However, it is much evident that the people around the president are running scared of the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate in the way it never happened in the past and for that reason, some of them are doing dumb things. By targeting Buhari and making his religion, his region, his ethnicity, his certificate, his age and all such things that may matter little to the voters their campaign manifesto, the president and his handlers are merely, albeit inadvertently, creating the impression that they are desperate. It is indeed one of the most cruel ironies of the times we live in that politicians who have scarcely any ideas on how to make our lives better have resorted to brandishing the spectre of death for their opponents. Instead of being asked to exercise the democratic right of choosing between the prospects of good versus bad governance, we are being asked to exercise our franchise on the foolish assumption that age has a correlation with death. To the extent that Nigerians are shopping for a genuine leader, the silly posturing of some merchants of death and scare mongers would have no effect on February 14. Fayose should therefore find better ways of expressing his gratitude to those who facilitated his return to gubernatorial eminence. What should worry important stakeholders in the Nigerian project is that at a time our country is in a critical juncture in her history, neither the incumbent nor the challenger is prepared to begin a proper conversation on how to wean our economy of oil, reduce the size and cost of governance, revamp the education sector, tackle the security challenge, find an enduring solution to the seemingly intractable power situation etc. All we are being told are either to just expect some mythical Eldorado from an opposition party whose membership is derived mainly from the same ruling party it derides or wait for some for phantom jobs (in millions) that the incumbent would create if re-elected, something he has been unable to do in the last five years when he has had more petrodollars in his hands than he would possibly have in future. All these and many more are, however, not issues for today as I want to continue, and probably conclude, the series on the gubernatorial contests in the states. In the two previous editions of this series, I have looked at some of the factors that will shape the elections and the fact that the future may be far different from the past given that oil prices are now on a free fall. With the 2015 budget projections now in total disarray, many of the states will be hard-hit by the economic crunch that will come as their allocations from the Federation Account dwindle. culled from Thisday- Segun
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 05:08:54 +0000
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