Heavens Will Fall If A Northerner Succeeds Buhari
You probably would have read or listened to a rabble-rouser who goes by the name Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, spokesman of the Northern Elders’ Forum, when he spoke recently, as he always does, as though he has authority to speak on behalf of a superficial monolithic north, that heavens would not fall if the presidency remains in the north after President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
To be sure, I am not particularly interested in where the president comes from, what religion he practises or the language he speaks. This divisive and base level politicking is engineered by those who have continued to impede the growth and development of the nation for their selfish interests alone.
However, you cannot be in the Nigeria of today and pretend not to know that with the precarious situation the nation is now, what has now come to be known as rotational presidency remains the only way this nation can survive. It is the only way to give all the sense of belonging, fairness, equity and justice. Tempers have risen; the mutual suspicion in the air is so thick you can literally slice it with a knife. It is that bad. In a normal clime; merit should be the watchword; but ours is anything but normal.
Prior to Buhari becoming president in 2015, these so-called northern elders employed blackmail and deployed all the weaponries in their possession to gain power and competence was the least in their calculation. It was a war. Well, it can be argued that all is fair in love and war, but what I find difficult to comprehend is why the same northern leaders think that the southerners too cannot insist on a power shift to the south after eight years of Buhari in 2023.
Now, they insist that the North must be wooed by the South to have their own turn. They are suddenly beginning to preach merit and sermonise that the president in 2023 can come from anywhere, including the north, what is of significance is the candidate’s ability to deliver good governance. True, I agree 100 percent, but why was this not preached and sermonised pre-2015? Why were they prepared to destroy the nation and set it on fire if power did not return to the north in 2015? It is too late to sermonise and pontificate; what is good for the goose must also be good for the gander.
The Northern Elders’ Forum said heavens will not fall if a northerner succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
Baba-Ahmed had said at the inaugural edition of the Maitama Sule Leadership Lecture Series that, “We will surprise them in 2023 because we will vote for who we want, including the northerners, and nothing will happen. If we choose to vote for a northerner, the heavens will not fall. We will choose who we want in this country.”
