barcanista:
My dear, check it out, the coupist that brought him topower could not get him to their bidding in 1984. By the way, whatever money any crook spend on GMB's campaign is Nigeria's money. When Buhari get to power, he will ensure that no money is looted and arrest thieves.

Candyrain:
You've been acting like one.

Smartestelvis:
2nded bro, it makes me shudder each moment i hear blind idealist chanting gej jst becoz d guy is gud in covering his tracks,,he is a bald hope

giantstrides:


Yeah right, and I'm buhari's long lost last born. The guy just wants real positive change not the transformation nonsense being bandied about.

chymystique:

Are you serious @ this u wrote?? You telling me that he intends biting the hands that fed him? If Buhari is a saint as u painting him to be here, how come he is associating with crooks and corrupt officials all in the name of power.. don't you think such a man can't be trusted to manage Nigeria? I know GEJ ain't good but GMB ain't electable and he is a pretender.. GMB's supporters should get into their skull that GMB CAN NEVER BE PRESIDENT of a united Nigeria!

Abduletudaye:
@Barcanista, many people will only show a blind eye to what you just wrote..

What I wonder is...
1. All of a sudden, Buhari is a very bad and heartless man.

2. All of a sudden, Buhari is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

3. All of a sudden, Buhari wants to Islamise Nigeria.

4. All of a sudden, Buhari wants to take the country backwards.

Why is that...

1. All of a sudden, there's a decrease in per barrel price of crude leading to the reduction of PMS.

2. All of a sudden, Kerosene has also reduced..

3. All of a sudden, $1.2billion is to be refunded into federal purse.

4. All of a sudden, the uses of the SURE-P funds are being televised.

5. All of a sudden, Buhari was the one who erupted the 2011 violence..some even say they have evidence..

Its really serious..

I think Nigerians don't want to be ruled with IRON FIST and reduce corruption to atleast 1%.

Gov Amaechi said: The only reason why we keep stealing is because you don't throw stones at us.

I pray Nigeria gets better one day..

barcanista:
Brilliant piece my brother! Endorsed

Abduletudaye:


That post motivated me to write it ni.. So much negativity..why

barcanista:
I don't get bro...

barcanista:

cassyrooy:
Somethings are left unsaid, but you spoken wisely. I dont see GMB as a president, even though he wins chaos and hysteria will not just run into neighbbouring countries. Have pro-GMB thought about international politics? Will he understand Nigerias' stand, aim and agenda in the international scene? By the way how will he communicate with the likes of Cameron, Putin, Obama and other elite leaders when his oratory is as poor as my 3year-old nieces'. Think Nigeria, we are respected international and known for our excellence in education, sentiment of voting out GEJ is over-hyped when GMB seem to be the sole replacement. We progressed from OBJ to Yar' Adua then GEJ, all being more educated and more diplomatic-what democracy entail. Going with GMB is like bring my grandma to be my class prefect.

mandhi:

Can u kindly elaborate on how GEJ has enhanced our excellence in Education to the international community putting to consideration all the interviews conducted by international community.

KanwuliaJara:
SIX WEEKS to FUNERAL Procession!
APC=EXPIRED DRUG PUSSSSSSSERS! :

fathermikky:
Now Apc are saying buhari is the man that will bring change to us but is political statement you all supporters,but am asking since when he was young he did not bring,but now he is old that he can bring change this is pue lies he should take the change to northerners that they need change to be develop.GEJ 2019

Candyrain:
You've been acting like one.

Badgers14:


What happened to free speech people have different opinions , you might not agree with them , but we must respect it.

Leave Op a lone

Candyrain:
Noted

Mykevp2p:
Greetings Barcanista, As ever, your article is always well articulated but I find it hard to agree to your selling points on Buhari. Before I make my points, I must say that I'm not comfortable with the way Nigeria is being managed at the moment. It is very sad that a very tiny South-East Asian nation like Malaysia advanced more than Nigeria despite Nigeria being marginally more developed than them in the 50's to 60's. To be frank, I do not think that the problem of Nigeria nation is leadership per se but the foundation upon which the nation is build. No matter who come in as president (I don’t really care who) the problem will still persist unless we as a country genuinely come together and decide on how to move this country forward. I would like to discuss more on this later if the childish pseudo political analysts here will allow it.

In the mean time, let me comment on the point you raised.

1) INSECURITY

First, it must be said that this government have failed in terms of security. However, I disagree that Buhari will eliminate Boko Haram just because he eliminated or stopped Maitetsine in 1985. Time have changed my friend, and the issue of terrorism and insurgency have changed as well. To me, using the military alone to fight Boko Haram will never achieve any long lasting result, it might stop them for a while, just like 2009 when Yusuf was murdered by the Nigerian army. I can bet you, if Shekau killed today, give it a few years and another Shekau will emerge. Not until we go the very foundation of social-economic problem in this country, It will be very difficult to defeat Boko Haram ideology.

Since 1989 till date, India, with all its military capability has been fighting the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency likewise Pakistan with the War in Waziristan that have killed not less than 50,000 people with over 3 million displaced between 2004 to date. It is difficult to defeat such ideology with the barrel of a gun.

