The picture you are looking at is only a tip of the iceberg about what needs to change in Nigeria. An Okada motorcycle rider gives a ride to a very obedient cow on his motor bike in a village along the road to Nassarawa on the outskirts of the nation’s capital of Abuja without any of the many policemen, drug enforcement agents, Immigration and Customs official on all of the check points on that road lifting a finger. These officers could care less about the danger posed to the rider, to the cow and the other road users should the cow run amok at any stage on the long ride to the city center in Abuja.
It is true that pictures do lie if cleverly doctored but I can tell you that this particular picture is real and authentic. I cannot think of any better illustration to show the level to which Nigeria has descended or degenerated under our so-called transformational President. I have just watched many interviews of the mouth organ of Mr. President; Dr. Doyin Okupe defending the indefensible and lecturing all of his interviewers on You Tube on Channel TV. I got so pissed off by some of the questions asked and Dr. Okupe’s responses to some of those questions without follow-up questions which should have shown the medical doctor-turned PRO of the President that he was being clever by half and talking jazz most of the time as if his interviewers do not have any brains at all.
Dr. Okupe is an empty barrel as far as I am concerned and the two gentlemen and the lady who interviewed him were treating him with kid gloves as if they are afraid to lose their jobs if they get more aggressive and intense in asking more pertinent follow-up questions. I turned off my television because the interview was a complete waste of my time.
The 2015 elections ought to afford Nigerian voters a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to take the country back that from the current leadership which has shown it is totally incapable of solving any of the nation’s serious national problems. If Jonathan keeps that job for another 20 years he and his handlers like Dr.Okupe would always come up with enough excuses and platitudes to explain why they have so far failed to provide any realistic solutions to the problems they inherited on their coming to office. If all they have to offer in 4 years are all the excuses Dr.Okupe has offered in many of those interviews, Nigerian would be insane to give Jonathan and his demolition Derby another 4 years.
I have serious doubts today as to whether or not the elections can be peacefully held in each of the 5 states of the former Northeast of Nigeria and their neighboring states as of Jigawa, Kano, Plateau and Kaduna states to mention a few. The Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Police Force which had been held to ransom by the rag tag army of Boko Haram can hardly be trusted to have enough resources in their arsenal to help INEC to supervise those elections and to assure the nation that those elections would not just be free and fair but peaceful, given all we know today.
I have not heard Professor Attahiru Jega and his bungling INEC lay out a plan that reasonable and rational observers can accept as good and fool-proof enough to guarantee free and fair elections in much of the North as we speak. It is very troubling to me that less than 2 months to the elections, INEC is yet to come out with a game plan we all can have more confidence in. I hope we are not just engaged in a wild goose chase for a mirage of an election given all the facts on the ground today. I won’t be surprised if many of the elections are canceled at the last minute because nobody knows what Boko Haram may be up to in making sure that the change envisaged by Nigerians does not take hold. They have to know they would be in for a rough time and a change in policy if a new Sheriff is brought to town.
President Jonathan, for all we know, does not appear bothered too much about Boko Haram insurrection in the Northeast at as long as the elections can be held in the Southeast and the South/South zones of Nigeria where much of his support comes from and where he has invested so much time, energy and resources trying to please the Southeast and the South/South with abundant patronage. He is busy making overtures to the coalition of the willing in the Southwest by trying to woo the relics of the Afenifere group and the revived SDP group which he hopes to use to split the vote from the Southwest which is controlled by the opposition parties with the possible exception of Ekiti and Ondo States.
Jonathan is particularly encouraged that the newly elected Governor of Ekiti and Governor Mimiko who recently decamped into the PDP from Labor Party would deliver the two states for him. He believes that if he is able to win in much of the South, he could care less about what happens in much of the North where he has to know that his opponent is very strong and could be much stronger this time around because the northerners now have a chance to pay him back for not keeping his promise to just go for one term. The Northerners who have never had to wait this long to have power returned to them would be more than ready to vote for one of their own regardless of what they say to the contrary for public consumption. President Jonathan could also be counting on the menace of Boko Harem to help his cause in those unstable and vulnerable states where it would be easy to rig and snatch ballot boxes and to put all the blame on Boko Haram.
