Today is another day

In many states, sadly, there is not much of a choice. In the North, many candidates who may not apparently be the most qualified for the position of Governor (or any elective office for that matter) would enjoy the SAK Phenomenon (i.e. the Buhari Bandwagon). To wit, the generous General has recorded jingles for each […]

In many states, sadly, there is not much of a choice. In the North, many candidates who may not apparently be the most qualified for the position of Governor (or any elective office for that matter) would enjoy the SAK Phenomenon (i.e. the Buhari Bandwagon). To wit, the generous General has recorded jingles for each individual gubernatorial contestant on his party ticket and, up till the end of campaigning twenty four hours ago, the messages were being repeatedly played on radio stations all over the North. Many of these lucky contestants were just keeping mum – the General’s words suffice.
In many states of the South where other factors may determine who ‘wins’ today, it is apparent that there may be some jumping ‘from the frying pan into the fire’. Many states will exchange their existing State Dictators with perhaps more dictatorial, more pompous and more loquacious ones. And some would get very murderous ones. The desperation in the campaigns leading up to today is a clear indicator that, as is said in many quarters, a Nigerian Governor is more powerful than even the President of the country, on a pro-rata basis. For one, the President may not be able to ‘buy’ the whole National Assembly; Governors mostly have their State Assemblies in their pockets.
While we are on the subject, many Nigerians are happy that several outgoing State Dictators are not making it to their legendary ‘resting’ place, the Senate. One person who should be happy at these turn of events must be My Small Sister Aisha Umar Yusuf, a fellow columnist on this newspaper. A few weeks ago, in her column A NEW DIMENSION, she had lamented, with apparent consternation and disgust, how many of these dictating governors take us for a ride of eight years, and then proceed to take us on another ride of several more years as ‘Distinguished’ Senators. In fact, it is almost a given in Nigeria that full term governors retire to the Senate.
Not any more for many of them, and we hope for ever. They wanted to just automatically transfer their sirens to Abuja, having reserved Senate seats for themselves or snatched the primaries from less powerful incumbents. At Abuja, according to a viral statistics making its way on the social media, they would be ‘earning’ about a million Naira EVERY DAY for the labourious task of making laws for us; laws that at best don’t work or at worst we are much better without.
We so look forward with hope to the day when a law would be made that any holder of office must hibernate for some time to cool themselves down, and ‘reintegrate’ into society ‘properly’. After all, a segment of our youth population who study that unfortunate qualification known as Ordinary National Diploma (OND) are forced to wait a full year, mostly wasted, before they can proceed to the Higher National Diploma (HND). The wisdom in the past was for them to get some industrial training (IT) experience; now that there is no industry, it follows there is no experience, and so there is no wisdom. Even graduates with BSc and BA and HND still have to go through NYSC before getting a job, if ever. So for serving us so well, politicians should do IT in their villages for some time.
Now back to the matter at hand – today’s Governorship elections. Many of the outgoing Governors practically chose and anointed those they wanted to succeed them. Never mind the fact that many of these outgoing ones were themselves imposed on us, and that those whom they are anointing today may in the future turn round to rebel against them. In fact, as this next crop try to come into their own as ‘emerging’ leaders, they will try, as the saying goes, to roll up the carpets from under the feet of their former godfathers. But some, whose godfathers are really strong and on the ground perish the new ones into oblivion after about four years.
And then to election violence – it seems all this talk about violence is directed only at the North. The killings and mayhem taking place in the South South, especially in Rivers State, has met with an almost absolute silence from the senior harbingers of peace, both local and international. Do they want us to believe that violence has geography? That what is happening in Rivers State can be condoned, or is expected, or is alright? In my religion of Islam, he who kills one is as if he has killed the entirety of mankind. If the promise of the outgoing president that no one should lose a life because of elections is anything to go by, why is he not looking at the mote in his eye – South South and South East?
And monetary inducement still continues. The other night a governorship candidate from the South East was shown on television on the campaign trail openly and brazenly distributing money to people thronging his campaign vehicle. The saddest part of the video was the appearance of a woman carrying what appeared to be a new born baby running after the political train, in an attempt, perhaps, to get a share of the largesse. Sad.
But all this countered by the anecdote of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). A few days ago, supporters of this party were all over Abuja and some South East cities protesting ‘rigging’ against their candidates during the National Assembly elections two weeks ago. This was a party that, for at least the past two presidential elections, had NO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, choosing instead to endorse President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). And it so happened that the presidential and National Assembly elections took place simultaneously.
A perceptive Ibo friend, in a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the situation, said that after endorsing the outgoing President, the South East zone’s electorate also thought the generosity should be extended to the PDP legislative candidates. Therefore the PDP, using a broom apparently borrowed from the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC) ‘swept’ the polls – both presidential and legislative. So, my Ibo friend asks, why should APGA complain? Just desserts, he adds! In Hausa we say ‘Allah Ya kara’! (Even for today’s election, the APGA in some South Eastern States has turned against its own governorship candidates, endorsing the PDP’s, after ‘some understanding’. My friend says Ibo politics, or lack of it, is quite interesting!)
And then there was this other anecdote I enjoyed from two weeks ago. It was about the old woman who, on emerging from the thumb-printing booth, had all her three ballot papers neatly ‘thumbed’ for ALL POLITICAL PARTIES, from top to bottom. Asked why she did that, she was said to have replied: “Ai Baba Buhari ya ce mu dangwala daga sama har kasa!” From top to bottom!
And so, today, may Allah help us choose the best, be they from the ‘Cancanta’ School, or from the ‘Wake Da Shinkafa’ (or ‘Rice and Beans’) School – both campaign cries from non-APC parties – or from the SAK Phenomenon. Allah amin!
And while we are still at Alhamdu lilLah (Thanks be to God), we are also, for the nation and other reasons, still at the invocation of HasbunalLahu wa ni’imal Wakeel! (Allah is Sufficient for us and He is the Best Disposer of affairs).