Naij.com Reader Urges APC To Endorse President Jonathan
Legit.ng guest contributor Godson Da-Clarke argues that the All Progressives Congress should endorse President Goodluck Jonathan. He writes about his own vision of the election process in Nigeria.
Recall the recent move by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. It has announced its intention to endorse the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan as its sole candidate for the upcoming 2015 election campaign. The President, although "humbled and overwhelmed," is still yet to declare his candidacy. Representatives of the APC have already expressed their dissatisfaction and condemnation of the rival party's decision.
However, Mr. Da-Clarke says once the APC is willing to endorse President Jonathan as its candidate as well, things might start to look brighter for Nigeria.
"I hate elections!" Mr. Da-Clarke exclaims in his opinion piece called "As APC Endorses Jonathan". "Okay, I know that came out a little too hard, and probably too sharp. But there’s no other way to kill a beast that to just kill it! You can’t afford to sing 'killin’ me softly' when your life is in danger. Simple!
"You know what? Elections often leave a sour taste on the tongue. For two reasons, elections usually leave me livid with concern for the utter non-workability of the Nigerian system. One: we’re normally given to choose the lesser of two evils (often of three or even more). Let me explain. There's Omisore with a suspected criminal record, and Aregbesola who looks so ugly like some suffering sick man of the Southwest. And you can only pick one of these two people none of whom you trust.
"It is most disturbing that political parties almost never endorse credible candidates. I’ve always wondered why our politicians keep being recycled. Aren't there enough good brains among the 174 million Nigerians? Isn't there a single person who can combine political savvy with people-oriented policies? Isn't there a person who won't give in to the demands of some sinister kingmakers? Where are the fresh brains we need to move this country forward?
"One would have thought the just-concluded National Conference would showcase some of such. If I hear! The same old paranoid people who have dragged Nigeria down were trusted to spearhead her forward march. What a shame! President Goodluck Jonathan needs to explain the rationale behind choosing people whose productive years have long expired; whose myopic eyes have so far been the bane of our national drive for international relevance. He paid them N12 milllion to chart our new course when it was apparent that they never could! Is he stylishly using the Confab Forum to seek support for his 2015 bid?
"The second reason why elections are unattractive and distasteful to me is that people seldom vote without some form of sentiment or prejudice. People voted Fayemi because they were his friends, or friends to his friends, or friends to friends of his friends, or even because they are his kinsmen or townsmen. Others voted Fayose because they saw him eat corn and drink beer with the masses, exchanging banter as if he had nothing better doing—and yet they forgot he’s a politician and is therefore as wise as a serpent. No one is thinking of whether either of these gladiators could ever take Ekiti State to the land of promise or set it on the way there. If they would achieve any development at all, that is.
"Look at Barack Hussein Obama of America. When the polls favoured him overwhelmingly in 2008, it was obvious that it was not because they could see he had any special vision for America. The blacks voted for one of their own who finally got a shot at the seat of power to wipe away centuries of servitude. The whites decided to just let there be a semblance of balance so as to circumvent chaos that could have been created by the blacks who would otherwise have felt slighted. The intelligentsia voted for an orator. No one was thinking that this guy didn’t really show such great foresight in his speech as would give America another giant leap ahead of the rest of the West (she has always been ahead, you know?), for his pompous compositions fitted to soothe the senses would suffice. Today, Obama has become so serious an embarrassment to the black race that people already contemplate he could be the Antichrist prophesied two millennia ago.
"Now, 2015 is waiting on the wings. GEJ’s posters have filled the airwaves in a subtle campaign which leaves almost no one in doubt about his unspoken aspiration. Didn't the APC unwittingly endorse GEJ as the only credible candidate for 2015 by its silence? No other Nigerian, of the millions that exist, has the political clout to contest for the highest seat. Suddenly, GEJ is the name of the game.
"Why don't we forget all the deception and appeal to the APC to make official what it is already making plain? They already declared in the past that they could let GEJ contest on the platform of their party. So why not just come clean and endorse the only man who it appears the cap fits? Save all of us the stress. Let Nigeria make history by becoming the first country where the two major parties fielded the same candidate. I don’t exactly like him, but again, I don’t have a choice here—the good ol’ kingmakers on both sides have already decided."
Mr. Da-Clarke writes from Magboro, Ogun State. Do you endorse his opinion?
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Source: Legit.ng
