These Aren’t the Odds against Buhari 03 Dec 2014 Font Size: a / A Perspective If there are odds against Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, certainly not the ones being orchestrated by his opponents, writes Osita Okechukwu One read with consternation the spin-narrative by Segun Olanipekun recently. My consternation stems from the fact that some of us loyalists of General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, the man we fondly call GMB, never haboured the erroneous notion, as spinned that the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket is just for picking by GMB; even if the consensus card is on the table. How on earth can we be that naive, when eminently qualified personalities like His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Turaki Adamawa, former vice president; His Excellencies, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Rochas Okorocha, and publisher of the Leadership newspapers, Sam Ndah-Isaiah are in the race? One is at a loss why Olanipekun is finding it difficult to accept the truism that GMB is not only a towering leader in the All Progressives Congress and one of the founding fathers of the mass movement but the face of the party and the only aspirant President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR and his party are scared stiff of. What some of us for the avoidance of doubt muted is that Article 20 of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) provides for consensus, which should be explored to minimize the rancour, bitterness and hate a highly contested primary will likely engender. We are not happy that we are being vindicated too early, for if consensus was adopted; maybe the Olanipekuns of this world could have found other issues to canvas, rather than spin that GMBs Spartan and puritanical persona is not a virtue. That GMB is a perpetual broker, who engages in awkward joke in this highly monetized political clime, by soliciting funds from his supporters. One is compelled to ask: is Olanipekun blaming GMB for not enriching himself, when he was Minister of Petroleum or as governor of North East, Head of State or Chairman Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF)? Blame game assumes many dimensions, but this one seems absurd. “Though unfortunate, the truth is that aspirants fund members and parties in Nigeria, not the other way round. Money, plenty of it, is an integral part of our politics. Thus, this belated effort of GMB to raise campaign fund, coupled with tales of his proverbial lean wallet would only reinforce the perception that the retired general is a perpetual broker.” Olanipekun should be happy that GMB has admonished us not to denigrate any aspirant as we are all in the same vanguard with the united broom to sweep the country clean and halt the dangerous slide of Nigeria into a failed state. Otherwise, one could have asked further, if we go by his assertion that, “For instance, among all the aspirants, Atiku is the only one that has the financial muscle to competently match incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, the obvious PDP candidate during the general election”, why didnt the financial muscle place Atiku ahead of GMB in the 2007 presidential election? I had once proposed to a serving minister that the only joker at their disposal is to covertly fund the GMBs primary campaign because it is easier for PDP to defeat GMB than His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar. The minister walked me out of his office, saying that I want him to lose his job. The rest they say is history, for I thought a man who openly requests for support should be applauded. On Olanipekuns admonition that, “All this put in context, my wager is that GMB loyalists should brace up for an outcome that may not be pleasant, a likelihood that their principal, GMB may be on the verge of defeat at the primary albeit not because he is not loved by party members or that APC leadership is wont to betray or dump him. No!” One wishes to posit that GMB is not disparate. Accordingly, the three critical factors he adduced may eventually determine who gets the APC presidential nomination and why GMB may not be the nominee are glaringly untenable in any circumstance. One, GMB without being immodest, is the only Nigerian alive who steps out to contest for presidential election without N10 million in his bank account. By the grace of Almighty God, successive presidential elections – 2003, 2007 and 2011 had proven that rigging not money was his albatross. His election petition at the Supreme Court in 2007 remains one of the few judgments, if not the only one at the Supreme Courts history, when the seven man panel of justices had split decision, compelling the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi to cast the decisive vote. On his second point that GMB does neither interact nor cultivate relationship with delegates, it is sheer falsehood for he has been crisis-crossing the country interacting with delegates, stakeholders and members of our great party, contrary to the spin-narrative. At any rate, is there any better interactive session with delegates than the Support President Campaign Fund, where members, supporters and delegates alike are requested to buy cards ranging from N100 to N10,000 to own the campaign. An account which GMB is the only signatory gets alert in a special dedicated phone and acknowledges receipt. One maintains that consensus is the best option and if consensus was adopted that GMB is the face of the APC – the de facto candidate – because of his celestial bond with the masses and the middle class of Nigeria, who had at every election renewed his 12 million Vote Bank. In the wisdom of the leadership of our great party, consensus for now has been jettisoned and it should be noted that GMB was in the meeting where this decision was taken, and never opposed the decision. This being the case as stated earlier, the GMB campaign organisation contrary to the spin-narrative of Olanipekun has been criss-crossing the country, interacting with delegates and marketing the political capital of our man, as the only one who has the political will to provide security, flush out Boko Haram and wage strident war against corruption. May, one refresh Olanipekuns mind that GMB anchored his campaign on the cardinal programmes of the APC as enunciated in the Manifesto of our great party. In the manifesto under reference, war against corruption and national re-orientation comes first and this tallies with his passion to sanitize the country. GMB believes that no meaningful development can take place with the level of systemic and endemic corruption in the land. That it is corruption that demoralised and ill-equipped our armed forces, otherwise where is the nearly N1trillion budgeted year in and year out for armed forces. Going further, that corruption more than any other factor made it impossible for us to have electricity, for we spent over $16 billion between 1999 and 2010 on provision of electricity. In sum, if the core ingredient of election in liberal democracy is referendum on the incumbent and the character of the challenger; one will imagine that the APC delegates will vote for the man with character and political will to provide maximum security and wage strident war against corruption. -Osita Okechukwu is a member, the Buhari Campaign Organisation
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 07:56:43 +0000
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