WHAT IF BUHARI DOESN’T GET THE APC TICKET? Leave a comment I don’t do hypothetical questions. I feel they are a waste of time. But today I eavesdropped on a conversation that forced me (in spite of myself) to actually ask a hypothetical question. The eavesdropping was accidental. I was in the market haggling with a trader when these two men I hadn’t noticed earlier started a discussion which I thought was quite interesting. They were discussing 2015 and what I found interesting was how they fitted everything into a ‘Buhari VS Them’ mold. At first I thought “Them” referred to the PDP but as the conversation progressed, I realized that it actually referred to every other politician in the country because even when the discussion veered to the APC it was still rendered in the ‘Buhari vs Them’ perspective. They’d say something like: “If THEY don’t give HIM the ticket, I will not vote them” or “I know THEY are going to spend a lot of money at the primaries and you know Buhari doesn’t have money”. It occurred to me that these two men, archetypes of the hardworking masses that form the major support base of Muhammadu Buhari, have given up on all politicians. To them, only one man can do it. Only one man can save them. They will not acknowledge the difference between an ElRufai and a Doyin Okupke not because there are no differences but because they simply don’t care anymore. They have been used and battered beyond caring. APC-Logo As their conversation went on, it was hard not to notice the simmering anger they both felt against the Nigerian ruling class. They wanted someone that would rescue them from the abject penury they were trapped in but at the same time they also wanted someone that would punish those who trapped them in the first place. It’s like they don’t want to wait until we all stand before God for the reckoning to begin. They want it to start right here on earth and in their estimation, its only Buhari that has the mettle to trigger it. And that is how I found myself asking the hypothetical question: What if Buhari doesn’t get the APC ticket? This is a relevant question if the winning formula for the APC is to win massively in the 3 zones of the north and in the Southwest (and I think it is). It means therefore that they cannot afford voter apathy along the very large and populous Buhari belt. But going by the psyche of the masses that support Buhari how can the APC prevent voter apathy across the north if their man (Buhari) doesn’t get the ticket? I think the APC needs to answer this question and other questions that would help them edge out the PDP come 2015. They need to start thinking of strategies they will use to reach to the Buhari support base that the APC is not the CPC and that this new party that Buhari found himself in is no longer all about him anymore. But first they need to take a break from all the in-fighting going on across the party. As for me, an ardent buhari supporter, I’ll settle for anything but PDP. For me it’s all about change even if it’s change for the sake of change. In our peculiar situation change for the sake of change is perhaps the most pragmatic outcome we can hope for at the moment. And I am willing to settle for it because its effect, I believe, will be far-reaching. It will shift the balance of power. At the moment, we have leaders that believe as long as they control the machinery of state then they will remain in power irrespective of performance, irrespective of what the people want. When the change we are anticipating in 2015 eventually happens, that pompous bubble that the rulers have been living in for all this while, will be busted for good. They will be forced to learn, however thick their skulls, that power actually lies with the people. That performance really does matter. That the people can actually kick them out. It is only when this happens that we will begin to have leaders that give a damn and followers that dare to demand for a better deal. Share this:
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 09:53:56 +0000
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