NN24 Debate

NN24 Debate: Jonathan is Not Stupid

Nosa James-Igbinadolor

So the elections are finally here and the prophets of doom predicted we were heading nowhere! Ha! Ha! We are having the last laugh after all. Talking about laughs, I had quite a few the other day while watching the over-hyped presidential debate on NN24 ably moderated by NEXT’ Managing Editor Kadaria Ahmed. Suffering myself through the debate, I wasn’t at all surprised by the outcome as I had expected General Muhammadu Buhari to have nothing concrete to say about the Nigerian political economy and indeed he made no lasting impression. I expected Nuhu Ribadu to mismanage his way through the exercise as he lacks the requisite experience of governance to enable him accentuate his policies and plans thoughtfully and thoroughly. Of course I expected Governor Shekarau as an experienced classroom teacher to make his point succinctly and remarkably. I wasn’t looking out for articulateness however because I knew all along that of all the major presidential candidates, Ibrahim Shekarau was definitely the best spoken, most well composed of them all. His only better is probably Reverend Chris Okotie but alas an invitation was not even extended to him to yet participate in the debate as an audience member.

I for one have never cared for political debates because I had since realized that the best man or the most articulated woman might not necessarily be the best spoken nor the best gesticulator nor the guy with the best sound bite. In any political debate I look out for ideas, plans and strategies. I look out for the nuances. I do not look at the hyperbole or skill used in expressing these ideas and strategies. That is why Governor Fashola easily got my vote at the Channels TV governorship debate. While in my opinion he was the most articulate of all the debaters, he was also the man of ideas and knowledge who had the figures and facts of Lagos at his beck and call. He definitely struck me as the man Lagos needs. No doubt he will win because he deserves to win.

I am glad Jonathan threw the invitation to participate in NN24/NEXT presidential debate into the tainted dustbin in the villa where it rightly belongs. NEXT has never hidden its rabid dislike of Jonathan, at every opportunity the paper never fails to disparage him and portray him in the most sullied way possible. The paper even claimed in its front page recently that Jonathan as Governor of Bayelsa state, came to Edo state and voted four times. How sickening! Now that Jonathan has agreed to participate in a more respectable debate organized by a coalition of media houses I expect a more interesting contest than the hopelessly suffocating one held by NN24 and NEXT.

I expect Jonathan to do well in that debate. No I do not expect him to come across as the best spoken, nor do I expect him to come across as the wittiest nor as the one with the sharpest sound bite, but Jonathan will in his own way tell Nigerians why with the massive investments in the power sector over the last five years, the time to reap the rewards of these investments is at hand. He will tell Nigerians why and indeed how he has been able to hydrate the Nigerian economy with the basic fuel products which successive governments had found thorny and intricate to do. I still expect Ibrahim Shekarau to win the points for communication and composure and I still expect Buhari to foul up as usual because he has nothing to offer this country. Talking about Buhari, the questions I always ask the awe-struck political zealots that swear by his name are simple, what does the man have to offer? What does he say he has to offer? Till today I have never received a simple sensible answer.

His worshippers say he is honest and I say really? Honesty means being fair to all and Buhari has not been fair to all. Some of my friends say I am too critical of Buhari, they say give him a chance but I always reply that he had his chances twice and he blew them. As Head of State Buhari was widely regarded as weak and ineffectual. It is widely known in knowledgeable circles that Buhari has never and is incapable of being his own man. Because he is incapable of professing ideas, Buhari always defers to those around him who come up with the ideas and who in effect become the ruling power with Buhari serving as the dormant figure head. Those who brought Buhari to power in 1983 immediately regretted their action after he abdicated authority and power to his second in command Major-General Tunde Idiagbon and others including his aide de camp Major Jokolo. It has been well documented by credible eye witnesses to power that after decisions were agreed upon at the Supreme Military Council, a concentric circle of conspirators around Buhari would easily convince him to go against these universally agreed decisions and unilaterally adopt contrary conclusions. It was no wonder that it took less than two years for those who brought him to power to kick him out and the rest his history.

