Nigeria And The Global Media Manipulations
04 May 2011By Hadiza Wada, DBA
Most analysts of the election outcome, especially the
violence that followed seem to assume that Nigerians
have short memory and/or are foolish. They, out of
self-serving reasons mostly, attribute the violence
that engulfed the nation to the loss of Muhammadu
Buhari. They therefore limit their analysis on the
fact that regardless of clear manipulations, the youth
tirade was solely as a result of the loss of Muhammadu
Buhari.
Yes, clear manipulations of the Presidential votes
might have caused concern to members of opposition
political parties, such as (a) the withholding of the
results from areas that the incumbent President was
favored by more than 24 hours, until figures from the
ruling party's rival state were in; (b) The clear
inflation of the figures in most South-South and South
Eastern States where again the incumbent was favored,
with claimed voter turnout that runs upwards of 80%;
and several other ways which demonstrated that despite
INEC's strategy, the institution was indeed
infiltrated and its arrangement circumvented. Even
foreign observers have spoken against it. All these
were brazen actions that everyone watched as they
unfold, which created doubts as to the outcome of the
election. But that could not be the only reason.
A great majority of the local as well as international
media, which of course today are not on the side of
most of the values those youths hold dear, grabbed the
ball and ran away with it, dancing to the tunes of the
destructive sentiments that have inhibited the
nation's growth. By that we mean the manipulation of
ethnic and religious differences in Nigerian politics.
They clearly failed to see that the youths are
reacting to the possibility that their yearnings and
interest will once again be shelved for the next four
to eight years by a leadership that holds no interest
in them. They have literally been abandoned by most of
their regional leaders and doubly abandoned persecuted
and killed at will by politicians who profess other
religions, who target them based on religion and
ethnicity.
These are all clear from what properties and which
personalities they targeted. They did not just target
religious properties of others as is commonly reported
by the press; they also targeted their regional
leaders as well because they feel they are part of the
problem. Hence they were reported to have burnt down
personal houses of local politicians that share the
same ethnicity and religion with them. They even went
as far as, for the first time, targeting their
traditional rulers' properties. Remember, these are
centuries old regional institutions they have for all
these years respected. And not only that they even
targeted their topmost Muslim ceremonial figure, the
Sultan, forcing him to leave his centuries old family
residence for safety. So please, do not deceive us and
the world, by forcing everyone into the traps of the
politicians who manipulate sentiments to bury real
serious issues.
Yes, the issue those youths rose up against digs much
deeper than the loss of Buhari. The youth have, and by
extension their families and people they love felt
abandoned. They feel abandoned when their regional
leaders failed to stand up for them, allowing
incumbent Jonathan to manipulate as well as violate an
ingrained policy of the ruling party PDP, an
arrangement which today gave the Southern Majority
Christian politicians nine out of eleven years of
presidency and still counting. Not to talk of the
illegality of the rotation of leadership between the
North and the South in itself, a clear violation of
the Nigerian Constitution including any democratic
principle anywhere, for the North is by far the
majority in both area and population.
See physical area representation of what the North
constitutes, and what constitutes the South. "The
south" is literally less than one third of the
Northern area.
So such rioting youths not only have a fight against
their local leadership, they are expressing their
frustrations against the national leadership as well
for they feel doubly abandoned by those who should
also uphold the Judicial supremacy of the nation's
institutions, as ingrained in the separation of power,
so as to bring in sanity to Nigerian politics of
manipulation that keeps the majority of the people out
of the mainstream of political power, their interests
violated and their participation marginalized.
Winning a manipulated and illegitimate term by anyone
should not be brushed under the carpet. Most of these
news sources have conveniently forgotten the fact that
Goodluck Johnathan's legitimacy ends on May 28, 2011.
By May 29, 2011 in accordance with the PDP Policy the
baton was supposed to be passed on to some other
Northern PDP President to complete the regional term.
The history is there, and the oppressed majority are
still an issue to reckon with, in one way or another.
A proverb goes "uneasy lies the head that wears the
crown." Though that usually relates to machinations
within the corridors of power itself i.e. at the peak,
sometimes the rebellion comes from an oppressed
citizenry down below and in this case the oppressed
are in the majority.
The situation shows nothing personal against the
person of Goodluck Jonathan, and I think even he knows
that. Politicians and the enemies of national
development both within and without, love to
sensationalize situations and confuse the issues by
force. Northern Nigeria has never had any historical
antagonism in the political arena with the local
population of the Niger Delta, and the records are
there.
But the issue is, is Jonathan's insistence on
bulldozing his way, a blessing for the nation or a
curse. Has he exhibited or portend to possess the best
credentials in terms of leadership qualities more than
any other; which most importantly include the ability
to check and fight corruption, embezzlement and the
broad day light looting of the treasury that has
rendered the nation's infrastructure useless. If we
are to judge him by his tenure so far, he may turn out
to be one of the worst the nation has ever seen. The
figures are there, read our editorial from last week
titled "Fiscal Responsibility a Must."
Any nation that cares less about accountability is
doomed. No one seemed to care about turning around the
fast deteriorating quality of the nation's education
as the schools rot away. Billions in our foreign
exchange is enriching foreign nations that our
children ran out to instead, while those not able to
afford are left in a hopeless situation. Healthcare
facilities have broken down, where the ruling class,
and now even the middle class have to run out of the
country for simple ailments curable in simple
dispensaries of other nations. Yet for sentiments,
people are ready to continue along that line rather
than fight to bring back into the mainstream credible
people with the credentials to fight towards putting
things back into shape.
For those who concentrate on Buhari, what about Nuhu
Ribadu. This is a man who has proven his mettle by
resisting millions and millions of dollars in bribes
and potential bribery in order to fight for the nation
and its effective use of resources. Who gave him a
chance? Even in the South West where he was born and
bred and was held up as the Presidential candidate for
their most influential party, when it came to
Presidential election they betrayed him. They chose
their own people for local representation (from ACN)
but turned around and went for a "Southerner" if I may
use that term, from their opposition party PDP, when
it comes to the Presidential election. What a shame!
Not only the rampaging youths, many whose interest
have always been for the general good of the nation
and not on personalities, want better and the most
credible leadership that will turn around Nigeria's
clear journey into destruction around. That hope
surely does not lie with PDP's present leadership, and
its destructive political machine.
It surely is not as simple as "the Northern Youth"
were angry at Jonathan's victory because of his
ethnicity and religion as reported by ethnically
biased local as well as other international news
sources including the Al Jazeera's local
correspondent.
Local and International Media surely missed the point.
We are not denying entirely that Buhari loss is one of
the factors, because that is how the chess board of
Nigerian politics has been set to manipulate people
and their sentiments, but that is only a fraction of
the point.
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments