davidylan:

I would rather have an "un" democratic ex-soldier who is tough on corruption than an ailing tool of the relics of the Obasanjo dictatocracy!

This is the first time i'm agreeing with your post on nairaland. Weldone!! Buhari is better jo.

Enough of ex-soldiers as our president, let us give Ya'adua a trial. I am all for Yar'adua. He is sure a man capable of ruling this country. He is a replica of Late Aminu Kano, he believe in taking care of the masses.

PDP is Too powerful!

it isn't healthy for our democracy to have the same crazy dominance of one party in the country. Due to the overwhelming dominance of PDP, we had the entire government in one pocket. The Senate and the House were almost extensions of the PDP.
we need to weaken this party considerably.  perhaps a Yar'adua presidency with fewer governorship and senatorial slots for PDP?

I do not trust Buhari. But those of y'all talking about Buhari and his Islamic roots need to recognize that yar'adua instituted Sharia in katsina State and he was the Governor during the Amina Lawal saga. he would have sat idly by and watched a woman being stoned to death.

If it comes between picking from two flawed candidates, i might pick Yar'Adua. Especially if i do buy transcorp Shares,

get ur facts right b4 u argue, nigeria is in a cross road. we need someone to help us out, this guys are not very corrupt ,but buhari is more independent minded not sure about yar adua.my pick is BUHARI.

Its funnie, bt d choice is stil btw Buhari, Atiku, den Yar'dua.

Frankly,  has anybody heard Yar'dua talk b4, he was in lagos lastweek for his declaration after which he met with Captain of Industries at a Gala nite. and believe mi, d only thing i cld make out from al he said was 'Obj. did dis , n i will do same' Obj. is dat, it was al crap!

Obj. may ave done some good bt it stil doesnt make Yar'dua nor his running mate a better equilvant. He simply looks like some person who wld be pushed abt 2 dance to tunes.

Buhari, hum, very vocal i must say, and quite consistent. He has being on d fore-front 4 a long tyme. U may b right that He did d country bad during in last term as a military officer, bt was Obj. any different den? Wasnt it a popular opinion that he 'made-up' for the past? wel, since Obj. was given that chance, i cee no reason y Buhari cant be given d same, atleast, dey r al Former Military officer!

Bt 4 mi, Atiku shd b considered, the beef btw himself n Obj. has revealed so many things, n if PDP hasnt gotten ova the hurt from his leaving, n r stil doing al they can 2 stop him, den think of al the corruption that is hidden that only atiku can unravel!

anywhichways, gues its al abt who can deliver,

Affoxpope

I'm happy that we have a forum like this. But let us try and make the best use of it. sincerely speaking, presently we have Buhari, Yar'adua, Atiku and other guys going for April 21 2007 presidential race. I'm telling u guys, Buhari still stand as the best candidate, followed by Atiku before u can now talk about Yar'adua. Remember we all need action now. we need somebody that can really deal with all this past leaders and recover if not all, atleast part of our stolen resources just the way Buhari did when he was a military head of state. Let me tell u; issue of somebody converting Nigeria into a Muslim state is a forgoten issue. check it out very well and see is not just possible. The progressive at this time should seat down and see what we can do to pray and help Buhari through. If the guy (Yar'dua) find himself in Aso-Rock come May 29 2007, well Nigeria is in trouble. in case u don't know, this is not Yar'dua u all know. that one is gone. Jakumo statement very unfortunate, Donnymikky should understand that Abiola is not a good man, he's never a legend. one of the greatest IBB achievement is his ability to annuled June 12 election. we should be happy for that

Please what was Buhari recovering as a millitary leader when he jailed news men and molested old men on the street for crossing the express way? The same media he was suppose to use to create awareness went on exile for fear of been incaserated by Buhari/Idiagbon junta. If you like you can fast for 40 mornings, 40 afternoons and 40 nights, I still insist Buhari is undemocratic and too religious ( imagine a jihadist) to rule Nigeria.

Jakumo,

Spot-on observations about Atiku, JoshO, but your ranking of Buhari as a "distant second" presidential candidate is rather odd considering that Buhari's iron-fisted muzzling of the press and mass jailing/secret executions of the innocent during his military junta rule of the 1980's are as much a matter of public record as are Buhari's more recent declarations of support for proposals to subjugate the Nigerian republic with the full horror of Islamic Sharia law. Buhari was and is a vile and malicious goblin with a mile-wide mean streak, who would regress Nigeria back to the status of a pariah rogue state in the very unlikely event that he gets his grubby paws into the national treasury again.

I feel you, speak on brother!!

Josho,

Yar'Adua is still my preffered candidate.

Full stop!! infact Bus- Stop!

Ishmael,

God no dey sleep thats why he was not sworn in. He was even more religiously intolerant than Buhari. He was a muslim and he picked a muslim to be his vice in a planned democracy. Thank God for using IBB to stop that. Were we blind then?? Where we all sleeping?? Nonody said anything about religion then o, imagine. Buhari's case is different, he came into power through a coup and he had to pick Idiagbon who was one of the key players in that coup to be his vice. Buhari is the best presidential candidate and material in Nigeria at the moment than can bring sanity into Nigeria. Those who do not want him to be our president have skeletons in their cupboards and are afraid of what will become of them should Buhari become the president.

Were there no christians in that Buhari coup? if the answer is "YES" then you have just nconfirmed the fact that Buhari hates christians if not how could a Coup be planned without any christian" involvement? Afterall we had senior millitary men then who are christian.

Belloti,

Buhari is not an angel, he is a nigerian like all of us. Some of us here are even worst than him.

Belloti you have digressed from the main topic.

Azorjiu,

what achievements of buhari and atiku place them in the 1st and 2nd position to yar' adua. is your opposition to him based on the fact that he in not his brother?

Abeg ask them oooo!

danidylan,

I would rather have an "un" democratic ex-soldier who is tough on corruption than an ailing tool of the relics of the Obasanjo dictatocracy!

I'm happy you know Buhari has no democratic values then the question is "why is he seeking for the highest office in a democratic setting"?

Yar'adua is a much better choice for President of Nigeria. As someone mentioned earlier when sworn in he becomes commander in chief and will call all the shots, every public office holder answers to him and then we will begin to see who the boss is. And though he is a Governor in a Sharia state (all states in the north are anyway) Katsina is the only the only state that doesn't sponsor pilgrims on Hajj and the reason given by Yar'adua is that firstly its of no economic value to the state, so why spend scarce resources on that and secondly Hajj is to be particpated in if You can afford it, its not do or die. I can't see anyone better.

I think we have misplaced our priorities here or at best we allowed our sentiments to get the best of us. If we can all agree that corruption and nothing else is the bane of our problems in Nigeria, then we have no saviour but Buhari.

Fellow Nairalanders,
This topic seems interesting, but it will be more fruitfull to all of us if we can suggest solutions to the so called CORRUPTION that has eaten deep within our past and present leaders. Also i noticed that some of you are basing your comments on setiments, tribalism and religion (if you do that then you are no better than the people that put us where we are today).

Back to the topic at hand, i dont have any case against Yar'adua apart from the fear that he might be a puppet and extension of PDP in power if not he can be the best among the strong contenders. I just wish he had more experience too when it comes to national interest which buhari has as an advantage.  Atiku should go and rest as him and OBJ are one and same corrupt individuals.

Attached is the image of the con man that wants to rule Nigeria, My contempt for this man and his politics of desperation knows no bounds. That he is now playing to the gallery, condeming the same goverment that he, more than most, benefited inmensly from for so long, is an affront to the senses.  He typifies the absence of Character, desperation of our political class.

The more he speaks, the more looks and sounds like a baboon. If the truth be told, this dunce, like may of our painfully incapable leaders of today,  is not even fit to be a local councillor, let alone President!!

