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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Reasons Why GEJ Lost/performed Poorly In The Middlebelt/northern Minorities Zone (1220 Views)
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Reasons Why GEJ Lost/performed Poorly In The Middlebelt/northern Minorities Zone by Nowenuse: 11:58am On Apr 10, 2015 |
A good thing that Pres GEJ accepted defeat in good faith, showing the true spirit of sportsmanship. All we his supporters have done likewise. However i'd like to highlight some of the reasons why Pres GEJ lost/performed poorly in the middlebelt region/northern minority groups areas compared to 2011 elections where Pres GEJ won 7 states in the middlebelt/northern minority areas with a total number of over 5 million votes enabling him to win the election. Unlike now where he won only 3 states in the region, scoring less than 2 million votes. Pres GEJ did not really fail the people of the region by not carrying out any projects, but he and his party PDP failed to manage the ethno-religious diversity of the region which is the region's weakest point of manipulation. I take the states one after the other beginning from 1) PLATEAU STATE This is supposed to be one of the power PdP/GEJ states of the region, but GEJ was able to poll just 549,615 votes to Buhari's 429,140 votes as opposed to the approximately 1.1 million votes to 420,000 votes GEJ got from Plateau last election against Buhari. The problem that made APC gain more supporters in Plateau all started with the imposition of governorship candidate by the incumbent governor Jonah Jang. Gov Jang is from the northern senatorial district of plateau state and is berom by tribe. It is expected that after his tenure, power is to rotate to the southern senatorial district to another tribe as there are over 40 distinct ethnic groups in Plateau state. Most Plateaunians were very hopeful that the deputy governor Ignatius Longjan who is from Quanpan LGA in the southern senatorial district would be given the governorship slot, but no, Gov Jang handed the governorship slot to Sen Gyang Pwajok of Plateau north, who is the same tribe as he is and from the same hometown and even related to him by blood, in a bid for him Gov Jang to clinch the senatorial seat of Sen. Gyang after his governorship tenure. This selfish decision by Gov Jang sparked up great anger and resentment among the other tribes of Plateau state, hence many decided to support the APC governorship candidate Simon Lalong who is from the southern zone in a bid to balance the usual power sharing rotation that has been existing on the Plateau. And that was where the downfall and resentment of PDP rule started on the Plateau, and this was what worked against Pres GEJ from getting a susbtantial number of votes in Plateau state as was expected. 2) SOUTHERN KADUNA (KADUNA STATE CHRISTIANS) This is supposed to be the strongest PDP/GEJ support area of the middlebelt because this area produced the largest number of votes for GEJ in 2011. Despite the fact that Pres GEJ did not win Kaduna state in 2011, but he got approximately 1.2 million votes (46%) from this state which mainly came from the southern parts of the state. Not many southern Nigerian states could even give Pres GEJ as much votes as Southern Kaduna did in 2011. The northern parts of Kaduna state are hausa speaking muslims and they do not support GEJ because of their usual ethno-religious biased preference for Buhari. Surprisingly,the Kaduna that gave GEJ 1.2 million votes in 2011 were only able to poll 484,085 votes for GEJ now in 2015. The major reason for this setback was the reduction of the vigour of the people to participate in this elections since they lost the governorship position of the state through the death of Late Gov. Patrick Yakowa. Late Yakowa who emerged the PDP Governorship candidate of Kaduna state in 2011 which was the first time a christian was to contest the governorship of Kaduna state under the dominant party, this boosted the vigour of the southern Kaduna people to come out en masse and give PDP their total support in both governorship and presidential elections as Late Yakowa was able to mobilise them better. But under the current political dispensation, both the APC and PDP candidates contesting governorship of Kaduna state are both hausa muslims from the northern part of the state, so they the southern kadunas did not see themselves as stakeholders in the election process, hence a lowered vigour to participate in the elections. If they had had a candidate participating in the state governorship elections, this would have prompted them to mobilise their people to collect their pvc's and come out en masse to participate in the election processes just like 2011. Andrew Yakubu, the former NNPC managing director who is from Southern Kaduna was sacked by president