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Buhari is the Best Among the Presidential Candidates By Dr. Abayomi Ferreira There is nothing that is not subject to change under the sun. In the past elections, I would never have thought of voting for Muhammadu Buhari. The reason is nothing but the fact that he was a military dictator! He who takes government by unconstitutional means does not deserve to be in the government house. After all, when we think of it, the history of Nigeria is full of Marxists who deserted the fold to serve in the governments of conservatives and military dictators! However, Buhari is different from all others who bastardised rulership through military autocracy. He is the only one among the lot who has persisted in coming to the electorate to seek their mandate. He tried three times and he lost three times. He has come out a fourth time. He comes out this time on the platform of a national party. The choice before Nigerians is between a repentant dictator who is effective in governance and a totally clueless serving president, who is in the claws of corrupt people, Buhari’s academic and leadership credentials stand him out from all others on the campaign trains to be president of this battered country. He has proved beyond all doubts that he is honest and a man of integrity. He does not condone corruption. There is no other person who has held power at the federal level in the history of this country who has shown clearly that he is above board. Tafawa Balewa was an honest person and a man of integrity. Buhari was a military dictator who had all the opportunity to steal our commonwealth with no one to hold him but he did not. On this basis we can project that Buhari as president will only not steal but he would not condone corruption. All the heads of government in Nigerian history condoned corruption and had corrupt people in their governments, did business with corrupt people, had their elections financed by corrupt financiers but Buhari will not. He indeed came out that he had no money to pay for the nomination forms! He brought something new and decent into our politics: that the ordinary people should fund his campaign! He will be the only signatory to the account. Of course, nobody doubted his integrity. Indeed, the government tried to use public agencies to stop him. He went to court. He won! Secondly, the greatest threat to the continuance of this country is the Boko Haram threat. Jonathan has no clue on what to do to destroy this irritant. He keeps blaming his predecessors for not funding the military! He has no answer to the daily killings, kidnappings, looting, destruction of property and all the evils that Boko Haram represents. He certainly is a poor commander in chief as he likes to be called! The election of the President of Nigeria on 28 March 2015 is a serious business where every true Nigerian should make up his mind on who to vote for. The issues are clear: competence, integrity, honesty, ability to tackle the insurgency and the need to eradicate corruption. The campaigns for the 2015 elections were made sordid by the PDP and its agents attacking the personality of Buhari rather than focusing on issues of governance. Indeed it is obvious that many of the so called powerful people in Nigeria do not want Buhari as president. They have a lot of loot to hide! Bode George has said to all of us that he will run away if Buhari wins the election! Let him and his ilk get out and never come back. They, including a professor attacked the basic educational qualification of a retired general of the Nigerian Army! How very ignorant and poorly informed they are! Real ignoramus! The PDP went further to try to scuttle the election by calling a meeting of the Council of State to discuss an election only one week from the date of election! You do not shift the goal posts in the midst of a game; once you do, you expect only a fraudulent game! The election was shifted because 24 local government areas out of 774 are in the hands of Boko Haram! The military said it cannot guarantee security of the officials! The generals in command just have to be removed from their commands! Why are they in uniform if they cannot guarantee security? Besides, the military is not concerned with the security for the elections. This is simply police duty. The Inspector general of Police came out to say the Police was ready for the elections. The savagery demonstrated by Jonathan, the PDP, the presidency and by Fayose, the most virulent among them is reminiscent of the savagery in politics that characterised the election periods of the pre military era. They took us through a most uncalled for and useless discussion on the qualification of a retired general of the Nigerian Army and launched the country on a health trip that the general never undertook. They abandoned all and any useful discussion on issues of governance and the programmes of the contestants and the rival parties. Election periods are the only times when the electorate is opportune to compare the programmes of political parties and weigh the various contesting politicians. When we reduce the period to one of attacks on the person rather than the programmes, it shows we are still in the era of savage politics. Buhari is certainly the very best on the presidential ballot 2015. He has proved that he is honest and a man of integrity. He was in power as a military dictator and never stole public funds. His mates do not measure up to him by all and any standards. He abhors corruption. He might have been ruthless as a dictator in curbing corruption; but this country still has to curb the practice of corruption in its public affairs. Severe diseases do need treatments that are severe! There has been no federal ruler in Nigeria’s history that has shown any intolerance to corruption. Buhari did! The evil of corruption has become such a gargantuan phenomenon that even those who parade themselves as pastors, so called men of God are fully involved in taking bribes from the government to do evil! This country needs someone who will not tolerate any incidence of corruption. People in government have stolen the country blind. We now talk in terms of trillions of naira being stolen from the public treasury and nothing and I repeat nothing is done to the culprits. Indeed, the Boko Haram menace is fully beyond Jonathan. The current president has confessed publicly that he underrated the Boko Haram phenomenon! That is a very costly confession of a very poor performance by a very poor performer. It took him six years to appreciate the Boko Haram. Not less than 6,000 lives have been lost in the miscalculation; over a million people are displaced; properties of uncountable costs have been destroyed; many young people have been drawn into the fray as suicide bombers; hundreds of girls are in kidnap captivity of the Islamists. We cannot continue with the destruction. Only Buhari of the whole lot on the ballot is capable of routing the Islamists. Buhari has visited Chibok, even in the absence of soldiers to provide him any security. Jonathan cannot go to Chibok! Nigeria needs to develop. Today, I am not a member of the APC. I do not even buy their ideology. The fact remains that of the lot on the ballot, Buhari is the best of the contestants. The severe criticisms and personal condemnation to which he is subjected are by persons who have skeletons in their cupboards and do not want him as president. He is vilified for not possessing a school certificate! A general of the Nigerian Army! He is attacked as having mental illness; he is projected by the PDP as ill and too old! What has the young Jonathan done that justifies his youth? The best president in Africa was none other than Nelson Mandela who became president at age of 76! The president of Botswana is in his seventies. What the hell has age got to do with being a good president? His opponents discarded the opportunity to propagate their programmes and settled for personal attacks on Buhari. Jonathan and the PDP hired writers, outright liers, character assassins and gossipers to run down the candidate of the APC. That is not a welcome campaign strategy. The deceivers have controlled the politics of this country for so long that we have lost the decorum that naturally goes with public affairs. The election must hold in an environment of peace and tranquility on 28 March 2015. The PDP has been responsible for virtually all the incidences of violence in this campaign. The leaders and members must avoid putting Nigerian democratic programme to the test on 28 March 2015. Those who have skeletons in their cupboards are free to flee Nigeria before 29 May 2015. They can go anywhere. We certainly are better off without them and their ilk in this country. |