If we are to make any progress as a nation, we have to do away with dunces, the worst of Nigeria.

joshO:

Attached is the image of the con man that wants to rule Nigeria, My contempt for this man and his politics of desperation knows no bounds. That he is now playing to the gallery, condeming the same goverment that he, more than most, benefited inmensly from for so long, is an affront to the senses. He typifies the absence of Character, desperation of our political class.

The more he speaks, the more looks and sounds like a baboon. If the truth be told, this dunce, like may of our painfully incapable leaders of today, is not even fit to be a local councillor, let alone President!!

If we are to make any progress as a nation, we have to do away with dunces, the worst of Nigeria.

c'mon. most of them are dunces and rogues. why single this guy out?
You sound so strident on this issue. Someone pay you to do this?

texazzpete:

c'mon. most of them are dunces and rogues. why single this guy out?
You sound so strident on this issue. Someone pay you to do this?

Not necessarily. He's got a point. If someone told me Atiku had hmm say Syphilis. The first thought in my head would be poor Syphilis. I haven't seen anyone display this kind of desperation not even IBB. It's disgusting.

My point is that we really need someone to get us out of this sorry situation. Definitely, its not yaradua. Atiku is only having a date with nemesis like the rest of fellow obj bedmates. when they were having a swell time sucking us dry no one heard the turaki saying anything but now that the time is up, we are expected to rally round our poor old obj victim. We have to look beyond symphaty for Atiku to the actually crusade against corruption, there is where Buhari comes in.

You can only agree with me.

belloti:

You can only agree with me.

No mate, we can disagree, unlike what we'll have under your jackboot, totalitarian buhari

No one has spoken of Yar'Adua and what he has achieved/not achieved; simply writing him off because he is Obj's candidate is not sufficient

afterall, the northern elite chose Obj, and he didn't dance to their tune. Buhari was not a fair leader, and a soldier is always a soldier

whether he wears white babariga or not.

please someone should come up with Yar'Adua's antecedents/performances as a civillian elected governor

In  my opinion, Atiku represents a clear and present danger to the survival of Nigerian democracy.   And I do not need to be paid to indentify and vilify a thieving manipulator.

Newspapers these days are filled with  promises by Atiku to 'save democracy'. He, like most of us, know that our democracy is in it's infancy and can do without this desperate, self-interest induced stress.  For good measure, he has named his campaign office 'Democracy House'.  Who is fooling who. My biggest concern is that many gullible, desperately un-enlighteened souls are falling for this grand manipulation.


He will command a lot more respect if he shuts up. He makes the likes of Buhari look like statesmen, and even desirable in contrast.  There is too much at stake in the country for the desperate interest of one man, a surbordinate, to overshadow our national consciousness.

He is already complaining of rigged elections that hasn't even began!! He will do whatever he can to cause chaos in Nigeria just to achieve his objective.

I'll be glad to see both his and OBJ's back.  We've had enough of this nonsense.

People use words like 'authoritarian' to describe OBJ and in the same breath wish for Buhari. The popular Chinese saying "Be careful what you wish for" comes to mind.  A Buhari Presidency will make OBJ look like a saint, a true democrat in the mould of Abraham Lincoln.

If Buhari had been Pres for the last 8 years instead of OBJ, the likes of IBB for one would be in jail today. Expect to see an extremely powerfull executive that clashes at will with the legislature. Expect an all out war against the three C's Critism, Curruption and Cronyism.

Buhari will be extremely heavy-handed and will shock those alligning with with him today. He has never been a democrate and will never be one.

This is a simple case of being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. The major power behind Obasanjo's rise to Aso Rock was the support of the late Yar'Adua's mammoth PDM. Leadership of this movement was handed over to Atiku (somehow) and that was why he got the VP slot in the first place with the promise that after the first term, he will take over as President. Now OBJ has brought out an obscure (but full blooded) Yar'Adua jnr merely to checkmate Atiku's power in the PDM. Problem is, in eight years, we never heard anything of this Yar'Adua and I for one didnt even know he was a serving governor. Is this the timid man we expect to rule over the beast called Nigeria? That was a master stroke by OBJ and in my own view, its a defacto third term for OBJ as he will continue to call the shots from Abeokuta.

