2015: WITH BUHARI I STAND! BY FOLA OJO I am neither rippled by the mammoth crowd that attended his declaration yesterday in Abuja, nor undulated by all the encomiums poured on him for his majestic walk and ways in the contraption called Nigeria. Mohammadu Buhari just moves my mind, soul and spirit by just who he is. He is a walking, living truth, a rock-solid sincerity, a matured mind, an experienced hand, and a true Nigerian. Buhari is a tower of integrity and decency, the tonic and analeptic a sick nation like Nigeria needs at this time. For these reasons and more, with Mohammadu Buhari, I stand! I have always had a problem with his age. I had always thought that his agility and mental sharpness would have been compromised until I saw and heard what I saw and heard today. I heard words from the depository of a quick-witted sage and sharp mind. He didn’t tell us he had no shoes, but reminded us how he had put his boots on the ground fighting for the unity of Nigeria in a bitter civil war as a young soldier. He did not say stealing is not corruption, but he explained how stealing and corruption are conceived in the same depraved mind and how he will end them. He spoke about where Nigeria has been, where Nigeria is, and where he will take Nigeria if he becomes the president of the country. Those on the other side had screamed and posited for a while that Buhari is a bigot who hates others who don’t serve his God. They had insinuated that he is a closeted sponsor of Islamic terrorism who wants all Christians beheaded. They want us to believe that he hates Yorubas, and Igbos, and Niger Delta and everybody else aside his Hausa/Fulani stock. When we found out that his oldest daughter is married to an Igbo man from Anambra, and that his driver and cook for 10 years was a Christian man, and that he singlehandedly nominated Dora Akunyili an Igbo woman and Christian (of blessed memory) as Minister of the Republic, his enemies quickly decided to detour from that losing narrative. But we had already found out that Buhari when he was president exempted Christians from government duties so they could worship God. Now they are saying Buhari is too old. Age is nothing but a number. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was 73 when he ran for president of Nigeria in 1983. Nnamdi Azikiwe was 77 when he did same the same year. Millions revered these two men against whom age was not a mitigating factor. US Ronald Reagan was a few days from age 70 when he became president in 1980. His legacies live until this day. Those on the other side spun it another way and said he is a serial loser. Do these guys know the story of America’s Abraham Lincoln? In 1832, Lincoln ran for state legislature and lost. In 1838 he sought to become speaker of the state legislature but was defeated. In 1840 he sought to become elector but was also defeated. In 1843 and 1848 ran for Congress and lost. In 1854 he ran for United States Senate and lost. In 1856 he sought the Vice- Presidential nomination at his partys national convention and got less than 100 votes; he lost. The same year he ran for US Senate again and lost. But in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. A serial loser is one who died not fighting for what he believes in. Running for office as frequently as Buhari has done is a sign of the integrity, tenacity and character of a man who will not give up in the face of mounting opposition. A man who will not back down even when the odds of electability are against him, but strives on fighting and putting his belief about the unity of a nation in the public domain, is my kind of president. Buhari does not need Nigeria’s money, and he is not ashamed that he does not have plenty of it like those on the other side who turn all private jets into flying Central Banks. He couldn’t raise the 27 million Naira for his nomination form as a candidate, but the people paid it off. That is a man the people want. Nigeria needs men the people want; not men who want the peoples’ money. Even if Buhari does not win the 2015 election, millions of us can’t ever get him off our minds as a man who stands as a pillar of truth. But he will win, because he will not refuse to fight. For this reason, with Mohammadu Buhari, I stand!
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 11:51:28 +0000