chiefinalowo:
With or without your single vote, GEJ will still win.

DONLEKAN:
To be honest, I could not hold back the teardrops as i read the OP. If indeed, the OP is igbo, I salute your courage. I can only hope large enough number of igbos could think like this.

I have said it repeatedly, the only problem with the Nigerian nation is poor education and our rulers will stop at nothing to maintaining the status quo. I could feel the depth of the OP's reasoning in his write up. If everyone's mind could be liberated with education. Then no idiot can loot, mismanage and wreck the country for 5yrs only for him to open the treasury 6 weeks to appraisal time, thinking he could buy the conscience of the masses.

ikenga67:

In a country where hedonistic indulgence is the order of the day, I find his asceticism ennobling. In a clime where cynical opportunism reigns supreme, I admire his supposed stubbornness.

I was old enough when he was in charge to appreciate what he was trying to do for Nigeria; especially considering the path the gang that forced him out took Nigeria. We are still living the consequences of that.

TheOtherview:


Like you @Ikenga67, my belated approval of Buhari's candidature is not without reservation.
I once presented arguments to support for my earlier reticence, to his die-hard fans, under my old user-handle -- https://www.nairaland.com/1345238/muhammadu-buhari-nigerias-strictest-leader

Given the wide gulf that exists between continued perfidy and possible promise, it is my considered view that you have made the wise decision here Comrade.

Let's leave the rest to posterity.
Lol.
You are quite right. Elections like this should be a referendum on the incumbent. Jonathan ought to be running on his record and not be going around kneeling to everything in sight, begging and playing the fear card. But again, everyone has to be true to his character.

ikenga67:
I am convinced GEJ lacks the character and intellectual curiosity required even by the low standard of what passes for leadership in Nigeria. I believe that Jonathan got promoted to his level of incompetence when he became governor of Bayelsa following the impeachment of his mentor, DSP Alamiesieghe. That he rose beyond that to the highest office in the land, says much about what we have become as a people.
Jonathan’s sojourn as president has simply validated the old cliché that character is destiny. Duplicitous and timorous, this erstwhile lackey of Alams has been totally out of his depth, and that he has been allowed to occupy that office for the past 5 years (and actually seeks to extend it for another four) speaks volumes about the Nigerian project. I believe that on his own, GEJ probably could not have been elected chairman of a local govt in Bayelsa, talk less of leading the Ijaw nation. In the brutal words of Joe Biden, he was not qualified to be elected dog-catcher. But he has been president of the most populous country in Africa for 5 years and is in the cusp of buying himself a further four!
I do not believe that Buhari has the right ideas for these times. But this election is not about ideas. It is about character. The single biggest and urgent challenge facing Nigeria today is not economic or infrastructure or even the genuine conversation about Nigeria that I consider imperative. All those and more are critical, but what is needed and urgently is to work to rescue the Nigerian public space. In a nutshell, Government, in the holistic sense of that word, is nearly totally eroded in Nigeria, and until we work to arrest and reverse that fatal trajectory, we can never hope to start to address the other major problems plaguing Nigeria. Such job requires a man of character and integrity.
I do not for a moment suggest that Jonathan created this existential problem - we have been on this downward spiral since the end of the civil war. However I believe that he totally lacks what it takes to start to deal with the problem. He simply does not believe in accountability whether of himself or of others. His statements on corruption show that clearly. I cringed when I read him saying stuff like if any soldiers sabotage operations in the war against Boko Haram, such soldiers should not be fired (he made that clear!), but should be transferred out of the war zone. That right there captures his philosophy and practice regarding accountability!!
Yes there are things I found troubling about the very Nigerian project. I still doubt that as an Igbo that I have enough in common with the Northern Moslem to form a self-sustaining political community. However, there are things that I found even more troubling as an individual and a moral agent:
I find it very troubling that for 5 years now, hundreds of thousands of people in the North have had their lives turned upside down in the most savage of ways imaginable and all that the Nigerian government could do is propagandize and play politics with this tragedy.
I find it deeply disturbing that villagers in my state of Anambra could wake up one morning and see dozens of bodies floating down the river, and 2 years after, the identity of those bodies have not even be ascertained talk-less of finding out who and what killed them.
I find it demoralizing when I read in the papers that government agencies are fraudulently diverting billions meant for the common treasury and nobody is doing anything about it, and that even mid-level civil servants are being accused of stealing hundreds of millions of Naira from the public.
I believe all of these and more are just symptomatic of a bankrupt state and only a person with the character to insist that everyone plays by the rules and holds everybody accountable can start to arrest the Nigerian rot.
Such person is definitely not Jonathan Goodluck.