Buhari’s tears are not for an ambition but for Nigeria – Tola Adenle

Being the 5th of essays from the 2011 election cycle period

First posted here as above title on April 14, 2011.

 

What a shame that the progressive camp cannot shelve whatever differences they have on the MINOR points against its going together come Saturday! I say ‘minor’ because the evil that the PDP represents are far greater than whatever little points – the fine print of the agreement – that seem to stand in the way of the coming together.

Retired General Muhammadu Buhari was not weeping that he would not rule Nigeria but his tears – I feel almost certain – were for a great opportunity that’s going to be missed. I have cried twice this week:  first for joy when I heard the talks were on again and then, yesterday morning when I read of the breakdown. We should all be crying because for the PDP, we know it’s going to be business as usual. While a driver told me he would vote for Buhari because “he has no foreign account”, another driver put it in a way that would be understood by most Nigerians: “Jonathan is Obasanjo Fourth Term”! When I corrected him by saying that the “Third Term” project failed, he said: “Mommy, Yar Adua ni Third Term; Jonathan ni Fourth Term …” [‘ni’ in Yoruba is translates to the verb ‘is’]

Mark my word: generations yet unborn – and not just in Yorubaland but in the whole of the country – would not remember the leaders of the so-called progressive camp that tantalized citizens with a possibility only to fail to seize an opportunity that would have started this country on the road to greatness when the opportunity presented itself.  IF the PDP, using its old template, manages to CAPTURE the presidency, then Nigeria’s long nightmare would have just begun. Looters; impunity kingpins; political adventurers with long rap sheets in America, Europe, Japan ascending to high positions; certificate forgers; killers as rulers, etcetera would finally take Nigeria to its knees.

Nigeria would join The Congo and other endowed African countries that have nothing to show as benefits to their people.

Personal ambitions must be sacrificed on the altar of the chance that presents itself. With reports in NEXT, it seems unbelievable that such a minor point as to who would be vice president would derail the merger talks.

Here is a radical suggestion that may not jive with reality on the Nigerian political ground IF we are serious about routing the PDP; it is a scenario I had discussed with others even before I read the NEXT revelations: Buhari runs with Bakare whom he had been campaigning with and they win. Buhari foregoes a second term – I’m almost sure he would agree; Tunde Bakare retires with his principal and goes back to pastoral duties. Nuhu Ribadu picks the ticket in 2015 and runs with whoever he thinks he can work with because by then, Nigeria would have been set on the path to greatness.

There must be variations of this out there but I believe not far from these must lie the solution that would bring hope to MOST Nigerians. Leaders must be able to feel the pulse of their followers and Nigerians by a clear majority in the millions want the PDP out; it now falls on those we believe have the masses’ interests at heart to act on that wish. They must make it work.

 

There are many other essays that can be found March and April 2011 but the following is squeezed in here as a pointer to how far we still have to travel in our quest for elections that will truly reflect the people’s will.  

While we all pray for the repose of the souls of those who have died in the after-election violence and continue to ask for restraint and calm , I am working on my own comments of the “free and fair elections” which I thought would be ready by this morning. It should be before the day runs out.

While it is true that this was an improvement on past elections, statistics in the presidential elections beggar belief. Two examples: of the 14 million+ who supposedly registered in Yorubaland, only about 4.5 million turned out to vote, which represents under 33 percent of which an astounding 2.7 million voted for the much-hated within the region the ruling PDP.

Meanwhile, over in the Southeast, 7.5 million citizens supposedly registered out of which a little over 5 million voted, representing a bewildering 68.9 percent but the abracadabra does not stop there. Of the 5.075 million “voters”, 4.985 million cast their lot with the PDP while about 90,000 “voters” in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States said ‘no’ to the PDP.

http://emotanafricana.com/2011/04/20/abracadabra-voters-registration-vs-voters/

 

SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2015.  12:15 a.m. [GMT]