The 2015 elections are fast approaching and politicians as well as the Nigerian populace are really gearing towards the election in a way that is most unprecedented in this country. Any keen observer of the trend of elections in this country will agree that never in the history of this country has there been an election that is so close to call as this.
Never in the history of this country has there been an election where each of the candidates has a mammoth followership in each state of the federation and never in this country has there been an election that will put the country on the precipice as this. The drum of war and crisis is thrown to the air by both parties such that many pundits, call them Prophets of Doom if you wish, believe that this election will be an acid test of whether the country will still be indivisible.
Unfortunately however, this election throws at the electorates two individuals from whom they are wont to choose one that will pilot the affairs of this land for the next four years. Just like some few people in this country have held, I do not see any salvation projecting from any of this candidates.
Let me quickly interject here that this election has sincerely shown the wisdom of foolishness of many a Nigerian.
The camps of Jonathanians and Buharists have continually turned out arguments and positions to show that they are better, if not saner, while trying to disparage and denigrate the other camp. My sincere grouse with the Jonathanians is that they are so fond of standing logic on its head and as such, just as Mr President has many a time assaulted our intelligence, take Nigerians for a fool. This explains why Jonathanians will not hesitate to label a red ball white and vice versa. On their own part, Buharists dwell in self-delusion or what else would you call an attempt by a group of supporters to pint their candidate as a saint when in actual fact, he aint as saintly as the hyena.
How can one say that President Jonathan means well for this country? How can anybody say that Buhari represents the change that this country needs?
This country has never had it this bad as it is experiencing under this current administration. The goofs of this administration is multifarious. Do we talk of the way with which this president fanned the embers of religious as well as ethnic discord in the country. It started by painting the Boko Haram as a Islamic agenda from the North but recent indication s and findings have pointed to the fact that this whole insurgency bespeaks of complicity from the Presidency (I had always argued this since 2012).
The President denied that the Chibok girls were missing despite the outburst of parents and well-meaning Nigerians and thus, instead of taking a swift action, loafed till the girls are now out of our reach. Even despite the plea of Malala, Oga Jona has refused to pay a visit to the troubled areas in the North-East and as of present, the Nigerian state has lost a territory that is as big as the state of Belgium to the insurgents. But that is just not all about this administration!
The level of impunity that is perpetrated under the watch of this administration is not only alarming but saddening. Nigerians were scammed by the Federal government under the guise of the NIS recruitment scheme and not less than ten Nigerians, not goats, died in the process and what happened after it, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Fifteen became greater than nineteen in the Governor’s Forum and what happened, NOTHING! The Stella Oduah scandal has come and gone; where are the thieves of subsidy? To crown it all, the President has not, unabashedly, stopped to show us his cluelessness by saying that stealing is not corruption.
Yes, our Oga at the top condemned the imprisonment of Jim Nwobodo for stealing a money that is not enough to buy a Peugeot! Well, if my memories are not failing me, it was the same Jim Nwobodo that stole the generator of our National Stadium and took it to his hometown. Little wonder the Yoruba have a proverb that it is from cradle that one tames the excesses in a child before he goes nefarious. By the way, must we forget in a hurry the series of nuisancy that our dear Mama Patience has caused this country! This land has never had it this bad!
May it also interest you to know that we have a serious problem on our hands. My current investigation has revealed that the Federal Government is officially broke. This explains why the revenue that accrues to other levels of government hs not been forthcoming, and when they are, they are depleted. At present, our universities and polytechnics are at the mercy of shutting down as the subvention that they get from the Federal Government is no longer forthcoming. In the University of Ibadan for example, the subvention of three hundred and forty-three million naira (#343,000,000) has become shrinked down to an abysmal forty million naira (#40,000,000).
It is so worse to the extent that the IGR which universities and polytechnics use to augment the meager subvention they get from the Federal Government is now also mopped up by the Federal Government as all Vice Chancellor have been mandated to remit all their internally generated revenue to the Central Bank. As it stands, the hope of any one to be employed in any polytechnic or university run by the Federl Government hangs in the balance because THERE IS NO MONEY!
But does this mean that our salvation lies in the hands of Buhari? I do not think so!
As much as I have a soft spot for the person of the General, I have a problem with some of his actions as well as body language. I quite agree to the fact that the Daura-born ex-General is a pious and non-corrupt man, but does that in anyway justify why jhe is so poor to the extent that he cannot afford to obtain his nomination form with his own money. As an ex Head of State and a Chairman of PTF, I am well aware that there are emoluments that accrue to the offices held and as such, Buhari is entitled to get some pension from the Federal purse (Don’t give me the crap that he collects only 10% as that pertains to the pension that accrues to his erstwhile position as Head of State).
In view of this, one begins to wonder what happened to the whole money he has made from public service. If a man cannot manage his personal finances, how can such a man be entrusted with the whole finances of a country? Besides this, I was the most disappointed when after the post-election violence of 2011, the General refused to say a word or condemn the violence to say the least. Also, when the news went around like wild fire that it was the General and some persons from the North that were the brains behind the terrorist group, Boko Haram, one would expect ‘Saint Buhari’ to openly dispel the rumour but he decided to keep quiet.
If Buhari were a statesman as many are now touting him to be, one would have expected that he, summoning other ex-Generals like him, should have been able to come up with suggestions for the Federal Government on how to nip this insurgency in the bud rather than waiting for election period when he will use it as an instrument of campaign against the party in government.
As much as Buharist may try to paint their candidate, they cannot deny that he is as much an ethnicist and tribalist as Goodluck Jonathan. Deny it if you wish but Buhari is above all other things a Northern CANDIDATE JUST AS Goodluck Jonathan is above all other things a South-South candidate. Most importantly, and learning from my experience of the Obasanjo administration, ex-Generals always seek to have their way even in a d3emocracy and the end-result of this is that they trample on the rule of law.
What this then points one to is the fact that it amounts to an anomaly to say that Buhari is better than Jonathan or vice versa. Afterall, which is better between the gun and the gun powder. As much as Jonathan has grounded the economy, Buhari does not have a Marshall plan to salvage it. Sincerely, nothing could be worse between having to sleep with a man with the Ebola virus and another with anthrax. It is simply a case of six and half a dozen.
Amuda Mosigbodi is a social critic and public good activist.