An endorsement in its simplest meaning, according to the Dictionary, is an act of saying or showing that you agree with or support something or someone. With this simple definition, it means that everybody endorses one candidate or the other in an election, except the person voluntarily or legally is restrained from making such endorsement.
The difference between the temperaments of human beings determine the manner with which they do the endorsement. Some are bold, brave, brilliant and boisterous, pure extroverts, some others are more introverted but not in the least less brilliant or brave. Whichever method anyone adopts, the truth is that everyone has one preference or the other as regards candidates.
The law may have precluded the traditional leaders in the country not to participate in politics but they still endorse with their body language. Religious leaders ought to fall into this category but most of them openly endorse their preferred candidates. The more cunning amongst them come in the form of prophecy. One wonders the kind of prophecy that needs intimidation and blackmail of politicians to come to pass as most of these commercial prophets have opted to be doing. Most of them are simply politicians making their endorsements in the name of prophecy.
Democracy thrives as government of the people. Politicians and elder statesmen all over the world legitimately use the instrument of endorsement to channel the people towards the right direction. In their endorsements, they eschew primordial sentiments of party affiliation, ethnic, religious and sectional considerations to arrive at a decision that will assist their countries attain the lofty heights of a great nation. Collin Powell was a great American warrior. He was respected by all Americans irrespective of their race, religion, creed or ethnicity. He was a member of the Republican party and served as Secretary of State under President George W Bush, a President of America from the Republican Party. At the completion of the tenure of Bush, the Republican Party chose Senator John MacCain as its Presidential Candidate while the Democratic Party chose Barack Obama as its Presidential Candidate. John MacCain was another respected veteran military officer who nearly died in the battle field defending America. He was a great friend of Collin Powell, the Army General, with whom he fought in some wars. Obama was a very youthful man that belonged to the next generation of leaders that could pass for Powell’s son in age. Maccain had suffered cancer twice before the election and was way above 70 years of age, while Obama was about 45 years of age with no traceable sickness with him.
However, John MacCain made the choice of a Vice Presidential Candidate, Sarah Palin, the Alaska Governor, whom many Americans believed was not abreast with the current affairs of America going by some disastrous interviews she granted to some notable TV and print newsmedia in America during the early days of the campaign. Obama, however, made the choice of Joe Biden, a man of almost Obama’s father’s age, a Senator of about 40 years, who is vast in international relations, having chaired foreign affairs Committee in the Senate for years.
When campaign started, as usual, notable Americans started endorsing preferable candidates. General Powell rose up and made one of the most remarkable endorsements in American history. He publicly noted the age and sickness of his friend, John MacCain as a factor. According to him, any person who has suffered cancer twice at the age of 70 must be careful as to the qualities of his Vice Presidential Candidate; that it was irresponsible of MacCain to make the choice of Sarah Palin, whom he believed didn’t have the capacity and capability to assume the position of the most powerful nation on earth if anything suddenly happens to him. He therefore endorsed the youthful candidacy of Barack Obama of the Democratic Party who went ahead to win the presidential election in America. It turned out that Powell was reasonably correct because MacCain was to die within about a decade from the day of the endorsement from the same sickness of cancer that he had suffered twice. He overlooked personal friendship or the espirit de corps in the military to endorse a candidate from the opposing party to govern America for the sake of the greatness of America.
Nigeria is about to elect a President on the 25th of February, 2023 and this is the season of endorsements. President Olusegun Obasanjo just joined the fray and made his own endorsement. Prior to his endorsement, the three major presidential candidates: Tinubu of the APC, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party had visited him to seek his support and curry his favour. This is not surprising because the incumbent President of Nigeria, President Buhari, of whom Obasanjo’s endorsement helped make President in 2015, made it clear that Obasanjo’s endorsement brings votes, support and confidence to candidates and sways undecided voters sitting on the fence to them, because Obasanjo is an influential, highly respected statesman who must be consulted before any serious decision is taken on any issue in Nigeria. This is apparently true because Obasanjo is the only person that has cumulatively governed Nigeria for a period of 11 years both as a Military Head of State and as the first President of the fourth republic. It is worthy of note that Obasanjo is from the same ethnic group and Geo-Political Zone as the presidential candidate of the APC.
