‘Ojoro Cancel Ojoro’ Unfit to Rule Nigeria

Eddie Mbadiwe

I have pinched the title of this contribution from the beautiful article written by Abimbola Adelekun, the fearless staff writer of PUNCH Newspaper. Abimbola is a worthy ambassador from the prestigious University of Ibadan to Nigerian journalism. It is refreshing to realize that the University of Ibadan is maintaining the high standards of the days when we were undergraduates.  

As we have now changed to speed gear and started sprinting to February 25th, it may be wise to apply the brakes and have another look at two of our presidential candidates. i.e. Atiku Abubarkar and Bola Tinubu.

The handlers of both Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubarkar are bending over backwards to convince Nigerians as to why each other’s principal should be disqualified, probed and possibly prosecuted. Up to now they have generated so much heat and very little light; What a pity. Their arguments and counter arguments are well documented in the public space so it will be a waste of time to rehash them. What is troubling and this is a tragedy for Nigeria is that the so called educated elite do not give a hoot about what happens to Nigeria in the long run. It is cash and carry immediately, even if the country has to go to hell eventually.

In better and calmer societies of both Europe and America, both ‘Ojoros’ would have been disqualified at the primary level. The response you get should you bother to ask is “That is the way we do it in Nigeria”. Is anybody really surprised that as a Nation, we take one step forward and ten steps backward. Every Nigerian should get this etched to their psyche “Bad governments are elected by good citizens who don’t vote”. One cannot fail to observe that the so called Nigerian elite are not seriously concerned with the future well-being of Nigeria otherwise the campaigns would have been more civil and issues based.

‘Every nation gets the government it deserves’ so to all those who are apathetic about February 25th simply condition your minds to be comfortable with whatever INEC announces. Another factor that must be of concern to intellectuals in justifying the behavior of educated people who jump from platform to platform defending what they know from logic to be wrong and totally indefensible.

In law it may be difficult to disqualify any of the major gladiators but what of the bar of public opinion. This is a latent force which cannot be ignored.

Former Head of State Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has written off both major gladiators – Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubarkar but Chief Obasanjo does not control South-west votes, not to talk of the whole nation. A lot more of Obasanjos should speak up.

INEC still has an uphill task to convince Nigerians to accept the results they put out after February 25th. Let them do an honest straw poll. Right now the trust factor for INEC is less than 50%

If Nigeria does not get it right this time around, it would portend another eight or more years of blabbering in the wilderness. God forbid bad thing.

Nigerians Shine Your Eyes.

Rt. Hon. Dr. Eddie Mbadiwe writes from Abuja