Atiku Abubakar – Northern Consensus Candidate

The northern oracle, the self appointed protector of the northern Nigerian states and their interest, Malam Adamu Ciroma, former Minister of Finance decided to form a group called The Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) in order to find a consensus candidate to contest the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) primary against the sitting Nigerian president Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Members of the committee include nine professional politicians such as Audu Ogbeh, Alhaji M.D. Yusuf, Alhaji Magaji Dambatta and Alhaji Bello Kirfi. Their task is to choose between former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Former Military president, Ibrahim Babangida, Former national security adviser, Aliyu Gusau and present Governor of Kwara state, Bukola Saraki. Let’s examine what consensus means:

Consensus is a group decision making process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also the resolution or mitigation of minority objections. Consensus is defined by Merriam-Webster as, firstly “general agreement” and secondly “group solidarity of belief or sentiment”. It has its origin in a Latin word meaning literally to feel together. It is used to describe both general agreement and the process of getting to such agreement. Consensus decision-making is thus concerned primarily with that process.

How can nine people claim to represent half of the country’s population? What is clear so far is that nobody appointed these men to pick what they termed consensus candidate born out of desire to retain presidency for the northern part of the country based on regional origin instead of competency and ability. Northern Nigeria is not homogenous. The fact that the northern part of Nigerian population speaks variations of Hausa languages does not make them a group. The north is as diverse as the south with different interests. Presidency was zoned to the north in the last PDP primaries and Umaru Yar’Adua emerged as the president even though it is was widely known that he was sick before and during the election process. He remained sick throughout his brief tenure before passing away earlier this year. His near two year tenure was not very successful as we all know. He could not function and the nation paid dearly. Selection of Nigerian president should not be based on ethnicity, religion, sex or geography because a country of 150 million should have open political party primaries for all eligible candidates and members of each party should select the best candidate base on merit and capability. Incidentally, we have other northern candidates such as former president, Mohammed Buhari and Malam Nuhu Ribadu who are contesting their various party primaries in a democratically internationally accepted standard.

On Monday, November 22, 2010, the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) led by Malam Adamu Ciroma announced former vice president, Atiku Abubakar as the consensus candidate of the north to run against current president, Goodluck Jonathan in the PDP primary election slated for January 2011. As expected, Atiku Abubakar promptly accepted and made the following statement “I am humbled by this endorsement, and I accept it wholeheartedly, with humility and sense of responsibility. I commend the Consensus Committee for this endorsement and for their sacrifice, their commitment and their integrity. They have made an important contribution to the unity and stability of Nigeria.”

I beg to differ with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, they have actually contributed to the disunity and instability of Nigeria in the long run. Same group is trying to engineer similar ethnic based selection process in Igboland, located in the southeastern part of Nigeria to produce vice presidential candidate for Atiku Abubakar. Igbos should not engage in this type of manipulation which will encourage further division of Nigeria along ethnic or religious line which will not be in the best interest of Nigeria in the long run. I am encouraged that Nigerians are not buying this consensus candidate idea. It may have actually backfired because northerners and southerners are not clamoring for Atiku Abubakar’s potential presidency. His political opportunism is obvious. He keeps jumping from one party to the other when it suits him. Nigeria needs a man of principle and conviction at the helm to move the country forward.