written by Odigili Uche

2014 ushers in a new year which promises to be an eventful year for Nigerians. Apart from the already cliché 'this is my year' and 'I will get married this year' , what remains atop of the minds of most Nigerians (mostly politicians) is the presidential election that comes up on the 14th of February. After slugging it out at the primaries(actually only one of the candidates in actual sense did slug it out),our options have been limited to two somewhat combustible individuals-an incumbent who had no shoes and a retired general who has just one million naira in his account(or so his says).However, i and many Nigerians will agree that rather than the election boiling down to the best two candidates possible who can lead this great country out of the proverbial wilderness, we have rather been faced with the unpleasant inconvenience of having to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. As it is with the case of governorship elections in Nigeria, and in fact any other political election where the electorate before voting puts into consideration not that candidate who would not embezzle any public funds at all but the individual who would embezzle the least funds, we literarily hold the cards to our own future where the we must vote not who we think is the better candidate for our collectively progress but who we know(or think we know) will ultimately do less damage in the next four years.
The incumbent, president Good luck Jonathan has overseen a country that has been plagued by corruption which although existed long before he became a politician spiraled out of control and became sort of a norm in his tenure. We have also been made to deal with insurgency as it has now become as common as hearing 'knockouts' and 'bangers' go off in the festive periods to hear that a market or motor park has been bombed in the north. Some pro-Jonathan will be quick to point out that president Jonathan is merely suffering from the success of emerging as the president in 2011 but it is rather appalling at the way in which he has handled the situation. Everything seems to be working against him at the moment and when we add up the drastic fall in oil price(which is not his fault by the way) and consequently the devaluation of the naira which could not have come at a worse time does not seem to help his re election bid, does it?
On the other end of the stick, we have General Muhamadu Buhari, a retired general who ruled Nigeria in a military regime from 1983 to 1985 . after unsuccessfully running for the office of the President of Nigeria in 2003, 2007, and elections he has scaled through the APC primaries to emerge as the only opposition to President Jonathan in the race to become the president of the Federal republic of Nigeria. However a glance at his regime reveals a reign of terror which in the name of 'war against indiscipline' led to the an outright abuse of human rights, disregard of the judicial process and suppression of criticism. There are several reasons to believe Buhari is a very tribalistic individual. Is it by deeds? Here is a man who placed then president Shehu shagari under house arrest in a palatial mansion in ikoyi while he locked up Shagari's vice, alex Ekueme in kirikiri prison. Shagari like Buhari happens to be a Hausa/Fulani man while Alex Ekueme is an igboman. Also, a reflection of his words only serve to strengthen the belief that he is not only tribalistic but a religious bigot. In 2001 he said 'Allah Akbar:God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the sharia in the country'. Several questions have been asked,and rightly so too if a man of this nature and reasoning can successfully steer this nation without shredding it into small, untraceable bits. It appears that Buhari has been gaining support from some quarters not because they feel he deserves to be the president but because they want Jonathan out. They seem more of anti-GEJ than pro-GMB but it is certain Buhari would not mind as long they translate to votes.
While the elections are expected to be free, fair and conducted in a transparent manner(yes some of us still believe that) it is the electorate that ultimately make a decision that is sure to affect the future of this country. It is our moral, civil and constitutional obligation to ensure that we vote but this time we do not vote for better man, rather we vote for the better evil. It is a shame that we have all been put into this tight corner and giving my opinion will be delving into the arena of conflict, something i have desperately resisted. The choice must be made and inevitably we are going to have to make it, sadly what we can best aim at is damage control.

u tok much

I would expect you to tell us why we are left with choosing the "lesser of 2 evils"

we are left with that choice because we don't ve many good men in politics...and the men at the top are really self centred and corrupt..its not a surprise because that is how they got there