Is Buhari North’s candidate? -By Dan Onwukwe

Desperation can sometimes provide real political moment to weigh on the scale the stuff of those who lay claim to leadership positions.It is a time to see if truly they are leaders or irremediable irredentists. The last couple of days have shown exactly that, those who preach political messages of hate rather than love, who canvass ethnic division rather than unity and those who, if given the chance,will covet power for its sake without weighing the implications.

Pointedly and sadly,few of those who pride themselves as being among the leaders in the North,are by their utterances dangerously polarising the polity into seemingly mutually exclusive enclaves of North and South.They are perhaps unwittingly,damaging the chances of the man they claim to be championing his cause.

That is exactly what a former Inspector General of Police,and currently,Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum(ACF),Ibrahim Coomassie did the other day,when in a fit of desperation and unprovoked anger,flew off the handle like a loose canon.He says the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Cngress (APC),Muahammadu Buhari is the adopted candidate of the North.

In an interview he granted some national dailies in Kaduna recently,he said,”I am the Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum and we have said it before,but we are reiterating it that we are going to support the Northern candidate.APC has voted a Northern candidate.So we are going to support him 100 percent.Buhari is our candidate for the 2015 Presidential Election”.In a similar,petulant manner,the Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and former Vice Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University(ABU),Prof.Ango Abdullahi,whose incendiary comments in the past had created hate along ethnic and religious lines,also lashed out at President Goodluck Jonathan.He thretened insurrection if power doesn’t shift to the North in the February 14 presidential poll. Besides these provocative statements from these mean-spirited, ethnic jingoists like Coomassie and Abdullahi,another disturbing dimension to the frightening atmosphere in the North is the reported threat to some Northern governors who are perceived to be pro-President Jonathan.One of the governors,according to a report by the VANGUARD newspaper,has confessed receiving “open threat messages” via his phones.

It is also alleged that some radical Northern leaders have been sending threatening claps of thunder via short messages to some pro-Jonathan governors in the North.The threat messages are purportedly written in both English and Hausa languages.The content of the messages is direct and daring:support Buhari or else you will be regarded as a betrayal of the North.

It must be stated that nothing is wrong with anypolitician or group(s) in the North preferring one particular presidential candidate to the other.That’s one of the dividends of democracy-the freedom of choic.The danger however is the threat and message of hate that go with such urging.I don’t know if Buhari is aware of these vicious,odious messages being sent out purportedly on his behalf and what he is doing to halt the threats.I am worried for the APC presidential because everytime he(Buhari)tries everything to wiggle off the bad image that had derailed his three previous presidential bid,fresh problem of substance such as the Coomassie and Ango Abdullahi’s outbursts resurface to cast doubts on his chances to win the highest political office in the land.

Without a doubt, Coomassie’s comment is a shot in the leg of Buhari.It would have a springboard effect that can hurt Buhari all the way to the ballot.Being pigeon-holed as “North’s candidate” gives him(Buhari) as an ethnic leader.This does not help his presidential prospect at a time his handlers are working overtime to project him as a patriotic and firm leader of quiet competence.Of course, a crucial leadership position such as that of a President cannot be actualized through such primordial considerations being canvassed by the like of Coomassie. It further throws up few pertinent questions:First, what kind of President are Nigerians looking for in 2015? What qualities must he possess? I believe Nigeria does not need a sectional or ethnic leader as President.Our country has grown beyond primordial cleavages. Indeed,majority of Nigerians reject archaic dichotomies completely..

Having come through thick and thin,survived a civil war,fallen in and out of the iron-fists of military adventurists(of which Buhari was one) and stumbled back on the path of democracy,projecting a particular candidate as that of any ethnic group or geo-political zone,is to take us back to the North/South divide.

In fact,it is incongruous for any lover of peace and Nigeria to threaten,as Coomassie and Abdullahi insist that unless the presidency is shifted to the North,come 2015 that Nigeria will break up.Such statements from ACF and NEF leaders apart from being inciting,qualifies as treason or sedition that ought to attract criminal proceedings.Such unguarded comments have left countries like Sudan,Rwanda and Cote d’Ivoire polarised and theatres of long drawn wars.

While the right to free speech should not be curtailed,threats of break-up of the country if the North fail to produce the next President amounts to fanning the embers of ethnic and religious hatred.These are the sort of faultiness that brought us to where we are today.For me,the next President must first and foremost,be a democrat,through and through.He must also be a respecter of the sacred values of the rule of law, must appeal to all sections of the country, not one section of the country alone.This is the challenge before the electorate as we march closer to the 2015 General Elections.