Hi there,
As you have figured now, I’m not
a very consistent writer, at all, even though I have a lot of write ups
swirling in my head.
But as with most of my other
write ups, this, has been inspired by a series of recent, but in this case
rather unfortunate events.
I happened to be going through my blog for old stuff that I
wrote a long time ago, mostly just to pass the free time on my hands, then I
came across this article I wrote in December 2015, which I titled the change we seek?.
Well, a long time has passed
since then, and my opinion on some issues there have…changed.
I have been an ardent observer of
our political clime for a long time now, and this is another case of devil’s
alternative playing out in front of us. Its election season again and the
promises have started flying in the air. Even those that are in power are
promising things they ‘will do’,
I was generally impressed with
the way Nigerians banded in 2015 to dislodge in my opinion, a very incompetent
incumbent. It gave the impression that we as a people are ready to take matters
into our own hands, and we finally understood that we have the power to shape
our destiny every four years.
In 2015 we took a gamble that
hasn’t really paid off, to put it mildly. But here we are again in 2019, faced
with potentially the same scenario, bar a few differences. There are only a few things separating our two
major candidates, both are northern Muslim septuagenarians. Unlike what was
obtainable in ‘15, never have we been so divided along religious and ethnic
lines like in 2015, when one major candidate was a Christian southerner and the
other was Muslim northerner.
We’re being asked to choose
between the lesser of two evils again. It seems we have not learnt anything
from the experiences we had in 2015.
But yet again, it seems our young
folks that have shown interest in giving us a credible alternative have thus
far not shown enough, what’s the right word or phrase now, ‘political depth’
I had great hope for the so
called ‘third force’ when they initially decided to come together to form PACT.
Borne out of the yearning for something different, or even something to hold on
to.
But from that fracas, nothing was
achieved. As a matter of fact, the winner, losers and even the referee of the
so called PACT have eventually gone ahead to contest for the same presidency!
This decision of theirs has made it easy for me to see things from a realistic point of view. Maybe they aren’t interested in
seeing a better Nigeria, maybe they are only interested in seeing themselves as
the ones who will deliver a better Nigeria.
The way the Nigerian political
system is today, if you do not have grassroots structure, you can’t possibly
expect to win a presidential election. This alone requires a change to the
status quo on such a great scale, So I do not understand whether these
‘minority candidates are simply living in denial, or trying to make a dent so
that they can upturn in 2023, or trying to boost the C.V, or biting off more
than they can chew and realizing a bit late, or as some conspiracy theorist
have postulated working to ensure the reelection of the incumbent. There are a
million and one reasons I could think of, except the one that matters, which is
actually wanting to realistically see Nigeria become a better place.
I was listening to the radio on
my way to work the other day, and one of the speakers said that in his recent
travels, he has been to the state of origins one of these other ‘third force’
candidates, and spoken to folks that live there. No single poster or banners,
most don’t even know that their illustrious son is gunning for the top office
in the country.
NIGERIA IS NOT JUST LAGOS AND
ABUJA SPRINKLED WITH PORTHARCOURT AND KANO!
This brings me to the debacle that went down
at the just concluded presidential debate. The absence of one of the major
candidates at the debate, and the non-participation of the other, despite
already being at the venue really helped to put things into perspective that
day. As I already had the premonition that both of them would find a way to
wiggle out of the debate, I decided to use the time to ‘do something better’ by
cheering my favorite team playing a game at that same time. That too
unfortunately (for them) didn’t end well.
What does it
tell you if the two most likely guys to win, didn’t participate in the debate?
It speaks to
the tragic irrelevance of meaningful intellectual discourse in our political
clime. It’s a vicious cycle really. They understood that their actions, or
inactions will not even put a dent on their political ambition. Why? Couple of
reasons I could point to actually…
Things like the
high level of voter apathy amongst the educated folks, and because of the
vigorous enthusiasm displayed by the average uneducated Nigerian in
participating in partisan politics, are some of the reasons why we are where we
are today (it’s kind of hard to pronounce actually lol).
We’ll talk
about how the current political class has weaponized illiteracy and poverty to
be able to keep the masses voting. But that is a story for some other time.
It went a long way to show two things. One being
that these our major candidates don’t rate us at all, and the other being that Debates and intellectual conversations,
however appealing they can be, do not win elections in Nigeria.
For the benefit of those who don’t know,
according to INEC, for you to win the presidential elections, you have to
obtain
1. The highest number of vote
cast AND
2. Not less than one quarter of votes cast at the
election in each of at least two-thirds of all states in the federation and in
the FCT Abuja.
Why this
minority candidate have conveniently chosen to ignore this, especially the
second one, which emphasizes my point of political outreach is bewildering. Even
the incumbent party got to where they are today as a result of an alliance.
It’s not just enough to select a
vice presidential candidate from the north, like some have done. (Should take
me to this issue of the principle of federal character, but that too is a topic
for another day, or year)
So what’s the issue here?
Obviously these third force guys
have to have some other goal for running, they confirmed that when they
couldn’t band together and keep an agreement and the ‘PACT’ fell apart. Unless
they are just using this to announce their presence in the political scene.
Either ways.
If we are going
to break the stronghold of these two major recycling machine parties
(I believe it has become clear to us that they are not going to take us to
where we want to be) despite all the challenges, the moves for 2023 needs to
start happening NOW.
You’ll notice I’m
not talking about the elections that are almost upon us, and that is for a good
reason. Based on what is obtainable now, there is no point deceiving ourselves
that there will be a paradigm shift this year. It is simply not going to
happen.
To our current
“coalition of 3rd force”, WHEN you lose, don’t go to sleep, we see
you (here in the major cities) we hear what you’re saying and it’s making
sense. Start now to iron out your differences, and start now to be active
opposition. Start now to build this grassroots’ connection which you so badly
lack.
Start to build
structure now, if it means putting individual and party resources together,
start the coalitions and alliances with the like-minded people now. Start to
pull funds now, start to build grassroots’ connections now (need to say this again
for proper emphasis), and start to make your intentions known NOW. Don’t wait
till the summer of 2022 to come and tell us. Give us a multitude of reasons to
be solidly behind you come ’23 (not like we don’t already have enough but you
get the idea).
Won’t I give
whoever wins amongst the top two candidates a chance to do something, well, I
did here, look where we are now. So I’m
already looking at new leadership. Our failsafe plan if/when things don’t get
any better in the next four years shouldn’t be to dip into this same cesspool
that has been churning out our current political class. Our current crop of leaders are, to put it mildly,
largely underperforming and underwhelming.
It’s easy to
seat in the comfort (no light sha) of my home and say this and that. The groundwork
is the key here. Start making moves and watch things fall in place.
This is my
candid opinion. What’s yours?
Till inspiration
finds me again…sayonara.
P.S. this
article has been in the works for a while, the lack of current updates (things
are happening so fast) is completely intentional.
