By Rotimi Fasan

IN just over a month, Nigerians will be going to the polls to elect a new president. Even though the stakes are quite high it does not look like a presidential election is around the corner. The campaign period seems all too short. More so for President Goodluck Jonathan whose presidency seems to be running on oxygen for the few weeks left, with little room to manoeuvre to say nothing of convincing the alienated voter.

Of course, those who can have been raising tens of billions of Naira through clearly disgusting means for his re-election, including donations from governors still owing workers’ salaries for upwards of three months. Yes, war chests obviously meant to buy votes and supports are being made with billions of Naira. But where are the campaigns in the actual sense of it? On what issues are these campaigns based beyond name-calling and abuses?

Jonathan and Buhari.

It is for this and similar reasons that this forthcoming election seems to have sneaked on us all. This is in spite of the fact that the campaigns had been kicked off in not-so-subtle fashion by President Goodluck Jonathan long before he actually indicated that he would be standing for another term. As the incumbent candidate, the odds were on his side to dictate the terms of the election. But with very little going for him by way of achievements; with many unanswered questions staring him in the face, his re-election strategies have all but collapsed under the weight of his failures. He would certainly need all the props that Naira could provide where his record in office has failed him.

While it was clear that the APC candidate was interested in running against President Jonathan again, it was far from certain he would emerge his party’s candidate. Indeed, he was expected to have a hard time of it given the keen interest of other party members in the race. In this sense, therefore, President Jonathan was well ahead of Muhammadu Buhari in the race for Aso Villa post May 29 2015. The keen support of his transformational ambassadors, and others of their ilk who beat the road traversing different parts of the country, ensured Nigerians were mindful if not interested in his return to Abuja.

As the sitting president, it was expected Goodluck Jonathan would run on the bill of his party in spite of attempts by those who thought another term for him would amount to a third term. Their objection was based on the simple but unconvincing reason that he had taken the presidential oath on two previous occasions even while one of these was in circumstances he could not have helped. He was obliged despite stiff opposition to finish up the uncompleted term of President Umar Yar’Adua who had died in office. Perhaps for reason of the opposition to his seeking another term after Yar’Adua passed, the president delayed announcing his interest in the February 14 presidential contest. But if the president’s hedging tactic had some fooled and guessing his political plans, his body language and the rent-a-crowd-like support of his TAN friends loudly proclaimed his interest in the presidency.

Thus, when he finally made the announcement to run by getting his friends to buy his nomination form, it elicited a mere yawn from many who knew where he was headed all along. The greater interest was in who the opposition party would field against him, and even more, in the preferred running mate. That interest was given greater animus after the former military head of state went for a relatively unknown Yemi Osinbajo, a Christian from the South-west. This was contrary to the expectation that he would pick a muslim even if from the South-west. The choice of a muslim as his running mate was eagerly desired in PDP circle. This would make his presidential ambition dead on arrival as it would have been the plank on which the PDP would launch its campaign against Buhari’s suitability for the office of president. That he did not go for the bait has terribly upset the electoral plans of President Jonathan. A clear indication that his campaign was surely intended to be based on issues no more better defined than the ethnicity, religious inclination and, now, educational attainments of his opponent. Little, if anything, on the record of his own achievement or lack of it while in office.

With the applecart of the re-election plans of the ruling party candidate’s virtually turned over; with the opposition waxing stronger and the electorate yearning for a change in their material condition, the temptations are indeed high for party stalwarts to employ extra-legal means to win. With the limited time available, any such manipulation is likely to be incompetently done. If and when this happens, the consequences are not likely to be pleasant. And this is why I pray and urge you, my reader, to join in the prayer for our dear country, that the next election would be fraud free. Anything contrary to this will not be in the interest of this country.

Let the cowards and expired militants, their would-be protégés and hangers-on, sounding war drums learn from history and go quench their blood-thirst with peaceful occupations. War diminishes both the winner and the victor. But an unjust war diminishes the loser even more. If they fail to realise this, they and their household should put on their dancing shoes and be ready to dance to their own war chorus. The fate of the defeated awaits all who have brought Nigeria to this sorry pass. The year 2014 must rank as one of the worst for us as a nation. It was the year of insurgency, when marauding bands sent thousands of Nigerians to their grave in cold blood. Except for the years of the Civil War, it was the year the highest number of Nigerians became destitute as internally displaced persons in their own country.

2014 was the year corruption took on a new name and walked on all fours. A year of falling oil prices that crashed the Naira beyond the speculative knowledge of so-called economic experts, World Bank and IMF gurus, and past masters at coordinating economic woes. It was a year of impunity when warlords became keepers of our waterways and robber guarded the vaults. Although a year of great testimony for individual lives, 2014 was a calamitous journey for the largest black nation on our planet. It was the year when two-thirds of workers in the nation’s thirty six states were owed several months salaries and celebrated both the Christmas and New Year holidays in debt. But we shall reclaim our country from the pest. And no more shall the children of butchers feed on mere bones. May 2015 be the happiest yet for our land.