2015: The Clueless debates the dictator

They want anything, including some spontaneous violence in some corner of the country to help them change the game. When PDP and the presidency engineered the postponement of the general elections, they had expected violence from the APC supporters in which case the military would have helped the rulers by crushing the opposition under the […]

They want anything, including some spontaneous violence in some corner of the country to help them change the game. When PDP and the presidency engineered the postponement of the general elections, they had expected violence from the APC supporters in which case the military would have helped the rulers by crushing the opposition under the guise of preserving national security. As it were, the opposition and its supporters showed unusual restraint and refused the bait, leaving the PDP in quandary and in search of another game changer.
The Reuben Abati taunt of the APC Presidential candidate, General Muham-madu Buhari (GMB), regarding some nebulous presidential debate should be viewed from this background. “We challenge Buhari to a debate”, authored by Presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, is another in the series of distress signals by the government of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) to divert attention from its legendary incompetence. The question is: why should Buhari oblige them a debate?
Abati began his sour invitation to GMB to debate with his principal by reminding us that “the last time Nigerians enjoyed something really close to an exciting Presidential debate was during the 1993 Presidential election.” The question is what has happened since then? There were presidential contests in 2003, 2007 and even 2011! Why didn’t Abati call for debate in 2011, when the then candidate, Goodluck Jonathan, was invited to debate Buhari?  
It is stale for Abati to “remind” GMB that “a President’s work is one of perpetual debate”; for God’s sake GMB knows because he was a Head of State! It’s ill-mannered of Abati to remark that “Buhari (is) fleeing the arena (of the debate) with his tails between his legs.” They say the Presidency shouldn’t be desecrated but presidential spokesmen debase the presidency by employing savage language to describe the conduct of Jonathan’s predecessors. When do you insult a sitting Head of State and when do you spare a former one?
Clearly, the momentum is with the APC. GMB is coasting home to victory and dislikes sharing     any debating platform with a desperate President, eager for a slip from the opposition. This one-scandal-a-day government, simply because it is on the losing side, is looking for anything, every means, to unsettle the opposition and ultimately torpedo our democracy on the altar of Jonathan’s ambition.
A President that twice failed to perform even his constitutional duties of presenting budgets to the national assembly and delegated it to Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, because he wouldn’t want to be booed by the legislators, suddenly wants a debate with Buhari. Even when the national assembly recommended that he makes something similar to the State of the Union address at least once in a year, President Jonathan kicked against it, citing some tenuous constitutional limitation.
When the Chibok girls were stolen, President Jonathan didn’t believe it, when Nyanya was bombed, he danced Azonto in Kano; when Ali Modu Sheriff was named a Boko Haram sponsor, he called him his friend; when Boko Haram re-attacked Baga, he ignored his compatriots and instead condoled the French over the Charlie Hebdo attack; when Stella Oduah used public funds to buy herself bulletproof cars, he brushed off public indignation and took her to a prayer meeting in Israel. Jonathan said his ambition isn’t worth anybody’s blood, yet his regime is the bloodiest (15,000 dead from Boko Haram atrocities alone); he fights corruption hard, yet he is a friend of those convicted or alleged to be corrupt; he claims to have transformed the country but is going round the country bribing voters to offer him second term. He says he is a digital, PhD president, but his party and cronies oppose the use of PVC to sanitise election procedure; he says he will organise free and fair polls, yet his buddies are discrediting INEC. He says he’s educated but his wife is untaught.
Between Buhari and Jonathan, it is easy to see who is “surrounded by a large crowd of morally conflicted persons.” On the side of Jonathan are such hateful characters like Ali Modu Sheriff, Anthony Anenih, Asari Dokubo, Attahiru Bafarawa, Ayo Fayose, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Edwin Clark, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Buruji Kashamu, Femi Fani-Kayode, Tanko Yakasai, Kingsley Kuku, Tompolo, Tom Ateke, Patience Jonathan, Musliu Obanikoro, Ibrahim Shekarau, Tony Nyiam, Bello Haliru, Reno Omokri, etc, who have put their individual interests over and above our national wellbeing.
Buhari will be naive to sit down to a debate organised by the likes of Raymond Dokpesi whose Africa Independent Television (AIT) has become an extremely partisan station in the service of Jonathan and the PDP, broadcasting all sorts of despicable programmes, unfairly against the opposition. Nduka Obaigbena’s ThisDay and Arise TV are pro-Jonathan, and Emeka Ezeze’s The Guardian was so blinded by the devil that it printed Monday, Jonathan 5, 2015 instead of Monday, January 5, 2015 in its edition of the day in question. Godwin Godini Darah has, after all, said there was a compelling need for the Niger Delta media moguls to close ranks behind their brother, warts and all. Why should Buhari sit down to a debate organised by these Niger Delta media moguls?
Buhari has admitted to being an ex-dictator and taken responsibility for the gains and losses of his regime. He never claimed to be an intellectual but possesses the sufficient knowledge, both Eastern and Western, to tackle Nigeria’s basic problems. His party’s manifesto is available to all and citizens believe his word to lead a competent administration, re-establish security, provide electricity, create employment and restore our national pride. Buhari debated in 2011; he doesn’t need to do so now with a clueless president.