RAW IMPACT WELCOMES YOU!

It is no longer news that by this time tomorrow, a new administration headed by General Mohammed Buhari will be in power putting an abrupt end to the 16 years of control by the PDP, acclaimed biggest political party in Africa, and also quenching the fretfulness of the southern fraction of Nigeria to having at least produced a President from the Minority. When Jonathan came on board, everyone was agog with excitement because to some extent, we had a pure civilian who understood the plight of the common man having gone to school without shoes just like most of us. As the administration journeyed on, we began to see some of the amiable good sides of uncle Jonathan and some of the setbacks he had in trying to execute his work. The race for 2015 came and everybody thought as usual, power belonged to the ruling party whether they worked or not. But when the results that lasted for 3 days started trickling in, we all were turned into descendants of CHIKE OBI whether we liked Maths or not. In no particular order, I want to enumerate some of the things that worked against the PDP and GEJ coming back to power again.

SOCIAL MEDIA VOTES WAS NOT COUNTED

While the northerners defied all odds including threat of Boko haram to go out enmasse and vote, The so called 'learned and more advanced' southerners quietly sat in their homes and voted on social media. My BBM and WhatsApp and facebook were awash with 'Vote GEJ', GEJWinsIt and so many campaigns. But when I asked lots of contacts none actually voted. They all had excuses why they couldn't vote yet they believed that GEJ will miraculously upturn the expected northern votes Buhari was sure to gather.

Here's a lesson southerners need to learn. Elections are not conducted on social media. Not on Facebook. Not on nairaland. You actually need to drag your ass over to a polling booth and vote like all the rest.

Southerners treat elections with so much disdain and disinterest. And that's a disaster cos in the end they are the ones who cry hardest about injustice. Yet they just won't take their destiny in their hands.

Nobody is bigger than voting. If presidents and governors go out to vote then who are you to sit at home and not go?

Southerners are the first to complain of injustice when the final result was announced. Cross River state in 2011 brought almost 900,000 votes and in 2015 there are struggling with 484,000. Bayelsa managed to bring in 3 hundred and something. They could have made a difference by coming out and casting their votes.

My colleagues in the entertainment industry flocked to the Villa on daily basis to dance SHOKI with the President but none of them put structures in place to deliver their principal or even came out to vote. If all the entertainers who benefited from the largesse of GEJ had come out to show support by voting and canvassing for votes not because the tube is in front of them, the story could have been different. But guess what, they were all chilling in Hotel rooms in EKO Hotels and suites and Transcorp all in the name of CONTINUITY.

Meanwhile I have authoritative confirmation from INEC that social media voting will be included in the 2019 election. Until then, congratulations to Pa Buhari.

HATE CAMPAIGNS.

I was shocked when I started hearing some PDP chieftains blaming each other over the hate campaigns they where airing against GMB. For crying out loud Nigerians are very religious people and they believe in forgiveness. PDP spent half of their budget telling people how bad Buhari was and how he will be bad again. It was not necessary. They could have spent their energy on telling the masses the good things he has done and what he intends to do again. The hate campaigns were not necessary.

OIL SUBSIDY

How will you explain to a local village market woman who bought kerosene for 50 naira 2 weeks ago that its now sold for 150 because Government has removed subsidy, Na Wah ohhhh, Government through National Orientation Agency and other Parastatal could have spent a minimum of 6 months to educate the masses on subsidy before removing it. But GEJ Government did not do that. We woke up one morning one only to find out that the fuel price has increased with all other products and Nigerians who traveled where stranded. Nigerians never forgave him for it coupled with the fact that they was no prior preparations for it. Whoever advised him on Subsidy at the time was just trying to put the final nail on his coffin.

Distraction

President Jonathan was the most distracted President in the history of Nigeria. Right from his inauguration in 2010 when the first official bomb was recorded, it has been one bomb to the other. Valuable time and resources that could have been spent on important things was channelled to fight insurgents. The fear of the same distraction was the same reason he left power.

