Between Dame Pat and Lady Buhari

There is a unique lesson for the unmarried here – make informed choices, since nobody knows what tomorrow brings. A man is as good as his wife portrays him in public. Evidently President Jones is not as worried about returning home a failed president as he is of going to jail. No. If somehow he […]

There is a unique lesson for the unmarried here – make informed choices, since nobody knows what tomorrow brings. A man is as good as his wife portrays him in public.
Evidently President Jones is not as worried about returning home a failed president as he is of going to jail. No. If somehow he could get a guarantee that the wanton looting of the common patrimony so flagrantly the hallmark of his regime would not be x-rayed, he would be ready to call off the elections and return home to enjoy zoology. That would have saved the nation billions invested in a poll he is bound to lose and the consequences of Gbagboing the verdict.
“I am not ready to feed Jonathan in prison”, that was the First Wife addressing her ‘fellow widows’ in Uyo, last week. What are the Jonathans hiding? Truth is, if you want to know the mind of our ceremonial president, listen to his wife or check her body language and speeches. Mrs. Buhari, a more urbane, suave and simple lady responded appropriately only the guilty go to jail.
It would be disastrous for equity’s sake and for a new Naija to make a pact with a regime that kills promises. Naija deserves to know how crooks got mouth-watering security contracts while our soldiers die for lack of arms. We must get to know whether the money used in bribing gullible pastors, imams and unconscionable traditional rulers and those campaigning for the break-up of our country are from President Jones’ savings as president. Never, has a country descended so low as to seek the endorsement of touts baptized as leaders.
When a government in power chooses to glamorize the ex-convicts and wanted drug barons in its midst but spends millions making documentaries on the alleged corrupt it failed to prosecute it has lost its legitimacy. This is what March 28 is about, not about age, religion or their occupational past. Sixteen years ago, when the ruining party needed a trusted candidate with national appeal, it did not go to the ivory towers in search of political scientists, it went after an ‘illiterate ex-dictator in Olusegun Obasanjo’. When President Jones was looking for a vice president, it chose Nnamdi Sambo whose certificates were burnt in a mysterious fire.
It has been an eye-opening campaign on both sides. At the start of the contest, the opposition set the rules – campaigns only on issues. All through, in spite of immense provocation, it kept faith with the promise. When it was abused, it refused to abuse back. A lot has been said about the alleged violent past of opposition supporters, but thus far the first shots fired at campaigns led to the death of an opposition supporter, a police officer was killed in Bayelsa and a journalist knifed at an opposition rally. The first wife commanded her followers to stone anyone who shouts change within earshot and the vice president openly campaigned using religion in two Jigawa and Minna.
When our children were kidnapped the first wife ridiculed our grieving mothers. At every point she never stops to insult an entire region; from calling them breeding rabbits to insulting their religion and the practice of purdah, there has been no decorum in campaigns from the ruining party.
The lowest is the play on religion at every opportunity. From calling the opposition a Boko Haram party out to Islamize the nation in the south to accusing it of seeking power to expand a Christian agenda in predominantly Muslim areas; the electorate have heard the ridiculous and the outrageous. From bribing organized religious leaders to bowing before altars and shrines; to openly attempting to politicize respected traditional institutions, this regime constantly demonstrates that it cannot win an election based on issues or its track record of performance.
In its dying days, this regime has had to seek the endorsement of dead ethnic militia in intimidating and cowing the opposition and the voting populace. The shameless way in which it mobilized militia groups even those openly opposed to the unity and sovereignty of our country to wantonly vandalize opposition posters under the protection of the army and the police is a record low. The fact that it watched approvingly while these militia men wield unlicensed arms under such official cover shows that its worst fear is – the day or reckoning. That it agreed to postpone its own expiry date under the guise that people would be disenfranchised or now that it is kicking against electronic voting are the reasons why voters should send back a warning – no regime can stop the day of reckoning.