BY SUNNY IKHIOYA
Interestingly, we have started on the journeyman’s, ‘follow-follow’ walk again. We know what to do, but for religious, ethnic, and other sentiments, we are refusing to accept the realities of the situation. People are fighting, killing, and abusing each other, both on social media and on the ground.
For all of us who are taking sides so passionately, as if our lives depended on it, have we taken time to analyze our situation? Are we doing things truly because we want our country to move forward, or because of what we can appropriate to ourselves?
If we have truly done this rethinking, then let us look at these candidates one by one. Before I go any further, I must state that whoever emerges from the three candidates will perform better than this incumbent, that is, if he chooses to depart from the disastrous path that we have taken in recent years, he must depart from a cronyism and ethnic view of Nigeria.
The first six months of Buhari was used to eliminate perceived obstacles and impose the kind of people he wants to work with, using permanent secretaries and directors of government controlled ministries and organisations. Secondly, it was very obvious that the influx of strange faces, after the Buhari victory at the 2015 elections, was a recipe for trouble. Some of us did point it out at that time, but we were waved aside as wailers.
The governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, even went as far as claiming that, Fulani from all over the world are Nigerians and so, do not need any visa to come into the country. These, fired by religious and ethnic bigotry, have now dug deep inside our forests, causing untold hardship on poor and innocent Nigerians, minding their businesses in our country sides.
Some of them do not bother to come into the towns and cities, they are satisfied staying inside the bushes and forests, disturbing farmers of their legitimate source of living. They are untouchable, no matter the gravity of offence they commit, the law enforcement agents are powerless, as the body language from the top is vague to them. So, if any of the lucky candidates can remove these from the forests, with decisive actions, the country will be assured of an improvement in food supply.
Also, the same body language from the top enabled some top investors in the country to make a ‘japa’ with their funds. Foreign direct investment went directly south, during that long six months of Buhari government without a cabinet in place, the new government could not guarantee continuity of policies and agreements put in place by previous government, so, activities took a nosedive and the economy even went into recession before the COVID-19 pandemic showed its face.
“Nigeria requires an energetic, focused, ingenious, detribalized, secular, charismatic, shrewd, dispassionate and empathetic leader to lead us through the next phase. The different crises that engulfed this country, both natural and man-made, require a leader that will be on ground at the shortest notice”
Agreements reached with indigenous firms to secure our pipelines were also ruthlessly abrogated, and it became an open sesame for oil thieves to operate in dimensions never witnessed before in this country. We are still struggling with the cumulative effects of all of these today and our first class economic experts have been experimenting with theories, both known and unknown, to put a halt to our naira free fall and inflation.
Our solution is simple: just do the right things and you will see what positive changes it will bring to the lot of Nigerians. The work of the incoming President is well cut out and straight forward, unless he chooses the route of wastage that the outgoing government is presently bedeviled with.
One thing that characterizes Atiku Abubakar of PDP, Bola Tinubu of APC and Peter Obi of Labour Party is that, they are all cosmopolitan gentlemen, conversant with modern ways of living, with good exposures to people of different backgrounds and culture.
When you can accommodate the individual intricacies of people and their cultures, you are better placed to run a country like Nigeria.
Do the above three people have the characteristics to govern Nigeria as a country of justice, equity and fairness? I believe they do have it but, do they have the political will to make this possible? That is what we should interrogate in each of them, because it is one thing to know what to do and another, to have the political will to execute it.
Buhari’s focus and target is to properly settle his Fulani brethren, and you can see that he has demonstrated strong will and capacity to execute this. Despite the killings and protests all over the land, he has not wavered from that focus.
Will any of these three be capable of returning us to the track of true nationhood, as dreamt by the founding fathers of this nation? Who among these three will you choose? As it is, it is not going to be an easy task for anyone coming as next president of Nigeria; the people have become so alienated from leadership that they have lost confidence.
Nigeria requires an energetic, focused, ingenious, detribalized, secular, charismatic, shrewd, dispassionate and empathetic leader to lead us through the next phase. The different crises that engulfed this country, both natural and man-made, require a leader that will be on ground at the shortest notice, to have a feel of what the people are experiencing, direct and not through second hand information, like we see now with the flood disasters and other killings and massacres, which of these three will be able to play this key demanding role?
Luckily for us again, these three have antecedents; we have seen Tinubu as governor of Lagos State, action packed, vibrant and fire spitting, ready to confront challenges and always leading from the front, with capable and equally agile young men beside him, but is he the same Tinubu today? Atiku at the height of PDP glorious years was the poster boy of the party, interconnecting and reaching out to everyone. Shrewd in business, articulated and unifying, but does he still have that power, strength and charisma?
We have also seen Peter Obi, as governor of Anambra State; his record is an open book, both in business and politics. We have seen his drive and sincerity to take the country back to its rightful course. We have also seen his energy, passion and cry for Nigerians to vote based solely on competence and nothing more. Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear let them do the right thing for the sake of Nigeria.
Ikhioya wrote via: www.southsouthecho.com
CAVEAT: Views and opinions expressed here are those of the writers and are not in any way those of The Point Newspaper – Editor
