Many politicians have been declaring their interest to seek one position or the other in the 2019 general election. President Muhammadu Buhari has also made public his intention to seek re-election. His declaration, however, took many Nigerians by surprise as a result of his challenged health condition and perceived non-performance in office, in the last three years.
However, despite Buhari’s scorecard which analysts believe is below expectation, some observers say his victory in 2019 is a fait accompli.
Speaking with BusinessDay on why Buhari may retain his seat in 2019 even with the perception of non-performance, hunger, poverty and other alleged ills in his administration, Lai Omotola, chancellor of E-Boot Camp Limited, said: “You see, Nigeria is divided into North and South. What they see in the North is different from what they see in the South. The progression in the North is different from the progression in the South. What you call poverty in the South is not what is called poverty in the North.”
According to Omotola, “In the South, if I am not able to go for summer this year, I will say the country is bad; things are terrible. If I am not able to change my car in two years, I will say things are bad. But those are not the yardstick for those people in the North. What you call poverty here is luxury to them, and all of them are entitled to one vote.
“Now, because of education in the South, you would reduce the number of children you would have because you know that training up a child now is like building a house. But the same mentality may not be for the illiterate because he does not see any essence in sending anybody to school.”
“So, you know what the level of education is. Someone who is not educated does not have that ability to reason and analyse things the proper way. These are the illiterate folks that support the politicians up north and give the massive votes they record there. And I tell people, if I say I am a leader I need to see the quality of the people following me, because if they are not enlightened they would just be hailing whatever I do or say.”
Omotola further said: “The essence of education is to read and write. That’s number one. Number two is for you to comprehend – that is being able to understand what you read. The third and final one is for you to be analytical. What is analysis? A man may be saying something, but what you are hearing is not really what he is saying. What is coming out of his mouth is not really what he is trying to say. So, it takes somebody to properly analyse issues and take proper action.
“That is the final stage of education and not so many people have that. So, based on the analysis above, Buhari will come back. He would come back because we have the majority people that cannot sit down to analyse the case; say, if this man comes back, will he be able to deliver the dividends? This is because they don’t have that skill and the few people that have it, will they vote or are they enough to outnumber these illiterate folks? Remember, it is said that democracy is a game of numbers; if the illiterates outweigh the literates, our recruitment process in this way will always produce something defective.”
The use of thugs to perpetrate all manner of electoral fraud has become widespread in Nigeria. Most of those thugs are frustrated youths who are aggrieved at the failure of successive governments to make Nigeria a habitable place. Many of them are illiterates and semi-literates. A few are university graduates who as a result of inability to be properly engaged in meaningful employments determined to eke out a living in hard way.
Most times, they do not reason rationally. They go after political opponents of their principals without reasoning. They even kill for a bottle of beer and for monetary compensation as meagre as N1000 (One Thousand Naira) only.
This set of people is usually poverty-stricken and always hungry. So, they go after their prey with all the venom they can muster. These are those waiting in the wings to be deployed as the general election hits up properly.
