Political sensitivities in the predominantly Muslim north have forced Jonathan, a Christian southerner, to tread lightly in his efforts to contain Boko Haram.

Indeed, even southern governors who are not reliable Obasanjo allies appear determined to maintain their influence within the central government by ensuring that the country s next president is a southerner.

Southern governors countered that the north had controlled the country through more than three decades of authoritarian rule and that a southerner should hold the presidency for years to come.

In the 1960 election, the Democratic nominee, John F. Kennedy, continued his party's tradition of selecting a Southerner as the vice presidential candidate (in this case, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas).

Many northerners resent that the presidency was returned to a southerner after only one term with a northerner in office (an informal agreement mandates that the presidency should alternate between north and south every two terms).

In 2007, arguing that it was their turn to choose a chief executive, they bitterly opposed a bid by then President Olusegun Obasanjo, a southerner and a Christian, to rewrite Nigeria s constitution in hopes of winning a third term.

President Jonathan s announcement triggered furious protests from his northern rivals, including Ibrahim Babangida, a former military dictator who reminded him that Olusegun Obasanjo, a southerner, had served as president from 1999, when military rule ended, to 2007, with northern support.

On the first day I became the soldier teacher, a tiny girl with a sweet voice and that lovely southerner modesty came to meet me. She took my hand with her tiny one, encircled with a green bracelet to ward off evil, and showed me Kalou's new school a school that had no walls and stood just a few steps away from the sea.