GEJ just because of the issues Andrew Yakubu had with the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Madueke. Andrew Yakubu occupied one of the highest positions of any southern kaduna person in Nigeria. This action of GEJ grieved the southern kaduna nation. GEJ would have at least replaced Andrew Yakubu with another Southern Kaduna person to reduce the grievance of the people, but GEJ did not, imstead he gave the position to a man from Borno, forgetting the over 1 million votes Southern Kaduna people gave him. Yet another reason i believe was the consistent attacks of fulani herdsmen in this area which claimed hundreds of lives and little or nothing was done by the President or PDP governor of the state to contain this. Lastly, there were a lot of cancellations of polling units located in southern kaduna by INEC. Dozens of polling units were canceled in southern kaduna fpr reasons best known to Jega and INEC. KOGI STATE Although the people of this state have not been much of strong PDP/GEJ supporters compared to the likes of Plateau and Southern Kaduna, but at least GEJ was able to win 77% of the votes of the people in 2011 elections, but now GEJ lost Kogi state to Buhari by getting only about 35% of votes in the state. In 2011, the Igalas (who are the largest tribe of Kogi state) gave Pres GEJ their overwhelming support, both Igala christians and muslims and this was what enabled GEJ win Kogi state, but in 2015, only about 40% or less of the igala (Kogi east) population voted GEJ. And one of the major reasons for this setback was that the igalas complained that Pres GEJ ceeded their Oilwell areas to Anambra state by going to Aguleri to commision the petroleum projects ongoing in the area with the Anambra state government, ignoring tha fact that most of these lands actually fall under Kogi state. Another reason is the failure of the PDP governor of Kogi state, Gov Wada not only did not do anything in Kogi state, Kogi state was impoverished under his tenure and did not experience any progress, hence the resentment of PDP rule by most Kogites. Yet another reason for Buhari winning Kogi state was the failure of Pres GEJ to fulfill his promise of reviving the Ajaokuta steel industry and the stopping of the dredging of river Niger. And lastly, religious sentiments also played a role. Kogi state is one middlebelt state with a large muslim population and as usual some of the muslims (especially from the Ebira & Nupe speaking axis) were taken by sentiments of religion to vote Buhari. BENUE STATE The outcome of the election results for this state surprised a lot of people who felt that Benue state being the home state of the Senate President and a PDP controlled christian majority state of the middlebelt would have delievered massively to GEJ. But only those who understand the internal politics of the state would not be surprised. The longtime rivalry between the Tivs and idomas was what played out in that election. The Tivs are numerically the majority in Benue state dominating 2 of the 3 senatorial districts in the state and David Mark being from the minority Idoma group and occupying the position of the Senate president is one thing which has not really gone down well with majority of the Tivs who claimed that Pres GEJ in connivance with David Mark are marginalizing the Tiv nation in terms of appointments at the federal level and this created the resentment of Pres. GEJ government among them. Meanwhile the Tivs themselves have been politically divided since during the 2011 governorship elections where one of the Tiv senatorial districts wanted an ACN candidate and the other tiv district with the Idoma senatorial district wanted Gabriel Suswam the PDP candidate and this even led to the splitting of Benue state votes during the 2011 presidential elections as President GEJ only won Benue state with 67% of the votes of the state, because one of the Tiv senatorial districts overwhemingly voted Nuhu Ribadu, the 2011 ACN presidential candidate. Indeed tribalism is one of the major determinants of politics in Benue state. Also there is a general complaint about the poor performance of Gov. Gabriel Suswam from many Benue citizens who claim that the Benue state governor has not been able to pay state workers salary for about 5 months. This is possibly another reason i think many of the state's citizens opted a change of government. And lastly even in Benue south (David Mark's senatorial district) which is idoma dominated. APC still got a substantial number of votes in both the senatorial and presidential elections because many of David Mark's people are tired of him as they claim Mark has occupied that senatorial seat for over a decade and yet little or no progress to show forth in the zone. This was the reason why David Mark even lost 3 of the 9 local govt areas in his zone to APC. NASARAWA STATE