ALL HOPE APPEARS LOST Like a malignant ulcer that fails to heal, the hope of genuine change that will rescue the Nigerian state from imminent collapse appears so distant with every passing day. The hope for a bright future filled with an end to insurgency, a booming multifaceted economy, reliable electric power, jobs for the youth and a return to the days of prosperity driven by a fledgling middle class, seems to have dimed into an insignificant flicker. The hope of a nation is based on the leadership policies that form its framework for success. Nigeria is heading for the rocks and the current front runnners are not the messiah that will save this sinking ship. All seems set to crown General Muhammadu Buhari to be the APC candidate to lock horns against the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in the next General elections in February 2015. Once again the serial Presidential candidate Buhari is set to vie for the Presidency against the candidate of the ruling party. And once again he is bound to fail with dire consequences. It is stupidity doing the same thing repeatedly that led to failure and expect a different result after each attempt. Buhari has run his campaign the same way each time hence it is against the law of nature for him to obtain a different result this time around. Thomas Edison took 100 attempts to make a light bulb however with each attempt he learnt something new and changed his approach. But alas Buhari has still persisted along the same path to failure hence one wonders how he can wrestle the Presidency from an incumbent when he doesnt have a different strategy? His pious simple stance of trying to appeal to the masses is commendable but that doesnt win elections in Nigeria. His stance of dodging the label of being the candiadate of a sectarian party has never been addressed. It is not by photo ops wearing Igbo traditional attire or an Ijaw bowler hat that the distrust many have for Buhari will be dispelled. 3 years after his last loss at the polls was available to him, to build trust at the grassroots. To act as an elder statesman and strive to calm tensions in the North and build bridges in the South. Instead it was Obasanjo that was paying visits to the North East trying to find a solution to an unending crisis meanwhile both Buhari and Goodluck ignored the region as if it is infested with the plague. Not until another election cycle was near did Mai Gaskiya serendipitously appeared in the Southern region appealing for votes. For three years where was he? Instead it was Obasanjo who has remained the key opposition voice against GEJ, with his many letters, books and tantrums against the rule of GEJ, while Buhari was mute and unperturbed. As a key opposition figure he should have been outlining how he intends to bring Nigeria back to prosperity with a simple Marshall plan to back his vision for a new Nigeria. All he can do is tell us long tales of the past and that he will fight corruption. Fighting corruption in Nigeria without a mention of how he intends to overhaul the Judiciary and police force is merely paying lipservice to the uninitiated Nigerians. These two arms of law in Nigeria are as impotent as a castrated eunuch overseeing the harem of an Emperor. Furthermore those who have benefited from the corrupt system will definitely fight tooth and nail to ensure Mai Gaskiya will never see the gates of Aso Rock talk less of walk through them. Instead of Buhari to have spent the last 3 years reaching out to such powerful captains of industry and personalities who are the machinery that oil the wheels of the PDP, whooing them over with talk of a soft landing, an improved business climate with less tolerance for kickbacks, enhanced profits, protection of their enterprise and a competitive safe productive atmosphere to do business, he was hiding away in his house in Kaduna bidding his time for another election cycle. An election is not won by the 3 months of campaign prior to the polls. It is the leg work behind the scenes at the grassroots that build up the foundation that leads to victory. Integrity can only carry one to the mountain but can never propell one to the summit. It is leg work and dexterity that will achieve that. Buhari has once again failed to do his leg work and will once again fail at the polls. And once again there will be violence, death and destruction for Goodlucks flawless victory will be difficult for Buharis supporters to take lying down. Indeed APC has shot themselves in the foot by once again proving to Nigerians that they are a sectarian party with no definite plan on how to save Nigeria from this present quagmire. Indeed one can congratulate Goodluck Jonathan at this juncture. He has already won reelection before the umpire blows the whistle. APC had their chance to upstage a beleaguered unpopular President but instead chose to toe the line of ethnoreligious politics geered towards giving Buhari another shot at the Presidency so as not to lose the crowd effect he attracts. The Buhari mob will not deliver on the day of elections. The elite will cajole most to desert him once the goodies of stomach infrastructure are released. And just like a Roman mob that is as fickle as the English weather, Buhari will be left in the lurch wondering what happended once again. Goodluck Jonathan is indeed one of the worst Presidents in the history of Nigeria. He is already ruling over a fragmented country as Boko Haram has divided his country up before his eyes. He has taken the Nigerian economy to the brink of utter collapse. The Naira is losing value faster than an unmarried woman over 40. The rule of law has been cast to swine as corruption and impunity has taken over. The much talked about privatisation of power has become an albatross of immense proportions and a willing conduit for unchecked corruption. The SURE-P that was preached as a panacea for all Nigerias ills has become another white elephant project. The Chibok girls whom he promised to bring back soon and alive are returning as suspected suicide bombers to his chagrin. Youth under and unemployment is at its peak as desperation has driven many men to begging on the streets to wash cars just to escape the lure of robbery while many ladies have taken Prostitution as a full time profession. This is the legacy of GEJ. But despite all this he will still win another term come 14 February 2015. He will win not because he has done well. He will win because of the huge financial resources at his disposal, control over the security forces, dividends of stomach infrastructure but most of all because most Nigerians subscribe to the dictum that The devil you know is better than the Angel you dont Goodluck Jonathan is that devil that Nigerians are prepared to embrace once again with dire consequences.....
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 06:06:49 +0000
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