The President Explains, Defends, Answers
(That Debate)
By
Prince Charles Dickson
pcdbooks@gmail.com
As a prelude, I made sure my children were asleep, or else I would have
been made to re-define debate, or explain debate malpractice, the art and
act of you squaring against yourself, defeating yourself and then beig
presented with a certificate.
It was about an hour of monologue, hate him or like him the president
tried his best to address the issues as they were thrown at him.
For me, my personal opinion is that the decision by Buhari, Ribadu and
Shekarau to boycott the BON/NEDG presidential debate was a monumental
error and very poor politics. For me, they missed the big platform given
the number of Nigerians they would have captured, the fact that Jonathan
could not have done better than at least two of the three re-inforced my
opinion.
Jona got to battle quickly, determined to beat himself at his game,
explaining the concept behind new universities, he sounded sensible, but
then, I do not get why one would build several Universities to accommodate
just 500 students, how would this tackle our educational problems?
While he was rattling away, no opponent to remind him that, The National
Examinations Council (NECO) again registered another mass failure in the
November/ December external 2010 examinations as out of the 25 subjects
taken by students, none had up to 50% pass record. While only 20% passed
English Language, only 34% passed Mathematics.
If we do not understand English we can try another one, but not even one
of the 473 students that sat for French Language got a credit.
As if education is the only problem, the President in his self-debate
stated he was going to relentlessly tackle corruption, and I dare request
he starts with exam malpractice. Because for an exam in which 256, 827
actually sat recording a total of 132,993 cases of exam malpractice tells
you that our children are fast learning.
While I made a conscious effort to see the good side of the debate, I
could not neglect the lonesome picture of the president, more especially
each time Gbenga had to tell him, sir you time is up. I wonder what that
was for, when he was the only guest at the opera, and it could play for as
long as...
For the first initial 20 minutes, the whole thing just did not get into
perspective, it was simply a case of when I was the deputy governor, I
have been a governor of Bayelsa, when I was Vice president and I became
president, I am from a humble background, I can make it, you can make it.
All these were statement of facts that we all know, so what
happened.(Although I beg to add I am not from a humble home, I am from a
poor home, the Nigerian way, that's why our children cannot pass English,
whether you are from a rich or poor home, that home can be humble).
At some point, I wondered if it was a press parley, a campaign or it was
the president defends. The monodebate was all the more interesting with
the timekeeper bent on pressing the bell and earning her renumeration.
No matter what Nigerians think, for majority of those that were in that
debate hall, Jonathan will win, he will win, not because he is a great
man, but precisely the opposite. He is the luckiest man in the
world...Even his rivals will not address the press with him.
The interview went well, to all purpose and intent and there was very
little to suggest that he was going to be rattled after the first five
minutes drama of why did he not attend other debates or the real debates.
For those that had bad-mouthed the president that he got the expo
(questions before hand), the truth is that the president must have
disappointed you all because he did a good job of cramming (reading them
from heart) the answers.
A part of this whole debate I did not understand was why did the
organizers not pair Utomi with Jonathan at least the prof was willing to
spare with the Ph.d. I am sure must be one of the reasons Pat decided to
withdraw from the race entirely. A waste of talent you may want to say.
Sadly whatever we think, like I earlier stated, and confirmed by Eno
Hanson, "Having heard both the NN24 and NEDG Presidential debate /
Interview, based on the content / quality of answers given, Prof. Patrick
Utomi won the debates, followed by Ibrahim Shekarau. Unfortunately, in my
opinion, neither candidates (including the third best) will be the next
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria".
The fact remains, no matter how sad, or happy we are at the conduct of
these debates plus that of DBanj, the people who will really decide who
will win the election donīt care while those who care do not really
matter.
I love Nigeria, we are such nice people, no matter the circumstances, we
seem to flow with a light heart. In a show of solidarity, the audience
clapped for Jonathan as he won the debate against who...I really do not
know.
For even the staunchest supporters of Jonathan and others, Nigerians are
tired of what is written on party manifestoes, we know the problems, we
may not know what we want so well. However a group that has no concrete
plan, has no understanding of the working of government is not one that we
need.
We cannot keep a government that cannot pass budgets in a sane,
straight-forward manner, we do not want a government that takesa year to
get an environmental assessment done before contract is awarded on a road
lives would have been lost aplenty.
The impact this debate wil have on the electorate is only an exercise in
futility, Nigerians can be strong-headed, even in the face of superior
arguement when their mind is made up, they do not bulge. For Mr. Jonathan,
who says he has been everywhere in Nigeria save for my local government
area, I wish him bestluck.
For the man who has a plan to tackle Nigeria's energy problem, build
mini-refineries and give Dangote the responsibility of finding jobs for a
teeming unemployed and unemployable population, best of luck. In practice,
we often will say in a competion, let the best man win. If you compete
against yourself, what do we wish you...goodluck and in the entire thread,
we all know in Nigeria, the best never wins, and that often is ill-luck.
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