AC/CPC, not-United they fell – A commentator on this blog forecast in 2011

XXXXXX Says:
April 14, 2011 at 9:31 am e

Too bad, the two opposition groups decided not to unite against PDP. I can imagine an headline after the election: AC/CPC, not-United they fell.

 

It’s a big ‘NO’ to any “government of national unity” as is being reportedly floated even before the elections are half-way.  Such has never proved either unifying or beneficial in any way except to the few who get appointments at “federal” level.  And that’s exactly what those who are reportedly yearning for this distraction want:  business as usual.

On Sunday, March 20, I came out of my self-imposed retirement of newspaper weekly writing to request that the opposition unite if “Nigeria must be rid of cancer-like PDP!”in THE NATION ON SUNDAY.  I was certain that most who had read me over the years would be shocked at the opening of the essay that gave me away: “God willing, I will cast my presidential vote for retd. General Buhari and that is more than a personal quantum leap.” I gave the central point to my turn-around in spite of Buhari’s numerous minuses to a Southern Christian like me as his being the more experienced of he and Ribadu to stand up to the corruption monster that is Nigeria’s greatest impediment to development.  I also went back to some past essays in which I, like many newspaper essayists, had seen and described the PDP as having interests that are inimical to Nigeria’s.

The legislative elections have made it imperative and urgent that the leaders of the two leading opposition candidates, Buhari and Ribadu, get together to rethink strategies because neither can fight the monster created by You-Know-Whom without sinking whatever differences; whatever impediments lie in the way of fielding a single candidate must be removed.

Here’s part of that essay that I must go back to in view of the overwhelming message/pointer from last Saturday:  unite or allow the PDP to finally bring Nigeria to her knees:

“I think the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), must return to negotiations. The party’s presidential candidate is worthy like Buhari but we cannot take Nigeria back from despoliation having two worthy combatants with near-similar ideologies in opposing camps. The experience of Buhari matters. The youth of this country, surprisingly, is ready for Buhari. I’m conducting a very informal and unscientific poll among young professionals, all Christians, all Odua descendants and in two months, only two of forty-eight have repeated the time-worn ‘he’s a Muslim fanatic’; he’s not a democrat; he’s this, he’s that cliché. Hardly any of the contestants can sail through a rigorous examination. Who will provide the best leadership and who can stare the corruption-artists in the face and not blink? … Like thousands and thousands of families, I have accepted a life of semi-exile for me and perhaps, permanent exile for my kids but most Nigerians cannot even afford what is, at best, a life hardly worth living: exile by necessity to start, no matter how later comfortable, is awful. We therefore all owe a lot to make Nigeria work.

Buhari’s presidency gave General Tunde Idiagbon of very blessed memory more than elbow room. We cannot doubt he would do the same with Pastor Tunde Bakare. The PDP is too large a monster to be left to continue to roam the land, and must be stopped.”

Mistakes and rigidity – not unexpected – must have been from both sides but with the antecedents of just about all those at the forefront of ACN and Buhari’s candidature, I feel certain that all of them and their candidates are real patriots.  They must move from the intransigence, the name-calling and whatever else stand in the way of a united candidate for Saturday’s make-or-break election.  We were all witnesses to the evil the PDP tried to foster last weekend, sending SMS-es on Lagos elections to as far afield as Oyo State with not-veiled references to national elections.  Those ploys failed woefully.

The Action Congress of Nigeria’s candidate cannot win the presidential election; neither can Buhari – if each goes it alone. A so-called government of national unity would take us nowhere and I’m sure this is not what Nigerians want.  True leadership calls for taking leaps of faith – at times – as long as the long-term goal and good of the people the leader(s) represent remain central.

Chief Akande, Asiwaju Tinubu, General Buhari, Alhaji Ribadu, this is Nigeria’s time; this is our time – and the call is yours.  I’m sure a deal is not impossible.  We cannot and must not fail.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED  AS:

Yet another plea for opposition to PDP to unite – Tola Adenle

April 12, 2011.

 

THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2014.  9:59 p.m.