Audu Maikori Talks Muhammadu Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan


I watched Buharis campaign speech
yesterday and I left feeling like I was
listening to my father speaking to me-
and that’s sort of natural afterAll he and
my father are about the same age.
Buhari is an awesome figure, very
impressive in terms of what he stands for
as a person . Indeed i must tell a story –
way back in 1998 during the perennial
university strikes I was in kaduna during
one of the perennial fuel scarcity
episodes. I was at the ungwar Rimi filling
station and had been on a line for 3 hrs
or so waiting for my turn to buy fuel.
And if you can recall those days, fuel
lines were like military camps and people
were violent if you tried to jump the
queue unless you were a friend of the
petrol station manager or a soldier And
Buhari drove into the area in his 505
looking for fuel and somehow people saw
him and all of a sudden people started
moving their cars out of the way to allow
him drive up to fill his tank.
This people did without compulsion-it
was out of sheer respect of him, the
man, the father figure- that was Buhari
(pre -PTF).
If Buhari was going to be allowed to run
the country based on his ideals alone, I
would probably change my mind ( after I
get past the age factor) But honestly
speaking , governance is not strictly
about a single personality- it’s a series of
conversations around different interest
groups and institutions and walking the
fine line between your decisions based on
personal interest or moral values and /
or public interest- which usually means a
politicized decision.
I feel that a Buhari presidency though
well intended will not achieve much due
to the fact that he will try to purge
Nigeria via old school methods which are
no longer practical. He will be the face
but the real machinery will be run by
some of Nigeria’s most “pious” politicians
– people like Tinubu, Amaechi ,
Atiku ,etc. The question is will they allow
him to stop the business as usual
environment they have benefited from to
their detriment?
When he spoke about sharia a few years
back which was seen as very inciteful and
how it was necessary in Nigeria, he spoke
as a devout Muslim that he is- but the
statement was so politically incorrect
especially since you know that same
Sharia implementation led to the death of
thousands of man and women in kaduna
state alone in the early 2000′s This led to
the division of southern kaduna from
northern kaduna and the relocation of
the people to Barnawa and beyond due
to religious intolerance.
When it comes to elections, I personally
feel that we are asking a man who’s ways
and actions are set to suddenly become
dynamic and new and do so with the
support of leaders who were not just part
of the PDP rot but were key players in it.
Suddenly the are born again and old
things are passed and have become
“new”…
Goodluck is far from perfect but I see
him continuing to make steady inroads
especially in the area of the economic
advancement of young people because
the cliche is true – the youth are the
future but the future is now and here!
Has he done well? In some areas yes but
in security no. That’s the fact. I won’t go
into the reasons why not but we should
note that the rot in the army started
many years before Jonathan and the
insurgency only opened the cankerworm
that was hidden because the need to
protect Nigeria hadn’t arisen in over 39
or so.
About corruption having worked around
government for almost 3 years I now
understand things I never quite
understood. Most of the corruption in
Our country is usually attributed to
government and the civil service which is
true but we forget that they need
collaborators in the private sector to
successfully perpetrate these crimes. The
best way to fight corruption is to build
institutions and use technology to fortify
them so they can reduce incidences of
corruption- that’s the truth. You can’t
tap an MTN line like we used to tap the
box telephones at home in those days.
You can’t pass the Lekki toll gate without
paying 120 at the automated gates but
the politicians can set up companies to
surreptitiously buy the company that
owns the gates( hope you get my drift)
and that’s done at top level. You can’t
also fight corruption if you tip a
policeman at every checkpoint instead of
taking the day off and ensuring you get
your drivers license so wecan stop the
extortion – yes that too is corruption.
Why is budget implementation so poor?
because the National Assembly unduly
politicizes the process leading to late
passage of the bills ( in 2013 it was in
July / August same as 2014) so when
projects don’t get delivered its mostly
because of slow passage of the bill.
The other reason is that the
appropriations committees can tamper
with the budget how they like that’s why
a project like the perilous Lokoja -Abuja
road which led to the death of many
Nigerians took over 10 years to be
completed because the amounts
appropriated by the NASS was simply
inappropriate to adequate fund the
completion. It was only when
Sureprogramme intervention came that
the road was fast tracked ( as most can
testify) same with the railways , roads
and bridges etc- why?because the SUREP
funds were better insulated from
tampering unlike many other projects
approved for completion. There are now
policies being put to change this to make
execution more effect off of the lessons
we learnt via Surep on a federal level.
But I digress, I agree that GMB is a fine
gentleman and leader but I also believe
that if I did vote for him I would be
doing so nostalgically not realistically
because there’s a new Nigeria where
people are earning a living off their
talents and passions and creating a new
middle class which was virtually non
existent post GEJ and that’s the Nigeria I
want to be part of…Agriculture is
becoming the new sexy and his
administration has pushed it even more
than Obasanjo ( a renowned farmer did).
No matter how I explain FB or Instagram
or the global economy to my dad now he
may not fully grasp it as a person below
35 would and I fear that I would rather
move forward imperfectly than go back
to the past in search of Utopia.
This is just my view of things and I have
taken time to state it and not berate
GMB – it’s my vote , it’s my choice,
some will say that I vote for hm because
of SUREP. But honestly I do so because
in him I see a man who is imperfect,
struggling with his imperfections to make
things better and I see room for
improvement and change….in all fairness
we are all sort of like that trying to get a
better report card and improve on poor
subjects of last semester. In the latter I
see an upright man of integrity and high
discipline who doesn’t yet realize that
one of his disciples may yet betray
because they don’t stand for the same
ideals.
What do you think?

