#Nigeria #Politics #APC #Buhari #Tinubu #Atiku
THE BIAS AND DISHONEST PAINTING OF THE NORTH AS ETHNICALLY FRAUDULENT BY MAHMUD JEGA By Hashim Suleiman
I read with interest how tacitly Mahmud Jega the revered former Editor of Daily Trust Newspapers elucidated how times have indeed changed and how the circumstances of 1979 would not be same as 2023 and I totally agree with such because if one takes the advent of social media alone, it was enough to change a whole lot talk more of so many other issues relating to migration, intermarriages, new born people who don’t even know but only read about 1979.
However, I didn’t understand how the academic description of how NNPP is different from Aminu Kano’s party changes the perception and the semblance of the situation?? Or how the emergence of Asiwaju as a minority and Kashim a minority changes the semblance to Awolowo’s movement of then. What about Obi’s movements being perceived as Biafra? I tried to understand the logic but I couldn’t unfortunately.
Further to all of this is that Mahmud also forgot that all of the fault lines that existed in 1979 are subsistent or even worse which makes the reason why everyone would be rightly suspicious and possibly why the word ‘unifier’ has become very catchy in recent times.
The fact is, it was high time the intellectual class and the opinion molders started to rate Nigerians because to use a brush and single out the northern Nigeria and project her as the most bigoted is the most unfair narrative I may ever have come across in a mutually suspicious country like Nigeria where one may choose to be fair but never get same in return.
I understand and respect Mahmud’s choices and preferences but the need to set the records straight also becomes imperative!!
May God chose the best for us through our endeavors and honesty!!
Hashim Suleiman
2023 AND THE USUAL DELUSION OF INCUMBENCY By Hashim Suleiman
It is said that those who forget history are bound to repeat same mistakes and when you look around you’ll see these tendencies around some players of the 2023 elections especially those of the ruling APC party and such goes to tell you a lot about why our nation has found it difficult to make a headway regarding imbibing major attitudinal changes that can guarantee meaningful development.
I had always spoken about my experiences in 2014 when I and my colleague who formed a non partisan advocacy group which was attempting to run a campaign for 30% affirmation for youth from all strata of government including political parties and private sector because we felt the youth had immense skills that could be tapped for excellence. The most interesting of the meetings was the one we held with a high ranking member of the then ruling party, the PDP penultimate 2015 elections and to our dismay, after all our well laid out presentations and how such could help their strategy, the man blatantly told us they were the incumbent and would win the elections even if all Nigerians were not going to vote for them, we wondered what that meant especially that we had done our maths and knew they had issues, he shared phantom analysis and said they were relying on some big name politicians from the northern Nigeria whom we knew had little or no political goodwill to bring to the table, the rest about their fate in that election is now history, they failed woefully.
Fast forward to the 2019 elections when same character was employed by the ruling APC and it was a morning of the scheduled presidential elections that they recognized the incumbency thought was an illusion and they suddenly had to postpone the elections by a week and leveraged on Buhari’s sentimental popularity as well as struggled to patch some little areas to struggle to pull out an arguable victory by over 2 million votes. That again passed and everything returned to normal.
We are now approaching the 2023 elections and again all I can see from the APC folks is same approach of sharing ‘beer parlor’ analysis anchored on incumbency to assume that victory is already theirs while I see a totally different scenario realistically. For example, the APC guys, majority of which are totally new entrants into the political game owing to Buhari’s magnanimity in rewarding friends, families and their allies believe that all of Buhari’s vote Bank which they also will not be able to see has been depleted belongs to Tinubu, how? Is it not same people we speak with on a daily? The fact is majority of the voters of the country have chosen to conceal their intents owing to the governments high handedness on those who choose to express opinions other than those favorable to them in their tenure. Such makes it difficult for anyone to truly understand where the people will swing to but a little reminder about their situation in 2014 and now will easily sway them into not voting for APC but you’ll wonder why the APC members will not see this and will refuse any explanations about it.
They will always also tell you about what has now become more of a cliché that Peter Obi would deplete Atiku’s votes and here again I see a people far detached from reality and politics. I was in lagos earlier last month and to my amazement, my Yoruba friend had told me that there were more Obidients in lagos than any other city of Nigeria and they cut across all the ethnicities, I tried to explain this to some of my APC friends but they’ll debunk it and it always reminds me of my 2014 experience with the PDP as highlighted in paragraph 2 above. I would also take my time to explain to them how so many of the critical stakeholders of the South East like Jim Nwobodo, Emeka Ihedioha, Osita Chidoka, Adolphos Wabara etc are Atiku supporters and whatever Peter Obi does he cannot deny PDP atleast 40% of the south East votes which are sufficient for them while South South will come in the bag for PDP because in history, they had never aligned with the South East, whether it was for Biafra or the 1979 elections when they voted for Shagari ahead of Nnamdi Azikiwe or Awolowo, but again the APC folks will not agree to these and it will become worrisome how a serious people who crave victory detest conversations around history and data.
