The fate of candidates for the 2023 election has continued to generate spirited debates and discussions across the land. Permit me offer a brief clarification here that I have nothing personal against any of the candidates or the interests that they represent. Let me explain. I analyzed the aspirations of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mr. Peter Obi purely on principle. In this regard, certain laws have come into reckoning for interpretation by reason of the emergence of these respected candidates. So, discussing Atiku does not in any way signal any personal disregard for the North that he represents as indeed most of my esteemed Comrades that we laboured together in the trenches for Nigeria in my youthful years are from the North and I have enjoyed their loyalty and shared their confidences. Tinubu enjoys my personal admiration too for his courage and tenacity and my comments on his candidature and that of Atiku do not reflect any personal disregard for Islam at all. On the contrary, I have worked with and enjoyed cordial relationships with my mentor and trainer, with several clients and with personal friends who are Muslims. In like manner, there is no tribal consideration whatsoever underlying my comments on Obi, as indeed before and even now, I have colleagues and friends from the South-East that I consider as my family. Having said that, we must be bold to discuss the issues plaguing our nation without fear or favour, ill or affection. Let me now share with you the comments of other esteemed Nigerians on this issue.
“Olusegun Abayomi Osinubi:
It seems too late for restructuring since we have about eight months until the election. Peter Obi actually made the Labour Party Presidential ticket mainstream and relevant in this Presidential campaign. He has what we really need which is prudence and reducing waste to release money for development. People are owed salaries because of waste and flamboyance. Excessive borrowing by this government for consumption?
Solomon Akhimien:
The summary of your article is this: Tinubu, Atiku and Peter Obi represent the very cabal that has held the country down and impede developmental progress over the years; but in the order of ranking, Obi represents the very best of the worst that can chart a path towards Nigeria’s progress. Thank you Comrade, we understand you clearly.
Oluwatosin Reallion Samuels:
Omoyele Sowore is the only man that can bring about the needed change, but many Nigerians are angry at him because he fights for their freedom and he also doesn’t know how to lick the boots of failed leaders and “elder statesmen”. Sowore has the bravery to put the cabals holding this nation by its jugular in their place. He has been consistent over the last 30 years in demonstrating the willpower to change the course of things. Even stakes his own life in the process several times. He also has well-communicated strategies, which include thrashing the present constitution & leading the restructuring process like you rightly pointed out. It beats me how we keep limiting our options to three candidates as if Sowore does not exist. Nice and objective write-up by the way, further confirms my convictions about the 3 candidates (for persons who can see beyond their emotions).
Tobee Funsho:
The last paragraph is it for me. Nobody, no matter how good he is, can bring the changes we desire with this current Constitution. It is designed to fail us.
Oluwajuwon Abayomi:
I so much commend this write-up sir. It’s a masterpiece. Without any doubt, the last paragraph seems to proffer solutions to this lingering problem ravaging us as a nation. Well thought of you sir. God bless you immensely!!!
Ogbonnaya Maduawuchukwu Alphonsus:
It’s not an angel who will definitely lead this country, it must be a Nigerian. There is no perfection in humanity. From the pictures you painted Peter Obi is a lesser evil, and should be encouraged to help us take back our country. He has no baggage, unlike Tinubu and Atiku. Honestly this is beyond religion or ethnic inclination, we are faced with an economy that is brutal and mortal. These days, some families can hardly feed due to hyper-inflation. We need the likes of Peter Obi who has proven to be prudent and meticulous in terms of managerial affairs.
Simeon Akujobi:
Good analysis, but you failed to proffer any solution. This means you don’t have the foggiest idea of how to run a country if given the opportunity even on a platter of gold. How do we begin the process of discarding the 1999 constitution and enacting a new one at this stage of the Buhari administration? It is clear that there will be an election next year and someone will emerge as the winner, so this analysis will not do anyone any good. I think Peter Obi is still better when compared with the other candidates.