Although President GEJ won in Nasarawa state but the margin with which he won could have been greater if Labaran Maku (former minister of information) was able to clinch the PDP governorship ticket of the state. Labaran Maku's people, the Eggon-Mada people of Nasarawa state are the strongest PDP supporters in Nasarawa state and they are the largest ethnic stock in Nasarawa state but unfortunately they have not been able to produce the governor of the state since Nasarawa state was carved out of Plateau state in 1996 due to the exploitation of tribal & religious differences by a group of people in the state. The Eggon-Mada people and other PDP supporters in the state were very hopeful that Labaran Maku would be able to clinch the PDP governorship ticket of the state considering his commitment and loyalty to Pres GEJ and PDP. But unfortunately he lost it to one unknown Alhaji Yusuf Agabi and Maku had to decamp to APGA. This unfortunate event led to a loss of vigour among many PDP supporters in the state to participate in the Presidential elections. TARABA STATE Just like Nasarawa state, although President GEJ won in Taraba state but the margin was smaller than expected. The reason for this was the delayed arrival of materials to some LGAs in the state who have more PDP supporters like Ussa, Takum & Jalingo local govt areas. Infact some people had to wait till Sunday night to vote after the saturday election day due to late arrival of materials. Others went home and never returned as they concluded that the materials will never arrive. Also in some APC stronghold areas of Taraba which are mostly dominated by muslim hausa-fulanis, there were reports of numerous cases of underaged voters and this increased APC's votes. KWARA STATE The reason for the poor performance of Pres. GEJ in this state is not an issue because Kwara state although it is classified as a middlebelt state because it falls under North-central in geo-political classification, but socio-culturally and otherwise it is more of a south-western state than a middlebelt state as it is dominated by the Yorubas who most definitely voted in a similar pattern as their fellow south-westernerns. ADAMAWA STATE President GEJ won Adamawa state in 2011 with a good margin, but he lost now in 2015 with a significant margin also, and just like Kwara state the reason for GEJ loosing Adamawa state is not an issue. Adamawa state was one of the worst states hit by the Boko-haram terrorist activities and this displaced more than one-third of the state's population. Unfortunately the areas which were worst hit by the Boko haram members are areas which were dominantly pro-GEJ and pro-PDP. Areas which were under Boko haram control like Michika (home of former PDP governor Boni James Haruna), Madagali (home of acting PDP governor James Bala Ngillari), Hong, Gombi, Mubi north (home of chief of defense staff -Air Marshal Alex Badeh) e.t.c Thank God for the efforts of the Nigerian army that these areas were re-captured, but the residents and indigenes of these areas were displaced till even after the elections. Also, another reason for the poor performance of President GEJ in Adamawa state was the failure of MARKUS GUNDIRI in clincling the PDP governorship candidate of the state. The former impeached governor of the state was Murtala Nyako who was a fulani man and a muslim, so most of the other tribes and christians of Adamawa state gave Markus Gundiri their whole support but unfortunately NUHU RIBADU, another fulani muslim won the PDP governorship ticket. Despite the fact that this result was rejected by the PDP chairman of the state (Joel Madaki), but the divided PDP in the state went ahead with it and Markus Gundiri had to decamp to SDP. This outcome coupled with the Boko haram issue in Adamawa state led to the extremely reduced vigour of the PDP supporters in the state to come out and participate in the elections FCT Just like Nasarawa & Taraba states, Pres GEJ won the FCT, but the margin was extremely slim compared to 2011. President GEJ in his 2011 and 2015 campaigns in the FCT promised the indigenes of FCT to give them a ministerial slot in his government/ an indigenous minister of the FCT, but he failed them woefully on that promise. This lead to the reduced vigour of the PDP supporters of this zone to vote GEJ. There are other areas of the northern minority region like Niger east, southern parts of Kebbi, southern parts of Gombe, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi e.t.c where President GEJ would have gotten more votes than he got in this 2015 elections, but due to similar cases of the reasons stated above in other states of the region he lost those votes. Minority groups of Gombe state for instance were able to deliver 40% of Gombe's votes in 2011 but in 2015 it was just 20% of the state's vote GEJ got. Minority groups of Borno state were able