2023 Presidency: Amaechi, Osinbajo Raise the Bar

Eddy Odivwri

Last Monday, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, after so much suspense and near indifference to the  clamour to join the presidential race, eventually broke his silence about it when he “summoned” all the governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to announce that he is joining the presidential race. The day after, he further summoned the senators elected on the platform of the APC to also brief them of his long-held ambition. Long before this week, Osinbajo had suddenly got so busy traversing the length and breadth of the country, purportedly on official assignments, the last being the visit to Ebonyi State to inaugurate some projects Governor Dave Umahi  built. Now, we can understand better his style.

Long before now, Osinbajo’s men had seized the political space, campaigning and crusading for him. But he maintained stony silence.  I saw a short video advert of school children refusing to go to school, and housewives refusing to cook for their families unless Vice President Osinbajo agreed to join the presidential race.  I shall return to Osinbajo and his presidential ambition.

Before Osinbajo, another major aspirant, like a presidential masquerade, ran into the political space with so much drama and panache. He is Rt Hon Chinbuike Rotimi Amaechi,  the Minister of Transportation. Like Osinbajo, the polity had been fed for too long, with the rumours of his joining the presidential race. But he had neither said a categorical yes, nor no until last Saturday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he announced his decision to apply to be the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The facade of the event was a Thanksgiving Service  organised by the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, for a successful national convention, where one of their own, “a Port Harcourt Boy”, Hon Victor Ton Giadom was elected National Vice Chairman (South-south).

The stadium, where the event held, was packed-full to its bursting brim. But it was more than a Thanksgiving Service. The atmospherics were evidently indicative of a greater plan. The musical bands, the orchestra, the groups of mass choir, the mammoth crowd plus the massive security arrangement, etc., all showed it was more than what was advertised.

The crowd yelled and bellowed, the moment Amaechi climbed the stage, with his wife, Judith. They yelled even louder when he uttered the first line ”Fellow Nigerians, I stand before you today to declare my intention….”, followed by a loud and long ovation, “to submit my application to serve as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria…”

The less than 30 minutes speech, titled “Forward with Courage”, interjected with rounds of musical interlude, was like what all the people were waiting to hear. They were evidently excited and charged.

It was not clear what point Amaechi wanted to make when he embarked on a long marathon race, round the field. Some say it was symbolic of the presidential race itself, some others say it was to prove the point that he is young, energetic, fit and healthy to undertake the arduous task of leading Nigeria, unlike some of the aspirants believed to be frail and sickly.

The two latest entrants to the presidential race on the platform of the APC lengthen the list of the presidential hopefuls. Before them were Bola Ahmed Tinubu, (who has not officially declared, but has been “consulting” after informing President Mohammadu Buhari), Gov Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, who seems to be scaling down his presidential ambition for senatorial ambition (although he denied this), but has still not openly declared. He was manifestly shaken with the court case that had earlier sacked him and his deputy for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling APC. A recent Appeal court ruling gave him the reprieve of remaining in office.  Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State who had long been at the aspiration, courting massive media support; Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, whose ambition has been loudly spoken of by his many posters all around town (but has not formally declared). Others include Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who does not seem to have stoked his ambition with any visible action, save the mere expression of interest, months ago. Kalu has been rather quiet and non-committal to the presidential project.

One thing clear from the several aspirants is that there is an understanding that the Southern geo-political zones should present the presidential candidate of the party. It is only Yahaya Bello that is not from the South. He is from the same North Central geo-political zone that has just produced the national chairman of the Party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu. It is not clear how the same zone would produce both the national chairman and the presidential candidate of the same party, in a complex political configuration like Nigeria. But Bello waxes very strong and hopeful in his chances and suitability.

In earnest, the race may narrow down to four main aspirants: Tinubu, Osinbajo, Amaechi and Emefiele. The first two being Yoruba and the last two being peripheral Igbo. While Amaechi is Ikwerre in Rivers State, Emefiele is Agbor in Delta State.  They both are considered to be from “extended Igbo communities” outside the core Igbo States of Anambra, Imo, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi.

Recent political prognosis has said that the Southwest delegates would be split between Tinubu and his erstwhile political son, Osinbajo. While many acknowledge that Osinbajo, has a legitimate right to contest, especially as a serving Vice President, others fault him on moral grounds of “rubbing shoulders” with his erstwhile master. Osinbajo was appointed Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, by then Gov Bola Tinubu of Lagos State in 1999. Many, until recent revelations showed otherwise, thought Osinbajo was Tinubu’s nominee to the Buhari administration, since a Muslim-Muslim ticket would not be favoured by the polity. Thus, many argue, on grounds of sentiment and emotion “not legal logic”, that Osinbajo should not be seen to be contending with his political master.  But politics is like Shakespearan paradox: fair is foul and foul is fair. The duo are already in the ring, ready to engage each other in a context of popularity. While the one will deploy huge financial resources and a long-nurtured network, the other will deploy the influence of incumbency and the niche of integrity.

A social media comic, during the week likened it to a football contest between Bullion Van United Vs Tradermoni FC.

