Joe Igbokwe, C. Don Adinuba, Chidi Amuta etc are in APC, how do they explain the APC treatment of South East?

Please let nobody argue that South East did not vote APC in the presidential/National elections because South West did not vote PDP in 1999. Yet it was compensated with the office of the President and many juicy positions.

On a final note, while the Igbo elites maintain that "despite the situation, I still believe the strategic alliance with our neighbours is more important at the moment if sustained", the northern power brokers have started to deploy their time tested Divide and Rule tactics. The APC has cleverly zoned the position of Deputy Speaker to their South South historic allies, Oyegun from Edo State of the SS remains the party chairman, while the Igbos from the SE got nothing.

Daris god oo!

Related Stories:

• Jonathan vs Ironsi who was more simple?
• The Northernisation of Nigeria: APC Finally Unveils their Northern Agenda
• How Sarduana infiltrated the Eastern Region with Umaru Altine - The first Mayor of Enugu (Part 1)

By Daniel Elombah

elsdaniel@yahoo.com