Buhari’ other score point in the eyes of his devotees is his management of the PTF. In my view this more than any other activity and action would stand against Buhari in the April 9 elections. During Buhari’ ‘rulership’ of the petroleum Trust Fund, a fund meant to develop the whole of Nigeria, a fund whose sole source of funding was from the Niger-Delta, Buhari made sure that very little work was done in the South-East and South-South regions while the bulk of the work of the organization including road construction, hospital rehabilitation, drug procurement and provision were concentrated in the North-West where Buhari comes from and the North-East. Even the North-Central apart from areas heavily populated by certain ethnic groups got little of the PTF cake. In Jos, Gangare road were Buhari had friends and relatives was given a well tarred road by the PTF while Bukuru roads which were bigger and more motored were left unattended to because they are in the area not dominated by Buhari’ people. Buhari’ PTF head office was nearly almost peopled by a particular sub-ethnic group, visiting the PTF in those days was akin to walking around the state secretariat of one of the north-west states. It was no surprise that these people who worked with Buhari as Special Assistants, aides and consultants became multi-millionaires overnight, set up newspapers where “truth is a burden” and in appreciation of the General looking the other way while they looted the PTF, the newspapers today declare war on anyone and anything that dares to disagree with their patron saint. It is for nothing that they are called the Buhari Old Boys Association. One of them, the chief consultant to Buhari, another Fulani from Yola who decided who got what, when and where at the PTF died from a heart attack the same day General Abdulsalami Abubakar announced the scrapping of the organisation. I am so glad that Buhari will always run but will never win.

Once in my life time, I had seriously considered voting for Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. I liked him then and I still do but after teaming up with the Bola Tinubu of the Toronto fame, a man he once dismissed as heavily corrupt and labeled an international criminal, he will certainly not get my vote. To my disbelief Ribadu has only shown himself o be that typical Nigerian politician willing and able to accommodate crooks and criminals in order to achieve his selfish ambition. If Ribadu forgets so easily, his friend and defender the irrepressible rights activitist and good governance crusader Chief Gani Fawehinmi went through thick and thin to have Tinubu prosecuted for brazenly lying about his academic records after he claimed he had received a degree from the University of Toronto. Tinubu got away from being jailed for this felony because of his immuned status as a governor but not after having Gani Fawehinmi attacked, stoned and his car destroyed at one of the court hearings. Certainly Gani the man who Ribadu claims to look up to will no doubt be as shocked as I am to see this unequal relationship between light and darkness. Obviously the only person that has profited immensely from this unequal yoke is Bola Ahmed Tinubu who has had his unhygienic credentials glistened and glittered by his secure bonding with Ribadu. I wish Ribadu had listened to the saner voices of his friends and admirers but alas when you dine with the devil you pay with your mother.

Certainly April 9 is unquestionably Jonathan’. He has campaigned well and hard and walked through thick and thin. He has garnered and maintained goodwill amongst Nigerians and he has a campaign team peopled by battle hardened and experienced campaigners like the suave Dr Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, devil may care and irrepressible Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the highly skilled and competent Chief Tony Anenih a man whose political obituary has been written many times but like the phoenix always rises from his ashes. Like him or loathe him, the Edo Chief has made Presidents after Presidents from Chief MKO Abiola to Olusegun Obasanjo to Yar’adua and is on the verge of making the Jonathan dream a reality for Nigerians. I like Anenih, I like him a lot. I have never met him but he strikes me as the reticent go-getter and high-flier who works hard to get what he wants, a razor-sharp contrast to the earsplitting, loquacious and boisterous Tinubu. No wonder Presidents and politicians always seek him out to strategise and manage their projects.

I am glad Jonathan is set to win presidential polls. He is not the most capable person in the country but of all those that have thrown their hats in the ring he is the best of them all. Like the revered Oba Rilwan Akiolu said, Jonathan’ star is shining and nothing save GOD ALMIGHTY can stop him. He has done well so far and this election will mark his initiation into political eldership as he will become that politician that came of age through a hard fought campaign. Good luck to Buhari as he continues to remain an ethnic champion incapable of winning elections outside his North-West. Good luck to Ribadu as he is about to realize the atrociousness of the blunder he has committed. As for me and my household, it is Jonathan we know. Good luck to Nigerians.