PRESIDENT JONATHAN WINS HIS PARTY'S NOMINATION, CONGRATULATIONS!

Icheoku hereby congratulate the winner of PDP presidential primaries, President Goodluck Ebelesimi Azikiwe Jonathan on his victory; congratulations! Now that the politics of who in the PDP runs for election in the coming  April 2011 presidential elections has been resolved, it is time to put the politicking aside and let preparations begin for a successful election outing. With this is the added responsibility for the winner to ensure the unity of all parties in the PDP as the April election approaches; admitted some had different opinions and preferences regarding the very outcome just witnessed. It is not personal, it is politics; and it is about positioning oneself properly in the fight for a cause greater than self and which is beneficial to the people. Icheoku hopes the candidate-elect and his team understands this political imperative and will now pivot from the primaries bitter fight to focus on the main political fight ahead in April, against other presidential candidates of other parties.


Icheoku commends the PDP Chairman Nwodo and his convention organizing committee for putting up a transparently well organized primaries; let us hope it the signs of things to come in April, assuming NEC's Jega is listening. The main challenger and the man Icheoku had endorsed on grounds of adhering to the PDP's zoning arrangement principles, Atiku Abubakar, is hereby also commended for keeping alive the hope of real democracy in Nigeria. Admitted he did not win and lost by a wide margin, but at least he made President Jonathan work very hard for his nomination; as his was not the case of the usual African incumbents' unopposed selection and election. In some ironical oddity, Atiku Abubakar by putting up a strong fight, helped entrench democracy in Nigeria - it was not an all coast clear for the incumbent. Sarah Jibril is also commended and given an 'E' for effort; at least she voted for herself and got the only one vote as an also ran presidential candidate. It appears also that President Jonathan has learnt some lesson in the art of survival, especial political survival; which says 'never stray too far away from your godfather/mentor'. The godfather never sleeps or rests; and always shadows the object of his affection with bountiful love and protection, no matter what. Icheoku is convinced that Jonathan read the handwriting on the wall correctly and his decision to keep the man who made him king around and very close paid off greatly as seen in the resounding victory he recorded at the PDP presidential primaries. 

As for the South East Igbos 2015 agenda to produce the next president of Nigeria, Icheoku says it is almost a complete game-over for them now that a southern has emerged as presidential candidate and likely president in 2011. The result of the primaries has radically changed the equation especially with the non committal of President Goodluck Jonathan to the 2015 Igbo presidential agenda. With Jonathan's victory, the Nigeria powers that be might decide to postpone the day when an Igbo will be president a little longer, and make the Igbos to really work hard for it if they truly want it. Moreso, it is most likely that President Goodluck Jonathan will hand the presidential baton over to Vice President Namadi Sambo after he might have completed a second term, arguably to finish South-South eight year term? Election has consequences and the Igbos seem to have again lost out in the power tussle in Nigeria; and no sane person expects Vice President Namadi Sambo to just walk away after being a president in the waiting for these years. Icheoku advises the Igbos of South-East to retool and reposition themselves with a new game-plan tailored for several years post 2015.

Notably absent at the convention were Ibrahim Babangida, Orji Uzor Kalu and Gusua; and Icheoku wonders what kept these politicians of timber and caliber out of the Eagle Square convention. Icheoku also did not remember seeing the father and champion of the northern consensus candidate, Mallam Adamu Ciroma anywhere around the convention; or was he too ashamed of his product to show face? But hey, it is politics and winners and losers are sure to bound but Nigeria marches on!

If not for personal vendetta of the Northern Elders Forum that sabotaged Babangida's presidential campaign effort, may be Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida would have been a superior northern consensus candidate than the woeful performer Atiku Abubakar, who was left in the dust by President Goodluck Jonathan's turbo charged campaign. Although Icheoku campaigned against Babangida's ambition, but we strongly believe that as between Atiku and Babangida, the later would have been a stronger candidate and would have also given Jonathan a run for his money. Icheoku is confident that were Babangida to lose to President Jonathan eventually, it would not have been by such a very wide margin as 2753 to 805 out of 3542 total votes cast as recorded in the just concluded Jonathan versus Atiku run. But hey, at least Mallam Adamu Ciroma should be commended for masterfully solving the Babangida problem and without much of a fight; or was Ciroma a hired gun of the Jonathan's campaign, surreptitiously used to take the bigger challenger IBB out of the race? But does anyone really understands the intrigues and wheel-dealing involved in politics. 

The final votes tally received by the three individual presidential candidates were as follows:- Jonathan 2736, Atiku 805 vote and Sarah 1 vote respectively; 61 other votes were voided. One significant development in the primaries was the loss by Atiku of his own home state of Adamawa; just in similar vein as American Al Gore lost his home state of Tennessee to George W. Bush in United States 2000 presidential election. President Jonathan also beat Atiku in all Southern States as well as some northern states; while Atiku pulled victory in core northwestern states of Sokoto, Zamfara, Niger, Kebbi and Kano States otherwise known as the Islamic Sharia States of Northern Nigeria. 

Overall, the election of President Goodluck Jonathan is significant as it finally and for the first time, marked the ceding of power by the semi-illiterate ruling class to an educated Nigerian. A Nigerian who is from the minority area and one who still have some life left in him, being under the usual 70 years benchmark for these rulers. A somewhat youthful Nigerian president who will help cement the gains of democracy and without infusing much demagoguery or religiosity or tribal bigotry in the polity.  Also by Jonathan's election, it appears that Nigeria is finally free from the Northern Nigeria hegemony; a hegemony which held Nigeria down for so long and which still hold certain portions of the greater Northern Nigeria hostage and in bondage. With the back of the North's hegemony finally broken, Nigerians can now breath the air of freedom and confidently march on to a future that is both brighter, better and more unifying. The election result decimated a once too powerful and overbearing homogeneous Northern Nigeria, which hitherto held Nigerians and those Northerners they consider "not northerner enough" in bondage and perpetual servitude.

The election result has also reconfigured Nigeria's political geography from the previous black and white North and South to now "Nigeria and the Islamic Sharia States of North-Western Nigeria?" Under the new Nigeria, it is now ok for a minority Southerner to succeed a majority Northerner; and during the later's zonal turn and thus Jonathan can now complete the late Umaru Yar'Adua led northern turn. That is the ideal situation in a country where things are done right and properly; gladly enough it looks like a new dawn is unfolding in Nigeria or who would have imagined several years ago that Jonathan would have been able to succeed and complete Yar'Adua's otherwise second term? So be that as it may, April election is just around the corner and Icheoku prays that Nigeria will have a successful election; so let the campaigns begin and begin earnestly. Once again, congratulations President Goodluck Jonathan on your nomination as the presidential candidate for your party, the PDP!