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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Chido Onumah Still Misses The Point Here! By Joe Igbokwe

By Joe Igbokwe
I have just read the second part of Mr. Chido Onumah's piece on 'The
Opposition and 2015'. There, the writer struggled to justify his first
article where he claimed that "If free and fair elections were held
today (even though PDP would never permit free and fair elections)
chances are that President Jonathan will emerge victorious". I have
also followed the reactions including another piece from one Mr.
Godwin Onyeacholem, ostensibly to strengthen Chido's. I want to say
that these are interesting times in Nigeria but we have passed through
this way before and so this is not a road less traveled.
I am a living witness of how Nduka Obiagbena's THISDAY Newspaper
helped in rigging 2003 and 2007 presidential elections through fake
opinion polls and such other favourable feautures that helped soften
the ground for the electoral heist the PDP continues to inflict on the
polity. I know that in the someday, somebody who knew how it happened
in THISDAY will open up. Today Chido Onumah has started a similar
project of rigging Jonathan back to power via such flimsy and
laughable excuse as the that opposition not being ready to
wrestlepower from PDP. I dare ask my brother that in view of the
monumental work and sacrifices the opposition has put to work as a
united from in the ensuing election, what again does he expect the
opposition to do to meet his unexpressed standard of chasing out a
party with a notorious history of woeful performance?
Chido talked about 2011 elections andhow President Jonathan won the
South West and how history is likely to repeat itself in 2015. For the
avoidance of doubt those who voted Jonathan in the South West told us
how Jonathan moved from nowhere to become Deputy Governor, from Deputy
Governor to Governor, from Governor to Vice President and from Vice
President to become President and concluded that the man has
somedivine luck going with him. They told us that they want to tap
Jonathan's divine luck. That is how we got to where we are today. Now
where is the luck after four years? Where is thedivine luck in
Nigeria? Can we see it? Can we feel it? Where has this luck ledNigeria
to? In 2015 I am sure ethnic and religious sentiments will be played
out to discredit General Buhari(rtd) if we choose him as our candidate
to make way for Jonathan because the issue of luck will not matter
again. But I will not fail to educate Chido that Jonathan won 2011,
not through the votes he got from the South West but from the
fictitious millions that were written for him in the South South and
South Eastern states. These were the huge tranche of figures that
swayed the votes for him and the opposition knows this fact en route
2015.
There is no doubt that Chido fell into the elaborate power-retention
scheme of the PDP and other parties in power. They have their boxers
whoengage in not finding satisfaction with whatever those who oppose
do to challenge their hold but continue to throw unending challenges
on them as a demobilization scheme. In the APC case, the PDP and its
hidden persuaders once told us that the opposition will never unite to
fight their stranglehold on power. When they saw that the opposition
was determined to prove them wrong, they threw all manners of spanners
on their way and so far the oppositionhas succeeded in outliving these
challenges, to the chagrin of the PDP and their hidden and open
supporters. From trying to stop them, several top leaders of the PDP
have come out openly to express the fear that the APC will pose a
serious challenge to their hold on power. But Chido rather feels that
he has to pose impossible tasks on the opposition soas to make it seem
impossible to defeat the PDP in 2015.
It seems to me that Nigeria is in dire need of honest intellectuals
that will reshape the way we think and the way we act. The late Chief
MKO Abiola said politics of the stomach has ruined Nigeria. And unless
the real intellectuals stand up, dishonest men and women will continue
to shape the tide of public opinion in Nigeria. I wrote my refutation
to Chido's because I believed he was ruled by the common interest and
should know more than what he put up in hisinitial article. But his
reply rather confirmed my fear that quite indeed, Chido knew what he
was doing but I doubt if his opinion was altruistic, as it pretended
to be.
From what Chido presented in his twoarticles, I am being led to
believe thatChido Onumah who wrote a book on how to reclaim Nigeria
does not believe in the book he wrote. I guess that any effort to
reclaim Nigeria would be stymied by Chido who will certainly lay
unattainable standards for the reclaimants, as he is laying for the
opposition in Nigeria today. My argument is that Chido should have
taken a stand that we must rid this country of PDP and Jonathan and
consequently put his feet, hand, head,heart, eyes into the project. In
thisgame, it is either you lose or you gain.A real man takes a stand
when the need is greatest. I wonder then how he feels Nigeria would be
reclaimed ifhe believes that with its woeful outing in power for
fourteen years, with a party that is torn to the seams by crisis and
the pursuit of self interest, PDP is still invincible.
The clowns in Nigeria's political landscape have been saying that
opposition in Nigeria can never come together to work as a team. Now
that we are genuinely working ourselves to bones to come together what
do we get in return? What are we seeing? I invite Chido Onumah to
recall what the progenitors of this merger have gone through in the
hands of PDP and its agents. I repeat that Chido Onumah tried to make
his first and second article look like he is trying to put the
opposition on its toes but deep inside his heart is an intention to
rig President Jonathan back to power. I stand to be proved wrong and a
million articles in favour of Mr. Chido Onumah can never move me. The
opposition has surpassed theexpectations and doomsday prophecyof the
PDP and its agents and now, it is about 'not being ready for power'.
What a country?
In both his works, it was obvious that Chido took Nigerians for
simpletons and fools who cannot discern or fathom what they want from
government. If he ever did, he wouldn't have insulted Nigerians with
that hyperbole that if free and fair elections are held in a country
that has suffered the worst form of mis-governance in fourteen, the
same party that inflicted this horrendous torture will return to
power. Chido never told us what he feels the PDP and Jonathan have
doneto retain the fidelity of Nigerians come rain come sun. He never
enumerated the high achievements this party and president have
achieved to make Nigerians to merit such flattering support he is
projecting. He merely wanted to soften the ground for PDP's well known
electoral robbery through doing what they boast they know how to do
best. But then, Chido saw this huge potential for a party that had 23
governors at the inception of this administration is now struggling to
retain the loyalty of only 14 of them. He feels no one can defeat
suchparty, what a intellectual hatchet!
My brother and friend Mr. Chido says he will want us to have a debate
about 50 potential presidential candidates in our party. Apart from
General Buhari any of these great minds in APC below can rule this
country better than President Goodluck Jonathan. They are: Nuhu
Ribadu, Nasir El' Rufai, Pat Utomi, Gov Babatunde Fashola, Gov
Oshiomhole, Gov Rochas Okorocha, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Audu
Ogbeh, Gov Fayemi, Senator Chris Ngige, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, Alhaji
Shekarau, to mention a few. If the job prescription is to warm the
seat and sleep walk through Nigeria's many numerous problems, as
Chido's Jonathan is doing, I want to tell Chido that tens of millions
of Nigerians can do it.
My take in all this is that time has come for Nigerians to tell us
where they are in the struggle for the soul ofNigeria in times of
trouble. You do nothave to sit in the sidelines, you just have to take
a stand – either on the side of change or for the maintenanceof status
quo. The choice is ours.
For me, I want PDP out of our lives. I want President Jonathan out. I
have seen what BAT and BRF did in Lagos for 14 years. I have seen what
other good governors did including some PDP Governors. A friend told
me that ifa team goes to World Cup tournamentunprepared the best they
can get is to get knocked out in the first match and the team goes
home. If you elect a weak president in Nigeria 150 million Nigerians
will suffer for four years and if he gets eight years, we allwill
suffer for eight years.
Joe Igbokwe
Lagos

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