to deliver 25% of Borno state's votes in 2011 but currently, three-quarter of the minority groups of southern Borno are still internally displaced and their lands still under Boko haram control. In summary, President GEJ failed to protect the intrests of the northern minorities and middlebelt people who voted for him massively in 2011 during his government. Many northern christians lost their lives during the post-election violence of 2011 elections just because of their supporting GEJ, churches, houses and other buildings worth millions of naira were lost by many of them especially in places like Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Niger, Katsina, Kaduna e.t.c. What did Pres GEJ do to compensate these group of people who suffered all these losses in supporting him? instead he went about identifying with the core northern hausa-fulanis the more, building almajiri schools everywhere for them thinking he would ever be able to get their support forgetting the nature of these people. Just like what happened in Kebbi state in 2011. Bitrus Koka Ushie, a man from the Zuru ethnic minority group of Kebbi state was nominated to serve as the minister representing Kebbi state, but the Hausa majority in Kebbi state rejected the candidature of Ushie out of sheer ethno-religious sentiments because Ushie was a christian from a minority group in Kebbi state. Pres GEJ accepted the rejection of the hausa muslim majority in Kebbi state and dropped Bitrus Ushie and picked another candidate, a hausa muslim to occupy the ministerial slot of Kebbi state. Just imagine that? President GEJ with his hands killed the vigour and hopes with which the northern minority and middlebelt people came out to support him in 2011. So no one should say the middlebelt/northern minorities betrayed Pres GEJ in the 2015 elections. GEJ was the one who betrayed our support instead and he got what he bargained for. http://nowenuse..com/?m=1 1 Like |
Re: Reasons Why GEJ Lost/performed Poorly In The Middlebelt/northern Minorities Zone by SPDAZZY(f): 11:59am On Apr 10, 2015 |
I see |
Re: Reasons Why GEJ Lost/performed Poorly In The Middlebelt/northern Minorities Zone by omololu2020(m): 12:09pm On Apr 10, 2015 |
I see |
Re: Reasons Why GEJ Lost/performed Poorly In The Middlebelt/northern Minorities Zone by TI1919(m): 12:13pm On Apr 10, 2015 |
Ugh ![]() |
Re: Reasons Why GEJ Lost/performed Poorly In The Middlebelt/northern Minorities Zone by omololu2020(m): 12:30pm On Apr 10, 2015 |
Nowenuse:for me dis is d koko of all wot u wrote up dia.GEJ was really scared of hausa and fulani in d North.he was mainly a hausa and fulani president.but nah dis same pple send am back to otuoke,for me yakowa was mudered by som pple dat fink a xtian shouldn't b d governor of kaduna state,and dia is no way GeJ wouldn't know about it 1 Like |
Re: Reasons Why GEJ Lost/performed Poorly In The Middlebelt/northern Minorities Zone by abduljabbar8: 1:12pm On Apr 10, 2015 |
Op. You are also tribalistic. You said the northern muslims of kaduna voted Buhari because of their ethno-religious biased love for him, so why did southern kaduna support gej? What do you mean by boko haram. Attacked pdps strongholds in adamawa? That is a big fat lie. Don't forget that Atiku is from adamawa and they respect and listen to atiku. When it comes to areas dominated by muslims in states like kwara and kogi, why are Buharis. Votes based on religion but when they. Are not dominated by muslims, it means gej got votes because of his competency. You really did a good work. It would have been perfect if not for your tribalistic partiality |
Re: Reasons Why GEJ Lost/performed Poorly In The Middlebelt/northern Minorities Zone by abduljabbar8: 1:26pm On Apr 10, 2015 |
omololu2020:Nop. He died in the same helicopter with azazi after calling pdp a boko haram party. The helicopter blew off on air. It must not be gej but a pdp member must be responsible. |
Re: Reasons Why GEJ Lost/performed Poorly In The Middlebelt/northern Minorities Zone by Nowenuse: 2:56pm On Apr 10, 2015 |
abduljabbar8: Mr Man, i do not disagree with u that the post has tribalistic undertones and yes it was on purpose. Since the hausa-fulani muslims have decided to play an open politics of tribalism and religiom, what choice do other groups of Nigeria have? Atiku is from Adamawa but he is from Jada LGA, Boko haram did not come close to Jada LGA. There are 4 major fulani dominated LGAs on Adamawa state and Boko haram did not touch any of them. ...So i know what i am saying when i say that ''the PDP stronghold areas of Adamawa were more affected''. Southern Kadunas supported GEJ on 2011 because they believed in what he had to offer as one who he nor the ppl of his region had ever ruled this country before, plus the Joy of Yakowa's emergence as PDP governorshi candidate. |
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