Chief OJ Akiri invites true UNIFIER Patriots, to draw up an informed itinerary for the Rotational Presidency Train now traversing the South.
“You might agree with me that the joy of a long awaited justice when it finally arrives, brightens our day and in the popular parlance of some dramatic and local raconteurs “radiates through the entire body, penetrating our bone marrows, and attaining the farthest limits of our blood capillaries”.
In effect, the staggering impact of widely acclaimed Justice may also be likened to the well-blended melody filtering from an orchestral array of instrumental ensemble. In its ascending crescendo, the melody becomes so alluringly danceable that some incurable addicts of good music, which most of us are, may even start shuffling the feet in uncontrollable ecstasy.
In deserving tribute to the overwhelming success story of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ferroviaire revolution, we are inclined to employ the METAPHOR of the Locomotive Train in discussing the destination of the determinant swing and final pin-down point of the Rotational Presidency Pendulum, on this specific occasion of the (023) “octo-annuary” bi-polar North South Swings.
There are some who are not inclined to appreciating political success stories outside the narrow and myopic periscope of the heroic emergence of a winner after a polling contest. They tend to forget that you can score a memorable political goal by your personal sacrifices which go to strengthen and reinforce our unity as a country.
Such legacies can trail you and your lineage, beyond this life to generations yet unborn. Let us never forget the fundamental tripodal ternary vision, that tended to encapsulate however coarsely, the multi-ethnic behemoth that is our dear country Nigeria.
President Muhammadu Buhari had recently declared that he would never leave the Presidency of this country as a failure. We are today respectfully proclaiming that he has since gloriously crossed the Rubicon and is triumphantly perching on a richly fruity oasis of glaring success, within the context of our country’s turbulent history.
Now who can deny the overwhelming and ubiquitous impact of his present rail sector revolution? With just N200 today, residents of Port Harcourt are able to travel to Aba in Abia State, without the usual inconveniences characteristic of traffic hold-ups. The same story is true for our compatriots in the Lagos Ibadan axis or the Kaduna Kano axis in the North.
What about the 2nd Niger Bridge that only a couple of years ago looked like an unattainable no-go-area by the sheer size of envisageable budgetary commitment.
Today, in the domain of Power Supply, the narrative has radically changed, as can be readily attested to nation-wide.
In terms of the fight against corruption, we know that there are no more Dasuki Naira Waste havens, where the Metuhs of this world could go and scoop the “commodity” as and when due.
The insecurity in the North in particular, is receiving deserving attention, as the bandits and miscreants are already surrendering in their droves.
Our compatriots in all nooks and cranies of this Country should be made to understand that we are more effective economic players and diplomatically weightier in the Global arena
under the Sovreignty and Canopy of our Country Nigeria, with its approximately 200 Million of active population.
Fortunately, our President has given unreserved thumbs up to Rotational Presidency, which seeks to extend to every part of the Country some necessary sense of belonging.
The President is a firm Believer in ONE UNITED AND INDIVISIBLE NIGERIA. Our President deserves all the plaudits for our merely sighting the RPT (the Rotational Presidency Train) along our SOUTHERN MEGA ROUTES.
WE should all recall that the APC was the first to declare unambiguously, and crystal clearly, that its National Chairmanship slot should go to the North, thereby brandishing a silvery pointer that it had conceded the Presidency to the South not tongue-in-cheek, sans le moindre atermoiement, like the French would say, in consonance with the popularly welcome norm of Rotational Presidency.
Can you compare this with the gerrymandering theatricals of PDP’s moon light dance, with their constitution of the Governor Ugwuanyi’s National Zoning Committee, which returned the paradoxical verdict that the north should produce the National Chairman, whereas the destination of the Presidency and the Vice Presidency must be considered as being outside the scope of their specified terms of reference? Only last week, Prof. Iyorchia Ayu emerged the consensus National Chairman of the PDP. The Prof. was President of the Senate in the 3rd Republic and a Federal Minister of cabinet rank under the Presidency of General Olusegun Obasanjo. He is indeed most deserving of the office.
This is most sincerely and frantically appealing to the utmostly patriotic instinct of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to draw the unmistakeable inference inherent in Prof Ayu’s new status, and for the sake of Nigeria, shelve his Presidential ambition, by doing nothing to obstruct the southward journey of the ROTATIONAL PRESIDENCY TRAIN.
