Blame Obasanjo for the post electoral violence

For the present crisis, it is important that before President Goodluck Jonathan sets up the Judicial Commission of Inquiry to unearth the immediate and remote causes of the political inferno and post electoral violence; one deems it necessary to appeal to our dear compatriots to embark on introspection and recall how the fault lines, the […]

For the present crisis, it is important that before President Goodluck Jonathan sets up the Judicial Commission of Inquiry to unearth the immediate and remote causes of the political inferno and post electoral violence; one deems it necessary to appeal to our dear compatriots to embark on introspection and recall how the fault lines, the contradictions and the anti-thesis which are the metaphor of the bloodletting today, were sowed mischievously as evil seeds by ex-president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and indeed the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} in 2007.

Neither the CPC nor Buhari by any stretch of imagination can be linked to the anti-thesis and remote causes of the political inferno in the North. Let us be sincere and cast our mind back on how we came to this sordid scenario, especially on the germane issue of why the North is angry politically.

Is it because of zoning?  In genuinely unravelling what simulated the anger in the North, zoning convention is the core element; however we must remember the web-design weaved by ex-president Obasanjo when Nigerian patriots vehemently rejected his Third Term gambit.

Chief Obasanjo never forgave Nigerians, especially the North for denying him the opportunity to elongate his tenure via constitutional amendment. There and then, he triggered off a chain of activities and encouraged a lot of Nigerians, mostly governors especially Northerners in the spirit of the zoning convention of his party – PDP, to succeed him.

In the contest for Obasanjo’s anointment were ex-governors Peter Odili, Adamu Mu’azu, Abdullahi Adamu, Ahmed Maikarfi, Donald Duke, Professor Jerry Gana et al.  The Chief deceptively kept their hopes alive until the last minute, when he anointed the terminally-ill late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua.

In anointing Umaru Yar’adua of blessed memory, Obasanjo was fully aware that he was terminally ill and was not in the best frame to govern the country and was not healthy to fill up the Northern slot in line with the zoning convention of his party.

Questions! Questions! Questions! Why chose a man who never canvassed to be president? Was the North fairly treated with Umaru Yar’adua selection among healthy and loyal members of Chief Obasanjo’s party?

This is the anger of the North, neither of CPC as a political party nor Buhari as a person; for which Chief Obasanjo should be held culpable.

Osita Okechukwu, gubernatorial candidate, CPC Enugu State