The new progressive and nationalist North has long rebelled against the old feudal North, but the #Bring Back Our Northern Domination brigadiers have yet to receive the memo. When as far back as the 1993 presidential election, the old North presented yet another feudal lord in the person of Bashir Tofa, as successor-prince of the Niger, the new North refused to play ball. Although Tofa was a Northern favourite-son and Abiola from the South, the new North opted massively for Abiola; refusing to be persuaded any longer by the lie that Northern interests are best served by Northern feudalism.
Back-fired coup
In desperation, the old North hatched its most audacious coup d’état yet: it annulled the 1993 election. But then, suddenly, it found itself naked and isolated. Its traditional sources of support melted away. It took it another six years of Abacha’s recalcitrant regime for the old North to realise that the centre could no longer hold. But it comforted itself in the belief that it could continue in power by choosing a pliant Southern successor to hold fort for a few years while tempers cooled and then relaunch its #Bring Back Our Northern Domination project just as before.
The choice of Northern feudalism in 1999 was Olusegun Obasanjo. His credential was that in 1976, when fate handed him the position of Head-of-State, he was very mindful of Northern feudal interests and dutifully handed over power back to a clueless Northern feudal lord, in the person of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979.[eap_ad_2]
But it soon dawned on the old North that the second-coming of Obasanjo would be different from the first. Obasanjo’s first task in regaining power was to demolish feudal Northern power first and foremost in the army. Once he started that, the old North was up in arms.
In spite his limitations, Obasanjo was a nationalist. While he was nominated for president by the feudal North, Obasanjo recognised that he was elected by Nigerians and especially by the new North. Therefore, he refused to play second-fiddle to Northern feudalism. All Obasanjo would agree to was that power would ultimately return to the feudal North, but even that only after he might have remained in power for a wishful-thinking period of twelve years.
Nigerian good luck
However, Nigerians sent Obasanjo packing after his statutory eight years. He then dutifully handed over power to another Northerner of the old school, Musa Yar’Adua. But this time, it was not only fate that intervened; it was also Nigerian good luck.
The illness of President Yar’Adua made the return to Northern domination short-lived. While Yar’Adua was incapacitated, the #Bring Back Our Northern Domination feudalists conned he nation, flagrantly raiding the treasury by fraudulently forging cheques in Yar’Adua’s name. But they would soon pay a penalty for this. Goodluck Jonathan, a South-South man, was sworn in to complete Yar’Adua’s unexpired two years. After that, he became eligible for another eight years; making it a possible total of at least ten years of political wilderness for Northern feudalists.
Up in arms, the feudalists shopped for a Northern Goliath to oust Jonathan from contention in the 2011 presidential election. Their choice of Atiku Abubakar suffered ignominious defeat by Jonathan in the PDP primaries. All hope then rested on Buhari, another apostle of Northern domination. However, the old North could only mobilize 11.8 million votes for him from Northerners in the 2011 election.
Instead, the new North gave Goodluck Jonathan of the South-South a massive 8.4 million Northern votes in 2011; in preference to its Northern regional champion of Buhari. At the same time, the outright rejection of Northern feudalism by the rest of the country was evident in the fact that out of over 38 million votes cast nationwide; Buhari could only obtain 391,922 votes from all the states in the entire South put together.
Last gambit
Having finally realised that a major segment of the North is no longer amenable to feudal manipulation, the #Bring Back Our Northern Domination brigade has now decided to enter into a marriage of convenience with certain gullible elements in the South-West who are inclined to sell the Yorubas into slavery, for the sake of their personal political ambitions. In their greed for power, these naïve Yorubas are blind to the plan of the Northern feudalists to use them merely as stepping-stones to Aso Rock.