IF ONLY THEY CHANNELLED THE KIND OF UNITY EXHIBITED TOWARDS PARTY AFFAIRS TO MY BELOVED AREWA

Of the 36 states in Nigeria, 19 are of the North, but the political leaders in their wisdom further divided the North into 3 geopolitical zones namely, NorthWest, Northeast, and NorthCentral with 7,6 and 6 states respectively.

Also of the 19 states in the North 14 are governed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) while the remaining 5 are governed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The Convention of APC came and this is where a lot of meetings and alliances took place that almost caused the implosion of the party, APC governors forum in particular the Northern Caucus decided in their wisdom to declare that the ticket of the APC should go to the South in the spirit of justice and fairness, a decision widely applauded by all and sundry irrespective of Regional or religious affiliations. Amongst the 23 aspirants cleared to contest in the Primaries 4 were from the North in defiance to the position of the Governors of the North, in fact two of the aspirants were serving Governors of the APC.

Fast forward to counting of votes, where Bola Tinubu from the Southwest emerged as the candidate with the support of the APC Northern governors that delivered all their states to him, he won with an overwhelming majority thanks to the stance of the Northern governors.

Now to why I’m writing this, the Northern part of Nigeria is considered as the poorest region, most backwards in terms of education, healthcare, worst of all the scourge of insecurity bedevilling all parts of the North, from banditry, to kidnapping, cattle rustling, farmers-herders clashes and Boko Haram terrorism. When Borno, Yobe and some parts of Adamawa were under siege by Boko Haram none of the other state Governors gave a hoot about what was going on there, the impending humanitarian crises that follows such insurgency was non of their concern, as far as they know it’s not happening in their states, now BHT significantly went down due to the vigour the Nigerian military deployed in tackling the crises, the spotlight now left these 3 states and came back to Benue State, crises between farmers and herders ensued killing a lot of people, displacing thousands and creating yet another humanitarian crises, Benue State Governor was always crying out but his colleague Governors kept mum, once again it was non of their business, Zamfara crises erupted killing hundreds and displacing thousands, it gradually migrated to Sokoto state and some parts of Katsina. Plateau crises erupted the same story, Niger state kidnap happened it was Niger State’s problem, Birnin Gwari problem escalated killing hundreds yet still it was Kaduna State’s problem, Abuja-Kaduna highway being the gateway to the Northern part of Nigeria became a death trap for motorist as it was constantly besieged by the bandits conducting their business freely, yet again it was the FG as well as Kaduna state’s issue not theirs, I can go on and on with hundreds of examples to show the disconnect and disunity when it comes to people oriented approach to governance, when our lives are at stake everyone stays on his lane but when it came to internal party politics they unite.

We need to open our eyes and see the blatant truth that these people don’t care about us or our children’s future, they’re after their self interest, go to the Southwest as controversial as the creation of AMOTEKUN is at least they came together and commited resources to protect their people and communities, when the administration of Buhari suggested Ranching as the solution to the farmers/herders clashes a certain Northern Governor thought differently and claimed Buhari is a usurper trying to cede his lands to his Fulani brothers and sisters, Northern governors didn’t see that as something that should bring them together.

Now this write up became necessary given that all the discourse over the course of 3-4 weeks has been about the political happenings around us, agile, intelligent youth deliberating on pertinent issues that directly affect our daily lives, but what’s the solution, simple, the solution is getting our PVCs and voting our conscience, these people don’t care about us, we should as well not care about their political survival, let’s channel all these energies into thinking about Nigeria first!! It starts with me and you.

My own is to say my mind and for you to think wisely.