CONSENSUS, a euphemism for compromise, would be the biggest value the President of Nigeria would lug when he arrives in a matter of months. The primaries are mere training grounds.
The party from which he emerges would not make any difference. We may just end up with a President who would be as surprised as all of us that Nigeria has been concessioned to him. Some would consider conceded a better word in the circumstance.
None of the niceties would serve our purpose. Nigeria has been on emergency for over seven years. We are at the verge of having a President who could be worse than Muhammadu Buhari who by a wide berth has been voted Nigeria’s all-time worst President.
Concerns are minimal about who succeeds Buhari in terms of halting the slopes of disasters that he delights in leading Nigeria through. There are no debates about the absence of leadership under his watch.
Buhari’s interests were narrowed to things that interested him. Uncharitable folks say you cannot blame him for anything. All his campaigns he was clear about the impending disasters. He was still elected.
In the closing days of his presidency, things he kept at abeyance are asking for attention. The Electoral Act would need more amendments along the way to run the elections. Buhari refused to sign it years back to make the point that he was President.
There are no meaningful talks about making Nigeria work even if we walk back to 2015, then promoted by propagandists as the worst Nigeria could be. Most of the thousands of aspirants at different rungs of governance are satisfied with filling those positions.
Politics has also become positions and a profession rolled into one. The powerful become more powerful. They hardly need the people to do anything.
Shrinking resources seem not to have affected the serial aspirations of many, a very expensive venture this season.
Desperation to grab power is on inglorious display. What does a party do having more than 30 presidential aspirants except to accept the bazaar that produced billions of Naira from the N100 million each presidential aspirant shelled out for the pieces of paper called form?
Groups have emerged again to sustain the tradition of buying forms for their choice aspirants. The sources of these funds are not important. Nigeria is not averse to ignoring unexplained wealth.
There is nothing wrong in groups supporting their choice aspirants. Are these habits in line with constitutional provisions that frown at non-party members financing candidates in elections?
Read also: Intrigues await aspirants at APC, PDP presidential primaries
A smart lawyer said the provisions on election financing do not include expenditures on the primaries. Can there be candidates without primaries?
There will be candidates this season without primaries. The buzz word is consensus. Aspirants would go through the grind, be paid off to pull out for a chosen candidate. Why not spare aspirants all the stress?
How would party headquarters make money? But there should be concerns for the sources of the money that would be used to appease hundreds of aspirants who have invested in the process.
It is an investment. If one mobilises N100 million, pulls out of the race, on instruction, the return on investment to manage other costs could be over three times the original investment.
Politics has high returns where the investor is successful. Power is everything. The economic consequences of power in unsteady hands have been ignored as everyone wants to get a hand on a power handle.
Hunger has not abated. Insecurity is on the rise. Other forms of uncertainties manifest in fuel scarcity, electricity becoming a rarity, unstable prices of everything, of course heading up.
Nigeria would be a poorer country in 2023. By the time all the investors pull out their money, debts will heighten, those who care about Nigeria would be fewer.
Yet the best thing that would happen to is Buhari’s departure. The knowledge that he is no longer around could unbundle Nigeria’s energies again.
The 2023 elections are important, very important. We need to reclaim our imperfect country – from Buhari, to someone who would be “aware”.
Finally…
THE killing of Deborah Samuel at the Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, by a mob on allegations of blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed is a criminal offence. Whether we kill for belief, disbelief, or unbelief, it is a criminal offence. Her killers denied her a chance of facing the law, if she committed an offence. We should learn to be more tolerant and commit to beckoning on the law to resolve disputes.
IN case we have forgotten, victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train kidnap are still in captivity. They have been held for 46 days. One of the victims has been delivered of a baby. When will they be rescued? Have they been forgotten like many others before them?
WHEN one thought there would be a whiff of fresh air in the ministerial fiefdoms, some Ministers who paid N100m for the presidential nomination form are withdrawing from the race. What would they tell their numerous supporters who supposedly contributed the funds?
IT is only in the past six days that I realised that I could not spell prostate, the body part which if poorly managed is a death sentence for men. I easily mixed the spelling up with prostrate. Have you done the PSA test? It tells you the state of your prostate. Please treat as urgent. The test is less expensive than the fraction of the cost of medication if things get out of hand.
.Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues
