Best President money can buy

The decision by Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, former Minister of State for Education and a contestant in the recent All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary, to excuse himself from the convention at the climax of proceedings may not have changed anything in the contest. It was a symbolic stance, no less.

Although he had already lost N100 million to one of the best designed swindling machines in politics, Nwajiuba’s move was reasonable to cut his loss. By excusing himself from the podium at the climax of the convention, the former minister spared himself the agony of walking into a landmine well laid to claim its arraigned victims at an appointed time. And before the cameras too.

Nwajiuba saw in APC what Peter Obi saw earlier at a similar event by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), also in Abuja. The former education minister was one of the 23 persons from whom APC raked in N100 million apiece and thereafter left them at the mercy of wolves.

The term wolves as used here is not original. It is the very expression used by Pastor Tunde Bakare, a victim of the wolf attack himself. Bakare’s experience at the APC convention must have been somewhat epiphanic. Explaining the outcome of his uninspiring outing at the APC presidential primary a few days after the event, the voluble pastor said he found himself among wolves. He surely was lucky to still be alive. An encounter with wolves is always a mortal engagement. The pastor, obviously, did not know what hit him, to use that expression.

Bakare did learn some profound lessons from seeking the APC presidential ticket though. For one, he was confronted with the reality that delegates at the APC convention, as with their counterparts in PDP, were deaf to grammar without appropriate backing.  From all indications, those critical party men and women were neither interested nor versed in any flowery rendition of English. The delegates did not comprehend “turenchi”, whether of the Queen’s English variety or cockney. Curiously, even the delegates from Bakare’s Yoruba stock did not also understand Yoruba, the type the pastor spoke at the convention. They did not give a hoot either about prophesies.

Bakare came to the APC convention buoyed by his own prophesy months ago that God, his God, told him that he would be the 16th head of the Nigerian state after Buhari, the 15th President, had done with his burdened tenure. The APC delegates obviously did not receive the same message as Pastor Bakare. To them, therefore, the man was on his own. Not surprisingly, they failed to give him even a single vote. Pastor Bakare, therefore, emerged from the convention with zero vote, a result that cast serious doubts over the veracity of his prophesy, unless there is another path through which he will still become number 16 after number 15 leaves.

The message for Bakare from the delegates is clear: when next he decides to enter a prime political contest, especially in Nigeria’s major political parties, he should leave Queen’s English and prophesy behind. The folks at APC and PDP hear only the language of mammon.

Nwajiuba got his bearing late and moved on. Once it dawned on him that those who led him into the race had reneged from the promise that they would enforce equity, which favoured the South East to produce the party’s standard-bearer, the former minister saw no need to even show up at the coronation. He discontinued what would have amounted to a quixotic venture. Bakare missed the cue.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, obviously propelled also by a promise of anointing, seemed to have had a late premonition of what the APC presidential primary was coming to. When in his well-received speech at the convention he exhorted delegates not to cast their votes for any candidate they would ordinarily not approve of, it was apparent that he had developed a foreboding that the votes at the APC primary, as was the case with those at PDP, would likely not follow a rational trajectory. And it came to pass. Voting at party primaries in APC and PDP have nothing to do with rational assessment of the contenders. It is a matter of cash.

It was very interesting last week watching the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, talk to some of his partymen about the influence of money at the PDP primary, which he won. At least he was candid. According to the former Vice President on the network television news, the 2022 presidential primary of the PDP was the toughest (by which he meant the most expensive) such primary he has gone through in his career. That was a profound testimony, considering that Atiku has, indeed, gone through some primaries in his life. In his words, “it was not easy for me.” He did prevail though.

What transpired at the APC presidential primary in which Ahmed Bola Tinubu emerged presidential candidate may well have trumped the PDP exercise in terms of volume of trade. Having already secured the support of most governors in the North, who obviously have their collective and individual agenda, Tinubu did not find it as tough as Atiku in wining his party’s ticket. The latter had to contend with a brash and equally well-oiled opponent.

At the end of the day, the primaries in the two major political parties threw up the two old war horses; beaten by weather, despised in various quarters, but potent as ever, especially in talking to delegates in the language they understand.

One thing was clear, the primaries did not provide a platform for contention of ideas and policies for a better Nigeria. Not at all. The outcome of the primaries were not based on consideration of integrity and futuristic ideas of the contenders.

The issue was not which candidate had the best policy outline for the country. The unique selling point of the winners was their respective capacity to outspend every other contender in their party. The sermon by Osinbajo that the delegates should not vote for anyone they ordinarily would not approve of, definitely fell on deaf ears. The vice president’s pitch was not put in the right envelope for the delegates. Osinbajo was therefore, talking to himself.

The emergence of former Anambra State governor, the prudent Peter Obi as the presidential candidate of Labour party (LP) and former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso for the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), have added interesting options for Nigerians in the 2023 presidential election. But then, are Nigeran voters any different from the party delegates?

For whatever Atiku   Abubakar (PDP)and Bola Tinubu (APC) may have offered as services in their prime, if at the end of the day, either of these two emerges in 2023 as president after Buhari, the incontestable point that would have been made is that Nigeria got for itself the best president money can buy. The rest will be left to God, to whom Nigerians always outsource their problems, including the ones they can address upfront.