He was confused from the beginning and left the Boko Haram question hanging till the period of election, making the society to think that he was playing politics with security. There will always be fifth columnist in any government. It is left for the government to be bold enough to pull the bull by the horn. He never visited chibok until election time. That was awful. Chibok was an opportunity for him to shine rather than allow the opposition to capitalize on it to talk him down. He could have visited them way back and combed the town as fast as possible with ruthless aggression. Now what is the fate of the CHIBOK LADIES? Or is it CHOBOK MOTHERS? Learnt some of them are Pregnant…

Corruption

Corruption is a menace everywhere. The challenge is how he addressed it .He was weak in driving firm actions on corruption. He tolerated and accommodated corrupt officers unlike Obasanjo did to Bode George and Afolabi Sunday. EFCC has done a lot of prosecution but for the courts legal barriers. Even though the Chief Justice told him that corruption is a mere thievery he is not just the head of the Executive but the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and he should interrogate the context. Lamorde in the EFCC tried to re-invent the Ribadu legacy but the presidential support was too moralistic and weak. How come we hardly hear of EFCC or ICPC since uncle Jona came on board. The only manifesto APC hard was to come and tackle corruption. Though Goodluck was not corrupt, he had a lot of corrupt people around him so everyone was judging him through the eyes of his officials.

POLITICS IS ABOUT ABSOLUTE POWER

Politics is about power. Power is who gets what when and how GEJ had all the machineries at his disposal to win the elections but he refused to use them. If the card reader was going to be a threat to his coming back, he could have cancelled it. If JEGA was his problem, he could have changed him. But he never used any of these machineries and they ended up working against him.

Over confidence.

Immediately PDP won the 2011 election it went to sleep. The historical nostalgia that opposition politics has never been strong in Nigeria was their making. It was the greatest mistake to make in modern politics. PDP was too confident parading themselves as the biggest political party in Africa and nothing was done to pacify the masses and maintain that name. while the opposition was busy doing grass root politics, PDP was busy showing a few people who did not have PVC’s the new rail stations and the new airports whereas the majority of the people that vote have even not seen an airport or entered a train. It was as if PDP was for the rich and APC the poor and the poor are majority in Nigeria so they took the day.

Quarrel with some Party big wigs

Political you don’t take people for granted or their threats. Some very senior founding fathers of PDP decamped and joined the APC and GEJ saw nothing wrong in the move. Obasanjo is not just another boy; Ameachi is not just another boy. These are people who know their worth. GEJ could have looked for a way to settle his squabble with them before the elections, even if it’s just to pretend and dumb them after the elections. Diplomacy is key in a political race. He could have tried to talk with some people who helped him to take the sit in 2011. But he decided to let them go and they decided to come together to fight him. The result is what we see now.

FIRST LADY

The first Lady also did a lot of damage to the president. In African if your husband was elected president it is not the wife. The wife earns her respect but she must not cross bounds. Madam Patience did a lot and it hurts the return of the husband to power. After Jonathan must have planned to move 60metres, Patience brings him back to 12metres. Her second round of campaign was not necessary at all. People refused to vote for her husband because of her, always wanting to be seen first before her husband when the reverse was supposed to be the case. Her comic relieves too where not too necessary. She actually took added insult to injury. Women be careful, don’t be the reason why your husband will fail.

Wrapping up
Buhari must learn early enough to avoid these pitfalls. He is elected as the President of Nigeria and not for APC, Muslim or external agents. If he was a dictator he now knows it can’t work again. If he is a religious bigot as Obasanjo tagged in 2007 (which did a lot of damage to his political career) he now knows that religion does not work in a plural society.

Above all we appreciate the foresight of el-Rufai to have encouraged Buhari to re-contest when he had given up on Nigerian politics. He has become Abraham Lincoln of our time. At least Chief Obafemi Awolowo‘s dream has been achieved

In all of these, my Joy is the fact that Nigeria now knows the power of opposition. My fear is with PDP brethrens who are decamping to APC, it shows that they have no clear vision what governance is, a government is better when they know they is a powerful opposition. My Government teacher told us that the opposition serves as the watch dog to the party in power. So if everyone runs to APC, then we will fail back to statuesque.

Nigeria must come first before any party affiliation. True change comes when we all put our hands on the plough and take the country to another level, away from religion, sectionalism, Born to rule syndrome, etc. for all those expecting miracles to happen from Buhari, please take a chill pill, he will not do any magic except we give him time and co-operation.

I love Nigeria; they cannot be any country better than Nigeria. Nigeria must work only when we all put our hands to make it work.

Your true value is based on the solutions you bring or the problems you solve. Let us all bring solutions for Nigeria not prepare to see Buhari fail because if he fails, NIGERIA HAS FAILED AGAIN!!! Ha na wah no fuel to take send this write up sef…