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Babatunde Adenodi
Pharmacist
East Orange,
New Jersey
 USA

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The probability of something happening seven out of eight chances is a sure bet that it will always happen. Yar’Adua’s behavior in the few months before his death has reinforced my belief that it will always happen.

Whoever is selected as President Jonathan’s vice must be made aware of the jinx and must pledge to work against it!

 

Northern Presidency: The Jinx Continues
 by Tunde Adenodi.

 

 

I had hoped that the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was poised to break the jinx on the leaders of Nigeria of northern extraction not serving completely their terms in office. But I was wrong. He did not break it. So the jinx continues: No Nigerian Head of State or President of northern extraction has ever completed his term of office without being forcibly removed, killed in a coup or dying in office.

General Abdusalami Abubakar was an aberration and come to think of it, he was forced by the circumstances of the time to leave after only one and a half years in office. He had assumed power after a successive chain of brutal dictatorships of Generals Buhari, Babangida and Abacha. Not to forget the inept leadership of Alhaji Shehu Shagari which Buhari had ousted much earlier.

But let us start this discourse from the beginning when Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa became the Prime Minister of Nigeria on October 1, 1960. By 1964, he had run the country aground and the Army, led by Major Nzeogwu deposed him in a bloody coup on January 15, 1966. He was killed, along with the patron of his NPC and Premier of the North, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sadauna of Sokoto. Tafawa Balewa was a Hausa from Bauchi in the North.

General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi who took over from Balewa was himself killed in a counter-coup of July 1966. He was Head of State for only six months. He was Igbo from the East.

The leader who emerged after Ironsi was Yakubu Gowon who was catapulted from the lowly Lt. Colonel to that of General in a matter of months. He was in power for 8 years before he was removed while on a conference in Kampala, Uganda. He had thought that eight years in office was not enough for him to stamp his mark on the Nigerian political field and was preparing to stay on as Head of State for ever. “Not in my life”! said Murtala Muhammed, a Brigadier of the Nigerian Army. Gowon is from southern Zaria in the North.

General Murtala Muhammed became Head of State in 1972 and was removed six months into his administration. Murtala was killed by Colonel Bukar Suka Dimka on a street in Ikoyi while he was on his way to the office. Murtala Muhammed, one of the most loved Nigerian leaders, was from Kano in the North.

General Olusegun Obasanjo, Murtala’s Chief of Staff became Head of State for three and a half years and handed over peacefully and voluntarily to Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari. Need I say that Obasanjo is from Abeokuta in the West?

Alhaji Shehu Shagari became president in 1979 and ran the country aground just like his civilian predecessor Tafawa Balewa. He destroyed the country economically and politically. He frittered away the foreign reserve accumulated by Obasanjo and drove the country into debt to the tune of 33 billion dollars in only four years. The country had had enough of him and so did Major General Muhamadu Buhari, one of his General Officers Commanding. He was removed on December 31, 1983, only three months into his second term in office. Shagari was from Sokoto, in the North.

Buhari took over and was removed in 1987 by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. Buhari was from Daura in the North.

Then came eight years of brutal dictatorship by Babangida. He destroyed everything that made Nigeria a country. He destroyed education, health and even the Army that made him. He started a transition to civil rule that had beginning but no end. At the end of eight years in office, he annulled the freest and fairest election in the history of Nigeria. Then he knew that the traditional pull-out done for retired Generals that was organized for him by General Sani Abacha might well be his last event on earth if he did not heed to warning to leave, he scampered to safety to his Minna mansion with his tail between his legs. He was made to “step aside”. He was from Minna, in the North.

General Sani Abacha was the most brutal of the lot. His reason for power was to own the oil money coming to Nigeria. And by the time he died, he had owned much of the oil and had become one of the richest leaders in the world for such a short time as Head of state. He had wanted to continue as a civilian leader when the army became tired of him. He had been burried before most Nigerians heard that he died! His mysterious death is a matter of fire-side gossip. The facts may not be known for ever. He was from Kano in the North!

It is not certain that General Abubakar knew about this jinx. But he had acted in consonance with the political environment of that time. So, when he took over, he knew that Nigeria was not ready for a president of northern origin at that point. He also knew he had to leave office quickly before Nigerians ran out of patience with him. He had one task at hand: how to resolve the Abiola problem. MKO Abiola was never to become President. That was an article of faith. Don’t forget: he was Babangida’s neighbor in Minna! He still is! He had a home to go back to! And neighbors don’t do that to neighbors. He could not live with himself if he undid what his neighbor had done. What was the solution? MKO Abiola, the winner of the 1992 election annulled by General Babangida had to die in jail. And of course, “the man died!”

Then President Olusegun Obasanjo assumed power again in 1999 after Abubakar left office. He was president for 8 years before handing over arguably voluntarily to Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who died in office on May 5, 2010. Yar’adua was from Katsina in the north!

Eight people of northern origin have had the honor to lead Nigeria in her 50 years of taumatic independence. Seven were forced out. Out of the seven, three died in office. Only one left voluntarily and not without compelling reason to do so.

I had not forgotten about Ernest Shonekan who was forced out too. His government had been ruled illegal because there was never a constitutional basis for an Interim Government in Nigeria. His government therefore, did not exist! And if it did, it was an aberrant government of no consequence and therefore did not count.

What is a jinx? It is a curse that brings bad luck. Do northerners know about this jinx? Probably not! But what they do know is what I have stated above. Because this is an incontrovertible fact of history. No one can dispute it. You can dispute my motive for writing this piece, but not the facts! Are northerners not concerned? They probably are, but most of the people who get to be appointed or voted for the post do not care or are not circumspect enough to know and wish to do something about it.

A jinx must be recognized in order to work successfully against its reoccurrence. May be Abdusalami Abubakar knew. But not so Babangida. He even wants to come back as president!

Ian Fleming, in his Goldfinger says on James Bond’s ubiquitous presence every where Goldfinger was: “first is happenstance, second is coincidence and third is enemy action”.

The probability of something happening seven out of eight chances is a sure bet that it will always happen. Yar’Adua’s behavior in the few months before his death has reinforced my belief that it will always happen.

Whoever is selected as President Jonathan’s vice must be made aware of the jinx and must pledge to work against it!
 

 

 

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