POLITICS

PRESIDENT JONATHAN’S TACTICS AND RACE OVER 2015 ELECTION

If the president Goodluck Jonathan wants a second term with rigging, he should change and employ credible tactics to convince Nigerians that he is the best candidate to move the nation forward.

There is an adage which says ‘we should not judge a book by its cover but by its contents’. Another one says ‘we should not judge an article by its headline but by its contents’. If we visit social media, precisely Nasir El-Rufai’s facebook or the twitter handle @elrufai, we will understand the extent of words between members of All Progressive Congress (APC) and People Democratic Party (PDP). Let me insight us, my fellow Nigerians, that it is all politics. They are birds of the same feather that flock together.

The opposition party i.e All Progressive Congress is not all that better than the ruling People Democratic Party as only few Nigerians can be deceived by what they present. If I should impose a question that goes this way; ‘should president Jonathan contest 2015 election’? The answer should be Yes! Because as a Nigerian citizen and according to the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, he has the right to run for the second term. The fact that he became the president after the death of late president Yar’Adua does not prelude him from contesting for the second term.

The constitution empowers him to step into the shoes of president Yar’Adua after his death. The Nigerian electorates are the ones to decide at the election whether to vote for him or not in spite what is happening under his tenure so called terrorism.

There is no provision of rotation of presidency in the Nigerian constitution but the political parties only had it on agreement to that effect. The rotation which expected to recommends during national conference and has to be followed to the latter but the conference ended before the expected time which the story is still hard to tell.

Confusion that keep elongating in Nigeria should answer a question like ‘Does president Jonathan deserve second term’? to judge it all by the government performances in some areas, That is to say he does not deserve a second term. There are key areas that you can point to where he has performed credibly well. Not even talk of the Boko Haram Insurgency because up till now #BringBackOurGirls saga is yet unresolved. He does not need to wait for Malala Yousafzaib to advise him before he takes decision on this issue.

One may also ask ‘why should he using cheap American public Relations Firm (levick) to set Nigerians against Nigerians?. This is unacceptable since there are Nigerian firms that can do the job better. They are using PR because of money that will change hands.

In a civilized country, for any president to deserve a second term, he must have recorded some great achievements like: improvement in the standard of living of the citizenry, provisons of security of life and properties, employment of unemployed graduates, good road constructions, provision of portable water, provision of stable electricity. Though there are some road construction going on, but there is room for improvement.

If the president wants second term without rigging, he should change his tactics and convince Nigerians that he is the best candidate to move the nation forward. He should be transparent during the election.

The president and his aides should stop using the machinery of government to fight the opposition at all levels. He should stop initiating impeachment of opposition members. All we know is that time will tell if this strategy will work or not. If it works in one or two states, I doubt if it will work in other opposition states.

While PDP is strategizing on how to bring down the opposition, the opposition too is also strategizing to ensure that they do not succeed.

That is to say, anybody has the right to take over the presidency come 2015. What we need to ask ourselves is that, ‘does that person deserve to be in that office’? The answer to the question will help us to take a decisive decision. I am not a supporter of any political party but I support the party that champion the cause of quality leadership.