By Yomi Obaditan, Osogbo

In the next few weeks, we shall be going to the polls to decide who will be in-charge of our national affairs for the next four years. Each time election is approaching,   the political elite play ethnic card in order to secure power.

Time has changed   and our political leaders have also added other weapons to whip opponents into submission. The new weapons are more dangerous than the ethnic card. The current mantras are “transformation” and “change”. However, the contending parties should let the people’s vote count. It is constitutional to let the people decide their leader.

The usage of religion as a political weapon in Nigeria is as old as our democracy. By 1979, the issue of religion was used against southerners contesting against the National Party of Nigeria’s candidate (NPN). Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) presidential candidate, made some impact in the Middle-Belt. Meanwhile, the core- North was not disposed to the party. Why? Decision on the presidential candidate to vote for, at that time, was often taken few weeks to the election date at jumat service.

Today, the South has imbibed this bile. The Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ), like the defunct NPN,   flew the kite of religion against the All Progressive Congress ( APC ) that it is “a Janjaweed party”, an Islamic political party that wanted to Islamize Nigeria. When APC played into the hands of the PDP over the choice of its presidential and running flagbearer when it was insinuated it could be Muslim/Muslim ticket before they eventually settled for Muhammadu Buhari/Osinbajo, the whole political atmosphere was polluted with religion.

The PDP has continued to dissuade Nigerians, particularly Christians, from supporting Buhari on the grounds that he is a religious bigot. Reference was made to his past statements on Sharia. The wind was taken out of the sail of the PDP, however, when APC   picked Professor Yemi Osinbajo as the vice presidential candidate. Osinbajo is a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the leading Pentecostal movements in Nigeria. The candidature of Osinbajo, a former Attorney General of Lagos State, no doubt, rubbished the PDP campaign of religious bigotry against Buhari.

Before the August 9, 2014 gubernatorial election in Osun State, Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, was alleged by the PDP of   attempting to Islamize the state. It took a lot of effort to debunk the allegation. At the end of the day, Aregbesola defeated the PDP candidate.

Boomerang

The ruling party has since come up with age of Buhari, who they say is too old to govern. Buhari is 72. Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe was 73 in 1979 when he contested with Awolowo.   Awo himself was 75 the last time he vied for the presidency. We must appreciate age, it is God’s blessing. It comes with wisdom, we must not denigrate age as we all aspire to grow old before we die.

The worst came to the camp of Buhari via Ayodele Fayose, the governor of Ekiti State, who took the front page of some newspapers, warning Nigerians about the dangers of voting for an ailing Buhari. Reference was made to four past Nigerian heads of state of northern origin . From Tafawa Balewa, Murtala Muhammed, General Sani Abacha and Umaru Yar’Adua, Fayose said Buhari would follow the fate of the quartet from the North-west, all of whom, as Nigerian leaders, died in office. Fayose’s death wish did not only provoke the nation, but also embarrassed PDP members.

That ignoble act of Fayose has boomeranged on the PDP in the North. The President’s convoy was attacked by a mob in Katsina. Gombe PDP campaign witnessed bombing shortly after Jonathan’s departure. The cult-like followers of Buhari are waiting   for the election to decide the fate of Jonathan and his infamous governor.

The certificate issue raised against Buhari appears as a stain on the integrity of our military. The notion that Buhari has no certificate is dirty politics taken too far. Despite documents from Buhari’s alma mater, Femi Fani-Kayode and PDP continued to accuse Buhari of perjury. One thing PDP allowed to mess its image is the continual involvement of Fani-Kayode and Fayose in the campaign for Jonathan presidency. Fani-Kayode is currently before the EFCC facing charges over money laundering. Whatever   the man may say, the nation looks at him with contempt. Fayose is still being questioned over the video tape on how the military allegedly compromised the Ekiti June 21 , 2014 gubernatorial election in which he emerged as governor.

