Wanted! A Nigerian President By Igboeli Arinze As Nigerians prepare for the 2015 general elections, who they might be convinced, lured, forced or tempted to vote for one of the candidates or none of them is a matter that will be decided soon. For a start, the incumbent, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan ,for all the goodwill that he generated before his first term is looking ordinary as he seeks another one, with all things falling apart under his watch as president. Faced with Nigeria’s most concerted effort at rallying an opposition, Nigerians now have the opportunity of a quality alternative, one able to keep the ruling party on its toes. Majority of persons who backed him in 2011 have left him and even within his own political party there are many who agree that the first term of president Jonathan has being nothing but an unmitigated disaster. The two major parties in Nigeria, the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC naturally agree on what Nigeria’s problems are, but both differ on who best can tackle such problems. For the APC, the opposition party which controls 14 states and has chosen the man dubbed as Mr. Incorruptible, General Muhamadu Buhari or GMB as he is fondly called is waxing strong as they have achievements to boast of in the pedigree of political office holders and candidates. A trip to states like Osun, Ekiti(forget that Fayemi lost there, Ekiti will surely miss him)Edo, Lagos, Kano, Rivers , Nassarawa and Imo State will humble the bloated achievements of the PDP. Also, the party has defied many doomsday predictions of its falling apart, particularly after it held a very transparent presidential primary, today the PDP is campaigning very hard, all thanks to the opposition party, who knows, Nigerians from henceforth will be availed greater respect by the politicians as they know that any slip and our voters will show them the door. The United Peoples Party, UPP, is a debutant in Nigeria’s general election history, although it parades veterans in the persons like Chief Chekwas Okorie, who is also its presidential aspirant. Okorie is also likely to be a plausible alternative but that would take a miracle and miracles are rare in Nigeria’s political history, and the choice will be between Buhari-Jonathan and Jonathan –Buhari, however, I still give kudos to the Abia born politician and first chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance. But what kind of president will Nigerians love to elect come 2015? What kind of leader, even if it is Jonathan again, will Nigerians yearn for? First and foremost, experience will determine who gets the seat, experience in governance to be precise and both Jonathan and Buhari possess such; however the people in the PDP will naturally mock Buhari’s kind of experience since he governed in 1984 compared to this present age where the world has become a global village. But the Buhari crowd will also spurn such experience and ask how come such experience as Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President and now President not come in handy in the wake of the Boko Haram attacks, the Chibok girls and the management of the economy? So much for experience they have said. Second, our dream president should combine a strong commitment to fighting corruption and building a strong and virile economy. For Buhari, this has been his standpoint! If Buhari were a programme the theme song will be one on anti corruption, if he were a book the thrust will be anti corruption and there surely would be a devotion of pages and chapters to the topic. In short, the General’s anti corruption reputation is impeccable and unassailable and needs no introduction. For Jonathan, Nigerians are largely unimpressed with his efforts at taming the monster that has bled Nigerians of trillions of Dollars, monies that would have helped build Nigeria into a global power if it had been channeled properly to meeting her development needs. Where action has failed, he, Jonathan’s words haven’t also helped and when a President blurts that public stealing isn’t corruption or that Buhari was wrong to have jailed a former South East Governor because he stole funds that weren’t worth the amount to purchase a Peugeot car then it is no wonder we are the way we are. Now, Jonathan’s people will fight back and say well, there have been no arrests and all that but that our corruption ratings have far improved with Transparency International moving us from one step to another. This is progress they say. On the economy, the Jonathan supporters will brandish the rebased economy, one that has positioned it as the largest economy in Africa; they will look to their touted achievements in infrastructure and agriculture and beat their chests saying, surely we deserve four more years. On the other hand, the Buhari people will ask which rebased economy? When there is much hunger in the land, they will question the economic figures dished out by the Okonji Iweala gang and puncture the songs that Nigeria has experienced any forms of economic growth not to talk of the digits with which they have been drumming with it. Unemployment will feature heavily, how much jobs did the Jonathan administration create and where these jobs sufficient enough? Thirdly, Nigeria needs a democrat and unfortunately this is a missed opportunity for the Jonathan people, although it ought to have been his strong standpoint by virtue of his democratic upbringing, by this I mean, he would have made much political gain by contrasting himself with the military leader in General Buhari and the ethos that believes that a military man will always be one. Sadly, even Jonathan has shown that democrats can be dictators too. Ask Rotimi Amaechi and he will tell you how 17 would have become greater than 19 or how his plane was grounded or how six legislators wanted to impeach him. Ask Speaker Tambuwal, who was tear gassed on orders from above? Ask the electorate in Ekiti and Osun who were wondering whether their states had become theatres of war when soldiers and security personnel were deployed to harass and intimidate the opposition there. Ask Oby Ezekwesili or the editors of newspapers where soldiers harassed intermittently, they will tell you as I will also tell you that President Jonathan is surely no democrat, he may pretend to be one, smile and be calmly pretentious, but like Dan Qualye was told that he was no John F. Kennedy, so should Jonathan be told that he is no democrat! However the fact that Buhari has this military thing about him might be a plus for him. Nigeria surely needs a strong kind of leadership for now, it may not be Bismark’s ‘Blood and Iron’ model but surely we need to move away from a presidency that is said to have five presidents to one where strength and character will be the banner for Nigeria’s movement along progressive lines, military men have in leadership, particularly democratic ones built great nations, otherwise the likes of De Gaulle, Josip Broz Tito , Kemal Attarturk, Napoleon Bonaparte and co would not be icons in today’s world. Perhaps Buhari fits this bill. Finally, the Nigerian president `of our dreams will need to be a unifier, one who can see Nigeria as a land for or of Nigerians and not Ijaws or itsekiri, Igbo or Hausa, Christian or Muslim. Today Nigeria stands divided as ever, Between Buhari or President Jonathan, who will unite us from a nation of tribes to one people and one destiny? A Nigerian president is wanted, one who will do better than what we have now, one who will give hope to millions of Nigerians who day by day continue to wonder when this giant of Africa will arise to lead the vanguard of blackmen and women into the promised land.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 14:21:17 +0000
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