IT has been months of intense intra-party politicking in Nigeria. Now, all the political parties have held their primary elections and they have chosen their candidates for elective posts: House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate, governorship and president.
Before the elections were concluded, it was as if the heavens were going to crash. Allies, friends and associates turned against one another. Loyalties were tested and not a few failed. The next few months will see the intense politicking becoming inter-party.
Though primaries were conducted for various positions, the attention was focused on the presidential primaries, especially those of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the ex-ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). It was as if the other parties did not exist. This was not strange given the fact that since 1999, only two parties have controlled Nigeria’s political destiny.
The primaries of the other parties have not been drama-free. The Labour Party (LP), for instance, had three persons, including ex-PDP Vice-presidential running mate, Mr Peter Obi, laying claim to the LP ticket.
In the shadow of the primaries lies the pessimism about whether elections will be held or not in 2023 with the high level of countrywide insecurity. The dastardly murder of more than 30 innocent worshippers in a Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State happened hours before the APC kick-started its primaries, won by ex-Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast of Nigeria has been compounded by the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) with skilled fighters and sophisticated weaponry from Libya, Central Africa Republic, Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso.
It is a good thing that President Buhari recently urged African countries to establish a standby force to combat terrorism and violent crimes. The effects of the activities of these terrorists are so pronounced in Nigeria, where they also operate as bandits and kidnappers.
Aside from the insecurity, the charade called primary elections has also raised eyebrows. The primaries were highly monitised and it will not be out of place to say the country has been offered to the highest bidders. Both APC and PDP managed to hold the semblance of elections and came up with candidates in the person of Tinubu and ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar. But the role of money in their emergence is an open secret.
With Atiku as its candidate, the PDP will have to convince the South that it is not out to sideline other regions in leading the country. Abubakar’s emergence was at variance with the party’s ceding of its chairmanship to the North. President Muhammadu Buhari, a Northerner, is on the last lap of his government, which has lasted eight years, and now, the PDP has nominated another Northerner to succeed him. None of its Southern aspirants was found worthy enough to lead the country.
For the APC, which has nominated a Southerner, after the majority of Northern governors pitched their tenth with Tinubu, it also has to convince Nigerians that the country has been better under President Muhammadu Buhari who came to power in 2015. Insecurity has mounted, the economy has been crawling, unemployment remains high, the health sector is still in a coma and the centre has not held. On the international scene, the country is no longer seen as the natural leader of the continent. It has lost its weight at that level by a political leadership disconnected from the people it leads.
The country is on the precipice as it searches for a new president. And it is at a time Nigerians have genuine reasons to be disillusioned. But they must not write off the country and leave it to leaders who have shown time and time again that the love of the country is the least thing on their minds.
Leaving the country to these leaders means risking letting it go down. And go down the country cannot afford to, because the implications are better imagined. Where will the hundreds of millions of Nigerians go if their country goes down? The entire West Africa will feel the impact of the fall of Nigeria. The rest of Africa will also be choked by it and the world will grief. So, this fire burning Nigeria must be quenched.
The President Nigeria needs is the one who can quench this fire and quench it fast. The country needs a president who will promote federalism and make the government at the centre bother itself only with issues of national security and international diplomacy, a president who will give us a Nigeria where our schools can compete with others in the advanced world. We long for a President who will take Nigeria out of the Third World. What is wrong with being a First World?
The country needs a President that will grow the economy, make terrorism history, ensure peace, banish kidnappers prowling the country and provide the best medical facilities across the country. All these can only happen if Nigerian realised that now is the time they woke up from their slumber and seize the leadership of their country by being the ones who will truly elect their leaders.
The educated who at times stay home when the less educated go to the polls should re-examine themselves and change their ways. When the good ones stay aloof, the bad ones take charge. But, will Nigerians heed this call by ensuring they troop out to vote and choose Nigeria’s next President? Can they rise above their doubts and look to a future with a leader we can trust?
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