What I see is that Jonathan is perpetually corrupt, clueless, incompetent. The problem is not about who surround who, the problem is in the quality of leadership. If a leader has integrity he will definitely abhore corruption and his follower having known his stance against corruption will be careful how they go about their affairs even when perpetrate they hide to do it but when a leader is a thief he lacks capacity to reprimand his follower, the act becomes an open glare practices. How do u explain a leader that pardon someone that indicted for corruption and later promote him for senatorial election, or how do u explain a leader who said in the public that corruption is nothing but a common stealing, or how do you explain a statement where a leader asked in public "how much did Nwobodo stole self that make them jail him"? Tell me this with many other open support corruption practices, how his follower ever produce good characters. Op, don't ever try to compare the competence of GMB and GEJ together again, for as far as we are concern GMB is a cleansing agent for corruption while Jonathan is agent to rpomote corruption.

focus7:
What I see is that Jonathan is perpetually corrupt, clueless, incompetent. The problem is not about who surround who, the problem is in the quality of leadership. If a leader has integrity he will definitely abhore corruption and his follower having known his stance against corruption will be careful how they go about their affairs even when perpetrate they hide to do it but when a leader is a thief he lacks capacity to reprimand his follower, the act becomes an open glare practices. How do u explain a leader that pardon someone that indicted for corruption and later promote him for senatorial election, or how do u explain a leader who said in the public that corruption is nothing but a common stealing, or how do you explain a statement where a leader asked in public "how much did Nwobodo stole self that make them jail him"? Tell me this with many other open support corruption practices, how his follower ever produce good characters. Op, don't ever try to compare the competence of GMB and GEJ together again, for as far as we are concern GMB is a cleansing agent for corruption while Jonathan is agent to rpomote corruption.

The Nigerian situation is more complex than the picture people often paint.
The problem right now for me, extends beyond individual competences or will to provide good leadership. The problem is that cabals, party-jingoists and political hawks have hijacked the polity. Hence the leader is caught in a web of sought, struggling to impose his will amidst several voices clamouring to be in charge.

Story for the "Apostles" with Judas Iscariot!!!

KanwuliaJara:
Story for the "Apostles" with Judas Iscariot!!!

Apostles? Judas Iscariot? could you be more explicit?

Bamibor:



The Nigerian situation is more complex than the picture people often paint.
The problem right now for me, extends beyond individual competences or will to provide good leadership. The problem is that cabals, party-jingoists and political hawks have hijacked the polity. Hence the leader is caught in a web of sought, struggling to impose his will amidst several voices clamouring to be in charge.

in that case we need a leader with strong will that can break lose from the cabals web and not a weakling who can enforce a policy for benefit of the generality of Nigeria.

focus7:
in that case we need a leader with strong will that can break lose from the cabals web and not a weakling who can enforce a policy for benefit of the generality of Nigeria.

I quite agree with you on that point but pitiably we do not seem to have that at the present.