Nigeria’s Extraordinary 2019 Elections: Hold Your Breath! By Taiwo Lawrence Adeyemi

“Winning is great sure, but if you are really going to do something in life; the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time, if you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.” – Wilma Rudolph.

Winston Churchill, British statesman, author, and war prime minister from 1940-1945 and 1951 – 1956 said, “Politics is almost as exciting as war and quite as dangerous! In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times. The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.”

Vince Lombardi quipped, “The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.”

In the great crisis of America a few names come to mind; George Washington during the Revolution, Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson during the World War I, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the World War II.

With most of us, it is not the big things that defeat us, but the little insignificant irritations. The piranha fish of South American waters are very small, but they can devour a huge animal, even human beings!

In 1558, Phillip II of Spain launched the Spanish Armada against Britain. The fleet of 130 ships carrying more than 24,000 men, sailed up the British Channel, only to suffer defeat by the British navy and fall victim to contrary winds and fierce Atlantic storms. This event marked the decisive passing of naval superiority from Spain to England”, said one historian

“The idea of total self is abstract and therefore tricky. That is, if one starts with the abstract concept, he may then assume and try to realize a concrete entity that fits the picture in a psychological process called DEIFICATION! Also, there is a question as to one’s point of reference or viewing point. With and where is the observer, who is to become aware of that whole immortal self? It can be no other than the familiar practical, mortal self that is aware of the world and as piecemeal as to both.”

In this century, mankind was advanced by people like Mahatma Gandhi who contributed much to the immediate resolutions of human conditions, and Albert Eisenstein who contributed to the discovery of “new” realms of modern science. But, when will their work be finally realized?

Perhaps they saw a condition that most people did not see, and that vision motivated them to act accordingly in an environment, which was restricted in NATURE!

President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2019 presidential election polling 15,191,847 votes to defeat his closest challenger and former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who served as vice president between 1999 and 2007, polled 11,262,978 votes to finish as runner-up.

President Muhammadu Buhari won in 19 states, securing the statutorily required 25 per cent of votes cast in more than 24 of the 36 states. President Muhammadu Buhari won in; Kaduna, Jigawa, Niger, Yobe, Gombe, Kogi, Nasarawa, Kwara, Osun, Ekiti, Bauchi, Lagos, Ogun, Kano, Katsina, Borno, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Zamfara states. While Alhaji Atiku Abubakar prevailed in 17 states and the FCT. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar won in; Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia, Ondo, Adamawa, Taraba, Oyo, Edo, Benue, Imo, Plateau, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and the FCT.

What the town trodden Nigerians are craving from President Muhammadu Buhari led APC government are;  fair distribution of resources, average living conditions, empowerment, security, good and improved health care services, rural and roads development, accountability and prudent management of Nigeria resources, corruption free judiciary and quick dispensation of justice, equality, patriotism, altitude, determination and Nigeria spirit.

President Muhammadu Buhari must be savouring one of United Kingdom War time Prime Minister, Winston Churchill statement, ‘’I Have Nothing Except; My Blood, My Tears and My Sweat.” Will this statement really make any meaning in the lives of millions of Nigerians currently rated as the poorest in the world? The February 23rd, 2019 presidential election will surely goes down in the anal of Nigeria elections history as the most hotly contested and disputed.

The voting pattern was significant and definitely an ‘extraordinary elections, hold your breath’! With over 73 presidential candidates that vied for Nigeria’s NO1 seat. The rest is history as lessons are meant to be learnt in the highest level of politicking!

Will the cabals running President Muhammadu Buhari’s government allow him to re-focus and re-energize the slow pace his government is threading? The elections are over and President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to reward loyalists that worked assiduously for his re-election. Nigerians has endured President Muhammadu Buhari’s four years of ‘Baba-Go-Slow’.

Will the next four years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressive Congress [APC] led administration give millions of Nigerians succour in the face of poverty taken into cognizance, ‘Nigeria’s Extraordinary 2019 Elections: Hold Your Breath’?