Part of the game plan of the ruling
People’s Democratic Party in the presidential election campaign is to
distract the opposition APC who look set for a sweeping victory at the
polls come FeBuhari 14. A clear indication of this fact is the way and
manner the PDP has been playing to the gallery while tactically dodging
issues of monumental official corruption, a bastardized economy, acute
insecurity, epileptic power supply, poverty and youth unemployment.
The woeful performance of the PDP
candidate and incumbent president in these areas simply means that in
saner climes, it would take a miracle of biblical proportions for him to
pick the 10th slot among the contenders to the office of president of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Assisted by ethnic and religious bigotry
which will ultimately determine how most uninformed folks vote, the
often abused power of incumbency and a band of political demagogues as
well as right wing business and financial emperors hell-bent on
maintaining their stranglehold on a traumatized populace, the president
still struggles to come to terms with the ever increasing popularity of
his main challenger, General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, a man the PDP
had written off as being incapable of mustering the political muscle and
clout across the huge political landscape outside his traditional
stronghold of Northern Nigeria.
Unlike in past elections where Buhari
rode on the back of his popularity in the North but without a strong
political structure to market his candidacy in the South, coupled with
the deliberate act of selling the electorate lies which the General made
little or no effort to counter or debunk, Buhari today commands
impressive following in Southern Nigeria with his party boasting of
about seven governors and hundreds of lawmakers from that region all
working for him.
General Buhari has also been able to
turn the political godfather of the president and former president
Olusegun Obasanjo to his side while putting himself in a good position
to secure a sizeable portion of Christian votes by picking from one of
the largest Christian denominations in Nigeria his running mate in the
person of Professor Yemi Osinbajo. That choice also carries the added
advantage of securing South West votes for the former General.
Faced with these harsh realities, the
PDP has devised a means of raising a plethora of issues that are not
germane to the electioneering campaign. The certificate saga is one in a
line of so many mundane arguments the PDP hopes will prevent the issues
of corruption, power, unemployment and security from being brought to
the fore. There is no gainsaying the fact that anti-corruption forms the
major plank of the Buhari candidacy, an issue many Nigerians believe he
can effectively deal with if voted into power.
The state of insecurity, power, economy
and unemployment which, in the eyes of many Nigerians, the incumbent has
embarrassingly failed to deal with means that many undecided voters can
easily be swayed to the Buhari camp with proper marketing. This should
now be the focus of the Buhari campaign team in the final days of the
presidential campaign. They must ignore the distractions of the PDP and
continue bringing these matters to the fore. An incumbent running for
reelection is supposed to give
account of his stewardship and Jonathan
has little or nothing to show Nigerians, little wonder he has resorted
to the outdated strategy of promising roads and bridges.
Nigerians want to know how these
hydra-headed national problems will be solved and they want to hear it
from the APC since the incumbent has shown gross inability to deal with
them. They can only do this effectively if they ignore the distractive
antics of Jonathan and the PDP. Buhari and the APC must seize this
moment for this election is theirs to lose. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL.
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