President Buhari was absent at last Saturday’s Presidential debate and that shouldn’t really suprise anyone.The official word when the issue of the debate arose months ago was that Vice-President Osinbajo was going to represent him.Nobody in his right senses would allow a man like Buhari get on that stage without an Osinbajo to help him navigate through the questions about their administration they have no answers to.
It however must still be said, that Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate’s decision to refuse to debate solely because Buhari wasn’t there is as nonsensical as it is irrational.Is Atiku seeking a chance to make Nigeria better or is he fighting a personal war with Buhari?.How does Buhari’s absence stop him from shedding more light on what he has to offer Nigerians?.
In as much as the priority for the well-meaning Nigerian is kicking this government out of office, we must elect a leader who is as close as possible to what we deserve.
This is how our presidential candidates are looking at the moment.
PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI
Most of the people willing to vote back the President are going to do so based on reasons other than his performance.The President’s image has suffered lately (no) thanks to the Kadaria Ahmed interview where he appeared like a blind man being led by Osinbajo and also the prosecution of the Chief Justice Of Nigeria,Walter Onnonghen at the Code of Conduct Tribunal which is quite ironically, the one good deed his administration has done in eternity.It took that one act for a lot of people to miraculously wake up to the selective and hypocritical nature of his anti-corruption campaign.His more liberal-minded supporters especially in other regions outside the core north who have not been configured to see him as a man of integrity and competence and everyone else a rogue, have started to seriously rethink their position moreso after his absence at the Presidential debate.You simply can’t make any sense defending Buhari’s performance over 4 years.
His chances in the South West are gradually tilting below 50-50 and with another northern candidate in Atiku to prevent him from winning the North East and North West landslide, its starting to get virtually impossible for him to win a free and fair election.
ATIKU ABUBAKAR
Atiku who has presented himself all through his Presidential campaign as a more intrepid and intellectual alternative to the current President, disappointed a lot of people rooting for him by refusing to attend the Presidential debate.Buhari has been referred to countless times as the worst President Nigeria has ever had and attempting to prey on his weaknesses instead of highlighting his own objectives is too opportunistic.Without Buhari to make him look extraordinary, Atiku would be intimidated by the intellectual sagacity of the Moghalus, Durotoyes and Ezekwesilis.It would be very hard to disprove that.What Atiku has going for him above anything else however, is simply the fact that most nigerians do not want to risk having Buhari for another 4 years and he remains the best chance of ousting PMB with the PDP being one of the 2 biggest parties in Nigeria.
That nothwithstanding, Atiku, whether you like it or not still remains the candidate with the best manifesto.Buhari took 6 months to realize oil marketers’ inability to access foreign exchange was the reason for the scarcity that plagued us in 2016 and in that period removing, reinstating and removing fuel subsidy; what a lot of countries have done just once in their history before hiking fuel price to N145 per litre.The handling reeked of incompetence and Atiku’s promise of reverting the price to N87-N90 more or less,seems to ratify that.He first spoke of restructuring before other candidates and has also promised to privatize our refineries in addition to having a very vivid and realistic plan on empowerment with his National Open Apprenticeship Programme that will recruit 1,000,000 apprentices annually.
The one fear a lot of Nigerians have is that people would get accustomed to getting less than what they deserve and be ‘too appreciative’ for it due to the epic lows they have been sunk into over the last 4 years but Atiku, on paper at least, doesn’t seem like he will take advantage of us.
FELA DUROTOYE
A lot of the lesser known candidates are ones we have only seen a few video clips of and apart from Sowore who enjoys quite a decent amount of publicity by virtue of his being a media practitioner of note, the last Presidential debate was most people’s opportunity to access the ‘new school’ candidates up close.
Fela Durotoye represents the best argument the old school has against the new breed-excessive idealism and utter lack of pragmatic substance.He did not seem to come ready to roll out endearing plans and policies, he appeared more ready to impress the audience with his speaking above anything else.Nigeria needs a lot more than its own version of Martin Luther King.
He is going to use drone technology to check illegal crossing at the borders and on the boko haram question where he should have used that line, he said he was going to tackle the idealogy fuelling the insurgency.The best thing he said all night was providing buses to pick and drop off public school students.
While Durotoye might be a hot sell in the places he derives his inspiration from-tall,handsome and young, this is Nigeria.It takes a lot more than that.Of all the candidates we know their names, Durotoye will come last.
KINGSLEY MOGHALU
Anyone who desires a change from the old guard but doesn’t support Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Peoples Party definitely needs to know him better.He is all the pleasant things used to describe the newer generation-vibrant,intelligent and articulate.
He appeared to be only focused on tackling our economic challenges prior to Saturday’s debate but he proved there was more to him than that.
Not to take anything away from the fact that he was by miles the best candidate at the debate, Moghalu’s startling revelations against the incumbent government while driving home his points was a great strategy.We got to know corruption in the military is being fuelled by government by-passing existing agreements on military hardware for deals with private contractors.While promising to put our public hospitals in proper shape, he told us the ‘number one medical tourist’ budgeted $11bn in 3 years for the Aso Rock clinic which was more than the $6bn allocated for our entire public hospitals yet the clinic didn’t have a single syringe.The first lady herself told us that.
However, in as much as Moghalu is a very vibrant individual who truly inspires whenever he has a chance to sell himself, he lacks a very graphic and clear-cut blue print to achieving his goals and that has in essence, made him only a little different from the ‘I will,I will’ with no ‘how’ candidates we have been seeing over the years.
OBY EZEKWESILI
Ezekwesili answered best the boko haram question on Saturday with special emphasis on intelligence-gathering and some of the little details other candidates neglected to discuss but other than that, she was uninspiring.Like she has been for most of her campaign.She used Atiku’s ‘Jobs,Jobs,Jobs’ mantra; a political abomination to say the least, without really delving into how that was feasible at a time when this country is at its lowest financially.Ezekwesili and Moghalu are all economists who want to revive our economy but none has bothered to address in detail, the most imperative step at bettering the life of the poor nigerian considering our current state-empowerment.Skills acquisition is quite cheap and only Atiku has spoken at great length on that with his master craftsman and woman scheme.
It is also this same man who has beaten Ezekwesili to what should ordinarily be the focal point of her campaign-women and youths.
Overall, Ezekwesili lacks the bite of a Moghalu, the drive of a Sowore and the assuring disposition of an old hand.
OMOYELE SOWORE
Sowore is the most ‘revolutionary’ of all our major presidential aspirants and he has as his primary target, the angry and frustrated Nigerian youth which he has little or no problems relating with because of his history as a student union President of the University of Lagos.He will not prosecute Saraki, he will lock him up.He will not only fire the current service chiefs but all army generals and finally, he will export Ekiti state’s marijuana to the rest of the world and grow our GDP.The only one clear thing synonymous with Sowore is ‘We must take back Nigeria from these people’.We can talk economic policies,short and long term goals at length later but for now, the main goal is to take back our country and hand it to him.
He has been the most entertaining candidate we have had in a very long while.
Umar Sa’ad Hassan is a lawyer based in Kano
Twitter:@Alaye_100
