The average Nigerian sees a Nigerian politician as someone who can't really be trusted, someone who will see black and try to convince you that its white beacuse he wants to get your vote
Politicians judging from how they have been conducting themselves and the affairs of Nigeria have not really fully won the confidence of the people. Here are men and women who would visit the remotest parts of Nigeria asking for votes only for them to turn their backs on the people after their election victory. Although it can be argued that in Nigeria, politicians don't really need your votes to win, afterall there are other methods of electoral fraud like ballot stuffing, but the fact remains that they still need the electorate to give their illegality some form of legitimacy.
Recently, President Olusegun Obasanjo declared that it was not true that the presidency was zoned to the North neither does he know who will succeed him. Not satisfied with the president’s position on the matter, the Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi said it was not true that the 2007 presidency was not zoned to the North. Makarfi who could not provide any documented evidence to drive home his point said the president and 63 top members of the ruling party made the decision at the presidential villa.
Said Makarfi: “The president was there, the Vice-President was there, other top members of the PDP were there and the meeting took place before the 2003 primaries. The meeting was held to discuss problems that were going to confront the PDP in the 2003 primaries before the year’s elections” When Makarfi was asked if the deal authorizing the North to produce the next president of Nigeria in 2007 was documented, he said it was not a written agreement neither was the meeting the National Executive Council meeting of the PDP.
In Akwa Ibom, the same problem of a non-written political agreement is causing ripples in selecting the next governor of the state in 2007 to succeed Obong Victor Attah at the end of his tenure. Recently, the national president of Annang Forum, Chief Fidelis Etim told a crowded press conference in Ikot Ekpene, often regarded as the headquarters of the Annang nation that it was the turn of the Annangs to produce the next governor in 2007.
The Ibibio are the largest ethnic stock in Akwa Ibom with 16 local government areas followed by the Annangs with 10 local government areas and the Oron people with 5 local governments. Since the creation of Akwa Ibom State in 1987, no other ethnic group has produced the state governor and the Annangs say that 2007 is their turn. Etim told newsmen at the press briefing that the Ibibio and the Oron as well as traditional rulers under the Ifim Ibom Ibibio, the apex Ibibio Traditional Institution, had in 2003 agreed to cede the state’s governorship to the Annangs in 2007. When Chief Etim was however asked to show evidence of the agreement that the Annangs should produce the state governor in 2007, he said “Ibibio and we know they will stand by their word and allow the Annang to produce the state governor in 2007."
Although this issue of power shift and the agreement allegedly made has become the talk in the state, nobody has been able to produce a written evidence.
Also, just as the president has said he did not know who will succeed him, Attah was quoted as having said that he too does not know who will succeed him neither has he anointed any successor in 2007. The scenario both at the federal and at the state levels has made it imperative for Nigerian politicians to learn to document major decisions particularly if such decisions affect the socio-political and economic advancement of the country.
If the president and the 63 top PDP members who allegedly met and agreed on the North producing the next president in 2007 had documented their decision and if Attah and the traditional rulers who were alleged to have met in 2003 had also documented their decision to allow the Annangs produce the governor in 2007, there would have been no problems. Or should we believe that those at the helm of these two important meetings deliberately avoided any written evidence or documentation to suit the attitude and behavioural pattern of politicians who could turn white into black to achieve his desired goals?
