20 September 2010By Saka Raji Audu
At last, after months of
tongue wagging and manipulations,
President Ebele Goodluck Jonathan has
finally made open declaration, against his party
zoning system, to contest for 2011 Presidential
election, which took place on Saturday, 18th
of this month at the Eagle Square,
Abuja.
Earlier, the Governor of
Kano State,
Malam (Dr)
Ibrahim
Shekarau, Sardaunan
Kano had also made his open declaration
to seek his party nomination as its candidate for the
forthcoming presidential election, which
took place on August 5 last month at the International
world Conference centre, Abuja.
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by
virtue of the death of his former Boss, the late
Alhaji Umar Musa Yar'adua who died in May this year.
Malam (Dr) Ibrahim Shekarau is the two term Executive
Governor of the most populous state in
Nigeria,
Kano who will be completing his eight years in office
by May 29, 2011. While Jonathan is seeking nomination
from the national ruling party, PDP, Shekarau is
seeking presidential nomination from the opposition
party, ANPP.
Shekarau is the first person to
declare his presidential aspiration because he does
not believe in hide and seek game where national
issues are concerned. Jonathan on the other hand
believes that there is always the need for political
intrigues and deception, which made him to delay his
intention after months of keeping the nation in
suspense that seriously affected governance as
unnecessary debates were allowed for people to be at
each others throat on whether or not he was going to
declare to contest the 2011 presidential election.
Jonathan's Chairman of the
occasion during the public declaration is a
businessman in the person of Alhaji
Bamanga
Tukur who spoke from the business point
of view because PDP is always business as usual. But,
Shekarau's Chairman of the occasion during his
declaration is a well versatile political guru and a
man who has been in government of the federation that
knows the nitty-gritty of the political and economic
sagacity of the country, which means when Shekarau
becomes
President of Nigeria, he will have the
right people who know the problem of the country
pretty well and will have no problem giving solution
to such problems.
The people that attended Jonathan
presidential declaration are mostly from the
government especially some governors, ministers,
senators, house of reps, etc who are scared that if
they are not at the eagle square to be seen on the
stage, they may not have second term in office or be
given what they want. But, Shekarau did not really
worry about who attended or not attended his public
declaration because he is a man that has mission and
vision for the country – a country that has been in
miasma of hopelessness. Closely related to this is the
issue of roadmap, which Jonathan refused to unfold to
us in the name of not making promises and fulfilling
nothing as his government has showcased. But Shekarau
on the other hand is of the strong belief that it is
when there is syllabus that students could be examined
to determine their performance if truth is to be told.
This is why he clearly spelt out his roadmap upon
which he will expect any body to judge his performance
if voted as President in 2011 election. Unfortunately,
in Jonathan's case, he said that he would promise less
to do more. This assertion of an aspiring leader is
not acceptable because Nigerians deserve to be told on
the mission and vision of any leader who wants to
preside over the affairs of the country. A leader who
shies away from promising his citizens is certainly
not ready to do any thing and would end up being
judged on nothing. This is why Shekarau is more honest
in his mission and vision for the country.
For those who had the opportunity
to watch the live coverage of Jonathan and Shekarau
presidential declaration on NTA and AIT respectively
will testify to the fact that Shekarau has more people
that witnessed his declaration of aspiration than that
of Jonathan whose audience is mainly of one sided
region as against the tumultuous people that came from
all segments of Nigerians for Shekarau. Still, unlike
Shekarau, Jonathan declaration forget to respect the
country's national anthem from the beginning because
the programme had almost gone half way before a
reminder came from Master of the Ceremony for everyone
to stand up for the national anthem of the country.
How can we entrust our country in the hand of leader
that relegates its national pride to the background
beats one's imagination.
We are however happy to hear from
Jonathan Zwingina who said at the opening prayer
during the Jonathan's declaration ceremony that, "God
should ensure PDP win and give us leaders that do not
steal." By this statement, the big irony is that the
Zwingina wanted us to cast our mind to the purchase of
aircraft at the cost of N24 billion by the presidency
at a time thousands of our able bodied youths are
jobless. He wanted us to see how billions of naira was
budgeted for the celebration of a country that is
still suffering from neocolonialism. He wanted us to
see how the facilities meant for all Nigerians like
NTA and others are being manipulated by one single
interest and yet we are talking about free, fair and
credible election. Zwingina who offered the prayer
wanted us to borrow leaf from the alleged stolen of
N104 million by an erstwhile PDP leader presently
standing trial. Indeed, these are the kind of leaders
he might be praying against not to succeed again in
Nigeria. What other judgment can we make after hearing
from the horse's mouth than to join the chorus to say
ameeeeeen?
This is not to talk about the fact
that one of the online readers who made comment about
Jonathan intent declaration in the Nigeria Village
Square (NVS) revealed in the Village Square that
Nigeria's foreign reserve before the coming of
Yar'adua and Jonathan as President and Vice President
respectively stood at $20 billion but today, only $500
million remain. According to his rhetorical question,
what happened to $19.5 billion? If this type of
shortage continues, what do Nigerians expect by 2011?
