KILO DE NOW? THE SAGA OF CONFUSING JUNCTIONS I know I am not old enough to be senile. Perhaps I am just a learner. But the way some events in our nation have played out in the past few days leaves me bewildered. I had practically taken a sabbatical on my page in respect of the political buildup to 2015. My position had been largely determined by the rabid dimension the partisanship of some supporters from both the camps of PDP and APC had assumed in recent times. But with every passing day, GEJ and his campaign people actually make it more difficult by the day for some of us to give him and the PDP support. Bayo Adeyinka was almost making a convert to GEJism of me. But after what I saw and read in the last two days, any such consideration has evaporated. My problem with Buhari was on account of his age. But I have since come to think about that and resolved that age is not a disease if it affords required value. As a matter of fact, scriptures teach us that the grey head is a crown of glory if it is given to doing what is right. Listening to him today, the chunk of the time our dear President spent on the podium at his campaign rally was about what an imaginary they did not do. I kept asking myself when he would talk about what he has done and what his road map for the next four years would be. He seemed to be more fixated on a badly veiled anger at his predecessors even though he has been in the saddle for six years and his party for SIXTEEN, more than enough time to have corrected or redressed what they did not do. The opposition is yet to have a shot at it! With every barb he threw, the President only indicted himself and his party further. How sad! When I listened to his speech sometime ago on the need for politicians to watch their utterances and stop making inflammatory statements that heat up the polity, I felt that at last we were getting it right. I gave him a thumbs up Only for him to be the first to break his own rule. Or how does one qualify our C in Cs description of some elder statesmen as motor park touts? The other innuendoes and invectives I would not bother repeating. Hearing him today on the claim that the October 1 2010 bombing by MEND in Abuja was aimed at assassinating him was a throw-up for me. Seriously? But I thought he was the first to openly exonerate MEND! So now that MEND is said to have endorsed GMB, they are culpable? More inflammatory statements have been made by the Presidents men (Okupe, Metuh et al) in recent times than from any other camp. In one breath, Femi Fani Kayode said that the GEJ campaign will be issues-based. Then in his next statement, as if speaking from both sides of the mouth, he says that they will dig up and present to Nigerians a catalogue of past atrocities of GMB to discredit him. My head is still spinning. Its either I am too naive or they just invented a new version of English! So what will he dig up different from the same old deja vu that we had been bombarded with ad nauseam about Buhari? Label him Islamic fundamentalist even when the same FFK in that interview said the FG had no proof that the man was in any way connected with Boko Haram or any other insurgency? Or that he headed a military government? That is a fact of history. It is also a fact of history that military governments are run on decrees, not a constitution. It is run by a Supreme Military Council, not by democratic checkmating structures. To therefore think that would be news that we never heard beats me hollow. In any case, where is the issue-based campaign in that? Even as the newspapers reported today that our power generation capacity has dropped to an all-time low of less than 2,900MW, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, a PDP godfather announced to us all that power generation and supply have drastically improved under this government. I can live with the admission of the fact that things may not be working as well as planned and what specific plans are being made to redress the situation. But with outright falsehood? No! I have burnt fuel daily in my office every day for the past 2 years. Ditto in my house! Yet I pay light bills monthly! Even after obtaining pre-paid meter for the office, there has been no power supply for over the three months of supply. Yet I am charged N750/month for meter maintenance. And the shocker of all shockers is the DSS show of shame on the APC cloning theory. I was half-hoping that the investigations would have revealed the cloning of PVCs as alleged, a revelation that would have floored the APC in the estimation of some of us. But no. What did Marilyn Ogar regale us with? APC was alleged to be planning to hack into INEC site and pump up the volume of its party members on the data base! Haba! Please credit us with some intelligence! What is the connection between voters register and party membership list? If they hack the site and clone a list, can they clone the biometric impressions if they had originally been properly done? Unless there is more that the DSS is not telling us! What we have got so far is just not gelling! Are there lawyers in PDP? Where is the trite position in law that he who alleges, proves? The lawyers need to inform DSS that the government and its security agencies can do with better representation. Finally, within 24 hours of an attack on a newspaper, France has captured the perpetrators of yesterdays dastardly gun attack on a newspaper house! Its been over six months since Chibok and we still dont know where either the girls or their abductors are! Diaris God o! If the handlers of Mr. President continue with this Buhariphobic propensity in their campaigns, they may actually be unwittingly preparing the ground for his defeat at the polls as they help Buhari rack up more sympathizers! Like many who will vote in 2015, I am not a politician. So this is just my two pence, as an ordinary but intelligent Nigerian!
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 18:39:23 +0000