This elliptical juxtaposition in comparative political analysis exposes an interesting narrative for students of history. Mr. Tanko Yakassi, a close aide to Yar'Adua and former official of the Nigerian Government breaks his silence and draws a parallel on the Cameroon experience between late President Ahmadou Ahidjo and his successor Paul Biya and the similitude of events between late President Yar'Adua and successor Goodluck Ebere Jonathan of Nigeria. Draw your own conclusions.
Mishe Fon
 | Friday, November 22, 2013 |
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Q: I recall that even when you were agitating that Yar'Adua should not hand over power to Jonathan from his sick bed in Saudi Arabia; you were very few and did not get the support of northern leaders?
We were very few indeed; we were just about three or four. I was doing that because I saw what happened in Cameroun between Paul Biya and his predecessor, Ahmadu Ahidjo, when Ahidjo travelled for medical treatment. I was also doing it for posterity.
Ahidjo's advisers and medical staff advised him to abdicate and go for treatment, and then come back to reclaim his mandate when he returns. Ahidjo sought the advice of his mother and she told him that since the doctor said he has no medicine against death, he can't stop you from dying, and if that is the case, you should rather die as a leader, instead of an ordinary person. That was what his mother reportedly told him.
But Ahidjo chose to relinquish power to the person he felt he trusted the most. But what happened afterwards, even the French President on a visit to Cameroun informed Ahidjo that he has kept a scorpion in his pocket. In fact Ahidjo was shoved aside even during the farewell ceremony for the French President and it was made clear to him that he was a nobody.
At the end of the day, words got to Ahidjo on a visit to his mother that plans have been concluded to arrest him there and he fled the country. He never went back till he died.
It is the fear of such for Yar'Adua that we insisted that he should not transmit power to Jonathan, since the Constitution did not make it mandatory for him to hand over power. After all there was nothing Jonathan could not do in the absence of his boss.
However, most northern governors and elders insisted that he should handover. A judge even said since Yar'Aua's deputy is already running the government, there was no need for any documented transfer of power. Our fear was that once he transferred his power, they would never have allowed him to return to this country.
That was why his ADC and CSO arranged with the Chief of Army Staff for him to be returned secretly at night without anybody's knowledge. The fear was that if those in government or Jonathan knew about the return, he might order soldiers to go to the airport and prevent him from landing.
That incident also gave the impression to the Southerners that we are not united. The value of a broom is to sweep. But when it is disorganised, it cannot sweep anything, and it is useless if it is not tied together. Population might is useless unless if the people decide to come together and act in unison to achieve their goal.
So if we willingly push ourselves into becoming a minority in the PDP, we would end up neither here, nor there. Because whether people like it or not, APC is a Yoruba party.
The Yoruba have foresight, in the last election, they supported Ribadu, but they honestly knew he could not win. You also knew he could not win, I knew he could not win, in fact even Ribadu knew he could not win, and because they knew he could not win, they did not even bother to vote for him.
Ribadu came to see me, because I was his father's friend, and he told me he was going to run for election. I told him I support his decision because his coming in, would mean that all opposition elements are coming together, because as long as they are always divided, they would never achieve their aim. I said if you all come together, then the people will know that you are serious, and they would support you to form the government. How can ACN be in Yoruba land, CPC in the north and APGA in Igbo land and one of them would dislodge the PDP in 2011?
I have been in politics for over sixty one years. Even if I was just watching something for 61 years, you know very well that I would know much more than the one who began to watch two or three years ago, besides, I was actively involved.
Q. When you were trying to convince Yar'Adua not to hand over power, did you let him know what you feared would happen if he did?
Well, I never saw him since he assumed office. I only saw him before his inauguration when we visited him under the auspices of Northern Unity Forum. I never saw him since then. It is just a matter of common sense, foresight and experience.
You know, up to now, they have been trying to return Ahidjo's corpse to Cameroon, but the president has refused. He feared that if the corpse is returned it might be more popular than him who is in power.
Yar'Adua too may not be allowed to return if he had communicated his decision to return, at least that was what his security details assumed. That was why he was returned secretly at night without anybody's knowledge except the Army Chief, and I am not surprised.
Q. Let's go back to the Yoruba and their politics; you were talking about Ribadu, right?
Yes, what I want you to understand is that they were just using us. They supported Ribadu because they knew he would not win, and they would not even vote for him. And now, they would still support another northern candidate, whether he wins or not, they don't care. In fact they already knew it cannot be won.
But in the election that would follow the next one, it may be their turn to produce the candidate, do you think there is a northerner that would not support a Yoruba candidate? And by then, the Yoruba folk would come out en masse to vote for one of their own.
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