Buhari on the other hand is an irony. He never believed in democracy and is somewhat of a religious extremist. But I give it to the guy that he has the strong hands required to straighten up this corruption ridden country of ours. Remember WAI? It was a dictatorial era but the message clearly got to Nigerians. I am definately not in support of strong armed tactics but how else can one explain the fact Alamasiegha's or Tafa Balogun's huge fall from grace has failed to leave an indelible mark on the incumbent governors? It actually seems to be getting worse and we need a Jerry Rawlings like clean up before we can see the light of day in this country. With the options presented to us at the moment, the only man that can deliver that is Buhari. All they need to do is have a strong christian VP to check his religious excesses.

I think we have misplaced our priorities here or at best we allowed our sentiments to get the best of us. If we can all agree that corruption and nothing else is the bane of our problems in Nigeria, then we have no saviour but Buhari.

It is a sad thing that a youth in this forum believes Buhari is the ONLY person that can lead us in a country of over 140 million people! You have just rediculled the collective sensibilities of all Nigerians home and abroad. Mind you, we are all aware that Tunde Idiagbon was in charge during Buhari's millitary regim, now that Idiagbon is dead who else will Buhari beg to perform his official duty as the number one leader of Nigeria??. Buhari is indeed too weak a man to ocupy Aso-Rock.

debosky:

No mate, we can disagree, unlike what we'll have under your jackboot, totalitarian buhari

No one has spoken of Yar'Adua and what he has achieved/not achieved; simply writing him off because he is Obj's candidate is not sufficient

afterall, the northern elite chose Obj, and he didn't dance to their tune. Buhari was not a fair leader, and a soldier is always a soldier

whether he wears white babariga or not.

please someone should come up with Yar'Adua's antecedents/performances as a civillian elected governor

Only analytical info I could find.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070129/lf_nm/nigeria_yaradua_dc

I'm have no idea of how much is true in these links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umaru_Musa_Yar'Adua
http://www.yaradua2007.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=26

Piddo:

This is a simple case of being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. The major power behind Obasanjo's rise to Aso Rock was the support of the late Yar'Adua's mammoth PDM. Leadership of this movement was handed over to Atiku (somehow) and that was why he got the VP slot in the first place with the promise that after the first term, he will take over as President. Now OBJ has brought out an obscure (but full blooded) Yar'Adua jnr merely to checkmate Atiku's power in the PDM. Problem is, in eight years, we never heard anything of this Yar'Adua and I for one didnt even know he was a serving governor. Is this the timid man we expect to rule over the beast called Nigeria? That was a master stroke by OBJ and in my own view, its a defacto third term for OBJ as he will continue to call the shots from Abeokuta.

Interesting. Are you suggesting that because he wasn't one of the governors in the limelight, he is automatically weak, timid, and easily manipulated?

Donny, Buhari is definitely not the only nigerian that can deliver the goods but he is surely one of them and yar adua is not one of them. thats my point

Interesting. Are you suggesting that because he wasn't one of the governors in the limelight, he is automatically weak, timid, and easily manipulated?

A million dollar question, oya make una answer now!

Donny, Buhari is definitely not the only nigerian that can deliver the goods but he is surely one of them and yar adua is not one of them. thats my point

your statements are contradictory.

We ought to ask ourselves a few questions before forming our opinion.

In Nigeria today, All the major sectors; Oil and Gas, Banking, and telecoms are owned and controlled by the same set of people. No more than 20 members of this North and South cabal. so while it looks as if we are progressing, the real prosperity is enjoyed by a few families.

If Y'aradua were to get in in May 2007, would it be an extension of the reign of this cabal?

If Buhari were to make it in May 2007, with his dictatorial no-nonsense style, is it likely that he will run the corrupt elite out of town. Or will he succumb?

I believe that a country like Nigeria, with our vast natural resources, is really plagued by corruption. This corruption has become so endemic, that even a primary school child cannot really tell if his Senator father is corrupt, when he regularly brings home sacks of Ghana must Go bags.