Where Jonathan and his Administration may miscalculate is the fact that much of the rest of the country now blame him and his Government for the current lawlessness, instability and insecurity in Nigeria. His Government is viewed as totally weak and incompetent to govern and majority of the voters are just about ready to issue his Government a red card if those elections are free and fair. I guess the only option left for the PDP and Jonathan right now is to rig the election or be driven out of office in a wave election that is going to favor the opposition APC even in some of the states that have been strong holds of the PDP in past elections in Nigeria because there is now a consensus in Nigeria that the Jonathan Administration has failed and that it makes no sense for Nigerians to continue to pretend otherwise.
President Jonathan and his PDP were hoping and praying for the Opposition to ruin their chances by fielding a Muslim/Muslim ticket which they know the Christian South would not welcome or vote for. They met their Waterloo when the Opposition APC went for a very strong and credible ticket headed by General Buhari and a very strong Yoruba Christian in Professor and Pastor Oshibajo from Ikenne, the Mecca of the Awolowo country in the Southwest. They would have been happier with Ahmed Tinubu on the ticket because that would have been a sure guarantee to them that the Afenifere flank of the Yorubas would have voted as a bloc for a Jonathan ticket if only to slight Tinubu.
The selection of a Redeem pastor and a very competent one at that has changed all the dynamics that the PDP were expecting to work in their favor. Most Yorubas I speak to look favorably on the Buhari/Oshibajo ticket and would vote massively for them in all Yoruba states even if they return to their old loyalties in other elections other than that of the President. The Afenifere group has lost out to the Tinubu flank of Awoists. They are just too embarrassed to admit it because Tinubu, despite few shortcomings, has proved himself a genius in politics who has earned his wings to be crowned the successor to Obafemi Awolowo in Nigerian Politics, if the truth must be told. I will not be surprised if Buhari and Osibajo take back Ekiti and Ondo States on that premise or presumption. Professor Oshibajo who is very well qualified and young would get the votes of most of the Yoruba and Nigerian youth across the board who value education and professional competence. I can see Buhari and Oshibajo winning in most of the Yoruba states for that reason.
The Oshibajo selection was a great move by the opposition which now had a chance to recapture all of the votes from the Southwest plus states like Ekiti and Ondo where the PDP was hoping it could win because of the political machines of Governors Fayose and Mimiko. The battle lines have been redrawn because of the woeful performance of the Jonathan Administration and the level of instability, corruption and insecurity in the whole country.Mimiko decamping to the PDP had demystified him as the strong man of Ondo State politics where his middle name has now changed from “Iroko gba sibe” to “Ebola” as we speak.
Nigeria is facing the same kind of hostile opposition like the current President of Turkey is facing due to widespread corruption in his country and human rights violations by his Government across the board. Nigeria and Turkey share a lot in common today and could predictably suffer the same fate as people develop a negative reaction to corruption and other malfeasance in society like the ones currently ravaging Nigeria under Jonathan’s Administration.
The Boko Haram insurrection in Nigeria has been an international embarrassment to Nigeria at a time the Nigerian economy has taken a nose dive due to the fall in the price of crude oil and the shortsightedness of Government to foresee the development with careful forward planning.
A BBC News documentary by Yalda Hakim titled “Nigeria Undercover” aired at 6 am on December 20 has portrayed the Nigerian Government as totally clueless and incompetent confirming the fears of most Nigerians that the Jonathan Administration has long lost its moral compass to continue to rule Nigeria. Anybody who watched that documentary would easily have come to the same conclusion.
Even Nigerians in and out of Government now know that the Jonathan Government has failed and failed woefully regardless of what Dr. Okupe may be saying to the contrary. Many of the President ardent supporters are only waiting to see where the pendulum is swinging before they start deserting or bailing out of the sinking boat of the President and the PDP because the hand writing on the wall is very clear to all and sundry.
Things are not working for Nigeria under the present Federal Government. There is therefore going to be a major re-alignment of forces in the country following the 2015 wave election. That is my prediction. The need for change has never been more strident than now.
I am a Christian and a southerner but I am just about ready to denounce and condemn the Jonathan Administration for bringing Nigeria to the precipice of hopelessness. It is time for Nigerian voters to give the opposition a chance to prove their own mettle in 2015. If for any reason the opposition APC does not perform, Nigerians would reserve the right to send them packing again in 2019.
End of story.