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BY MARK • DECEMBER 2, 2014 • POLITICS
• COMMENTS (7) • 1305
My Presidential
Choices for 2015
So it is election season again and like
play, like play, four years has almost
passed since the 2011 General Elections.
A very eventful four years, I must add.
There has hardly been any moment of
calm, as something is a-brewing every
time. Whether it is the post-election
crisis in 2011, the fuel subsidy removal
protests in 2012, the many political
scandals and what I believe should be
the most defining issue for this election –
the Boko Haram terrorist group and its
campaign of bloodletting.
Next February, we shall queue up to
pick who we find worthy of entrusting
the management of the affairs of this
country to for another four years. I have
been watching the political space – those
who have declared, what they are
campaigning on, those who did not and
why, etc. I think I have observed enough
to decide who I will vote for next year, in
order of most preferable to the least
preferable, and why.
I have restricted myself to only those
who have bought the nomination forms of
their parties and will stand for primaries.
Any other aspirant who has not done this
cannot be considered serious.
Please note that these are my
PERSONAL opinions.
So here goes:
1. Atiku Abubakar (Former Vice
President, APC)
Above and beyond, this is the best
presidential candidate in the field. He
has been campaigning on issues from the
start and has the most
comprehensive manifesto of all the
candidates, a 94-page document you can
download from here. But in case that is
too voluminous for you, you can
see them broken down on his campaign
website. He has covered every aspect
properly with what he intends to
do in those areas when elected
President: from infrastructure to
education to anti-corruption to fighting
terrorism and improving
security. But above all, he is the only
candidate that is talking about a solution
to Nigeria’s issues that I believe in
dearly – fiscal federalism [See articles I
have written about fiscal federalism
here: 1, 2, 3,]. His plans might be
inadequate but it is far better
than nothing coming from the other
candidates.
Atiku also has the benefit of 20 years
plus of preparing for the office, from the
time he first ran in 1993 on the platform
of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) at
the prompting of his late mentor,
General Shehu Musa Yar’adua. He has
used the PDM platform of late Yar’adua
to build himself a national network of
associates, enabling him to have
knowledge of Nigeria beyond his native
Adamawa (also earned by living many
years in Lagos as a Customs officer and
marrying from places far from his). Not
only that, almost three decades in
building multi-billion naira businesses
has taught him how to assemble good
teams. A clear evidence of this is the
efficient media team, which I believe is a
benchmark for public office holders,
including the Presidency.
Whatever questions I had about him –
especially his dark reputation as a
corrupt VP were put to rest in his
interview here with The Cable.
Okay, let me stop gushing about him.
2. Goodluck Jonathan (Needs no
Introduction, PDP)
President Jonathan got my vote in 2011
mainly because of the fact that he was
the better of the lot that was running
then (Nuhu Ribadu inexperienced and
not articulate about what his plans were,
Muhammadu Buhari for reasons I will
get to in a bit) and the zoning issue
really irked me. I could relate to and still
relate to the desire of someone from a
minority ethnic group to aspire to any
political office against the desire of some
who felt they were the ones “born to
rule”, being someone from an ethnic
minority myself, in Nigeria and my state
and from the religious minority in my
state as well. Even if President Jonathan
serves only one term, he has smashed
the glass ceiling for not only Niger
Deltans, but minorities all across
Nigeria, and that is a good thing.
In all fairness, President Jonathan has
done far better than many Nigerians will
admit, although blame also has to be laid
at the feet of his very ineffective media
team for not doing a good job at
laundering his good works. He has
revived a power reforms program that
was stalled for three years under his late
boss (I should point out that achieving
full, constant supply of power is
something that even if President
Jonathan served two terms, he would not
achieve – he is basically pounding yam
for someone else to eat. But consistency
with that vision is very important), he
has constructed roads that have been
troublesome ( Benin-Ore Road, Vom-
Manchok Road and Bwari-Kaduna Road,
for instance), redone many others and is
on course with others (e.g. East-West
Road). Agricultural production has also
been up and food import bill down
(appointing the super-efficient Minister
of Agriculture, Akin Adesina has been a
masterstroke) and our airports are
starting to wear better looks (although
the reconstructions were stalled after
Stella Oduah ‘resigned’ as Aviation
Minister).
However, his two biggest failings are
handling the Boko Haram terrorist
scourge and fighting corruption. Let me
start with the smaller one:
Granting his former boss, DSP
Alameyeseigha who was convicted of
fraud committed while in office as
Bayelsa State Governor in 2007 and
is on the run from the United
Kingdom for similar crimes there
sends all the wrong messages about
the intent of the President to take on
corruption head-on.
The statement of the President on
public declaration of his assets that
he does not give a damn sends
another wrong message. While he is
not legally compelled to publicly
declare, he could have used it to set a
higher bar of transparency for
government officials.
There has not been a single idea or
move from either his administration
to make fighting corruption more
effective. One would expect that this
administration will be pushing for
the passing of bills like the
Whistleblowers’ Bill and the Asset
Forfeiture Bill, or the merging of the
EFCC, ICPC and Code of Conduct
Bureau into one agency to take care
of overlaps and make the agency
more effective, but there is no push in
that direction.
There has not convicted a single
politically exposed person (PEP) since
2011. While the President’s
supporters are quick to point out that
the EFCC, ICPC, Code of Conduct
Bureau are independent of him, one
only needs to look at cases where the
EFCC withdrew corruption cases
against some prominent individuals
(e.g. Mohammed Abacha,Hassan
Lawal, Femi Fani-Kayode) for reasons
not given and always after they
joined his party, the PDP, lending
credence to rumors of deals struck in
exchange for political support. This is
not to mention cases that have
stalled, such as the one against those
involved in the fuel subsidy scam.
Then the big one:

