May The ‘Real’ Presidential Candidates Please Stand Up!

The TV Remote Control crashed to the floor as I agonisingly watched Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria, declare his intent on presenting himself as a presidential candidate (at the coming polls) on Channels TV ‘News at Ten’, before he reportedly took a tumble himself.

With a gritted set of teeth and a clenched fist, I was rummaging the cellar before I knew it, from where I would emerge with a bottle of Jack Daniels to calm my frayed nerves.

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });

It was a sharp contrast to the day Dele Momodu announced he was going to be vying for the same post or the day Rev Chris Okotie uncharacteristically read from a script while flanked by his admirers. I was elated as a child when I learnt of Donald Duke’s interest in the presidency or for that matter, Nuhu Ribadu’s swashbuckling though muted entrance into the presidential space. But like all of my preferred candidates, he too has gone worryingly quiet while the likes of Atiku, IBB, Jonathan and a handful of some ‘same of the same’ politicians, occupy the pages of newspapers and Primetime TV while dominating online discussions on a daily basis.

A little over five months before the 2011 landmark polls, it looks increasingly likely ( and I  loathe to say this) that the next occupant of Aso Rock would be another thieving politician with not the faintest idea of governance and draped in the regalia of the PDP. If there are 50 political parties in the land, then the other 49 must have gone into something of a deep slumber from whence they would awake moments after the ballot boxes have been snatched and re-stuffed right under their snoring nostrils. It makes for a gloomy Presidential contest ahead, really. And if things stay this way, I may be one of those disenchanted voters who would not be making it to the polling booth.

Dele Momodu appears to have returned to publishing that glossy pictorial magazine of his in the comfort of his Ghana and UK offices. Chris Okotie is a little older now, so he goes quiet, sparing us the bombastic drivels that characterised his previous campaigns. Donald Duke, the last time we checked, was singing like a canary a song called ‘Rigging’ and has disappeared from the scene only emerging to play the saxophone at the next celebrity dinner. And Nuhu? Grapevine sources say he is still weighing his options and consulting. This former anti-corruption Czar looks a modern day presidential material, but he is yet to appear before voters in a way that suggests his seriousness. Did I forget to mention Prof Pat Utomi? Where, really is the Economic Professor with his fusion of ideas and pragmatism?

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });

So, we wait. We wait with the righteous indignation of the hopeful. We wait for that ‘new’ presidential candidate who would sweep us all off our feet for once, explain how to bail us out of our present quagmire and present us with a picture of a ‘new’ country where things would work. We wait for the presidential candidate whose ideas would catch on like wildfire in the countryside and in the cities. We wait for that new party with a national reach, ready to roll its sleeves and give the ruling party a run for its tainted money. We wait.

I had the rare privilege of working closely with the Chris Okotie campaign organisation back in the days when he was the greenest horn in the pack. In retrospect, I must admit, he was an opportunity lost. He emerged from the pulpit with a gospel of change in one hand and ( like he himself called it) a panacea on the other. He exuded confidence and charisma from every pore; his grandiloquence eliciting laughter and admiration in equal doses. He could have made it—had the opportunity at his beck and call to overturn the applecart and chase the crazy baldheads (apologies, Bob Marley) out of Abuja.

I recall travelling to a few villages in my home state and not a single voter had heard of his candidacy. For them, he was still the country music singer of the ‘80s, with the good looks. In other words, as he blew hot air in Lagos, Abuja and Benin City, no one knew he was a presidential candidate in the creeks of Calabar or the mines of Enugu. No one took him seriously. He alienated himself (maybe unwittingly) from the grassroots—a critical voter base as Obama would attest to. These were homes festooned with posters of all PDP aspirants in the huts and village squares. Okotie probably never learnt from his mistake, as he would repeat the same flawed strategy the next time he was gunning for the same post. 

All of the newest entrants to the race may be walking down that same path, I am afraid. The PDP’s claim to a national spread is not only real, it is frightening. Anyone would have a real fight on their hands trying to dismantle the old order. What armchair writers like me would have expected before this time, would have been a state- by- state and Local Government- by -Local Government aggressive youth mobilisation campaign—sustained through a deluge of hired youth heads and village chiefs. Apart from the select few who barnstorm on Facebook everyday, it is debatable if anyone in my community knows Ribadu is no more than the head of the EFCC!

And we are in August! Serious candidates take the field long before they declare their intentions, working crowds and the critical mass of the voting public via all media. Whatever became of the mega party? Where are the candidates we would want in Aso Rock? Can someone please tell them it is time to hit the ground running? Let us make the job of the PDP rigging machinery difficult for them by getting ourselves mobilised and storming polling booths to make a case for the under-privileged. But to do this, we would need a Hero. But no one seems to be stepping forward, just as yet.

Just no one.

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });