Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999 with the PDP producing Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as president. Other politial parties recorded some appreciable showings at the election. There was the Alliance for Democracy, APGA, ANPP. While AD recorded its victories in the south west, APGA with Late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, made its impact in the south east, and ANPP in the north. It would appear that the PDP was the only party with national or widest geographical spread at the time. Prior to the 2013 general election, the AD controlled all the south west states including lagos. But at the end of the election, the PDP won in all the south west states leaving AD with only lagos to contend with. Of all the AD governors at the time, it would appear that Senator Bola Tinubu and Chief Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti states were the youngest. Chief Bisi Akande was in osun state, Chief Adefarati was in ondo state, Chief Segun Osoba was in ogun state, and Alhaji Lam Adesina was in oyo state. There were other elderly and experienced politicians around, such as Chief Bola Ige, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Chief Fasoranti , amongst others. Eventually, there was a crack in the AD and it became factionalised. There were two national chairmen laying different claims to the soul of AD. So many court litigations, eventually the Chief Bisi Akande led faction pulled out of AD to form the AC. The Senator Akinfenwa led faction remained as AD till today. In the South East, APGA initially had Orji Kalu in Abia, and about 2 or 3 other states(not too sure). The south east later lost the Ikemba while the south west lost Chief Bola Ige, Chief Abraham Adesanya and others. From one single state of lagos, controlled by Senator Bola Tinubu, AC began the struggle of reclamation of the south west and succeeded in oyo, ogun, ekiti and osun states. It wasnt long before Edo state joined the tsunami. There was also some appreciable showings in the east where they had senator Chris Ngige as senator and another parliamentarian in the North. Before the last election, the ANPP was enmeshed in a crisis reminiscent of the AD crisis and this led to the formation of CPC with General Buhari as the leader. It is a known fact that under our present presidential system of government, it is extremely expensive and money spinning to contest for an elective office. Millions of naira is required to obtain the nomination forms from the political party. There are thousands of polling units to be monitored and supervised by party agents, huge finances running into billions of naira are required to conduct meaningful campaigns throughout a state. The cost of Litigation at the tribunals runs into several millions. Although, the Electoral Act stipulate that no candidate shall spend more than 200 million naira as electoral expenses in the case of a governorship election, that amount is always merely a tip of the icebag in terms of what is actually spent. The Nigeria Bar Association recently conducted election to fill its executive positions and we understand that several billions of naira was spent by the candidates to canvass for votes. This is an information from a credible source and credited to Chief femi falana. Recently, fate bestowed on two politicians the responsibilities of playing roles similar to that of senator Bola tinubu with regards to their parties, these are Governor Segun Mimiko of ondo state and Peter Obi of Anambra state. Mimiko was of the labour party while Obi was of APGA. These personalities were supposed to be the arrow head of the fortune of their respective political parties, but what did we have. Mimiko dumped the labour party for PDP without making any gains for his party outside ondo state. We understand that Peter Obi lost the chance to become a minister in the PDP government of Jonathan by the whiskers. Today, nigerians have an alternative to the PDP, a strong national party called APC. From whichever angle one is going to look at it, some people have made enormous sacrifices, and contributions in terms of the struggle, the vision and the commitment. For those of us who are not in politics but a keen observer of unfolding events, it is only fair that honour is given to whom it is due. In the same vein, those whom Almighty God has used to steer the ship of this nation to its present state, should not arrogate the achievements to themselves alone, but give the credit to God, and God only. I strongly believe that God loves us as Nigerians. Today, we have a man who will be 70years old in December 2014 and could say it loud and clear to the whole world that in all his years as a public servant, he has never stolen a penny of public funds and further challenged anybody to contradict him. He went further to challenge anybody else in the race with him to make a similar claim. This is a challenge being made so close to an election and yet till date, nobody has faulted him. That is General Muhammadu Buhari. On the other end is Dr. Jonathan who despite the example of his leader and president to make public his assets, President Jonathan has refused till date to make public his assets at a time when he just left office as a governor. The huge foreign reserves left behind for him by OBJ had been massacred while the foreign debt which nigeria exited under obasanjos regime has returned with much venom. There is insecurity of lives and properties everywhere. 400,000 barrels of crude oil is being stolen on a daily basis with no response from govt. All the states of the federation are struggling to survive as a result of dwindled returns from monthly allocations, salaries of workers are being owed for several months while business fortunes of the private sector has plummeted. Yet our president has the effrontery to offer himself for re-election for another term of 4years. When Chief Obafemi Awolowo died, we heard that he was the best president nigeria never had. General Buhari is still here and alive now, offering himself for service, shall we wait until he becomes another president Nigeria never had?
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 05:17:18 +0000
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