Admittedly, the Boko Haram
terrorism problem predates this
administration, but the handling of
the issue leaves a lot to be desired.
Too often, the response from the
government has been far too slow.
There seems to be a lack of courage
on taking on elements within the
military that are profiting from the
insecurity. Despite increasing the
amounts voted for security since
2012 [from N348billion in 2011 to
N921billion in 2012, N950billion in
2013 and N968billion in 2014], the
Federal Government still had to take
$1bn loan to fight this war, against
the background strong allegations of
embezzlement in the military top
hierarchy. This is not to mention
allegations of some of the closest
people around him also benefiting.
One would have expected heads to
roll, but no, everyone is sitting
pretty.
Far too often, the statements of the
President have put him in a
quandary, such as declaring that he
knows members of the terrorist
group, and some are even within his
administration, yet doing nothing to
fish them out and have them dealt
with.
His party has politicized the issue,
constantly accusing political
opposition of being the backers of the
group. Although the opposition is not
left behind in politicizing it, the
President has neither reined his party
in nor arrested these “terrorism
sponsors” and charging them to court
to prove his party right.
Many other times, the Presidency has
kept silent when they ought to speak,
or acted as though they were
oblivious to the events and mood of
the country. For instance, after 46
students were murdered in Federal
Government College, Buni Yad, Yobe
State in February, there was no word
or statement from the Presidency
which went ahead with the country’s
Centennial Celebrations. Similar
silence after the kidnap of 270
schoolgirls from Chibok in April was
what caused frustration that
coalesced into the
#BringBackOurGirls pressure group.
Then there was the rally by the
President and his supporters in Kano
in April, the very day after the
horrendous bombing in Nyanya,
Abuja, the insensitivity of this action
adding to the shock of a nation.
But still, in the event that Atiku does not
pick the APC ticket, President Jonathan
gets my vote and I hope there will be
improvement.

Seriously? How do you expect me to read all these?

3. Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano State
Governor, APC)
About three weeks ago, I was part of a
group of social media influencers that
visited Kano on the invitation of the state
government to tour projects executed by
the incumbent administration and have a
parley with the governor and that trip
changed my view about Governor
Kwankwaso completely. Prior to that
trip, I had viewed him as a rabble-rouser
going by his many antics, show of
braggadocio and sometimes reckless
statements; and talk of his achievements
mere propaganda. But what I saw in
Kano wowed me. I was super-impressed
[Read an accurate account of the tour
here].
Governor Kwankwaso has achieved in
less than four years what many
governors have been unable to achieve
in eight years. He has pursued an
excellent vision of all-round development
for his state and for his people. I only
wish more people visit the state and see
it for themselves. I also wish his media
people did better with laundering his
image and the achievements of his
government.
However, an action such as his
government’s breaking of beer bottles,
which make for effective populist politics
in the state, will be used to show a man
intolerant of beliefs that are different
from his, playing on the paranoia that
Christians have about the Sharia legal
code.
Also, he did not lay out specific plans of
achieving some of his intended goals if
elected President, such as how to
achieve a capital-to-recurrent
expenditure in the budget of 70:30,
which is about the only idea he has
brought so far in his manifesto.
There is also the question of whether he
is prepared to lead a country that is far
more diverse than Kano State, which I
believe is very important.
4. Muhammadu Buhari (Former
Head of State, APC)
Is it not weird that an aspirant that has
been presidential candidate three times
before and is still by far the most popular
politician in not less than one-third of
Nigeria (12 million votes in 12 states
consistently) is this far down my list? I
have good reasons for this:
General Buhari’s strongest campaign
point is his integrity and hands
unstained by corruption, considering
that he has held many offices where
others in same place used to enrich
themselves. However, while personal
integrity helps one avoid being stained
with corruption, it is not enough to fight
corruption and this is where Buhari fails:
he is yet to bring forward a single idea
on how he will go about fighting this
scourge that has bedeviled our country.
The lack of ideas does not stop here – he
has not brought any idea for improving
Nigeria in anyway at all. His most recent
interview with The Cable here only
added to my confusion about what his
plans are.
Nigeria desperately needs ideas moving
forward, and not just honest men, or
even worse, one honest man. In the
absence of ideas from him, I cannot be
voting for what I consider mere hot air.
This is not to mention the fact that he is
about Nigeria’s most divisive politician
right now – he is as loved by many
Nigerians as he is despised by others.
How did he get here? By making
statements that are either religiously
alienating, capable of inflaming ethnic
passions or even innocent statements
that are easily twisted by opponents
because it is an otherwise harmless
proverb in his native tongue.
I do not see him winning the Presidency,
and I think he really should consider
retiring from running for office next year
and focus on transferring all his political
goodwill to a protégé.
5. Sam Nda-Isaiah (Newspaper
Publisher, APC)
Nda-Isaiah, who is the publisher of the
LEADERSHIP Newspapers, was actually
the very first person to declare interest
in being the occupant of Aso Rock next
year. Talk about giving the dark horse a
very early start.
However, Nda-Isaiah is sorely lacking in
not only name recognition across
Nigeria, but also in the experience to
manage its affairs. I believe he and
Nigeria will be better served if he ran for
either the Senate or at most, the Niger
State Governorship. He can then use
that office to build experience towards
the 2023 elections.
Not only that, for an aspirant whose
campaign slogan is “It Is Time For Big
Ideas”, it is really ironic that he has not
presented any big idea or any idea at all
for how to make things better. Like the
typical Nigerian politician, he has
expertly laid out the problems albeit
embellished in many places, but has
fallen short of proposing solutions.

I didn't read but I guess u are askin me of my choice come 2015 If that's d question n I say, GEJ,GEJ,GEJ,,,,,,GEJ,GEJ,GEJ,,,,,GEJ,GEJ,,GEJ. GEJ till 2019!!

.
6. Rochas Anayo Okorocha (Imo
State Governor, APC)
LOL.
I am sorry, but I have to laugh here.
Okorocha’s desire to become Nigeria’s
president next year is funny .
Obviously, he thinks it is a comedy
contest, because that is how I view him –
a comedian in Nigeria’s politics.
Okorocha has mastered the art of playing
to the gallery in words and actions to
gain popularity, and of doing excellent
propaganda work. However, his
performance in Imo State since 2011 has
been below par. One expected better
from him considering all the noise that
comes from him, but then, there is this
thing they say about empty barrels.
Maybe this is the best way Okorocha can
secure the running mate slot to the APC
presidential candidate. I just hope that
he does not lose his chance at running
for re-election while at it, but then, will
it be a loss to the people of Imo State if
he does?
So there you have it – my preferred
choices for the Office of the President of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria from
2015 in descending order.
I am looking to hearing your thoughts
and comments. Please let us keep it civil

http://markamaza.com/2014/12/02/my-presidential-choices-for-2015/

I read the Crap, it's just some PRO-GEj Lamenting

Abeg GMB 4 2015

146 n counting

Impressive analysis. And with much sense. However, the sense in it is the problem with it, unfortunately. Why? Because Nigeria electorates don't vote sensibly; they vote with their emotions.

Apart from Atiku who has a manifesto,I am yet to see any candidate of APC with his manifesto on the internet,not even Buhari!

Eggcelent:
Impressive analysis. And with much sense. However, the sense in it is the problem with it, unfortunately. Why? Because Nigeria electorates don't vote sensibly; they vote with their emotions.

emotions actually gets ur Leaders like GEJ

Even if APC held a gun to my head, I will still vote GEJ.