By Donu Kogbara
Last week, I congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan for managing the Ebola problem well; but I also expressed disappointment in his overall performance and said that I used to support him because he is a fellow Niger Deltan but now believe that it’s wrong to base electoral choices on ethnic or regional considerations.

I then criticised people who want a Northerner to replace Jonathan next year purely because they feel that it is the North’s “turn” to occupy the presidential slot. But I praised Major-General Muhammadu Buhari for being disciplined, uninterested in luxuries, tough on corruption and adored by the impoverished Northern masses.

Jonathan and Buhari

The point I was trying to make was that Buhari should be regarded as a credible aspirant because of his character, NOT because of where he comes from.

But I didn’t portray Buhari as a saint. I said that he possesses weaknesses and has made mistakes…and that there is no guarantee that he will out-perform Jonathan if he winds up becoming the APC candidate and wins the election.

To cut a long story short, I tried to be fair to both Jonathan and Buhari; and I thank the many Vanguard readers who sympathise with Jonathan or sympathise with Buhari or sympathise with neither and wrote to hail me for being objective.

And, by the way, the majority of respondents were pro-Buhari; and quite a few pro-Buhari respondents were Southerners. I have therefore advised my most diehard pro-Jonathan friends to abandon their complacent assumption that their man will win in 2015  because he happens to be a powerful incumbent and/or because they think that everyone believes their claim that Buhari is an obsessively tribalistic Islamic fanatic who has nothing to offer the South!

Even in Nigeria, the folks who run the show do always get away with unfair propaganda campaigns. Even in Nigeria, underdogs can emerge victorious.

Here are some of the emails and text messages I received about the Buhari/Jonathan issue.

From: Ifeka Okonkwo <ifekaokonkwo@yahoo.com>

 Donu, how I wish that Muhammadu Buhari will rule our country again, even if it is only for four years, so that he would recover even a fraction of what our rulers and unscrupulous civil servants have stolen to become richer than our country, since the ’70s till date! But alas, these senior thieves who should have been rotting in jail or hanged (as this option would have served as a deterrence to the looting of our national coffers), will as usual conspire to see that he does not win the presidential race, so that they, their children and generations yet unborn, will continue to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth!

I admire him a lot because he and Alhaji Shehu Shagari, are the only people who were in corridors of power since 1966 till date who do not have oil blocs, foreign bank accounts and stupendous wealth far above their legitimate earnings!

I voted for him in 2011 and I will vote for him again, if he wins the presidential primaries of APC.

I remember vividly when he stated during his presidential campaign  in 2011, that all those who stole our country blind, should get ready to run away from our country because he would recover all their ill-gotten wealth from them, if they failed to do so.

+2348105132862 Anonymous

Generally, I agree with your opinion that character, not tribe or region, should be the primary consideration of voting in Nigeria in 2015. But such views are not practicable in Nigeria at the moment…because the vast majority of Nigerians think that no other voting criteria can bring justice in the winner- grabs-all system that is Naija.

From: Abubakar Abdullahi <comrade.abubakar@gmail.com>

Dear Donu,  I have just read you on Buhari and think that you have remained the objective commentator I know you to be.

The only reason some of us have insisted on Buhari is because, as you have also observed, the General is simple, honest, accountable and shunning of all ostentations. His sturdy character is exemplary and these are the very virtues that ordinary Northerners, nay Nigerians, want our leaders to exhibit.

As far as we are concerned up here, he represents the very best in our people.  Babangida cannot walk where Buhari walks. 

Buhari’s regime was rudely and selfishly terminated by those devils and here we are with your totally clueless brother who lacks the presence of mind to run even a normal administration. This is a one-scandal-a-day government.

I swear I have nothing personal against Goodluck Jonathan but he has taken too many official decisions for personal reasons. He has failed to fulfil the basic promises he made. The country is insecure, there is no electricity and from the lowest level up, everyone is seemingly and hopelessly stealing.

I thought Niger Delta would give us someone who understands the country and has a sense of mission. A Nigerian leader should have a grand vision, sit like a colossus in Africa and command global respect. But Jonathan thinks small.

From: “akinseloyinf@yahoo.com” <akinseloyinf@yahoo.com>

I know that we are in a precarious situation in Nigeria because most of our politicians are really bad…and I know we should choose the least bad out of all the bad candidates. But I voted for Buhari in 2011 and wouldn’t have voted for him if I knew half what I know about him now, especially the comments that were credited to him after the last elections.

Wole Soyinka wrote a negative piece about him recently and I don’t share your view that he is modest. He cruises around town in a bullet proof Jeep in a country where people are living in abject poverty. Let’s stop deceiving ourselves.

AN AMAZING OUTING

Bravo to the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, for organising a spectacularly successful 7th anniversary rally in Port Harcourt last Saturday.

I’ve never been to a Nigerian rally before and was very inspired by the festive, optimistic atmosphere…and very taken aback by the sheer size of the event.

Amaechi fell out with Jonathan last year and joined the Opposition. But Rivers people gave Jonathan a landslide victory in 2011; and Jonathan’s First Lady, Dame Patience, is a Rivers woman, so I didn’t expect so many ordinary Riverians  (nearly 100,000) to attend a rally that was bound to be anti-Jonathan in tone!

Many APC big-wigs also showed up – Buhari, Atiku, Fayemi, Kwankwanso, Okorocha, Saraki and Segun Oni.

These VIP visitors received warm welcomes from the enthusiastic crowd and one of them told me that he is a seasoned politician who has attended several rallies and that this one was the most impressive he had ever attended.

What this should tell Jonathan is that people are yearning for change – good roads, environmental remediation programmes, job creation, etc – and that you cannot always get away with taking your home constituency for granted.