The Chibok parents, PDP and a message in the bottle

Consequently, the widely reported snub by some Chibok parents directed at the highest echelons of temporal power in the country was a culmination of a seething apathy and not an act of political hijack executed by the federal government’s opponents, as claimed by the ruling behemoth. As the PDP continues to play politics with grief […]

Consequently, the widely reported snub by some Chibok parents directed at the highest echelons of temporal power in the country was a culmination of a seething apathy and not an act of political hijack executed by the federal government’s opponents, as claimed by the ruling behemoth.
As the PDP continues to play politics with grief by throwing crumbs at the Chibok parents to usurp their unity and solidarity while utterly disregarding their past voter brand loyalty, the opposition, if properly positioned to utilize that sliver of opportunity there and elsewhere in the North, will clinch the presidency in 2015 by careful map-reading.
According to official INEC figures, during the 2011 presidential elections, the PDP flag bearer Goodluck Jonathan in Borno State gathered his best zonal harvest with a total of 101,768 votes in Borno South out of which 13,408 votes were specifically from Chibok. The denizens of Chibok, according to the 2006 National Population Commission figures, number 66,333, constituting 5.2% of the total Borno South populace, but they gave the PDP 13.1% of its total haul in the zone.
It is against this back-ground that the presidential commiseration and execu-tive handshakes coming 99 days after the Chibok abductions exemplify an exasperating “parody of a banana republic led by monkeys”. There is, however, a transcending principle in ultimate responsibility because the entire nation is the president’s constituency, irrespective of any political brand loyalty or partisan affiliation. Nevertheless those who vote for a particular candidate do so with a view for a transactional relationship of sorts in mind.
 Chibok is by no means alone in contemptuous isolation because the PDP leviathan has refused to deftly navigate through the labyrinth of its partisan diversity. Take the case of the least populated local government in Kano State, Tofa in Kano Central senatorial zone with an official 2006 census figure of 98,603 but delivered 8,092 votes to PDP reflecting an 8.2% preference for its presidential candidate Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. Now contrast that with the more densely populated Nasarawa (596,411), Dala (418,759) and Kano Municipal (371,243) with a dismal preference for PDP in the same election of 3.7%, 2.3% and 1.8% respectively, yet these same constituencies despite their deliberate flippancy for the PDP have dominated all political appointments at the federal level from Kano since 2011.
The same saga is sadly mirrored even in the current crisis zone of northern Adamawa where the figures are instructive while throwing in Zamfara and Jigawa states in the North-West geopolitical zone as a further eye-opener.
The embattled Madagali and Michika polled 30,294 and 38,555 exclusive votes for Jonathan compared with 10,513 and 9,618 votes respectively for the then CPC presidential candidate. Bakura in Zamfara West gave Jonathan 26,418 handsome votes while Jaba in Kaduna State gave him 57,237 clean votes compared to 4,069 and 2,156 respectively for his CPC rival in the same race. Now compare all that with a mere 21,336 votes he received in Kolokuma/Opokuma of Bayelsa Central in his home state leaving just a handful of 102 votes for his CPC, ACN and ANPP rivals combined.
Perhaps a lot depends on his aides with the home senatorial zones of Reuben Abati and Doyin Okupe giving fresh perspectives. Ogun Central and Ogun West in 2011 gave President Jonathan 100,199 and 100,577 votes respectively. Now compare that with that of the senatorial zone where Sambisa Forest is located which gave him a princely 101,768 votes or even the killing fields of Taraba South that delivered 215,095 votes to Mr President. Comparably even the other government propaganda machinery duo of Labaran Maku and Mike Omeri, both from Nassarawa North, delivered a mere 72,021 votes from their senatorial zone.
No troika like that of elder statesman Edwin Clark, the rabble rouser Asari Dokubo and the stormy petrel Kingsley Kuku has professed more love, admiration and solidarity for their kinsman president. Exactly how many votes did their territorial fiefdoms deliver in proportion to the level of “stomach infrastructure” deployed?
In Asari Dokubo’s Rivers West the PDP had a 17% voter preference relative to the entire population of 219,787 with 37,523 votes for the party but that pales when contrasted with the troubled Askira/Uba in Borno South where President Jonathan in the same election had a voter preference of 20.9% from a population of 143,313 and 30,033 PDP votes.
Both Chief Clark and Mr Kuku hail from the Delta South which delivered 528,725 votes to the PDP presidential candidate, also the total number of votes for the home boy in the three senatorial zones of Bayelsa State in 2011 was 504,811, yet that of a single senatorial district Zone III of Kaduna State was 616,121. In fact, more votes were counted for Jonathan in Chikun (126,126) located in Zone II of the same state than in his home capital of Yenegoa (106,030). Kebbi North, Katsina South and Sokoto East delivered to the president 145,312; 152,815 and 118,524 votes respectively. For good measure even Jigawa North West (161,607) delivered more votes to the president than Senator Anyim Pius Anyim’s Ebonyi Central (158,517) and even Ebonyi South (149,566). With such statistical outlay one wonders who the real parasites of Nigeria are.
Not even the figures emanating from the First Lady’s Rivers East constituency offer much respite with Taraba South’s Donga having a PDP preference of 36.5% and even of all places Chibok 20.21% as against her Okrika’s 22.5%.
The PDP’s scant regard for brand loyalty is even more scandalous in Bauchi State. In Bauchi North Giade and Jama’are the PDP machinery