In what has become scripted lines, those who see the north-central region of Nigeria as a ping pong region are hellbent on pushing their plot to fruition but this time, a shocker awaits them, the region will not play the duckling anymore. Like every region, the north-central will present its own as candidates for the presidential race come 2023.
Of sickening dimension are the candidates from the north-central killing themselves over party chairmanship as if the Nigerian presidency isn’t theirs to pick. Since the return of democracy in 1999, the region has been tactically subjugated as a feeder buffer to other regions. Using her numerical strength and strategic place as vote harvesting field with no tangible considerations to her aspirations. From Solomon Lar to Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbe, Iyorchia Ayu, it has been nothing but a slap on the region. These men toiled for the party fortunes but were always left in the cold without no meaningful stake in the Nigerian project. Of sorrowful and degrading references were how shamefully as National Party chairmen Chiefs Solomon Lar and Audu Ogbe were ousted out of office and left in shame and limbo.
This time around, the region wants to sit in security and economic council meetings and not party congresses and conventions. This is a clarion call to every member of all the political parties from the North Central region of Nigeria to rise and demand that the region aptly qualifies to produce persons as president of Nigeria. Even though the People’s Democratic Party has succeeded in sustaining its undermining strategy of reducing the north-central to an only party chairmanship region, the other parties must not be allowed to tow PDP’s deliberate and infamous ploy of designating the region as only fit for party chairmanship.
In the All Progressives Congress APC is a deliberate sinister plan to tow the PDP’s ploy of having the north-central as custodian of party chairmanship position in perpetuity. Ordinarily, why would any sane person except for hidden mischievous plan be doing a mirror image of Geo-Political Zoning? Who says South-South mirrors the North Central or the South West mirrors North West or South East mirrors North East? This must have been picked from a Satanic book of Political disenfranchisement. And in 2023 it will be resisted. If the office of National Chairmanship is so important why is the North West or North East or South West or South-East not going for it? This notion that only the Northwest and South-West regions are best suited to be president must stop, it doesn’t only undermines integration, it encourages deadly ethnic distrusts that can weaken national cohesion.
The hatchet entrepreneurs who are hell-bent on undermining the North Central region in the political relevance of Nigeria should be reminded that the region is not a pushover, we have the political stamina and well withal to define our destiny. As for those forcing the narrative that President Muhammadu Buhari had zoned the APC chairmanship to the North Central, the president is too refined and democratic to foist aspirations. This lie won’t fly.
The All Progressives Congress APC should set precedence that is in tandem with democratic norms by allowing for fairness and equality and not satanic feudalistic card that has held the country to stagnation. As Abubakar Kago of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria recently opined;
“The North East is thus the perfect geopolitical zone for the APC to source her next national chairman from. Bauchi State is the state to go to because, despite our overwhelming win there with President Buhari on the ballot in 2019, we still lost it to the PDP in the last gubernatorial elections and we need to retake it as soon as possible to consolidate our chances in 2023. An Isa Yuguda or Yakubu Dogara will vastly improve our chances of getting back Bauchi and building the party for the future – the former much more than the latter.
In conclusion, if the APC is to retain the Presidency in 2023 and remain a formidable party in Nigeria into the future the current sentimental approach over legacy party, promise or fail, disregard of health status, disregard of the mood of the nation, hubristic belief that Nigerians can be cajoled to endorse any nonsense that politicians come up with, including empty North/South zoning or religious and tribal favouritism must stop immediately and make way for clear-headed political assessments such as this one. I hope that the APC leadership right up to the President is serious about winning elections and not just playing to the shifting galleries of parochial opinions.’
A stitch in time they say saves nine, the North Central is no longer a veritable dumping ground for political chess but an equal partner in the Nigerian project.
*Terver Iyorgher Writes From Wurukum Quarters, Makurdi Benue State
