By Opeyemi Oguntoye
Recently, Big Brother Nigeria, A Television reality show started amidst controversies. Nigerians discovered that the popular show should have been aired in Nigeria instead of South Africa. Multi-choice, the organiser of the show came out strongly to defend reasons why the show couldn’t have been done in the country, citing, mainly, irregular power supply.
The show has started anyway, so the government couldn’t do much to stop it nor ban Multi-choice. The issue in focus here is the circumstances that surrounded the power tussle in the show. Efe, a contestant emerged as the leader of the House popularly called Igwe but his intention was criticised by fellow housemates and viewers on his alleged desperation leading to his emergence as the custodian of the throne. Subsequently, Big brother, the unseen voice that barks out instruction to housemates asked them to debate each other in an open contest. Pouring out their minds, some of the housemates disagreed totally with Coco-Ice, the deposed house leader as she insisted that Efe acted desperate to win the throne. In my opinion, Efe was desperate and with that, he won the throne. His leadership was good and fair from the viewers’ perspective.
It worked for Efe but former president Goodluck Jonathan was not that lucky in 2015 when the presidential election was conducted by INEC, the electoral body. The former president called for a national confab in 2014, invited some prominent Nigerians from all quarters, asked states to nominate representatives in a move many considered to be political.
Goodluck Jonathan went to all states in the country to repeat promises he made in 2011 which obviously did not worked for him. Nigerians didn’t buy all his excuses and voted against him. Jonathan lost support and acceptance when he went to Kano for a political rally, when the Chibok Girls were abducted by the deadly Boko haram sect and his actions after the abduction.
Monies were given by the former president to sectional leaders who were not in control of their people. Believe it or not, Political leaders control 40% percent of the country; a councilor has his own warrior that he controls at the local level. And the hierarchy is from Local government to Federal. When you lose those leaders, the next is to please the 60% that can make up their own mind without any inducement from any leader. Remember that, out of those 60% who can make up their own minds, 20% of them are always scared and feel unconcerned about election in the country which is very tricky because when pushed to the wall, most of them will still come out to vote against any perceived underperforming government.
Recently, most Nigerians have been voicing their anger against the policies of the present government believed not to be popular among the citizenry. Some had waited for cabinet reshuffling.
In 2011, I did everything in my capacity to campaign for Nuhu Ribadu because of his renowned efforts at tackling corruption. It is unfortunate he lost the election but my hope was renewed when this government came on board. However,Mr. President needs to check himself and those he surrounds himself with. Most of his supporter are now acting like Jonathan which may not end well. Most of those who campaigned for him are angry.
Mr. President, some of your genuine supporters who didn’t support you for monetary gain nor appointment also would have been happy if those with you, who have formed themselves to a cabal of sort, dictating to you are also in jail like you claimed in your campaign and inauguration but things seems to have changed, if you lost out on the change mantra, I believed it wouldn’t come again. Some opportunities come once in a lifetime, most especially the one for the presidency, it worked once for Jonathan in 2011 when he used the “I had no shoe” line to force sympathy and support people into voting for him but it failed to work in 2015.
Let me categorically tell you sir, if you are not really concern about your backyard, people who believe that you still read the dailies will bring the message to you. Many acclaimed supporters are seriously working hard to remove you from power in 2019, consultations are going on. Forget the issues of Mega Party that is just another distraction. Most politicians are angry with the present government because they didn’t get two things which they are used to, which they believed should have come naturally to them. Most of them that you appointed aren’t getting paid and those collecting salaries aren’t getting additional money like they used to.
If you can’t fix the economy and tackle wholly, the epileptic supply of electricity before 2019, the country wouldn’t be too happy to vote for our ‘change’ again. Those you should take care of are those who think everyone who advise against your policies are your enemy. They attacked the Emir of kano, HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi when he highlighted some mistakes been done by your economic team until they were cautioned. But the same Sanusi spoke repeatedly against the policies of Jonathan and the Ex-president Media aides had nobody to caution them against the heavy attack done on Sanusi.
Let the world criticise you, accept brilliant ideas. Don’t always assume that everyone that speaks out against some of your policies hates you, leadership takes criticism.
The next election is coming very soon, what will you do about power? What will you do about the economy and transport system? What will you do about the leaders and 150million Nigerians who have been patient with you to see where the boat will sail? 2019 is very close; most of the people who had thought about speedy recovery from poor power supply, bad roads, the staggering economy are still waiting to make up their mind if you deserve their vote.
Let me reiterate, those whom seems to be your supporters today are party faithful who can still be convinced by those leaders to defect at any time. Mr. President, Nigerians are still waiting earnestly to see the magic done in Dubai, Singapore and those nations that were pulled out of the mess brought on them by past leaders. We are mostly aware about the clueless reign of your predecessors but we have passed that stage today.
The next campaign can’t be about change again but the foundation laid will be the greatest avenue for you to campaign on but those foundations are not visible yet. Hopefully, we will see something that will convince ordinary Nigerians to do sing the praise of your name come 2019 like 2015.
