In preparation for the quite
decisive showdown between the two major candidates towards determining the
future of the country, a good number of people have resorted to polemics, diatribe
and outright falsehood as they try to sell the election for what it is not. The
truth is that the election is not the biblical Armeggedon between the forces of
good and evil with either of the two candidates portrayed as either an angel or
a demon. Camps have been divided into GEJites and Buharists with virtually no
in-betweens.
Depending on which of the
camp you were able to listen to, President Goodluck Jonathan is either a
Devil-incarnate or the second coming of The Messiah, whose parousia would
signal the end of strife and catapult Nigerians into the paradise.
At the other end of the spectrum lie those who believe that the Jonathan years were “the years eaten by the cankerworms and the caterpillars” which the administration of General Muhammed Buhari would restore with his midas touch. As often the case before any election, regular people adopt the guise of political scientists and would expertly or not-so-expertly discuss political issues and even offer analysis on any event be it from the trend or from the history. Most of the times, the unguarded get bamboozled by the diatribes and ultimately get swallowed by it. However, it must be said that the political verbiage often cloaks a bewildering cluelessness and over-simplistic fantasy. Some in the GEJ camp try furtively to sell their candidate as a decisive administrator who is not unduly manipulated by political currents; the Buharists have their work cut out trying to market Buhari as an administrator who has any sort of respect for any opinion that did not emanate from him. For the buharists, they work as hard to convince Nigerians that Buhari whose fame as a strict military administrator who made and unmade laws as he saw fit could seamlessly make the transition into democracy while respecting the rule of law and guaranteeing press freedom; two attributes which underpin democracy. For all of President Goodluck Jonathan vaunted ineptitude and hesitant approach to burning issues, he has allowed the press to make of him what they want. Tolerance and due process are not words that Buhari is especially noted for. Buhari himself have been sold as a dinosaur, a relic from a bygone era that must be discarded into the dustbin of history, the dismissal does him great disservice and undermines the wider implications of his single-mindedness as was exemplified in the now popular War against Indiscipline.
At the other end of the spectrum lie those who believe that the Jonathan years were “the years eaten by the cankerworms and the caterpillars” which the administration of General Muhammed Buhari would restore with his midas touch. As often the case before any election, regular people adopt the guise of political scientists and would expertly or not-so-expertly discuss political issues and even offer analysis on any event be it from the trend or from the history. Most of the times, the unguarded get bamboozled by the diatribes and ultimately get swallowed by it. However, it must be said that the political verbiage often cloaks a bewildering cluelessness and over-simplistic fantasy. Some in the GEJ camp try furtively to sell their candidate as a decisive administrator who is not unduly manipulated by political currents; the Buharists have their work cut out trying to market Buhari as an administrator who has any sort of respect for any opinion that did not emanate from him. For the buharists, they work as hard to convince Nigerians that Buhari whose fame as a strict military administrator who made and unmade laws as he saw fit could seamlessly make the transition into democracy while respecting the rule of law and guaranteeing press freedom; two attributes which underpin democracy. For all of President Goodluck Jonathan vaunted ineptitude and hesitant approach to burning issues, he has allowed the press to make of him what they want. Tolerance and due process are not words that Buhari is especially noted for. Buhari himself have been sold as a dinosaur, a relic from a bygone era that must be discarded into the dustbin of history, the dismissal does him great disservice and undermines the wider implications of his single-mindedness as was exemplified in the now popular War against Indiscipline.
The truth however is that the two
candidates have not given Nigerians any strong reason to vote them in come 2015
elections. Their historical scorecards are not exactly formidable irrespective
of what their supporters will try to have us believe. Going by historical
antecedents, it would seem that the 2015 election is a straight choice between
a “weak democracy” and a “strong dictatorship.” The case against Jonathan is
evident and has been defined by his apparent inability to get to grips with the
pervasive, high-scale corruption in his regime, and was amplified by the
stranglehold the terrorist group Boko Haram has kept Nigeria under. The crimes
of Buhari have been wonderfully articulated by Professor Wole Soyinka; in an
article that could be misinterpreted as a campaign move against the General if
we did not know the learned professor. Such was the strength of the piece that
even the staunchest buharist would be given to re-ask some fundamental
questions about the facts of Buhari’s first audition as the Nigerian head of
state in 1983.
The two political opponents have
similar political ideologies; which is a subtle way of saying that they have
none. Their campaign is person-based and not centered around mal-handled issues
and faulty ideologies. This reality has
made the 2015 election underwhelming to anyone with critical political mind,
for the umpteenth time Nigeria is about to change a person and not the
government. Now, I do not see how that
could catapult us into utopia.
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