Northwest Govs, Emirs Fail To Deliver

The results of the Presidential election in the core north trickling in suggests that northern governors failed woefully to deliver their states to President Goodluck Jonathan. Before now, PDP governors vowed to deliver their states to the president and joined the president during his campaign in the zones.

The pattern of voting during the National Assembly election suggested that the governors kept their word, as their parties did very well in such states as Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Adamawa, Nassarawa and Bauchi.

However, yesterday was a different kettle of fish as the president was trounced in nearly all states of the core north. President Jonathan was defeated in states like Jigawa, Kaduna, Niger, Sokoto, Kebbi among others in the north.

Was the president simply on his own?

An independent analyst who spoke to P.M.News in Kaduna this morning noted that the governors were scared to campaign publicly for the president for fear of incurring the wrath of their people and losing their own (governorship) election which takes place on 26 April. He noted that it was for this reason that the governors insisted that the presidential election must come before their own election. “In any case, even if they told their people to vote for Jonathan, they would have been disobeyed as Muslim clerics had been preaching in Mosques in Kaduna and other northern cities urging their people to vote for Buhari,” he explained.

Apart from the governors, the northern emirs also failed to match their words with action. Worried about the intense campaign against him by the Northern Political Leaders Forum, President Jonathan reached out to northern emirs and key groups in the north. They promised support for President Jonathan.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, the spiritual head of muslims in Nigeria, was among the first set of powerful leaders from Northern Nigeria to openly support Jonathan. Sultan Abubakar, who said it was wrong to vote along ethnic or religious divide, described Jonathan as “a son of the caliphate”. It was one of the earliest signs that the President’s moves to win hearts in the north had begun to bear fruits.

Yet, Sultan Abubakar was not the only northern leader of note to endorse President Jonathan. Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Mohammed Illyasu Bashar described Jonathan as a God-ordained leader. “God has made you all you are and he will give you all you want,” he said, while speaking on behalf of the Emirs of the four emirate councils in Kebbi, namely Argungu, Yauri, Zuru. The Emir prayed for Jonathan, saying: “You were deputy governor and governor of Bayelsa State, vice-president of this country and by the grace of God you will become president.”

Former President Shehu Aliyu Shagari also canvassed support for President Jonathan, saying the North ought to support Jonathan because of the traditional alliance between the South-South and the North. That alliance, he declared, preceded Nigeria’s independence and urged Northerners to reciprocate that support by voting for Goodluck Jonathan.

But as it turned out, the emirs were either ignored by their subjects or their efforts were not enough.