Buhari showed an impressive attitude towards corruption. He appeared heavy handed, but personnaly, I noticed the changes in everyone, rich or poor. (Remember WAI: War Against Indiscipline).

If Buhari can return this level of accountability and discipline amongst the polity (both rich and Poor), Then I believe that would be a good starting point. If we used Ghana as a model, it would be said that Ghana's national reform can be traced to Rawling's initial stance against corruption. Then, and only then, followed by real economic reforms.

OBJ's economic reforms have really only benefitted the rich and politically connected. In Ghana, a politician cannot display wealth whilst serving in Govt. Perhaps after their tenure , he may use his influence gained to acquire contracts. Is this the case in Today's Nigeria.

We must start with a real war against corruption. After this, we can talk about leadership and other reforms.

If Y'aradua will probe all before him, including OBJ, Atiku, IBB, Anenih, Adedibu, Danjuma, then I'm all for Him.

If the war against curruption is the main issue, then Buhari and Yar'Adua are the only credible candidates of the major contenders. My fear with Buhari is his autocratic and extreme islamic leaning. That in my opinion makes him a much less attractive candidate.

I believe that Yar'Adua is by far the best option, on balance of qualities.
Also, the current reform programme ranks as one of OBJ's main accomplishments. What he has done is lay the foundation for future development.  Yes, a lot still needs to be done, yes, the benefits are yet to be felt by a majority, but the decay ran deep and will take more than 10 years to correct, with the support of like-minded people. In 5 - 8 years time, we'll all continue to reap the benefits of these policies, especially with sectoral and micro-economic reforms continuing.


If OBJ had been the typical politician looking for cheap publicity, he could easily have raided our $40 billion foreign reserve and flooded the market with food and merchandise, just to get temporary accolade, and in the process syphone 50% of the funds to his and crony accounts and undermine the economy. This is the type of politics you can expect the likes of Atiku and IBB to play.

Obasanjo has done a great deal for Nigeria, some of his achievements being -

Rapid stock market growth
Pension reform
Telecoms
Bank consolidation
Solid Minerals sector reforms.
Increased confidence in the economy i.e. FDI

No doubt that a lot of sectoral reform is still needed, but we are on track. And credit goes to himand his team for even getting us this far.

JoshO, your only problem with buhari is your perception of his extreme islamic leaning. this is a serious fallacy and i want to stress here that it is very wrong to assume buhari is an islamic extremist. he has never even being known to belong to any islamic movement or any religion based pressure group. he is a muslim who practice his religion carefully and appropriately. i dont know why you should even feel that way about him.

Nigerians in trying to discredit Gen. Buhari have nothing to use against him but "islamic fanatism"; haba, na wa oo!! During his reign as head of state was there any issue of islamic fundamentalism in nigeria? Was there any issue of sharia in nigeria? did muslims in the northern part of nigeria attack and kill christians, or burnt down any church?? So why are we so quick in passing judgement and giving names to Gen Buhari simply because he made one fatal mistake of saying something that had to do with religion which many nigerians did not like. But that does not make him a hater of christianity and christians. What about Gov Umar yar'adua?? Should he be called an islamic fundamentalist and fanatic?? because he introduced Shariah in his State which is being used to suppress and oppress non-muslims. OBJ once said "CAN Chairman my foot"; does that make him a hater of christianity and christians?? Gen Buhari is what Nigeria and Nigerians need now, except if we have not learnt any lessons from what this evil cult of a political party[b] PDP [/b] and its members have done to nigeria and nigerians. No thanx to them at all.

joshO:

If the war against curruption is the main issue, then Buhari and Yar'Adua are the only credible candidates of the major contenders. My fear with Buhari is his autocratic and extreme islamic leaning. That in my opinion makes him a much less attractive candidate.

Corruption is the main issue in Nigeria, so I will go for someone who I know can fight it better than OBJ and the person is Buhari.

As for Islam, am a christian and I don't know who is more extrem islamic between Yar'Adua and Buhari, but the only thing I know that Yar'Adua introduced Sharia in his state.