We implore Alhaji Atiku to debunk this age-long truism as expressed by one of my favorite Columnists and I quote:
“politicians in Nigeria do not believe in anything other than their own ambitions the Machiavellian ethos reigns supreme” For even while in the South, we are essentially constrained to promptly embark on a sincere and profound brain-storming with a view to rejigging the itinerary of the Rotational Presidency Train, in order to determine with some justifiable certainty the pin-down perimeter, within the arrival MEGA STATION of the portentous pendulum.
Let us open-mindedly and and having only the survival of Nigeria as our foremost preoccupation, lay bare the issues at stake: we are hereby dealing with a hyper-sensitive subject being one for which history may consider us as COMMENDABLE UNIFIERS of Nigeria or on the other hand damnable VILLAINS and selfish catalysts of Nigeria’s descent to irremediable DISINTEGRATION.
A cursory look at the table of the occupants of the PRESIDENTS OF THIS COUNTRY and their VICES since 1999, takes the following form:
SOUTH WEST: President Olusegun Obasanjo for eight years—1999 to 2007;
SOUTH WEST: Yemi Osinbanjo currently on saddle as VICE-PRESIDENT and projected for 8 years—2015 to 2023.
THE NORTH: PRESIDENT UMARU YARADUA 2007-2010 (ABRIDGED BY DEATH)
DR GOODLUCK JONATHAN: ASCENDED AS PRESIDENT 2010-2015
( SERVED AS VP 2007-2010)
SOUTH EAST: NOBODY
How many Uwazurikes of MASSOB or Nnamdi Kanus of IPOB would we want to create before conceding the IGBOs the much desired sense of belonging, which goes by entrusting them with the PRESIDENCY OF OUR COUNTRY. We should adopt the sincere template of General Abdulsalami Abubakar. In other words PDP too must head to the South East for its Presidential Candidate.
We will be missing a golden opportunity of crucial UNITY-bonding, in our efforts at genuine inclusive nation building, if the IGBOS are left out in this particular tour of the ROTATIONAL PRESIDENCY TRAIN, alias RPT.
Let’s recall that if the train misses the SOUTH EAST station in this tour, the earliest you can expect a mere sighting of the train in the S0UTH will be 2039. I leave you to work out the confirmatory mathematics.
We should adopt the sincere template of General Abdusalami Abubakar in the designation of a candidate from a given Zone. In other words, the PDP too must head to the South East for its Presidential Candidate. I marvel in utter dismay when some shallow political analysts allude to the dearth of Candidates of Presidential stature from the South East and IGBO extraction ensembles. Well, a Colossus from the area has recently signalled his intention to contest the Presidency. He is Chief Pius Anyim Pius, a former President of the Senate and Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
From the same South East and also in the PDP, we have Prof Ike Ekweremadu who has been three-time Deputy President of the Senate.
I am wondering how many deadlier variants of MASSOB and IPOB might have evolved in almost another two decades from now.
We must pursue the path of egalitarianism, equity and social justice. Rotational Presidency is our instrument of turn-by-turn power shift. Otherwise, we might as well start preparing for a groundswell of more and more separatist groups: they may spring up from perhaps totally unanticipated groups eg the Anagutas of Plateau State; the Binis of Edo State; the Tivs and Idomas of Benue, the Ibibios of Akwa-Ibom State, the Billes of Rivers State etc. We’re implying that If there is no prospective hope that the Supreme Saddle will be theirs to caress in one fine year, they might some day, out of sheer frustration, decide to shake off their somnolent and so-called “mumuish” lethargy, to join the Igbohos, who paradoxically had even gotten more than a mouthful of the power cake.
The impatient reaction of some irredentist groups to isolate the case of IPOB agitation, insisting on judicial fiat to compel an exit referendum is unnecessary.
We implore patience and rather recommend that we first grant the Igbos the requisite sense of belonging.
You may recall that under President Olusegun Obasanjo, we had the Odi massacre of 20th November, 1999, which followed the reaction of some Ijaw militants who vented their desperation by killing some 12 policemen and ambushing few soldiers. The action had then terribly exacerbated tension, whereas the dialogued Amnesty gesture of President Yaradua, was a sure step in the right direction. It contributed enormously in laying to rest the militancy problem in the Niger Delta. The Presidency of Dr Goodluck Jonathan was the super palatable icing on the Cake. Go and find out the views of “General” Boy Loaf, and “Field Marshall Tompolo for their favourable impressions.
But with strict and consistent compliance of the unselfish Creed of our novel *modus vivendi* of turn-by-turn Rotational Presidency, hope which nourishes patience will be kept alive.
We will be able to build for our children, in a foreseeable or not-too-distant future, a gradually transforming polity of mutual trust for one another, which in turn would engender an atmosphere of respirable peace and progress”.
