Are You Better-off If Your ‘Brother’ Is President?

If care is not taken Nigeria will fight Civil War II, after 2015 presidential election over the ethnicity and religion of the president. Many are supporting President Goodluck Jonathan for reelection in 2015 not so much for his achievements but because of the zone he comes from and his religion. There are also many that can never see anything good in Jonathan, because of his tribe and religion. Even Jonathan’s greatest traducers from the north who claimed that they are against Jonathan’s reelection because he is “clueless” as a leader and have moved to the All Progressives Congress(APC) to consolidate on their opposition to his leadership, if you suggest to them now to make the governor of Rivers State, the presidential candidate of APC ahead of 2015 election many of them will start kicking. Because at the end of the day all that matters to many politicians is to have a president from among their kinsmen. But the big question is, are the best interests of a zone better served if it produces a president? Are the president’s kinsmen insulated from poverty in the land? Are the Yoruba’s of the Southwest enjoying the highest standard of living in Nigeria because President Olusegun Obasanjo who hails from the zone was president of the country for eight years between 1999 and 2007? Closer home, are the people of Ogun State, Obasanjo’s home state better off than other Southwest states and indeed other states of the country within the period that the retired General was president? If we are to take the question further, are the people of Abeokuta, Obasanjo’s hometown better-off than other state capitals in Southwest and indeed the whole country because “son of Abeokuta soil” was president for eight years. If all the answers to the above posed questions are in the negative as I expect it to be by reasonable Nigerians why are many ready to fight Civil War II on account of where the president comes from in 2015? I am yet to see 2013 World Bank report on poverty level in Nigeria, but if past reports of the bank is anything to go by, the level of poverty in Bayelsa State since 2010 when Jonathan became acting president to this day when his presidency has entered the third year, may not have improved. It is clear to discerning observers that in most cases the people who “enjoy” the president in power are not his kinsmen, but the elite conspirators who have been working against Nigerian people. They are the ones that usually take charge of the national cake. And these elites come from all over the country and they conspire without regards to religion or tribe to steal our national patrimony. The losers are the masses, the working class and the wretched of the earth. Strangely it is the losers that are using the freedom at the social media to widen the ethnic and religious divide that are amplified by some elites who are temporarily out of power but who are now desperate to get into power. Most of the people dividing the country using ethnicity and religion hardly do Facebook or twit or participate directly in the social media except through their surrogates, yet when you read comments posted on social media, you will discover the palpable hatred that runs along ethnic and religion divide championed by those who are bound to benefit nothing even if the next president come from their backyard. Since it is apparent that it is perhaps only 1 per cent of Nigerians that enjoy the president in power, why can’t the rest 99 per cent forget their differences and ensure that the next president would be someone who would care about their welfare?