@grouppoint
Your points are seconded.

my concern is that the election will be rigged as usually and Yar'Adua will win & we continue with business as usual.

joshO:


Obasanjo has done a great deal for Nigeria, some of his achievements being -

Rapid stock market growth
Pension reform
Telecoms
Bank consolidation
Solid Minerals sector reforms.
Increased confidence in the economy i.e. FDI

No doubt that a lot of sectoral reform is still needed, but we are on track. And credit goes to himand his team for even getting us this far.

If you can explain all these achievements to my grand dad in the village who can not enjoy electricity 2days in a week, who can not afford a bottle of kerosene to light up his lantern, not to talk of drinking good water. I will be happy

@ Saintchux

Corruption is the main issue in Nigeria, so  I will go for someone who I know can fight it better than OBJ and the person is Buhari

I know that whatever Buhari's islamic and autoritarian tendencies, they can be curtailed in a democratic dispensation. I knew Idiagbon family and respect what he tried to do for the nation as CGS. Idiagbon also had high regard for Buhari so certainly knows something that we done.  Or maybe he was just showing the type of loyalty that's lacking in the current No2. In anycase, Buhari still remains my second choice.  I admire his support and occassional defence of the EFCC. His Military antecedents also makes a less atractive candidate nontheless.

If you can explain all these achievements to my grand dad in the village who can not enjoy electricity 2days in a week, who can not afford a bottle of kerosene to light up his lantern, not to talk of drinking good water. I will be happy

Countries like China etc are the fastest growing economies in the world today, but I can assure you you'll find more poverty there than you'd find in most African countries.

Whilst there is still a lot to be done and poverty is still aplenty, the point I'm making is that the Nigerian economy and social fabric has been in dire straits for so long, long before OBJ came in. It will take generations to change it for the better. I would prefer a leader who took difficult long term decisions for the betterment of our nation, like OBJ is doing now, rather than one that is desperate to play to the gallery with populist but retrogresive policies.

i read all the comments passed on the above issue with astonishment and find it a moral obligation to add my own comment to those ignorant people on the issue. i want to state it here categorically that if we want to really progress in this country we should vote for Buhari base on the following reason: that it is only him that can fight corruption without any biased mind and i want people to go back to into history it is during his miltary days that Nigerians became discplined and orderly in their public life. for his achievements ask Baba Iyabo he will tell you when he was his minister of petroleum resources. and just of recent when he was the chairman of PTF under the late Abacha. please people should avoid rumours should anybody tell me when Did Buhari said that he want to islamised Nigeria?

People let us not reduce this argument to Islamic fanatism. It is clear that some of this elite notherners don't in totality uphold the religous values they proclaim they only use them to score cheap political points.

The issue is,
Let us say hypothetically that Gen Martin Luthar Agwai ousts the government of OBJ and takes this country back to military rule merely because he thinks OBJ is very corrupt. How justified will that be

That is exactly how criminal Buhar's act was in the time of those days. If he had left the government of Shagari, Nigeria would have learnt from her mistakes and we would been better for it. Nigeria has lost over 20years by that singular act of Buhari and there is no where else in the world that his likes will be thinking of being President other than Nigeria.
His likes should appologize to our people and stop nursing wild dreams.

Yaradua remains the best bet for now at least if for nothing butfor generational change.

McKren:

Let us say hypothetically that Gen Martin Luthar Agwai ousts the government of OBJ and takes this country back to military rule merely because he thinks OBJ is very corrupt. How justified will that be

How i wish this could come to pass. I would be the happiest Nigerian to see OBJ, Atiku PDP members and other ministers like the Minister of Finance who OBJ uses to siphone public funds go to jail.

ishmael:

How i wish this could come to pass. I would be the happiest Nigerian to see OBJ, Atiku PDP members and other ministers like the Minister of Finance who OBJ uses to siphone public funds go to jail.

Will not give credence to that wish by reacting to it. However it is a wishful thinking that will never be.