Ibioku Mac-Barango:
Dear Learned Silk, your analysis has not in any way negatively tainted Obi for him not to be supported or voted for. From your analysis, Peter Obi wasn’t found wanting for corruption, dictatorship, ill-health and old age, wealth being tied to any government, temporary residence abroad, questionable ancestry, origin, age, educational qualification, source of wealth etc. Peter Obi, though not a saint, is the closest to what the generality of the Nigerian people need as their President, to superintend over the affairs of the nation. I’ll not only vote for him, but will massively mobilize and/or work for his emergence as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, come 2023. #PeterisBetter.
Elder Peter Bassey:
In all that you alluded to here, somebody must be in the position to restructure since Buhari will not do so. Your write up above tilted to support the choice of the Youth in the person of Mr. Peter Obi who is the lesser evil here remember even the Bible testify that no man is perfect 100% in my own opinion, Peter Obi is better than all of them.
Emeka Anozie:
So long! Egbon, like you are writing a book on how we get here and how to rescue ourselves now! Hope you are aware Fuel is now 197! We have to take it back, we can not continue with this suffering and smiling. More inflation adding up to our suffering, frustration and no smiling.. They never told us about the increase when they were coming in! We can not continue like this with our refineries not working. Nigerians should be ready to take it back! They could be the third force!
Kennedy Emetulu:
With all due respect, this is a very lazy and impotently populist analysis that is embarrassingly unenlightening. Anyone who reads this and thinks he or she now understands how to vote in 2023 is deluded. Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa is just an angry Nigerian who thinks electoral politics is a game of the heart, rather than the head. Well, the day is still young. As the electron gets closer and Nigerians continue to take a good look at the candidates themselves and what each truly offers in the circumstances of our national realities, they will make their decision. They won’t make it based on aimless analyses of this type because there is no dilemma for any true Nigerian who understands what is at stake right now. The only thing Adegboruwa got right here is that restructuring is the answer. But the irony is he is not recognizing that only one candidate of the three he has chosen to highlight actually believes in restructuring. As I said, as we go along, Nigerians will begin to make up their minds about what is at stake in this election and I strongly believe they will soberly make the right decision. The Osun election is a good insight into what will happen nationally. Nigerians will ignore the noise and drama and focus on the substance. May God help us in the process of that decision. Ameen.
Adetola Odumuyiwa:
Life without a workable solution to the myriad of challenges facing Nigeria and Nigerians as a result of bad leadership in government is a wasteful life for a country and its people. It becomes a more difficult life if its citizens continue to make suggestions and cast aspersions on some of the country›s men and women who show some interest to rescue the situation. While I agreed with some of the comments of my brother Big Sam as to the precarious situation we find ourselves today, I wish to state here that the issue of restructuring will not see the light of the day now that the date of the forthcoming general elections has been fixed and its implementation is being followed by the election umpire. If we are to start debating or clamouring for restructuring now, how will that become a reality with the Buhari government that has his tenure terminated in a few months, should his tenure be extended for the actualization of the restructuring? Big Sam, you will agree with me that the civil society and human rights activists are culpable in the way things are in Nigeria today. We don›t have the kind of agitations, protests and robust debates about the challenges facing Nigeria today unlike in the time of the real agents of change like Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransome Kuti, Alao Aka Bashorun, all of blessed memory. These were the real human rights activists that were never relent in ensuring that Nigeria becomes an egalitarian society, though they could not achieve this objective 100%.
Now that you painted a gloomy picture of the front line presidential candidates in the coming elections, how and where do we source the next president that will take over from the inept one and its party in less than ten months? In the absence of your suggestion of a more credible one among the ones you wrote about and for the fact that there will be no vacuum in Nigeria political leadership come February, 2023, Nigerians as usual will decide who they want as their leaders. A Nigerian among those who are contesting for elective offices will govern Nigeria.”
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then