Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
Nigerians will go to the polls in just a couple of months. The people will choose new leaders across the country and for the country. Highlighting Nigeria’s problems on paper in order to inform readers of this or any other article is, in my opinion, a pointless exercise. Everyone knows where we are. Citizens’ cries can be heard by the deaf all over the country. The blind can see the masses’ wanton poverty and abject suffering.
There’s no reason to dwell on it. Is it the security issues? I already stated that there is no need to dwell on the issues, so I won’t. We have no other country, no other place to call home. It is a global society. One should not limit himself to man-made boundaries, as if no other place can become home. It is possible to emigrate. However, we cannot all decide to flee and seek refuge in some distant land; we must work to repair our land.
I do not recall a time in Nigeria’s political history when the youths were as politically engaged as they are now, which is, of course, due to the neglect that the nation’s affairs are experiencing. The realization that we, as young people, can influence our political destinies through our numbers has led an increasing number of people to seek to participate in the upcoming elections by obtaining their PVCs and arming themselves with the only democratic arsenal available in order to carry out this mission of rescuing our beloved country.
This realization, by itself, is not a solution. This desire to participate is not enough; the initial question is, with the power of one vote for each voter, which of these various types of people on the ballot papers will one vote for? To be honest, I don’t think any rational person who can compare these candidates side by side and then choose one can easily answer this question. The truth is heartbreaking. Let us conduct a quick, minor examination.
There are two political parties that have a realistic chance of winning. The PDP and the APC are well-known parties. There is an emerging third force, the Labour Party, and then there is the rest. We have Atiku Abubakar, BAT, and Peter Obi to analyze the two political titans and the third force, leaving the rest to those who want to bother.
The question for every voter, I believe, is which of these three can confidently beat his chest for and say will work for the betterment of Nigeria, which of them will truly huff and puff to fix all of the obvious destruction that the country is suffering? I don’t have an answer. The fact that I don’t know the answer is why I am concerned; we are in serious trouble.
Atiku Abubakar is a businessman with a reputation as a large employer of labor. He was once our Vice President, but his well-known confrontations and quarrels with his boss are the highlights of his tenure as the number two citizen. That is the only thing he has left as a former Vice President. Many people believe that a Vice President is simply someone who sits in a seat with no real power, but this man with no real power fought his boss, the President. Interesting. Some claim he bought the delegates to secure his party’s ticket. That, I suppose, speaks well of both the fabric of his party and himself. He is more than I have attempted to express here, but I hope you get the gist and essence of this effort.
And then there’s BAT. While I understand the outrage over this candidate’s age and health, I do not believe it should be at the forefront of discussions about his qualifications to be President. This writer doesn’t mind if he’s in a wheelchair; the question is whether he has the will, character, and intellectual capacity to save Nigeria from the turbulent waters in which the country is drowning. BAT has a history of working with capable minds and mentoring intellectually sound individuals; however, there is the issue of those bullion vans, which cannot be legitimately explained away.
BAT is the leader of a political party that has presided over Nigeria’s affairs for the past seven years. I don’t believe he can be divorced from the consequences of Nigeria’s leadership failures over the last seven years. Again, BAT is all of these things and more. Peter Obi, the emerging revolutionary of Twitter youths, aka the obedients, is the third candidate and the champion of the third force.
What is his most significant legacy as governor of Anambra State? He claims he left money in the state coffers, that he saved the people’s money; perhaps he confused the duties of a governor with those of a banker; but those who followed him claimed he didn’t leave any money because he awarded contracts that had yet to be paid for. Twitter users are frantically campaigning for this ostensibly unique candidate who means well, but he was on the ticket of that other candidate who shouldn’t be President just four years ago. Wahala!
But if these are our options, how does one choose where to pitch his tent? I believe that people must first accept that no angel is coming to save them. That the next election marks the start of a process. What the voter should be concerned about is which of these candidates possesses the characteristics of the type of leader that Nigeria requires after President Muhammadu Buhari.
A fearless leader with an unquenchable desire to do the right thing and make the most difficult decisions because his sole goal is to return Nigeria to the committee of thriving nations. I’m not sure if it’ll be Atiku Abubakar, BAT, or Peter Obi. The campaigns will be fully operational in a matter of days. I hope that by the end of it, the candidates will have been able to show us what they have to offer through their manifestos.
At the end of the day, let the voter decide based on true convictions rather than sentiment, because we have no other place to call home than Nigeria.
MDAs and encourage them to fully integrate e-government platforms into their operations. The current Galaxy Backbone leadership has accepted the responsibility of continuing to lead the conversation and drive aimed at encouraging the adoption of digital services across MDAs.
As GBB works to improve the digital experience of its infrastructure, it is also the responsibility of leadership in some of these establishments to engage its people in this same manner, so that the support Galaxy Backbone provides is felt in more and more areas across the country.
