TheCable

To start with, forget about what frantic and power-driven politicians are telling you, this year’s presidential election is going to be the toughest in the narration of our nascent democracy. The two major contestants are fighting the greatest battle of their life. Both Atiku and Buhari cannot run again for the highest office in the land—after this year, 2019. Buhari is frantic to take Nigeria to an undefined next-level while Atiku is desperate to win, so he can come in—to handle an indeterminate restructuring of Nigeria. Nigerians, who are not partisans, can never be fooled and deceived again!

For the umpteenth time, next month’s presidential election is going to be between Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and President Buhari. Wrestling power from the ruling party is an arduous feat which cannot be achieved in a few weeks. How do I mean? It is too late for our emerging politicians to come together—in order to win the next month’s presidential election.  Infact, they won’t be able to do much in 2023! But if they do not stop, by 2027, they should be able to take over the highest seat of leadership in Nigeria.

Nigerians are already carried away as an effect of our politicians who are daily attacking themselves on the pages of newspaper, online, on radio and television stations. Nigerians have forgotten that politics is a shallow-game in Nigeria. They are all pretending as if they are fighting themselves, but the truth is; they are not fighting themselves. I said all that in order to say this: don’t be carried away by their thoughtless-game. Ask those people (politicians) questions on how Nigeria will truly move forward. Do not let them drag you into their meaningless politics!

The reason our politicians are attacking themselves is because they don’t want you to ask them intelligent questions on how Nigeria is going to truly move forward. Atiku said he would end insurgency, but Nigerians are yet to ask him any question on how he is going to deliver that. Also, Buhari is yet to tell Nigerians anything on how he wants to govern Nigeria differently. If you do not ask responsible questions from your politicians and demand serious answers from them (and document them), then you are doomed for the next four (4) years!

The only nation where the issue of leadership is being handled with lightheartedness and flippancy is Nigeria. Most electorate do not care about who becomes the president of Nigeria. They do not care a hoot! They do know that both Atiku and Buhari are not relevant to where we are in Nigeria let alone where we are going, but because of selfish reasons, they keep working both day and night to get the juiciest job in Nigeria for their preferred candidate. I have said it before and I will say it again: some years back, when Buhari asked for my vote and I ended up giving it to him, because I was sick and tired of the administration of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The reason I gave my vote to him was not for him to come build houses and construct roads. I never voted for him, so he could endlessly fight his opponents and those who offended him when he was overthrown out of office when he was wearing military uniform. No! I only voted for him, so he could come restructure Nigeria. I voted for him, because I thought he would leverage his age and experience to galvanize all our stake-holders to change our current constitution—that has too many holes—that criminals are exploring, and get Nigeria back to regional government.

Buhari lost me when it became obvious that he is not interested in restructuring Nigeria. His political party won the last presidential election because it promised to restructure Nigeria. Now, we do know that the APC and PDP are the same when it comes to promising the Nigerian people what they know they would not do. In the same vein, I do know that Atiku is also being mendacious that he would restructure Nigeria if he ends up becoming our president. The beautiful ones are not yet born in Nigeria.

Anyone who does not believe in restructuring has lost me and other well-meaning Nigerians. When PMB saw that we were making noise about national restructuring, he went ahead to set up a committee, appointing governor El-Rufai to lead it. Till this moment, we do not know what has become of El-Rufai’s report on restructuring. It has probably been thrown into one of the dustbins at the headquarters of APC. APC is not bringing any true change, it is only maintaining the status-quo and it is so cheerless!

Lastly, in the case of political travel by the president in America, there are rules that the federal government be reimbursed by the appropriate political organization for the costs of the travel. When Obama made the first campaign trip for Hilary Clinton, Americans asked on who was paying for the costs of his travels and to which the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest promptly responded, “today’s trip, for the president’s first joint campaign appearance with Hilary Clinton as the presumptive Democratic nominee, was no exception to that rule. The White House of course follows all rules and regulations that apply to the president’s political travel.” He went on to explain that the DNC were making payments to the federal government for such purposes on a monthly basis to the FEC in compliance with the regulation…” The question is, every time president Buhari and his vice travel for campaign events, who are those picking the bills, Nigerians or the APC? I make bold to say that it is lawless for Nigerians to be picking such bills.