MY PREFERRED CHOICES FOR THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA FROM 2015 IN DESCENDING ORDER. Next February, we shall queue up to pick who we find worthy of entrusting the management of the affairs of this country to for another four years. I have been watching the political space – those who have declared, what they are campaigning on, those who did not and why, etc. I think I have observed enough to decide who I will vote for next year, in order of most preferable to the least preferable, and why. I have restricted myself to only those who have bought the nomination forms of their parties and will stand for primaries. Any other aspirant who has not done this cannot be considered serious. Please note that these are my PERSONAL opinions. So here we go: 1.ATIKU ABUBAKAR (FORMER VICE PRESIDENT, APC) Above and beyond, this is the best presidential candidate in the field. He has been campaigning on issues from the start and has the most comprehensive manifesto of all the candidates, a 94-page document you can download from here. But in case that is too voluminous for you, you can see them broken down on his campaign website. He has covered every aspect properly with what he intends to do in those areas when elected President: from infrastructure to education to anti-corruption to fighting terrorism and improving security. But above all, he is the only candidate that is talking about a solution to Nigeria’s issues that I believe in dearly – fiscal federalism [See articles I have written about fiscal federalism here: 1, 2, 3,]. His plans might be inadequate but it is far better than nothing coming from the other candidates. Atiku also has the benefit of 20 years plus of preparing for the office, from the time he first ran in 1993 on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) at the prompting of his late mentor, General Shehu Musa Yar’adua. He has used the PDM platform of late Yar’adua to build himself a national network of associates, enabling him to have knowledge of Nigeria beyond his native Adamawa (also earned by living many years in Lagos as a Customs officer and marrying from places far from his). Not only that, almost three decades in building multi-billion naira businesses has taught him how to assemble good teams. A clear evidence of this is the efficient media team, which I believe is a benchmark for public office holders, including the Presidency. The biggest questions I have about him – especially is his dark reputation as a corrupt VP. 2. GOODLUCK JONATHAN (NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION, PDP) President Jonathan got my vote in 2011 mainly because of the fact that he was the better of the lot that was running then (Nuhu Ribadu inexperienced and not articulate about what his plans were, Muhammadu Buhari for reasons I will get to in a bit) and the zoning issue really irked me. In all fairness, President Jonathan has done far better than many Nigerians will admit, although blame also has to be laid at the feet of his very ineffective media team for not doing a good job at laundering his good works. He has revived a power reforms program that was stalled for three years under his late boss (I should point out that achieving full, constant supply of power is something that even if President Jonathan served two terms, he would not achieve – he is basically pounding yam for someone else to eat. But consistency with that vision is very important), he has constructed roads that have been troublesome (Benin-Ore Road, Vom-Manchok Road and Bwari-Kaduna Road, for instance), redone many others and is on course with others (e.g. East-West Road). Agricultural production has also been up and food import bill down (appointing the super-efficient Minister of Agriculture, Akin Adesina has been a masterstroke) and our airports are starting to wear better looks (although the reconstructions were stalled after Stella Oduah ‘resigned’ as Aviation Minister).However, his two biggest failings are handling the Boko Haram terrorist scourge and fighting corruption. 3. RABIU KWANKWASO (KANO STATE GOVERNOR, APC) Governor Kwankwaso has achieved in less than four years what many governors have been unable to achieve in eight years. He has pursued an excellent vision of all-round development for his state and for his people. I only wish more people visit the state and see it for themselves. I also wish his media people did better with laundering his image and the achievements of his government. However, an action such as his government’s breaking of beer bottles, which make for effective populist politics in the state, will be used to show a man intolerant of beliefs that are different from his, playing on the paranoia that Christians have about the Sharia legal code. Also, he did not lay out specific plans of achieving some of his intended goals if elected President, such as how to achieve a capital-to-recurrent expenditure in the budget of 70:30, which is about the only idea he has brought so far in his manifesto. There is also the question of whether he is prepared to lead a country that is far more diverse than Kano State, which I believe is very important. 4.MUHAMMADU BUHARI (FORMER HEAD OF STATE, APC) Is it not weird that an aspirant that has been presidential candidate three times before and is still by far the most popular politician in not less than one-third of Nigeria (12 million votes in 12 states consistently) is this far down my list? I have good reasons for this: General Buhari’s strongest campaign point is his integrity and hands unstained by corruption, considering that he has held many offices where others in same place used to enrich themselves. However, while personal integrity helps one avoid being stained with corruption, it is not enough to fight corruption and this is where Buhari fails: he is yet to bring forward a single idea on how he will go about fighting this scourge that has bedeviled our country. The lack of ideas does not stop here – he has not brought any idea for improving Nigeria in anyway at all. His most recent interview with The Cable here only added to my confusion about what his plans are. Nigeria desperately needs ideas moving forward, and not just honest men, or even worse, one honest man. In the absence of ideas from him, I cannot be voting for what I consider mere hot air. This is not to mention the fact that he is about Nigeria’s most divisive politician right now – he is as loved by many Nigerians as he is despised by others. How did he get here? By making statements that are either religiously alienating, capable of inflaming ethnic passions or even innocent statements that are easily twisted by opponents because it is an otherwise harmless proverb in his native tongue. I do not see him winning the Presidency, and I think he really should consider retiring from running for office next year and focus on transferring all his political goodwill to a protégé if and only if he has one. 5. SAM NDA-ISAIAH (NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER, APC) Nda-Isaiah, who is the publisher of the LEADERSHIP Newspapers, was actually the very first person to declare interest in being the occupant of Aso Rock next year. Talk about giving the dark horse a very early start. However, Nda-Isaiah is sorely lacking in not only name recognition across Nigeria, but also in the experience to manage its affairs. I believe he and Nigeria will be better served if he ran for either the Senate or at most, the Niger State Governorship. He can then use that office to build experience towards the 2023 elections. Not only that, for an aspirant whose campaign slogan is “It Is Time For Big Ideas”, it is really ironic that he has not presented any big idea or any idea at all for how to make things better. Like the typical Nigerian politician, he has expertly laid out the problems albeit embellished in many places, but has fallen short of proposing solutions. 6. ROCHAS ANAYO OKOROCHA (IMO STATE GOVERNOR, APC) LOL. I am sorry, but I have to laugh here. Okorocha’s desire to become Nigeria’s president next year is funny. Obviously, he thinks it is a comedy contest, because that is how I view him – a comedian in Nigeria’s politics. Okorocha has mastered the art of playing to the gallery in words and actions to gain popularity, and of doing excellent propaganda work. However, his performance in Imo State since 2011 has been below par. One expected better from him considering all the noise that comes from him, but then, there is this thing they say about empty barrels. Maybe this is the best way Okorocha can secure the running mate slot to the APC presidential candidate. I just hope that he does not lose his chance at running for re-election while at it, but then, will it be a loss to the people of Imo State if he does? cc: Mark Amaza
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:43:59 +0000
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