Atiku and Buhari: Between the devil and deep blue sea

Our modern day heroes and heroines are those who have taken it upon themselves to consistently speak the truth to power, without being rude. They have refused to toe the line of those—who daily worship the current President of Nigeria because they do know that he is a man like all of us and he has glaring weak areas. While PMB’s followers daily praise him up to high heaven, they daily risk everything to tell him what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear. They are the true heroes and heroines of democracy, not bootlickers—who are daily eating from the crumbs that fall from the table of Aso Villa.

For the umpteenth time, when you vote for a leader, do not worship him. There are many things he will not know if you do not tell him. Even when he is doing well, do not let him know he is doing well. Continue to keep him on his toes. Nigeria is like 100years behind other flying nations, so worshipping a political leader does not make any sense.

I have said it before and I want to say it again: voting for a man does not mean that you should go to bed, thinking that Nigeria would truly change when all of us are sleeping on the same bed, facing the same direction. Voting for a man has empowered you to daily peruse what he does and hold him accountable. This is what it means to be an active and intelligent citizen. Active and patriotic citizens do not worship citizens like them.

It is treason to worship a citizen like you, especially a citizen that you voted into power. Without your vote, he becomes powerless. As a matter of fact, citizens are higher than politicians. Politicians are supposed to be afraid of you, not you being afraid of them. Also, they are supposed to serve you, not you serving them.

It is only in Nigeria that employees (politicians) are being better paid than their employers (citizens). Employees have access to aristocratic cars and mansions, while their employers are daily languishing in poverty. Employees have access to world-class healthcare, but their employers are daily dying—as an effect of little diseases and sicknesses.

Everything is shrouded in secrecy in Nigeria and the electorates do not care a hoot. The only thing they have been told to do every four years is to come out to vote into inept leaders. Only voting people to power is the civic duty of inept citizens! Till this moment, no one knows how much the monthly security vote of a governor is in Nigeria. No one knows the total package a governor takes home every month. No one knows the monthly total package of either a senator or an honourable. No one knows the monthly total package of a local government chairman. No one knows the monthly total package of either the President or vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but we are fooling ourselves that we are building a nation that is going to fly.

When governance becomes like a secret cult, the citizens would not believe in it. This is one of the reasons many Nigerians do not believe in the project called Nigeria. They are only waiting for their own turn too—to loot as those who are in power now are looting. Nigerians know that no one is in the corridors of power for anyone. People only gun for political offices—because of their wives, children, cronies, boyfriends and girlfriends.

This is where I am coming: the coming presidential election is going to be between the devil and the deep blue sea. How do I mean? I am of the opinion that both—President Buhari and Alhaji Abubakar are not relevant to both the present and future of Nigeria. Atiku is making empty promises that he knows are beyond his power to deliver in the days to come. One of those vain promises is restructuring. He does not talk about restructuring in the North, he only talks about it in the South and that is very illusory. And President Buhari said that he understands the yearnings and desires of Nigerians, but in the real sense of it, he does not have a clue.

I am of the opinion that Nigeria needs a young and upward thinking President. If at about spending 80years on earth, President Buhari and Alhaji Atiku haven’t raised anyone who can adeptly lead Nigeria, then it is a big shame on their generation. Considering either Alhaji Atiku Abubakar or President Muhammadu Buhari in a nation that has Donald Duke and Oby Ezekewzili is ludicrous and farcical. And after voting inept people to power, Nigerians would start holding vigils—so that God can work with their foolishness. High-flying nations do not play with leadership as we do in Nigeria.

It is going to be a repeat of the past if either Atiku Abubakar or PMB wins. Fellow citizens, for Nigeria to truly move forward and start flying as other serious nations, we need a clean break from our heavy-handed, inept and corrupt past. There is no history that PMB wants to make again. I advise him to leave the political scene—when the ovation is loudest. Also, Atiku is a fortunate citizen of Nigeria and was relevant to where we are coming from as a nation, but the truth is, he cannot lead us beyond here. I also advise him to sit back and learn how to function as an elder statesman, but if PMB and Atiku refuse to listen to this advice of mine, what happens to those who leave the stage too late will surely happen to them.