2019: Nigerians, shine your eyes

The old saying that what an elderly man sees while sitting down will not be seen by a young man standing up has been playing out right in the eyes of Nigerians in our contemporary politics.

When interpreted the adage simply means that experience and wisdom are not picked on the streets.

They accrue over a long period and they come handy when analysing and predicting situations as well as when seeking quick solutions to problems and while strategizing on how to tackle challenges.

Over the years Abubakar Atiku and Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo have had sharp political differences which hinged on the refusal of the former to blend with the political ambitions of the latter.

Many Nigerians have been analysing the feud based on the personality of the two men and not the implications of their `fight’ over political arrangements, especially as it concerns tenure in office, rotation of elective office, third term agenda and the polity as a whole.

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In the first place, the argument about which part of Northern Nigeria should produce the next President in 2019 would have been a thing of the past if Obasanjo allowed Atiku to replace him.

The current agitation by Nigerians of the North East extraction that it is their turn to produce the president would not have come up at all because Atiku would have served out his term thereby paving the way for the presidency to rotate to other parts of the country.

The distortion caused by the election of Goodluck Jonathan as President which short-changed the eight-year tenure of the North would have been avoided.

Nigeria would have been enjoying seamless transitions just as indications point out that PDP would have remained in power. The gale of defections which now precedes an election year would have been avoided as political parties would have been more stable in terms of retaining their membership.

On the other hand, Nigeria would have been inching towards having political parties of ideologies and no longer political parties of sectional interests.

It would also been easier for Nigerians to elect Presidents who have internalised the tenets of democracy over time rather than elect accidental/circumstantial democrats as their leaders.

Apart from the distortions in political arrangement, efforts at solving the nation’s problems also suffered.

From all intents and purposes, Nigeria deserves a leader with a good grasp of the challenges facing the nation and practical ways of getting around the bend if given the opportunity.

In all these, Nigerians will have to choose between electing a leader who will make life more meaningful or continue to live a life of compromise by handing their welfare, wellbeing and future to selfish and arrogant Nigerians masquerading as democrats.

Nigeria is at a crossroad plagued by insecurity, poverty and high unemployment. There is a strong belief by political pundits that restructuring has become necessary for Nigeria to be put on the path of economic growth and development.

The 2019 Presidential election promises to be a defining one, but it is up to the voting populace to “shine their eyes” and choose a candidate that has the eyes of the old man.

Emmanuel Ekwueme

Enugu