Why some Northerners are angry with President Jonathan Goodluck

GarriPeople


Home | Politics | ( 1 ) | Subscribe

Posted by Chidinma on Tuesday March 3, 2015 at 11:33:32:

There has been a lot of pressure by Northerners to prevent President Jonathan Goodluck from being re-elected for a second term in office. In fact, most of the grassroot supporters of the fast growing opposition party All Progressive Congress (APC) that is working tirelessly to ensure that President Goodluck does not win the forth coming election are from the North. The issue now is, why they are so displeased with the President given that some good projects had been done by the same president in the northern region. Why do they seem so eager to replace him and his party with a new opposition party that has not been tested? Why are they working to ensure that he is not given the chance to complete his second tenure?

Some of the reasons I've noticed include;

1. Growing level on insecurity: I think this is the major reason why many northerners are anti-Jonathan. The growing level of violence in that region pioneered by both Boko haram and the Nigerian army has made it a red zone that many people fear for their lives in that region. Some even claim that it's Jonathan's government that is indirectly sponsoring Boko haram and also claim that the army kills innocent people while claiming they are terrorists.

2. The quest for a Northern President: the Northerners have this past grievance that they were not given the opportunity to complete their second tenure after the death of President Yaradua. There is this silent rule in Nigeria that each of the major tribes are to take turns to hold the presidential post; after President Obasanjo’s tenure from the Yoruba tribe, the Northerners where the next, but president Yaradua died before he could complete his second tenure; so the northerners are still angry with President Goodluck for standing on their way to achieving a second presidential tenure.

3. His Christian religion: Many in the north are Moslems and so don't even like the fact that they are being headed by a Christian president even though there are many Muslims and Christians in Nigeria. They feel more comfortable with a Muslim President and that's why many of them tend to favour Buhari over Jonathan as president.

4. Policies He Took: Northerners are also angry with President Jonathan because of some of the policies he took that they felt was not in their favour. For example removal of the Arabic sign from the naira currency and also halting the development of Islamic banking in Nigeria by removing the Governor of Central Bank before the expiration of his tenure.