However, when Obasanjo made his endorsement, he noted that the 2023 election was not a fight between North and South, East and West, but a fight between the good people and the bad people. Hear him: “My dear young men and women, let me assure you that there are only two tribes of people in Nigeria, a tribe of good people and a tribe of bad people. You are either a good Nigerian of Igbo extraction, Kanuri extraction, etc, or a bad Nigerian of Yoruba extraction, Ijaw extraction etc”. He enunciated the factors that should be considered before choosing a President for Nigeria. In his own words, “From interaction and experience, and as mentees as most of them claim, I will, without prejudice, fear or ill-will, make bold to say that there are four major factors to watch out for in a leader you will consider to hoist on yourself and on the rest of Nigerians in the coming election and they are what I call TVCP: Track record of ability and performance; Vision that is authentic, honest and realistic; Character and attributes of a lady and a gentleman who are children of God and obedient to God; and Physical and mental capability with soundness of mind as it is a very taxing and tasking assignment at the best of times and more so it is at the most difficult time that we are.”
In scrutinising these mentees of Obasanjo, this is what Obasanjo had to say about Atiku Abubakar in his book, My Watch, “What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somehow shadowy. His propensity to corruption. His tendency to disloyalty. His inability to say and stick to the truth all the time. A propensity for poor judgment. His belief and reliance on marabouts. His lack of transparency. His trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety, truth and national interest for self and selfish interest”. Obasanjo has validated this his position about Atiku when he reiterated few weeks ago that choosing Atiku as his Vice President was one of his worst mistakes in life.
Obasanjo disqualified Tinubu from being the President on the basis of Tinubu’s undemocratic sense of entitlement of ownership of Nigeria and the post of President. In Obasanjo’s words, “Let me say straight away that ‘Emi Lokan’ (My turn) and ‘I have paid my dues’ are one and the same thing and are wrong attitude and mentality for the leadership of Nigeria now. They cannot form the new pedestal to reinvent and to invest in a new Nigeria based on an All-Nigeria Government for the liberation and restoration of Nigeria. Such a government must have representation from all sectors of our national life – public, private, civil society, professional, labour, employers, and the Diaspora. The solution should be in ‘we’ and ‘us’ and not in ‘me’ and ‘I’.” He concluded that both Tinubu and Atiku lacked all the factors and advised them to take a bow out of politics and have their deserved rest based on their failing strength and frailty imposed on them by age. Hear him “The vigour, energy, agility, dynamism and outreach that the job of leadership of Nigeria requires at the very top may not be provided as a septuagenarian or older. I know that from personal experience. And it is glaring out of our current experiences. Otherwise, we will be fed with, “The President says” and we will neither see nor hear him directly as we should. Yes, for some, age and physical and mental disposition are not in tandem. But where and when they are with obvious evidence, they must be taken into account for purpose of reality. And yet it is a job in our present situation where the team leader or captain of the team should be up and doing, outgoing inside and outside and speaking to the nation on almost daily basis visibly and as much as possible interactively and meeting his colleagues all over the world on behalf of Nigeria.
In conclusion, Obasanjo said that “None of the contestants is a saint but when one compares their character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline and vitality that they can bring to bear and the great efforts required to stay focused on the job particularly looking at where the country is today and with the experience on the job that I personally had, Peter Obi as a mentee has an edge.” With this, Obasanjo endorsed Obi for President and admonished that “We can only continue to play politics of ethnicity, religion, region and money bags at the peril of our country and to self-destruction. We need selfless, courageous, honest, patriotic, in short, outstanding leadership with character and fear of God beyond what we have had in recent past”. He assured the youths that this is their time, “Youth of Nigeria, your time has come, and it is now and please grasp it. If not now, it will be never. I appeal to you to turn the tide on its head and march forward chanting ‘Awa Lokan’ (Our turn) not with a sense of entitlement, but with a demonstrable ideological commitment to unity and transformation of Nigeria”.The words of the elders are words of wisdom.