Beyond Buhari and Jonathan

It is no news that President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu
Buhari have been selected by their respective parties as the gladiators
for the President’s crown in 2015.

What should be a matter of concern are the indiscreet noises that we
are beginning to read and hear from the social media regarding the two
warriors.

I am concerned by the fact that the unrestrained praise singing and
objectionable putdowns that we have come to witness now will have the
intended effect of making citizens miss a golden opportunity to really
understand the two men in order to vote wisely.

For Buhari, we are beginning to hear and read that he is a religious
fundamentalist, has some connection with Boko Haram, displays open
disdain for non-northerners, is an inflexible iron ruler, and so forth.
None of these truly describes the man or his essence.

For President Jonathan, we have continued to read and hear that he is
a clueless leader, a soft man, is leading the most corrupt regime in
Nigeria, and does not care that thousands of his people are being
decimated by a gang of insurgents. None of these truly describes the man
or his essence.

What do I expect to hear, you may want to ask? Nigeria is in trouble –
economically, politically, and socially. I am eager to hear how our
leaders – in this case, Buhari and Jonathan – will approach the issue of
solutions to these problems.

In my view, the leader that we need at this time is the one who will
clearly – without ambiguities or obfuscation – tell us how he will deal
with the economic, social and political problems that assail us at the
moment. If any of them tells us that he will end Boko Haram, he should
be able to say how. If they say that their election will bring about a
reversal in the misfortunes of crude oil, they should be able to tell us
how Nigeria can become an island and solve what is currently
devastating all OPEC countries. If they say that they will cure
inflation, we should be able to understand how they want to do it
through an economic plan that will be as simple as late Chief Obafemi’s
Awolowo’s four-point agenda.

I shall be listening intently to the two men, and I will completely
ignore the noise that we will hear from the Lagos and Abuja press as
well as the paid advertising from TAN designed to drown out this noise.

We should think about this country Nigeria beyond the Buhari and
Jonathan propaganda. Then we shall no longer become a captive audience,
pulled by the wind of propaganda and the political gerrymandering that
will be passed off as campaigning, as our country gets set for its
February 2015 date with destiny

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