 It
is joyful thing, I believe, that the 2015 general elections is only a
few weeks from now. It is a sad pity, however, that the two leading
political parties, the PDP and the APC, have only succeeded in fielding
what, to me, seem to be two mediocres for the presidential elections.
In
light of the 21st century challenges confronting and threatening the
existence Nigeria as a nation, one would have naturally expected to see
vibrant, brilliant-minded individuals with clear roadmaps for
development emerging as the presidential flag bearers of the two major
political parties in the country but the various party conventions, at
best, have only presented us with two rottened oranges from which we
must, unfortunately, suck or starve.  Being
the first country on the African soil to win a Nobel prize for
Literature; being the home country of Pastor E. A Adeboye, one of the
most influential clergy in world's history; being the first African
country to win an Olympic gold medal in soccer, among other things,
Nigeria does not deserve to have two crude-minded persons, two double
tragedy, seeking the highest office of the land at the same time.
The
PDP presidential flagbearer, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and his APC
counterpart, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, are, truth be told, only good
presidential aspirants if Nigeria were to be a 15th century budding
nation, where bows and arrows are the most sophisticated weapon. None of
the two candidates have the capability to rescue Nigeria out of the
present mess. None of the two candidates has presented a clear and
unambiguous roadmap on how he hopes to strengthen the weakened
institutions in the country, fix the nosediving economy, provide surplus
jobs for the teeming youth population, tackle corruption, revive
agriculture, stabilize power, and end insurgency in the North-eastern
states.
Permit me to briskly run a commentary on the two presidential
aspirants: Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is a Phd holder that doesn't know
the difference between stealing and corruption. How will corruption not
increase under his watch? Goodluck Jonathan was born without a silver
spoon, going to school in a little wooden canoe but today he flies in
and operates a fleet of private jet. Is he sensitive to the plights of
the poor? Can a president who went to dance 'skelewu' at a PDP Kano
rally less than 24hours after the Nyanya blast, which claimed over fifty
innocent lives, fight insurgency to a halt?
Goodluck's cluelessness
is not limited to his actions, they reflect in the way he responds to
delicate national issues. In a live presidential media chat, when he was
asked to express his views on the allegedly missing 20billion dollars
in the oil sector Goodluck, looking calm and beaming with smiles as
ever, said something that sounded like "I don't believe any money is
missing. If any money is indeed missing, the United States would have
raised the alarm before anybody else. Since the US has remained quiet,
no money is missing..." Any SS1 student offering Government, who having
taught the sovereignty of nations, deserves to be severely flogged for
such utterances. It is a pity that a Phd holder will provide such an
unintelligent answer to such a sensitive question before millions of
viewers worldwide. How can people with this kind of childish mentality
discern the demerits of the devaluation of Naira?
Now, I turn my
attention to General Muhammadu Buhari, who was a former military Head of
State and the only Nigerian in living memory that has contested for the
presidency for a record three times in a row. The forthcoming
presidential elections will be his fourth. If anything is known about
Buhari, it is the fact that he has built for himself the reputation of
uttering unguarded utterances. By the grace of God, Buhari said shortly
after he lost the 2011 elections, the dog and the baboon will be soaked
in blood....and the North has been boiling afterward. Buhari is also
credited to have said 'an attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the
north'. The fact that Buhari hasn't directly or indirectly apologized
for these careless statements since he made them, portray him as a
selfish, sectorial leader. How can such a leader protect the secularity
of the Nigerian state?
Although I wasn't born during Buhari's regime,
Buhari was said to have ruthlessly fought corruption. The peddlers of
'change' are claiming that Buhari's second coming will mark the end of
corruption in Nigeria. This is candidly ridiculous. More than half of
the national leaders of the APC are rottenly corrupt politicians. Will
they spend their 'blood money' to finance Buhari's campaign and still
get a jail sentence instead of a 'thank you' when Buhari eventually
wins? God forbid. How then can Buhari be a trustworthy crusader of
corruption? This writer is laughing in Greek.
Nigeria presently needs
well-tutored, broad-minded presidents with lucid vision but, sadly,
Goodluck and Buhari, two square pegs, cannot fit this rounded peg of
socio-economic advancement of Nigeria. While Goodluck is merely a Phd
holder on paper, he goes about with a standard six brain. Buhari is an
old general who knows where his guns are kept but has carelessly left
his educational certificates in the custody of the military. Both men
are careless and half-baked. And people like them cannot save us now. We
need new names.
However, sadly, if asked to choose between the two
evils, Goodluck and Buhari, I will choose the lesser evil which,
methinks, is Buhari. Here are some of my reasons for making this
unfortunate decision. First, Buhari is a man of integrity - even the
garrulous Obasanjos, Fani-Kayodes and Doyin Okupes of this world have
not made any comment suggesting otherwise. Second, history has something
to write about the achievements of the Buhari/Idiagbon regime -
foremost which are the fight against corruption and the refusal to
embrace the imperialistic policies of IMF. What will history write about
Jonathan's administration?
Third, Buhari has been contesting since
2003, a strong reason to believe that he truly has a vision, whether
myopic or not, for Nigeria. Jonathan became president by providence and
has continued to leave the destiny of Nigerians in the hands of
Providence. Lastly, the choice of the young and vibrant Prof. Osinbajo
as Buhari's running mate instills the confidence that APC can indeed lay
a solid foundation for the 'change' Nigerians have been clamouring for.
I
will close this discourse with this parable: man, as a rule, must die.
Death is evil. Although death is death, it is better to die in one's
sleep than to die by hanging. It is not my duty to tell the reader the
candidate that is like dying in one's sleep and the one that is like
death by hanging.
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