We’re all losers

Supporters of the two front runners have sunk to depths previously unknown in Nigeria.  Rather than run issue based campaigns, both camps have struggled to outdo each other in pulling their opponent down.  As it stands, the campaigning boils down to how incompetent President Jonathan is today, and how the one-time dictator General Buhari was […]

Supporters of the two front runners have sunk to depths previously unknown in Nigeria.  Rather than run issue based campaigns, both camps have struggled to outdo each other in pulling their opponent down.  As it stands, the campaigning boils down to how incompetent President Jonathan is today, and how the one-time dictator General Buhari was yesterday. Neither the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) nor the All Progressives congress (APC) campaign teams have done well on issues.  Muck raking and falsehoods have been the main thrust of the President’s re-election campaign. For example when the fuel queues re-surfaced Femi Fani-Kayode Director of Media for the presidential campaign said it was the work of disgruntled opposition elements. This falsehood was exposed when the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) confirmed that the shortage was caused by devaluation of the Naira and the Minister for Finance made arrangements to pay the sum of 185 billion naira owed oil marketers.  What remains a surprise to many is how Fani-Kayode could be entrusted with such a position.
 Many people are aware of the truth about him and his sojourn in Ghana. His illogical ranting is matched by  the graceless campaigning of Dame Patience Jonathan. Throwing all decorum to the wind, her grammatically incorrect and insulting speeches are totally unbecoming of a First Lady Never before have we witnessed such a descent into tastelessness  by a president’s wife. Like all her husband’s supporters she is living in denial and fails to understand that opposition to Jonathan has little to do with the merits of Buhari. Her husband’s problem isn’t Buhari, its widespread dissatisfaction with his poor leadership, poor grasp of issues, lack of charisma, and failure to enforce the fundamentals of good governance. Uncouth, vicious, and libellous campaigning provides ample evidence of ugly minds and ugly thoughts of his inner circles. In sixteen years of misrule PDP has succeeded in breeding people of questionable character that have become “leaders”.
They are increasingly looking like a party in a desperate situation, and appear ready to stop at nothing to spread hatred and ethnicity in their bid to hold on to power. Outspoken Catholic priest and former Archbishop of Lagos Cardinal Olubunmi Okojie has expressed fears that all this mudslinging could lead to post election violence. The reality is that an increasing number of Nigerians are fed up with the hardships, lies and half-truths fed to them by this government, and desire change. It’s alleged that those behind the multitude of advertisements denigrating Buhari and supporting Jonathan are beneficiaries of the ongoing frauds in fuel subsidy the power sector. Add to this, beneficiaries of our “missing” oil stolen on a daily basis and you have a veritable war chest. The APC claims Jonathan’s campaign is driven by lack of integrity and looted funds facilitated by a presidency in which corruption, sycophancy and mediocrity are celebrated and encouraged. Most Nigerians expected the re-election campaign to be about the opposition telling us how they will do things better.
This they have failed to do. Meanwhile instead of our president telling us what he has been doing for the past six years, what he intends to do if re-elected, and why he feels he can do in four years what he has failed to do in six, he spends his time criticizing those who want change and  belittling his main opponent. Convener of the Nigerian Voters Assembly (NVA) Comrade Mashood Erubami carpeted Jonathan for not running an issues-based campaign, even though the reasons for this are understandable. The PDP had no choice because any truthful assessment of the past six years can only conclude that it’s been an unmitigated disaster.  Jonathan himself agreed as much when he told an audience in Lagos that his generation has failed while paradoxically asking them to vote for him anyway! He couldn’t explain how a vote for a failed generation in the PDP could possibly move the nation forward. In truth our president appears oblivious to or overwhelmed by the corruption and the lies surrounding him.
As a result his government has failed to impact meaningfully on the lives of citizens. The mantra that he is a good person surrounded by bad people just doesn’t hold water. Good people don’t habitually keep the company of unprincipled crooks. It’s ironic that Jonathan’s humble background has done little or nothing for the poor. Many thought that having grown up without shoes he would have caused a shoe factory to be built in every state so that children could get free shoes to wear to school. Instead even as so many children remain shoeless the campaign published a crassly stupid open letter from “Nigerian children”.  Despite massively failing WAEC, not being entitled to vote, and have little understanding of the issues involved, they are supposedly busy “thanking God” for their “saviour” President Jonathan! The sheer blasphemy is condemnable; however that is Jonathan’s problem as every man has to live with his conscience (if he has any at all). Thankfully the negative campaigning hasn’t impacted too much on the general public. The real campaign issues aren’t about character assassination. They are about the abducted Chibok girls, the fraud in NNPC, the police pension scam, general insecurity, the $20 billion unremitted oil money, the $9 million South African arms fiasco, the worsening power situation, the collapsing economy, and the massive and growing youth unemployment. . No matter who wins the election, one thing is for sure… As a nation struggling to imbibe a truly democratic culture and having to listen to all the insults and denigration we are all losers.