The APC and her supporters are clearly on a false footing regarding their permutations and high confidence which are anchored on big name politicians especially from the north most of which have lost touch with their people, majority of their conversations and expectations are what we term in local parlance ‘garage talk’ and it’s all orchestrated by their thought that incumbency and not critical strategy is enough but we should remind them that Nigeria’s democracy has long evolved and the earlier they recognize and align the better for them, otherwise, a shocker awaits them as will always with people who refuse to learn, unlearn and relearn like they are up to at the moment.
May the best man win for the benefit of country.
Hashim Suleiman
ATIKU AD ASIWAJU’S ECONOMIC MANAGEMENTS AS THE ONLY GOOD STILL LEFT OF NIGERIA’S ECONOMY By Hashim Suleiman
When once a society derails from encouraging robust conversations from all divides and objective ones at that, it has basically lost the most common basis for development and some of us have taken it a duty to bring these points to bare, perhaps we may see the light and begin to open up these conversations for the gullible, the half-gullible, upcoming ones and those who may have missed out on certain points.
As our democracy is growing through natural tendencies and less citizenry efforts, so many of the citizens seem to be forming this holier than thou character which appears to denigrate the efforts that certain patriots have sacrificed to achieve regardless of how imperfect, recall that same people could even do worse if given same opportunity because a lot of their opinions are not borne out of criticality but rather beer parlor talks, bandwagon and a general character of mischief that promotes pulling down people.
I have said in several fora that I’d be grateful if God can bless me as much as He did Obasanjo and so many others, this is to dissuade those young people who could be easy to throw tantrums and insult on these statesmen without understanding that they only gave what they had under the prevailing circumstances. They also do this some other times for support of their political icons forgetting that the entire elites are friends and bare no grudge less for political bashings that remain basically games to them.
Accordingly, I’d like to remind the citizenry of the exceptional strides that Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu had put in to our economy which remains the only bedrock that is still keeping the economy of the country moving. Everyone practically latches on them to be able to pull of some achievements of government.
You may recall that Atiku as the chairman of the economic management of the country between 1999 to 2007 opened the economy to the world by simply assembling sound brains who had the KnowHow and he monitored alongside his boss to ensure they delivered the much they did. He first identified government had no business doing business and they quickly lobbied the National Assembly to pass the Act on privatization which saw to the setting up of the Bureau of Public Enterprises that was headed by Nasiru Elrufai himself a recruit of Atiku Abubakar to midwife the sale of government businesses that are today still functional like Ntel which provides one of the best bundle services in Abuja, Lagos and Portharcourt. Regardless of how imperfect, it’s still employing thousands and standing on its feet, imagine what could have happened to her if it was not privatized. So many of the private Telcos are leveraging on their infrastructure to do business, some monies are changing hands through that too.
Recall also that all the policies around IPPIS, GIFMIS, TSA, FIRS etc which ensures mop up of revenues and discourages wastages were babies of an Okonjo Iweala and her lieutenants like Okauru and others. Atiku Abubakar equally shopped these individuals and supervised them to ensure deliveries, every government policies afterwards has leveraged on these policies to be able to make something good of their economic policies.
Nuhu Ribadu was equally recommended by Atiku for recruitment to pilot the setting up of the EFCC and it’s not in doubt how that institution has remained what every administration uses to attempt to fight the almighty corruption. It was indeed robustly set up as it has stood the test of time. People would accuse him of privatizing to himself and same people will today say he is broke but I have never seen one person that has pointed to what Atiku sold to himself till today. This space will not be enough to highlight all of Atiku’s economic strides in that era but I have highlighted enough to get people to begin to research and perhaps expand the conversation.
On the other hand, Asiwaju’s economic management of Lagos did no small help to the Nigerian economy as every other Nigerian leaders that have emerged after 2007 have had to leverage on the revenues from Lagos to ramp up VAT collections and subsequent sharing by all tiers of government. The opening up of the city to beautiful infrastructure had provided an opportunity for the entertainment industry to blossom leading to influx of Forex through international shows as well as the provision of ample employment opportunities. Little wonder why the young entertainers in lagos don’t care who the next president is, they would rather organize a carnival of a protest like ENDSARS and share food to themselves while dancing- ‘catching cruise’ like it’s said in local parlance.
Asiwaju’s human capital development has also led to the availability of human resource to manage the very difficult task of managing critical sectors. President Muhammadu Buhari would thank such efforts as it provided him ample Human Resources to utilize for his administration.
Therefore, the 2023 elections have presented very fine gentlemen who have utilized their times and opportunities to leave a mark that is undeniable in the history of our dear nation no matter how imperfect. I would continue to wonder who would celebrate ours for us if not us, there is absolutely no reason to continue to denigrate these individuals considering more of the fact that they have learnt appropriate lessons to improve on the lot that they have both achieved if given another opportunity. Recall also that we may not be able to do better if given the opportunity.
Consequently, I submit that head or tail Nigeria stands to benefit from the outcome of the 2023 elections, let us support appropriately, improve the conversations, reduce the bitterness and imbibe optimism and positivity for the hope of a better nation going forward.
God bless Nigeria.
Hashim Suleiman
Oneheartnaija@yahoo.com
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