The Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, has explained why Nigerians voted against President Goodluck Jonathan in the last presidential election.
According to the former Central Bank governor, Jonathan lost woefully because of the level of poverty across the country.
Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, as he is now known, told Punch Newspapers that the outcome of the presidential election indicated that Nigerians were no longer at ease with the PDP-led government.
He noted that the result further showed that the PDP has continued to witness a dwindling fortune since 1999.
The monarch observed that the PDP got fewer votes in 2007, lesser in 2011 and then fewer votes in 2015, adding that this contributed to their eventual lose to the All Progressives Congress.
He said, “I think in 2011, it was very clear that Jonathan had lost many states in the North that had previously been won by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. And it was clear that there was a general belief by people that the Federal Government was not investing in the areas where there is a high level of poverty.
“I believe more and more of those states began to feel that sense of not feeling the federal presence and not feeling the impact of democracy in their pockets and I think it is extremely important for people to connect with the government and when you have such conditions after 16 years of democracy, it was natural that people would want to have a change and I think this is basically what has happened.
“I don’t think it is something about an individual, I think it is something that has been going on for a number of years and you could see the states won by the PDP in 1999 and what they won in 2003, what they won in 2007, 2011 and you would begin to see the changes in the way Nigerians were responding. So it was a matter of time.”
Sanusi, however, lauded Jonathan, the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari; and the Independent National Electoral Commission for the peaceful conduct of the election.
“I think it is good for the country that you have different parties winning and if the APC performs, they get another term and if they don’t, they get voted out after four years and it is extremely important that this happens; so let us not see it in terms of somebody losing,” he said.
The monarch advised the president-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to stamp out corruption for the county.
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