I'm not excusing this government, but I think that the Issue that gave raise to Boko haram pre-dated this government, it started as a movement that was even receiving patronage from the state government (Buji Foi was a commissioner in Borno State). To stop Boko Haram, we have to look beyond the use of force only (I have always insist that Maitetsine cannot be compared to Boko Haram). The question is, Do APC (not just Buhari as a person) have a plan of solving the fundamental problem of Boko Haram beyond the use of military? I doubt very much. Security goes beyond Boko Haram, we should put a measure in place so that similar group do not raise again, so far, I have failed to see any real security policy of Buhari or APC.

Mykevp2p:
2. CORRUPTION

Again, we have a foundation that is very fertile for corruption. While it is not in doubt that Buhari is incorruptible and a man on integrity, I highly doubt that system we operate in this country will actually allow him to do what he did in 1983 - 1985. We often here the rhetoric "Jonathan is a good person or have good intention but have bad advisers" how sure that we won't here the same rhetoric when Buhari take over "He is incorruptible but people around him are corrupt".

Having said this, let’s look at the system of government we operate in this country. It is very sad when I hear people like the speaker of house of representatives accusing Jonathan of corruption, the first question I often ask myself, what exactly is the job of the legislators? have any APC senator or rep member moved a motion for reduction in their salary (even if it won't scale through, at least, Nigerians will see the clear divide between APC and PDP). Will this same legislators change just because Buhari is the president? Let me give two examples of how opposition party separate itself as being difference to the ruling party.

In Malaysia, there is a big debate going on which has to do with a government back program called 1MDB (i won't go into details) the opposition objected to this program because it riddled with corruption, they cannot stop it in parliament, two of the opposition MPs (Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli) took the issue outside the parliament, going to schools, organizing functions and enlightening the nation about the corruption going on. What stopped the house of reps doing the same on Mmadueke when she used the court to stop investigation of the house? BTW, it is still the same PDP legislators who are now saints in APC.

The second part is the issue of assets declaration, everybody is up against Jonathan with his famous "I don't give a damn" about publicly declaring his assets. However, to the best of my knowledge, I have never heard or read of any APC governors declaring their assets public. We seem to hold the federal government on a very high moral ground, neglecting the legislators, the state and local governments.

Another example, in Malaysia, the opposition party (PR) promised that should they get to the government, all public officers must publicly declare their assets and to show they mean business, all states controlled by PR in Malaysia mandated the mentari besars (governors) and state assemblymen to public declear their assets. This is how to separate your party from the status quo.

The issue of jailing corrupt politicians won’t work this time around either because of different system. Immunity clauses, legislators and the judiciary are stumbling block. By the way, from who will Buhari start jailing? Sitting governors or sitting legislators? Don’t forget the powers of “injunctions” ... remember this time, he will be governing with check and balances from the legistilative and judicial arms.

Jonathan led FG is very corrupt, no doubt about that... however, we must stop it there, the state governments, local governments, legistilative and judicial arms of the government are equally as guilty.

Mykevp2p:
3. EXECUTIVE RASCALITY

As you rightly said, executive rascality didn’t start with Jonathan, remember the kidnapping of a sitting governor, impeachment of Joshua Dariye etc. What this is pointing out is that the Federal government is by default giving an unreasonable amount of power that people, irrespective of who is there seems to abuse. It is important to note that, your example of WAI came with a form of abuse of office (not really from Buhari himself) from the soldiers on the street. You cannot tell me that flogging a father just to queue at the bus station is actually a good model that you would like us to adopt in the age and time.

Moreover, what stopped Fashola from passing the FOI in Lagos state? Isn’t that also a form of executive rascality? We have seen state governors controlling their state legislators as it pleases them. My point is that the problem of executive rascality lies in the system we use in this county.

4. ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

I will always see the near collapsing of our economy as a result of many decades neglect of non-oil sector of our economy. It is very dangerous to run an economy solely on a commodity whose price is volatile. Everybody is talking about the economy now because of the fall in oil price which resulted in loss of value of the Naira. It is not a rocket science that the Naira will lose value owing to drop in oil price, Russian ruble is losing as much value as the Naira.

I would like to know, what exactly did Buhari did in his regime in diversifying the economy of Nigeria? What did the previous government did? All the focus is and has always been on the oil. South Africa is surviving on its mining, how many government have invested in mining various minerals in all part of the country? How about agriculture?

The issue of economy diversification cannot be done in 4 years, it takes at least, 10 years very strong, pragmatic economic plan to achieve. It took Tun Mahathir Mohamad 22 years to transform Malaysia to what it is today, It took Lee Kuan Yew 31 odd years to build Singapore to what it is today.

Like you rightly pointed out, this government has started some revolution (no matter how slow and little it seems) in the agriculture, cement and automobile industry.

Building a strong economy goes beyond rejecting IMF loans, refusing to devalue the Naira (we are feeling the negative impact of devaluation of Naira because we are still import dependent country). One would like to know what is APC 5 - 10 years action plan economic diversification.



Finally, I see this election as between PDP and APC not between Jonathan VS Buhari per se. The reason being that we have for far too long been running an individual based government rather than party / system based government which ensures continuity. Instead of trying very hard to sell the candidate Buhari as a person, APC should be selling us their manifesto the more because if (and I pray not) Buhari is no more tomorrow, the country have to keep moving. I hope we get right in this coming election.

barcanista:
My dear, check it out, the coupist that brought him topower could not get him to their bidding in 1984. By the way, whatever money any crook spend on GMB's campaign is Nigeria's money. When Buhari get to power, he will ensure that no money is looted and arrest thieves.