2015 ELECTION AND THE DILEMA OF A NO APPEALING CANDIDATE?

Icheoku says many Nigerians are indeed conflicted going into the presidential election of February 2015, faced with two boring choices, none of which they would ordinarily have preferred or identified with, but for the no-choice choice they are presented with. Like many people agree and Icheoku conurs, Muhammadu Buhari is inherently evil; a known resident evil of Nigeria who no Nigerian, would honestly, find him or herself casting a vote for; at least not for him to benefit from the same democracy which he denied others. A bloody coup plotter who overthrew a democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari deserves no better other than to be democratically pre-overthrown before he could even ascend the presidency  Then factor in his murder of three innocent Nigerians and you wonder who in Nigeria, still with his faculties in tact, would not say we are all Bartholomew Owo, Bernard Ojulope and Segun Lawal in this election. Therefore if Buhari had his way and had similarly killed us all then, who would he be campaigning to for them to vote for him now? 

That he imprisoned Fela Anikulapo Kuti for a trumped up currency trafficking charges while at the same time allowing his ADC Jokolo to import currency in fifty three suitcases on behalf of his father, is a double standard of no mean disputation. Icheoku urges Nigerians to remember Fela Anikulapo Kuti and his ordeal in the hands of Muhammadu Buhari as they go into their various voting booths on February 14, 2015. In the words of Seun Fela, "I have personal reasons that others might not have, for example: Buhari jailed my father on currency trafficking. My father did nothing wrong, but he put him in the prison anyway and for three long years. My first three years in life from 1984 to 1986, I did not see my dad; he was dumped somewhere in Maiduguri and almost forgotten. This is my own personal reason for not identifying with Buhari. For a man like Fela who did not commit any crime to be so jailed, shows that Buhari is   inherently evil. You know when you have experienced such blatant disregard for human right by taking away three years of his life for doing nothing, you cannot possibly find yourself identifying with such person." Icheoku says every Nigerian should be Seun Fela in protesting the nemesis that is Muhammadu Buhari in this election 2015. 

Jonathan on the other hand is equally loathsome and detestable because he failed to meet so many peoples expectations; and also drastically compromised his manliness and preparedness for the office. Put in a more terse verse, Jonathan failed woefully and abysmally and did not merit a second term based on provable records of his achievement this past years. Icheoku says but for the tactless APC's decision to swim with the fishes in the choice they imposed on themselves with Buhari, not seriously considering his tough marketability baggage of no redemption, a victory over Jonathan would have been a slam dunk. Icheoku maintains that if Jonathan had performed creditably well as his apologists and town criers would like to have us believe, they would have been running his campaign based on his records of achievements and not that the other guy is too old and did not produce his qualifying certificates. But to this school of cheerleaders trying to take the other guy down, Icheoku wants to remind them that even President Obama did not produce his qualifying birth certificate until much later in his campaign. 

Jonathan's pathetic case is like this "please Nigerians, admitted I did not do enough to merit your second lease of life in the presidency, but trust me I am better than the other guy; I am more humane than the other guy and i am also much younger than the other guy?" Icheoku queries since when has growing old become a vice in Nigeria or is wisdom no longer a virtue to be prided in Nigeria? Chuba Okadigbo tried this old age nonsensical with Nnamdi Azikwe who cursed him, only for Okadigbo to die in his relatively young age, suffocated by tear gas of Obasanjo's killer-cops  and nothing came out of it? Like Seun Fela rightly pointed out and Icheoku agrees, many Nigerians might stay out the election saying, "My not voting is because I am trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea. So, I just refused to be forced into voting for either of them - Buhari because to be honest, Jonathan and his administration is not working. Jonathan, because Buhari is not a good alternative. Personally, I don’t want to vote for Buhari or Jonathan. Jonathan is not a good president and Buhari himself, is not the solution to Nigeria’s problems." 

But since Nigerians need to keep their democracy going on, someone will eventually win or emerge by default of the other guy's abstaining protest non-voters.  Icheoku reiterates using the words of Seun Fela, "I am explaining things the way they appear to me and I can tell you that the picture of the things I am looking at is not good enough to embrace. Not on February 14, 2015 and not at any other future time when Nigerians are forced to choose between two such unpalatable candidates as their president. However, on Valentines day 2015, one of them would hopefully emerge victorious and Nigerians, both those for and against and undecided, would have to accept the choice and move on. Fortunately, like most things temporary, Nigerians will survive and outlive which ever choice was settled on; and hopefully too, in 2019 Nigerians would be blessed with a choice they can truly say alleluia to. Salute!