Monday, March 18, 2019

The Hausa/Fulani North and the rest of Nigeria.by Lasisi Olagunju.

“I know that no captor, no slave owner wants the captive free. I know that the day the fool gains wisdom is the day the wise loses his power. But since Buhari no longer needs the Almajiri as the tap root of his electoral power, he should use his last years to assist all of us by taking his 'boys and girls' to school. It will help the future of Nigeria if the North gives us men and women who have competence and knowledge to contribute to the national asset pool.
Poor, illiterate Northern Kids
We just had an election in which the two major candidates were northerners. An election conducted by a president who is from the North and by an INEC chairman who is also from the North. These men just gave us a challenged presidential poll closely guarded by security chiefs all from the North. The North, through this election, has told us clearly that it owns the yam and the knife of Nigeria. It should therefore learn to be a responsible husband, doing things well and tidying up properly going forward. I would have said that we need an educated North to give us a believable election in 2023 but my friend would counter that. My friend would say 2023 is too soon for our unprepared North to do right. So how long should we wait for the North to be ready for excellence? This 2019 stuff is sick and sickening. Was it INEC's incompetence or pure mischief that figures in our 2019 presidential election became problematic? The figures announced by Professor Mahmood Yakubu are these:
Total number of registered voters: 82,344,107
Total number of accredited voters: 29,364,209
Total votes cast: 28,614,190
Total Valid votes: 27,324,583
Rejected votes: 1,289,607
Did INEC not tell us some hours to the elections that it registered a total of 84,004,084 voters? So where did it get the new number of 82,344,107 as our total registered voters? What happened to the balance of 1,659,977 voters? Did they vote in that election and if they did, where are their votes? Or they died before the elections or they went on exile renouncing their citizenship? Or they reside in Sambisa forest where there were (are) no polling booths? What happened to them
 
A Northern Nigerian King
Again, why did INEC announce different figures for accredited voters and for total votes cast when all of us who voted saw clearly that voting and accreditation were done simultaneously? INEC said accredited voters were 29,364,209 and total votes cast 28,614,190. Between those two figures are 750,019 voters and their votes. What happened to them? Or did INEC give ballot papers to these almost a million persons who took the ballot papers home instead of dropping them in the ballot box? Then there is the huge number of rejected (cancelled) votes - 1,289,607 (4.5percent of total votes cast). What explanation has INEC for these? Or, again, is it too much to demand reasons for the wasted efforts of millions of our compatriots?
Above all, if you have Buhari's ears, tell him to help us by educating the children of the North. They should not be useful only on election days.” 

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