Who Will Defeat Jonathan in 2015? By Joe Igbokwe

By Joe Igbokwe
"If free and fair elections were held today (even though PDP will
never permit free and fair elections) chances are that President
Jonathan will emerge victorious. I say this with every sense of
responsibility." - ChidoOnumah
My brother Chido Onumah is a gifted writer. Please give it to him. He
is oneof the vigorous advocates of the peoples' cause, an activist, a
thinker, author and a committed Nigerian. His Book: Time To Reclaim
Nigeria is a popular idea whose time has come. Chido's contribution to
the project Nigeria cannot just be dismissed by any sensible person.
However his latest article posted on various internet forums, with the
title, 2015: WHO WILL DEFEAT JONATHAN? has just caught my attention
and I need to take him up on the statements above.I do not know what
led Chido Onumahto believe that PDP led by anybody in Nigeria today
can win a presidential election in a free and fair process. I tried
without success to figure out why he made the statement above and
believe you me I was left with no option than to write this rejoinder.
Now the question is this: On what basis is PDP going to win this
election? Is it based on performance? What is the basis? How good have
we fared in the past 14years to warrant Chido to make this egregious
forecast? Are we getting better? If youstill give PDP 50 years can it
do anything better than what we have seen? Again, is endless crisis
and unending strife that is afflicting PDP at present a recipe to
winning election in Nigeria? Did it escape Chido Onumah that what is
known as PDP is a house divided through the seam, with inchoate
interests battlingeach other in a deadly struggle to winthe upper hand
and take control of the nation's resources, as we are seeing at
present? What could have Chido Onumah to gloss over the critical
importance of performance in winning elections or the issue of party
unity. Did Chido miss all these or did he deliberately ignore them in
the thinking that Nigerians don't notice these imperatives in winning
elections? The intellectual in Chido would have protested this
negligence for these critical issues remain at the soul of democracy,
founded on one-man-one-vote principle.
I would not have quarreled with Chido Onumah if he had posited that
PDP will always win elections the wayit professes to know best-through
outright gerrymandering and rigging.This has been the tradition PDP
has invested and reaped heavily from since 1999. No one would have
quarreled if an intellectual, after a careful analysis of the present
political realities posited that PDP will win every election by the
way it knows best-purloining electoral results and writing its own
results-as we have been experiencing since 1999 but there is a lot to
quarrel with an intellectual who comes up with the strange permutation
that a PDP that is knocking on death's doors, with a well known
history of incompetent governance and mind boggling corruption, will
win a free and fair election. I guess that whoever believes this is
deliberately taking liberty with the truth for reasons best known to
him. One sees the biggest challenge facing the Nigerian position as
stopping PDP's notorious rigging machine and I believe the Nigerians
opposition is working on this. PDP has neither conducted nor won any
free and fair election since 1999 and this remains the single greatest
threat to democracy in Nigeria. Suffice it to say that any democracy
founded on the type of horrendous manipulation the PDP has come to
impose on the current democratic system in Nigeria has lost its
essence and rivals any other undemocratic rule.
Now talking about APC, how can Chidotie the future of APC to one man,
General Buhari(Rtd) in a nation of 150 million people? Is Chido saying
that if anything happens to Buhari today, APC will not fill a
presidential candidate in 2015? Don't we have more than 50
presidential candidates who can do better than Buhari if we search for
them? Can Chido with everysense of responsibility say that he hasnot
seen the sacrifices being made bythe progenitors of APC to provide an
alternative to PDP? Is Chido saying that he has not seen the mines and
bombs PDP mercenaries have been sowing on APC's highway to reclaim
Nigeria? Does Chido think that it is that easy for ACN, ANPP, CPC and
APGA to come together in today's Nigeria to challenge PDP? Ina way I
wanted torun away with the thinking that the write up sounds like a
job for PDP but…… If we must sack PDP it is going to be a collective
responsibility, and defeatism approach cannot help us. We just have to
take a stand on wherewe are going and stick to it head on.
Those who think that keeping President Jonathan without performance is
a way of addressing the minority question in Nigeria cannot get it.
More money has gone to South South in the past 14 years more than the
total of what went to South East, South West, and North Eastput
together and yet there is not much to show in terms ofdevelopment in
the Niger Delta. Other Nigerians see this as a blackmail that cannot
stand. We cannot continue to sacrifice the futureof this country on
the altar of mediocrity and comprehensive emptiness.
Now if the question is "Is the opposition ready to compete in 2015?
Please take notice that the answer is yes and this is final. A lot of
sacrifices are being made, lots and lots of structures are being put
in place, lots and lots of engagements are going, interests are being
taken into consideration, human and material resources are being
deployed to bring about this change and all APC needs is support and
encourage and not to be pulled down.
But most importantly,
A football team that cannot score goals must be disbanded. If PDP
cannot do something tangible in 14 years, it has to be defeated and
sacked not minding the so-called national spread
Joe Igbokwe
Lagos