When Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo won 1999 elections that ended a decade and half of military rule, he created an unusual political record. He scored the least votes among his Yoruba kin in the country's southwest, even failing to win in his ward at his hometown, Abeokuta.
But he swept the rest of the country, winning most votes in the northern Hausa-Fulani Muslim heartland, in the southeast dominated by Igbos as well as the central region and the southern Niger Delta populated mainly by ethnic minorities.

Obasanjo had made overtures to his kinsmen in a bid to build a political base for himself, to the disappointment of his backers. But the Alliance for Democracy (AD), the dominant party in the southwest, said it would only support Obasanjo's re-election if he accepted its political programme.
The key element of this programme was the demand for a "sovereign national conference" to work out a new political structure for Nigeria that would give more power to the regions and leave a weak centre. It was a demand shared by all other regions except the north. But it went against Obasanjo's political grain. Since his days as military ruler in the 1970s he had sought to build a Nigeria with a strong central government and weak regions.

"Some people in the South West have gone as far as to argue that Obasanjo is not a Yoruba man. He is an Igbo man from the South-East. His father is from Anambra while his mother is a Yoruba woman. And that was why during his tenure, he completely ignored the South West. For example, throughout his eight years, he did nothing on the Lagos- Ibadan expressway. "But he did a lot for his people in the South-East. He picked five Ministers from there and even appointed the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from Anambra where his father comes from.

People will say different reasons why the South West should support a South eastern candidate, and the South east will say the same thing which is fair argument in all honesty.

The truth is that equity has eluded mankind ,Most especially Africa, same reasons the North does not want to restructure Nigeria they instead want to continue to benefit from our divisions to continue to produce leaders that they totally control their political lives.This is the reason why a candidate like Goodluck Johnathan was even a consideration with his disastrously poor 5yrs in office, they prefer that to credible candidates.