OBJ on presidential tickets -1

Except there is a major tumult in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the existing ticket of Goodluck Jonathan and Namadi Sambo would survive, muted calls for GEJ to replace the VP as a running mate in the 2015 elections, notwithstanding. The situation is far less certain in the All Progressives Congress (APC), whose half […]

Except there is a major tumult in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the existing ticket of Goodluck Jonathan and Namadi Sambo would survive, muted calls for GEJ to replace the VP as a running mate in the 2015 elections, notwithstanding. The situation is far less certain in the All Progressives Congress (APC), whose half a dozen contestants of both well -tested aspirants and new ones get set to fight for the party’s ticket, it would be presumptuous therefore to hazard any guesses as to the character of the presidential ticket.
Still, former President Olusegun Obasanjo pre-empted any outcome of the APC presidential contest when a few days ago he urged parties to stick to tickets that put premium on the religious imperative of the country. He did not, of course, mention any particular parties, but with the presidential ticket of GEJ and Namadi Sambo already settled, and the fact that other parties are at various stages of meltdown, it was clear he had the APC in mind. A Muslim/Muslim ticket would not augur well for the country; he seemed to be telling the APC, and argued that national cohesion would be further served if the Muslim/Christian paring is preferred. But why must OBJ go out of his way to counsel the APC on the way forward, seeing that his own party –the PDP, on whose aegis he ruled Nigeria for 8 years, considers the APC as its nemesis and would rather want it to self- destruct by presenting a ticket that might not fly with the voters? Was he sending a message that he has parted ways with the PDP?
The bad blood between him and the PDP, on the one hand and its government, on the other, is well known. He once publicly called on certain prominent individuals in the PDP to prepare to take over the reins of power from GEJ, as well as savaging his handling of the intractable security situation and what he saw as the depleting external reserves. Criticising your party and a sitting government for messing thing up is one thing, actively pointing out the way to wrestle power from your party to another party can only mean one thing— that you are ready to abandon that party. Certainly you don’t use the instrumentality of a party to rule a country and then turn around to plot its downfall. Even in the United States where past presidents play the role of statesmen well, some still go out to campaign, not against, but for the party on whose back they rode to power.
Perhaps, OBJ has now decided to discard the garb of the partisan politician for the statesman’s robes, all in the bid to save the polity from its current morass. Thus, he is willing to dump his erstwhile party, through subtly warning the APC not to be so conceited as to foist on itself a ticket that can cause it grieve. To be sure, few people would begrudge him the indulgence of seeking to rescue the country from its intractable malaise and the danger it poses to its democracy which he helped to nurture while he ruled the roost. Indeed Nigerians would be enthused that OBJ has decided to step up into the statesman’s role. For one, it would not only put a new shine on his image which political partisanship has badly muddied, it will also burnish his reputation as a leading Nigeria in his own right.
Jettisoning partisanship by OBJ would also help our democracy, which has since fallen into a quagmire, to grow into its own. And this can only happen if power becomes a veritable relay race where a party whose government is adjudged not to have performed gives way to another party to have a go at governance. The realisation that another party is waiting on the wings to take over should reduce unnecessary hubris, graft and incompetence of sitting governments. Right now electoral mischief makes this impossible. But people of timber and calibre like OBJ can change this for better if they lend their stature in enforcing rather than thwarting the voters’ wishes.
His admonition on the appropriate ticket for the APC is a signal that Nigeria has got to the juncture that makes a change of government a necessity in order to revitalise democratic ethos and practice, an eventuality which he reckons some of the presidential hopefuls of the APC could bring about. True, OBJ did not openly root for anyone of the APC presidential aspirants, still his preference for one of the leading candidates, who incidentally was also a former soldier like him is very much evident. OBJ has been quoted recently to bad mouthing his deputy when he was in power, saying to the effect that Nigerians should be careful who they vote for as their president. The camp of presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar got the message and promptly retorted that no one should arrogate to himself the duty of teaching Nigerians how to vote. The brickbat between the two dates back to the bitter showdown during their days in power.
On the other hand, his soft spot for General Muhammadu Buhari is glaring and understandable, it is the bonding of men forged in the disciplined crucible of the Nigerian military, and tutored to disdain everything civilian. Bad mouthing Atiku Abubakar’s candidacy was therefore a natural, if jaundiced disposition of the soldier in OBJ, expressed against one he not only harbours grudges against but also seen as standing in the way of a fellow former soldier.  It is definitely aimed at denting his prospect at the APC presidential primaries and paving the way for Muhammadu Buhari, who he hopes would emerge victorious to continue with the tradition of the soldier-president which he blazed.
It is not at all certain however that the General would be too enamoured of OBJ’s unsolicited support, because the latter himself does not enjoy support in large parts of his own part of the country and is seen rightly or wrongly by his people to always work against their interests. Buhari may not want to be too cosy with him, so as to avoid further adding fuel to his own testy relationship with voters south of Nigeria.
He will scarcely want anything to chip away from the image of the incorruptible cultivated deliberately over many years, which in this milieu of flagrant abuse and money grubbing could be a sure fire vote winner at the polls.
Added to that is the Spartan discipline which his junta sought to institute when he was head of state in 1983 but badly misconstrued, Nigerians may have decided that a modicum of this discipline has become vital if the blatant roguery and shameless financial misdemeanours in high places are to be purged.
Yet Muhammadu  Buhari or anyone for that matter, among the half a dozen people in pursuit of the presidential slot of APC would have to win first before confronting his opposite in Nigeria’s almost invincible ruling party. But would winning or losing depend, as OBJ suggested, on what faiths the aspiring president and his running mate profess?