In fact, what is the credibility of such personalities
as Ayim Pius Ayim,
Olusegun Agagu, Tony Anineh, Josephine
Anineh, Barnabas Gemade, etc that Jonathan used in
intimidating Nigerians during his public declaration?
We are happy to hear from the Director General of
Jonathan Campaign, Ambassador Dalhatu Tafida that,
Jonathan is not the only humble leader because he is
just "one of the most humble leaders." To the rest of
Nigerians, we have reason to say that, "Shekarau is
the most humble presidential aspirants in the country"
without mincing words or any form of stammering.
The assertion that Mr. Jonathan
holds a PHD and therefore has "knowledge and
experience" is nothing but a mockery of Jonathan's
presidential aspiration. Was the late
General Murtala Mohammed a PHD holder
when he turned around the country with so much
progressive changes within six month? In spite of the
PHD nomenclature of Jonathan, we have not heard any
special discovery from him as a philosopher. Most of
the books our children read in schools today are
written by scholars without PHD. So, where did such
scholars get their knowledge and experience to make up
their wonderful books? On the part of Malam (Dr)
Ibrahim Shekarau, he has impacted so wonderfully doses
of knowledge and experience as teacher on thousands of
students who are today have turned to be good citizens
in the society. So, what are the handlers of
Jonathan's presidency talking about of being a PHD
holder? We should excuse these people because they are
merely rented to shout all sorts of things for
Jonathan since they have lost touch with
socio-economic and political issues of the country at
the moment.
In fact, all the so called
personalities that attended Jonathan's declaration of
intent for presidency last Saturday such as Bala
Mohammed of FCT, Barnabas Gemade, Joseph Wayas, Don
Etiebet, Ima Niboro, Ojo Madueke, Jery Gana, Matthew
Tawo Mbu (former foreign minister) Pius Anyim (former
senate president), Jonathan Zwingina (former Senator
from
Adamawa)
Ibrahim Mantu (former Deputy Senate President) and
Mohammed Abba Aji are the same old leaders that have
caused a lot of devastation to this country, Nigeria.
They brought us to the unfortunate situation we are
today in the country. They are staging a come back to
cash on Jonathan inexperience so that they can milk
the country dry again. Why should we allow these
recycled leaders again to decide for us? We must have
the courage to say No!
In the Jonathan declaration of
intent for 2011 presidential race, which he earlier
posted on his face book, he said that "we made no
promise to revamp the textile industry. We delivered a
bailout package worth 150 billion naira that is being
dispensed as I write." But he failed to realize the
fact that the problem of textile is not the problem of
sharing money but making the industry to be
competitive through enabling environment. What
happened if this money is shared among the ailing
textile and yet, there is no stable power, no
affordable Low Pour Oil (LPO) otherwise popularly
known as black oil and smuggling continues unabated,
definitely, the textiles will not survive and they
have ever remained in a cooler. This is why the so
called 150 billion naira textile bailout is nothing
but A BIG WASTE and cannot in any way solve the
horrendous devastation of the textile industry. Why
then is somebody deceiving us just to earn our votes?
In any case, how many of the textiles have received
the bailout and is the bailout not more of a farce
than reality?
Indeed, we have heard from
Jonathan and the kind of people that are behind him.
We have also seen the type of people he rented for his
18th September declaration through our NTA.
But we are not convinced beyond reasonable doubt that
Jonathan is prepared to liberate the country from the
miasma of hopelessness epitomized by PDP. He is not
the only one that scores low in our genuine
assessment. We are also not comfortable with the likes
of Babangida, Atiku, Gusau, Tofa and Saraki who have
variously held this country to ransom. The alternative
therefore lies with Malam (Dr) Ibrahim Shekarau, the
Sardaunan Kano and the two terms jinx breaker in the
history of Kano politics. Sentiment aside, this man of
impeccable quality has silently moved
Kano
from the nadir of hopelessness to limelight of
recognition.
We believe that Shekarau's roadmap
he unraveled during his presidential declaration is
enough to take us to the Promised Land. We know he has
no money and 'influence' to rig election but we just
pray that God in His infinite mercy allow his party to
pick him as a presidential candidate of the party. If
this happens, he will confront the monster called PDP
that has been enslaving our country in the last eleven
years. As a result of greed, avarice, desperation,
unhealthy competition, capitalistic despot, injustice,
corruption and insincerity that have permeated the air
of insecurity in the country, Nigerians have lost
confidence in PDP. ANPP through Malam (Dr) Ibrahim
Shekarau is therefore the alternative for viable
polity and economic progress. This is why Shekarau
declaration of aspiration for 2011 Presidential race
is more realistic and reliable than any one else one
should think of.
Saka Raji Audu writes from Kano and can be reached on
his email:
sakaraj@yahoo.com
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