 Even then, the argument of micro-zoning will arise. Will it be fair and right to allow the South-west to produce yet another president of the country after Obasanjo’s eight years as President and Osinbajo’s eight years (by 2023) as Vice President?

Amaechi, among all four, is the youngest. Full of energy and understanding of the system, what with his vast governance experience.  Some complain that he is stubborn, while others argue that Nigeria needs a “stubborn” and radical leader to rescue and redeem Nigeria from its present pitiable state. With the recent endorsement he is garnering from the emirs in the north, Nigerians in Diaspora, as well as several groups and political blocs in the south, even among the Igbo, he is surely a man to watch in the outcome of the presidential primaries.

In the same way, many believe that Emefiele’s deep insight into the complexity of the Nigerian economy is what is needed to draw Nigeria out of the cesspit of economic woes.

With less than 65 days to the APC presidential primaries, Nigerians are waiting with bated breath to see who will be the presidential standard-bearer.

The Nation is Bleeding, They are Thinking Election

I hear the Independent National Election (INEC) has given June 30 as the new deadline for the collection of PVC— Permanent Voter’s Card. And so, it is calling on all eligible Nigerians to collect their PVCs in readiness for the 2023 general election. 

 That is a misplaced priority.

How? What do you mean? Do you know this INEC plans ahead? Do you remember that the election timetable was released over a year ago? This agency of government is quite intentional, calculative and highly organized.

You don’t get the point. You can use any adjective you like to describe INEC, even though we are conscious of the malaise of “inconclusive elections”. The point I am making is akin to a line in the Anglican liturgy: “we have left undone what we ought to have done, and have done those things we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us…”

I don’t understand you.

Look, INEC, political parties, politicians, every agency and organ of government is already seized by election fever. Do you realise that already true and proper governance is on holidays? Politics and politicking have taken over.

But who among all those fretting about the elections, has bothered to ask whether or not the elections will actually take place? Are you not seeing the country? Are you sure we are ready  for the elections? Look at the sky and you will understand what I mean.

(looks skyward) What is in the sky? I can’t see anything that says or suggests we will not hold the election.

Hmmmm, the moon can only shine when the sky is free of clouds. The cloud above the Nigerian skyline is heavy. Nobody is sure of tomorrow. Those planning the election and those fretting about one contest or the other are not sure they will not be guests of the bandits in the nearest future. The security situation in the country is damn scary, almost like an enigma. Haba! There is no day people are not being killed either by bandits or Boko Haram fighters, or by armed robbers or by terrorists or kidnappers. Moving trains are being attacked and passengers killed and abducted, homes are being broken into and people kidnapped, villages and communities are being attacked and burnt, schools are being attacked and schoolchildren abducted, even military formations are being attacked, over 700 soldiers killed in 18 months,  armoured tanks burnt; policemen are being killed and their stations burnt, FRSC officials are being killed on the road, farmers are being beheaded in their farms, travellers are being abducted from the highways; everywhere you turn there are stories of killings and bloodletting. We are all casualties…. And you are busy talking about elections. How are you sure these killer squads will not storm the polling booths and shoot at voters in the queue?

If fire can burn the tortoise with the iron coat, imagine what it will do to the cock with the feathery gown.

Yes, we are all casualties. That means it is not peculiar to Nigeria. The world is in turmoil. We are in the Sahel region, plagued by torrent of terrorist attacks.

But more importantly, the Minister of Defence, Maj Gen Bashir Salihi Magashi (retd), last Wednesday assured Nigerians that the sponsors and saboteurs aiding and abetting these acts of terrorism will soon be named and shamed. He was certain…..

(cuts in)…. Away with such empty promises. How many times have they claimed to have had the list of those behind the terror attacks and that they will soon release them?  Till today, have we had anything? Didn’t the Minister of Justice, and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami in May last year claim that the government’s investigation has revealed  the names of high profile Nigerians and businessmen who are financing terrorism in Nigeria? Didn’t he announce that the list of such Nigerians will be released and the people prosecuted? One year after, where is the list, where is the prosecution? Ask Malami where the list is. It was the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that jailed some Nigerians for funding Boko Haram. That was how we knew some persons had been caught sponsoring terrorism in Nigeria. But our own country is protecting and shielding them. Yet we come to the public stage to be lamenting , wringing our hands in helplessness and making promises we do not intend to fulfill. In fact, it is act like this that makes many people to believe that the people in government are part of the terrorists themselves. Their body language is loud and clear.

How can you say that?

 Why not? Can you not read the handwriting on the wall? Don’t you know the people in government are part of the problem? You don’t know they leak information to the bandits? Were it not so, how did the bandits know the coach where the First Class passengers sit, during the February 28 train attack? How would crude bandits emerging from the bush know exactly where the First Class passengers sit  to target that coach in the attack? Now the First Class coaches are scarcely patronized in the trains? Can’t you see how we are evil unto ourselves?

This is Holy Season. With Lent officially ending today—Good Friday– and the Ramadan season still running, it is a good time to keep praying for the redemption of Nigeria. Let us cry unto God to give us a new lease of life as a nation.