AHEAD OF SATURDAY: WHO DID WE OFFEND?
Recently, I saw an op-Ed on Bloomberg which potrayed Nigeria's 2019 Presidential election as between a former dictator and an alleged kleptocrat. At first, I considered the insinuation offensive but deep down, I knew that was the perfect description of the two gladiators in this weekend's presidential polls; my grouse was actually with the fact that even foreigners know how bad our shit smells.
While he was campaigning for the first time as the Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, the vice presidential candidate of Nigeria's main opposition party in Saturday's poll kept asking if Anambra was cursed or if Anambra people were the cause.
Today, I can't resist the urge to ask whether Nigeria is cursed with totally irresponsible leadership or if we are the causes of the failure in leadership.
Perhaps no time but now is best to ask that soul provoking question, given the choices we have decided to limit ourselves to.
By this time next week, either of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari or Atiku Abubakar would be coasting to victory as Nigeria's President.
This is the sad reality that every right thinking Nigeria must grapple with.
By Saturday, a majority of Nigerians would be picking between a 76 year old former dictator whose tenure as President for the past three and half years has failed to live up to the hype and great expectations of change and progress and a 73 year old former Vice President who, no matter how hard he and his handlers try, just can't shake off the toga of a kleptocrat.
The truth is that the chances of whoever we choose on Saturday getting us out of this conundrum are as bright as the chances of Fulham Football Club surviving relegation from the English Premier League at the end of this season.
It goes without saying that good and purpose driven leadership is not, to borrow the words of Trevor Noah in his autobiography, "Born a Crime", an "affliction which we suffer".
But we could actually do better.
Maybe we should pay grater heed to electing credible alternatives instead of just limiting ourselves to the same vicious cycle of never do wells who come in messianic garbs only to further demean us.
Maybe in 2015, we should have been more interested in finding an actually more credible and efficient alternative to former President Goodluck Jonathan (who was to all intents and purposes, a disastrous President) instead of settling for an "Anyone but Jonathan" approach which has further messed us up.
It's 2019, another election year and we haven't learnt from the mistakes of 2015. We (at least most of of us) know that the incumbent President Buhari has to go but in our desperation to get him out, we are turning a blind eye to the competence and credibility of the alternative we are pushing to succeed him.
I'm more worried about why in a year that forward thinking, intelligent and credible men and women like Madam Oby Ezekwesili, Professor Kingsley Moghalu, Omoyele Sowore, among others, indicated interest and are actually making a push for the top job in Nigeria, we are more comfortable with two "seventy-something" year olds who from their antecedents, are either out of tune with the dynamics of modern day governance or notoriously bereft of credibility and integrity.
Maybe we are not actually cursed: may be we caused this mess!
It is sad that as the musician, Falz The Bahd guy says in his song, "Hypocrites", "we are pretending to only see two jokers".
Perhaps, it is true that we and Buhari or Atiku deserve each other...
Or perhaps, I'm just too idealistic for this...
While he was campaigning for the first time as the Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, the vice presidential candidate of Nigeria's main opposition party in Saturday's poll kept asking if Anambra was cursed or if Anambra people were the cause.
Today, I can't resist the urge to ask whether Nigeria is cursed with totally irresponsible leadership or if we are the causes of the failure in leadership.
Perhaps no time but now is best to ask that soul provoking question, given the choices we have decided to limit ourselves to.
By this time next week, either of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari or Atiku Abubakar would be coasting to victory as Nigeria's President.
This is the sad reality that every right thinking Nigeria must grapple with.
By Saturday, a majority of Nigerians would be picking between a 76 year old former dictator whose tenure as President for the past three and half years has failed to live up to the hype and great expectations of change and progress and a 73 year old former Vice President who, no matter how hard he and his handlers try, just can't shake off the toga of a kleptocrat.
The truth is that the chances of whoever we choose on Saturday getting us out of this conundrum are as bright as the chances of Fulham Football Club surviving relegation from the English Premier League at the end of this season.
It goes without saying that good and purpose driven leadership is not, to borrow the words of Trevor Noah in his autobiography, "Born a Crime", an "affliction which we suffer".
But we could actually do better.
Maybe we should pay grater heed to electing credible alternatives instead of just limiting ourselves to the same vicious cycle of never do wells who come in messianic garbs only to further demean us.
Maybe in 2015, we should have been more interested in finding an actually more credible and efficient alternative to former President Goodluck Jonathan (who was to all intents and purposes, a disastrous President) instead of settling for an "Anyone but Jonathan" approach which has further messed us up.
It's 2019, another election year and we haven't learnt from the mistakes of 2015. We (at least most of of us) know that the incumbent President Buhari has to go but in our desperation to get him out, we are turning a blind eye to the competence and credibility of the alternative we are pushing to succeed him.
I'm more worried about why in a year that forward thinking, intelligent and credible men and women like Madam Oby Ezekwesili, Professor Kingsley Moghalu, Omoyele Sowore, among others, indicated interest and are actually making a push for the top job in Nigeria, we are more comfortable with two "seventy-something" year olds who from their antecedents, are either out of tune with the dynamics of modern day governance or notoriously bereft of credibility and integrity.
Maybe we are not actually cursed: may be we caused this mess!
It is sad that as the musician, Falz The Bahd guy says in his song, "Hypocrites", "we are pretending to only see two jokers".
Perhaps, it is true that we and Buhari or Atiku deserve each other...
Or perhaps, I'm just too idealistic for this...
Elochukwu, you have penned aptly. However, I'm led to believe the curse is not perennial. It is not incurable, the pain indeed is the fact that every step seems to beg the question of how long?
ReplyDeleteWe can only hope there's a remedy. But sometimes, I feel nothing will improve in the next 20 years. ..
DeleteThis is a clear description of the sadness we live in... until as a country, we actually work on it, there's little good that can happen. Somehow, I feel the tunnel is indeed long but there's light at the end.
ReplyDeleteHope is even expensive.
DeleteYou have actually made a whole lot of sense but the question is, do the masses reason the way you do?
ReplyDeleteThanks, brother.
DeleteIt's obvious they don't .
Yes, I agree. Any deep pondering of our condition either ends in a dilemma or outright frustration. Only God will sort us out, it appears.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly the worry
DeleteI think Nigerians Generally have relegated their power to politicians. Who now dictate how our political system is runned. Anyone who tries to play outside the political structure of the two main political party is seen as a joker and a dreamer.
ReplyDeleteExactly
Delete