New bride

Yoruba is now a new bride that President Jonathan is now desperately courting. The move on the eve of election did not come as a surprise, but it might be too late. The South West voted for Jonathan in 2011. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was instrumental to that arrangement. But as soon as the election was over, neither Tinubu nor the Yoruba have been rewarded. The South-South and the South East benefit   most from this administration. Jonathan’s godfather, Olusegun Obasanjo, was ridiculed and called a bus-tout openly. PDP leaders misadvised Jonathan.

If the February 14 election had taken place, Jonathan would have been floored. But even now, most of the Yoruba leaders that Jonathan has approached are old horses. These are men of yester-years that have lost contact with the grassroots. The same men worked against Tinubu in 2003, their support for other Alliance for Democracy’ governors in the South West made them lose to the PDP leaving only Tinubu.   Can these same people that have been pushed away from the political arena for over ten years effect a change that will favour Jonathan ? Time will tell.

The allegation against Buhari as a dictator has also been answered in favour of the general. Military regimes, he claimed, are characterised by dictatorship. That democracy is different from military system.   That Buhari cannot do what he did under the military regime because of democratic institutions. Under a democratic system, the government is run by three arms of government: executive, legislative, and judiciary. The three act as check and balances. So to create in the mind of Nigerians that a Buhari administration will be another dictator is to misinform the people.

APC has not been innocent when it comes into the dirty game of name calling either. Indeed, the party is as guilty as the PDP when it comes to throwing pebbles at political opponents . The President has been described as clueless many times. Despite the improvement in the agricultural sector under Jonathan as well as some infrastructural development under this administration,   the opposition has kept on accusing the government of absolute failure. The APC has also hammered on the failure of the Jonathan administration to secure lives and property, as the reason the electorate must reject the PDP at the polls.

The Ekiti saga

Corruption has been attached to the Jonathan-led government. The government too has been accused of tolerating   corruption. Their ministers accused of corrupt practices were not punished.

The tapes insinuating election rigging in Ekiti showed the PDP rigged the election. So far, the   senior military officer mentioned in the saga has not spoken and neither has the Army Headquarters reacted. Those against the use of the military for electoral duties are justified. The military duties are to secure the nation against external aggression. Section 217 sub-Section (c)   of 1999 Constitution excluded the military from internal security with the exception of where there is internal insurrection. The proponent of militarisation of election are citing Section 218, Sub-Section (1) that empowers the President to determine the operational use of the military. All said and done, election must be conducted under a peaceful condition, free and fair.

The APC has promised free education, free health, social welfare for the aged and jobless youths, curb corruption and solve power generation problems. However,   the PDP has come against the utopian promise without offering an alternative. The ruling party’s grouse against the APC promise was the economic downturn. The party wondered how feasible it would be for the opposition party to realise the goals. Nigeria’s economy is in the woods. The transformation agenda of Mr. President in the last six years has not made the nation bette. Only the privileged fews are milking the nation dry.   Apart from the American projection that Nigeria may not survive 2015,   there is even the alarm raised by a former head of state, Obasanjo, that the nation’s neglect of unemployed youths could be an invitation to revolution that may consume the political class.

The foreign media assessment of our polity is worth of mentioning. The Observer of London criticised Jonathan for remaining silent for long over Baga killings but hypocritically   sent condolences to France over the Charlie Hebdo affair. Buhari was the man the paper respected referring to him as “ a man of strong leadership and intolerance of corruption.” The Washington Post of America stated that “Nigeria’s election will be a test of peace and power. “ Nigeria it said has “ a recipe for an explosive general election season”.

It warned the President to avoid misusing the military and police before, during and after election. The Economist magazine of London endorsed Buhari as being more competent than Jonathan and that a “former dictator is a better choice than a failed President’. The APC that stands for change is embattled not only with the PDP, but will also need to confront security agents, whose neutrality cannot be guaranteed at the polls.

*Obaditan lives in Osogbo.