Former Presidential spokesman, Dr. Doyin Okupe, at the weekend, said Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s emergence as president was a result of the doctrine of force majeur (an act of God), which overrides and subsequently, nullified the controversial zoning formula.

He said given the existence of force majeur, there was no way anybody could upturn the hand of God in denying Jonathan the presidency even beyond the 2011 elections.

Okupe, who worked for former President Olusegun Obasanjo, also said: “If you agree that there must be a change, you cannot bring that change by humiliating those who stand for it. Having said that, the emergence of President Jonathan today, nobody can claim credit for it. This is because we were still studying the doctrine of necessity and all that and we were confronted with a fait accompli and he has become President. Whether anybody likes it or not, he had to become President. I see Jonathan’s presidency as a force majeur. Go and check it. In any contract or agreement, there is always a clause for force majure, that is an act of God. Whenever a force majeurcomes into play, it nullifies every other agreement.”

Using a classical analogy of a contractor, Okupe said: “If I agree to supply you one trailer load of cement from Epe and when my trailer is going and the surge from the Atlantic ocean wipes it and the trailer away, I am not owing you any supply. The vehicle left my store with the cement and was on the way to the depot where you gave to me and a force bigger than you and myself acted on it and made it impossible. You cannot hold me responsible for the failure to supply.

“If there was an agreement in place that says when the North finishes, the South will come in, when the South finishes, the North will come in, it is correct. Those are normal circumstances provided there is no force majeur or an act of God. Which force can be greater than death?

“The death of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua critically altered the agreement on ground because while the agreement was on, nobody envisaged that another President would be sitting whom we will have to tell not to exercise his rights. It is a political incongruity for a sitting president that is capable, perfectly sane and able for you to now say do not run because there was an agreement. There is no basis for confrontation on the issue of zoning.”

Speaking further, he added that: “What this has thrown up is that in 50 years of its existence, Nigeria does not have a national elite group. What we have are sectional elite groups and I think that was what the President meant when he said that people were championing ethnic causes and that they were tribal bigots and all that.”

According to him, “The truth is that we are all tribal elites. When the issue of making Jonathan a substantive President came in, even Senators of the North were aware of the situation but because of their ethnic interests, they were reluctant to do the right thing. I cannot blame them because the Yorubas if they were in the same position, they would do the same thing.

“So, this is the problem we have and we must face it. We have failed to evolve a national elite group, a group that can only think of Nigeria as a nation. That is why you see the Babangidas and Atikus of this world championing the northern cause. That was why you would have seen great Yoruba people championing the Abiola cause during his time. If anything happens in the East, you will see leaders of the East coming to defend it. We have not been able to horizontally unite our elite group and the earlier we do that, the better for the country.”

On why Obasanjo has not really been meddling in the Ogun State political crisis, Okupe said the former president was handling the issue as an elder statesman, who is the political father of the state.

“I know how he feels. Obasanjo feels that he is too big a fish to swim in shallow waters. If you look at it properly, Ogun State is for Obasanjo really a very shallow water. You cannot find sharks in shallow waters. It gets stuck. That is why the man, who ultimately if everything fails, you have to go to, must not be part of the problem. So, his attitude to the whole thing is understandable,” he said.